THE PROPHET OF THE LORDIsa_1:1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. I. The nature of the prophet’s endowment: a “vision” into the very heart of things, a power of distinguishing between the seeming and the real. II. The sadness and the joy of the prophet’s life: sadness arising from his “vision” of human sin (Isaiah 1:2-15); joy arising from his “vision” of the wondrousness of the Divine mercy (Isaiah 1:18). Application.— 1. In these latter days the prophetic endowment, to a greater or lesser extent, is possessed by all God’s people (1 John 2:20). 2. The Church should pray that it may be possessed to the fullest extent by all who are called to minister in holy things. Prophets of clear and penetrating “vision” are among the greatest gifts which God can confer upon the Church [126] 3. This great endowment must be used not merely for the detection and exposure of human sin, lest we become cynical and inhuman, but also for the discovery of the abounding evidence of the Divine compassion (as in Isaiah 1:9), that we may be brought into more perfect sympathy with Him who hates sin but desires and seeks to save the sinner. [126] A preacher who is not in some way a seer is not a preacher at all. You can never make people see religious realities by correct definitions. They will not believe in the reality of God on the word of a man who merely demonstrates it to them. You must see such things yourself if you are going to help others to see them. This is the secret of all the preaching that ever was good since preaching began.—Beecher. AN APPEAL AND AN Isa_1:2-3. Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. I. The unnaturalness of sin. The heavens and the earth obey the laws to which they have been subjected; the very beasts are faithful to their instincts; it is only man who fails in duty and goes astray. II. The baseness of ingratitude: as displayed— 1. By man to man [129] 2. By children to their parents [132] 3. By men to their Heavenly Father [135][129] All should unite to punish the ungrateful: [132] Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is [135] An ungracious soul may be burdened with many sins; but she never makes up her full load till she hath added the sin of unthankfulness. He leaves out no evil in a man who calls him unthankful. Ingratitude dissolves the joints of the whole world. A barren ground is less blamed, because it hath not been dressed. But till it with the plough; trust it with seed; let the clouds bless it with their rain, the sun with his heat, the heavens with their influence, and then if it be unfertile, the condition is worse; before it was contemned, now it is cursed (Hebrews 6:8).—Adams, 1654. Some are such brutes, that, like swine, their nose is nailed to the trough in which they feed; they have not the use of their understanding so far as to lift their eye to heaven, and say, “There dwells that God that provides this for me, that God by whom I live.”—Gurnall. You would count it a sad spectacle to behold a man in a lethargy, with his senses and reason so blasted by his disease that he knows not his nearest friends, and takes no notice of those that tend him, or bring his daily food to him. How many such senseless wretches are at this day lying upon God’s hands! He ministers daily to their necessities, but they take no notice of His care and goodness.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. The frozen snake in the fable stingeth him that refreshed it. Thus is it with all unthankful men: God ladeth them daily with benefits and blessings, and they load Him with sins and trespasses.—Stapleton, 1535–1598. Some are such brutes, that, like swine, their nose is nailed to the trough in which they feed; they have not the use of their understanding so far as to lift their eye to heaven, and say, “There dwells that God that provides this for me, that God by whom I live.”—Gurnall. You would count it a sad spectacle to behold a man in a lethargy, with his senses and reason so blasted by his disease that he knows not his nearest friends, and takes no notice of those that tend him, or bring his daily food to him. How many such senseless wretches are at this day lying upon God’s hands! He ministers daily to their necessities, but they take no notice of His care and goodness.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. The frozen snake in the fable stingeth him that refreshed it. Thus is it with all unthankful men: God ladeth them daily with benefits and blessings, and they load Him with sins and trespasses.—Stapleton, 1535–1598. Some are such brutes, that, like swine, their nose is nailed to the trough in which they feed; they have not the use of their understanding so far as to lift their eye to heaven, and say, “There dwells that God that provides this for me, that God by whom I live.”—Gurnall. You would count it a sad spectacle to behold a man in a lethargy, with his senses and reason so blasted by his disease that he knows not his nearest friends, and takes no notice of those that tend him, or bring his daily food to him. How many such senseless wretches are at this day lying upon God’s hands! He ministers daily to their necessities, but they take no notice of His care and goodness.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. The frozen snake in the fable stingeth him that refreshed it. Thus is it with all unthankful men: God ladeth them daily with benefits and blessings, and they load Him with sins and trespasses.—Stapleton, 1535–1598. To have a thankless child.—Shakespeare.Ingratitude is treason to mankind. —Thomson. He that’s ungrateful has no guilt but one; All other crimes may pass for virtues in him. —Young. III. The reasonableness of God’s claim to our obedience and love. 1. He is our Father [138] 2. To all parental duties He has been faithful. 2. He has been more than faithful; He has caused our cup to run over with His lovingkindness [141] [138] It is an excellent representation of St Austin: if a sculptor, after his fashioning a piece of marble in a human figure, could inspire it with life and sense, and give it motion and understanding and speech, can it be imagined but the first act of it would be to prostrate itself at the feet of the maker in subjection and thankfulness, and to offer whatever it is, and can do, as homage to him? The almighty hand of God formed our bodies, He breathed into us the spirit of life, and should not the power of love constrain us to live wholly to His will?—Bates, 1625–1629. [141] We find the fiercest things that live, The savage born, the wildly rude, When soothed by Mercy’s hand, will give Some faint response of gratitude. But man!—oh! blush, ye lordly race!— Shrink back, and question thy proud heart! Dost thou not lack that thankful grace Which ever forms the soul’s best part? Wilt thou not take the blessings given, The priceless boon of ruddy health, The sleep unbroken, peace unriven, The cup of joy, the mine of wealth? Wilt thou not take them all, and yet Walk from the cradle to the grave Enjoying, boasting, and forget To think upon the God that gave? Thou’lt even kneel to blood-stained kings, Nor fear to have thy serfdom known; Thy knee will bend for bauble things, Yet fail to seek its Maker’s throne. —Eliza Cook. IV. Privilege is the measure of responsibility and the aggravation of guilt. The point of the condemnation in these verses does not lie in the contrast between the conduct of animals and men, but in the contrast between the conduct of animals and that of God’s people. “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider!” This is the wonder and the monstrosity. That privilege is the measure of responsibility and the aggravation of guilt, is a very familiar truth; a truth often forgotten; and yet absolutely certain and tremendously important (Luke 12:48; Hebrews 6:7-8). What need we have to lay it to heart! GOD’S AGAINST ISRAELIsa_1:2-6. Hear, O heavens, &c.God sometimes speaks to man abruptly; when this is done, the truth expressed demands the most profound attention. In our text the heavens and the earth are suddenly called to attend to what is about to be said; God is charging the human race with fearful wrongs; the matter at issue is between creature and Creator, child and Parent. Our attention is called to— I. The Fatherhood of God. “I have nourished,” &c. Divine paternity is a truth which runs through the whole Bible, here and there shining out with resplendent lustre, as in our text. The fatherhood of God was manifested towards Israel— 1. In supply. As it affected the Jewish nation this declaration (I have nourished, &c.) pressed with tremendous force. Their supplies were marked by miracle, at least all the time they were in the wilderness; and the utterance has weight to-day. All nature is made to minister to man’s necessities. 2. In guardianship. “Brought up children.” This should have been sufficient to strike the ear as a thunderclap, seeing how far they had strayed from Him. Out of a mean, despised, and enslaved people He had developed a wealthy, mighty nation; and His guardianship reaches to all to-day. 3. In defence. The early history of these people was one unbroken chain of Divine interpositions. From the first day Moses stood before the king, until they were fully established in Palestine, God’s arm was stretched out to defend them. The blood on the door-post, their sea-path, and the sea-grave of the Egyptians, together with the hovering cloud in the wilderness, all speak of strong defence; and still there are evidences of defence in the life of every man. II. The wickedness of man. Men are universally the same; as the father so is the son, as the Jew so is the Gentile; and hence in this chapter we have a true picture of the whole human family. Let us mark some of the many features of guilt: 1. Degeneracy. God bears with weaknesses and infirmities, but wilful backsliding He abhors. The Jews were evil-doers; they went away from God and all that was good. It is the wilful sinning of men that now grieves Him. 2. Insensibility. Wrong-doing is sure to produce wrong feeling, or, what is worse, no feeling at all. A sinful life results in a dark heart. Here is a people more insensible of good bestowed than the stupid ox or more stupid ass; and there are still persons to be found less acquainted with the source of their supplies than the dumb, unconscious brute [144] 3. Defiance. They rebelled against God. Fear ceased to check them, and hatred led them to bold, defiant deeds. The day was to them as the night, and oppression and murder were but small sins to be indulged in. So it is with many to-day; they have no shame, remorse, or compunction for sin, openly defying the living God. [144] The stall-fed ox, that is grown fat, will know His careful feeder, and acknowledge too; The generous spaniel loves his master’s eye, And licks his fingers though no meat be by: But man, ungrateful man, that’s born and bred By Heaven’s immediate power; maintained and fed By His providing hand; observed, attended, By His indulgent grace; preserved, defended, By His prevailing arm; this man, I say, Is more ungrateful, more obdure than they. Man, O most ungrateful man, can ever Enjoy Thy gift, but never mind the Giver; And like the swine, though pampered with enough, His eyes are never higher than the trough. —Francis Quarles. III. The purpose of Divine chastisement. No true parent finds any pleasure in chastising his children, and any pain inflicted without pure motives would be an evil. God corrects— 1. To restrain from sin. This explains much that happened to the Israelites, and also much that transpires in the history of all men. God sees the danger, the leaning to wrong, and with Him prevention is better than cure [147] 2. To show the consequences of sin. Men profess to be practical, and wish to be practically dealt with; hence they say, “Words are not enough; there must be blows.” The transgressor must feel as well as hear, or he will run mad. God has always taught men that His laws are more than mere word-rules; there is force in them, and he that breaks them must suffer. 3. To bring to Himself [150] Hence we often hear Him say, “Why will ye be stricken any more?” Remonstrance always precedes the lash to show His love and tenderness.—Charles Jupe. [147] The consequences of sin are meant to wean from sin. The penalty annexed to it is, in the first instance, corrective, not penal. Fire burns the child, to teach it one of the truths of this universe—the property of fire to burn. The first time it cuts its hand with a sharp knife, it has gained a lesson which it will never forget. Now, in the case of pain, this experience is seldom, if ever, in vain. There is little chance of a child forgetting that fire will burn, and that sharp steel will cut; but the moral lessons contained in the penalties annexed to wrong-doing are just as truly intended to deter men from evil, though they are by no means so unerring in enforcing their application. The fever, in the veins and the headache which succeed intoxication are meant to warn against excess. On the first occasion they are simply corrective; in every succeeding one they assume more and more a penal character, in proportion as the conscience carries with them the sense of ill-desert.—F. W. Robertson, 1816–1853. [150] If a sheep stray from his fellows, the shepherd sets his dog after it, not to devour it, but to bring it again: even so our Heavenly Shepherd, if any of us, His sheep, disobey Him, sets His dog of affliction after us, not to hurt us, but to bring us home to consideration of our duty towards Him.—Cawdray. As the child, fearing nothing, is so fond of his play that he strays and wanders from his mother, not so much as thinking of her; but if he be scared or frighted with the sight or apprehension of some apparent or approaching danger, presently runs to her, casts himself into her arms, and cries out to be saved and shielded by her: so we, securely enjoying the childish sports of worldly prosperity, do so fondly dote on them that we scarce think of our Heavenly Father; but when perils and dangers approach, and are ready to seize upon us, then we flee to Him, and cast ourselves into the arms of His protection and providence, crying and calling to Him by earnest prayer for help and deliverance in this our extremity and distress.—Downame, 1644. —REASON Isa_1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, &c.“We are wise.” So spake the Greek of old in the pride of his intellectual powers, and so speak many in our own day who have imbibed the spirit of the Greek. Reason is a wonderful faculty, and there have not been wanting, in any age of the world, those who have felt elated by their successful exercise of it. It can look before and after, deriving experience from the past and suggesting provision against the future. It can explore the hidden secrets of Nature and render the world of matter subservient to man; it can turn in upon itself and speculate upon its own processes; nay, it can teach us something of the existence and attributes of the Most High. Such being the triumphs of reason, it can hardly be matter of wonder that the wise men of this world plume themselves on the attainment of those triumphs. The vainglorying of men, however, whatever form it may assume, is abomination in the sight of God. In the scheme of salvation which God has devised there is no room for boasting either of our moral or intellectual endowments: “It is excluded.” That scheme is essentially humbling in its character; it is so constructed as to shut out pride at every cranny where it could possibly insinuate itself; it is such as to stop every mouth and bring in all the world guilty before God. And not only guilty, but blind also. He will have all the world convicted in the court of Conscience of folly, no less than of sin. In order to bring His people to this conviction, he expostulates with them in many passages of His Word on the vainglorious boasts they were in the habit of uttering, shows their utter emptiness, and exhibits the inconsistency of man’s moral conduct with his pretensions to wisdom and enlightenment (cf. Jeremiah 8:7-8). Our text implies two things— 1. That the relation subsisting between the brute creation and man is in some measure similar to that which subsists between man and God; and, 2. That the acknowledgment made by dumb animals of their relation to mankind strangely contrasts with the natural man’s refusal of acknowledgment to God. I. We are to compare the relations subsisting between an inferior and a superior creature with those subsisting between a superior and the Creator. Note, though these relations may be susceptible of comparison, and may be used to lift up our minds to apprehension of the truth, there is an insufficiency in the lower relation to type out the higher. The distance between man and the inferior creatures, if great, is measurable; whereas the distance between finite man and the Infinite God is incalculable. The dumb creature recognises the master whose property it is: “The ox knoweth his owner.” What constitutes man’s right of ownership in the ox? Simply the fact that he bought it. He did not create it. If he supports its life, it is only by providing it with a due supply of food, not by ministering to it momentarily the breath which it draws, nor by regulating the springs of its animal economy. That is the sum of his ownership. But what constitutes God’s right of ownership in us, His intelligent and rational creatures?1. We are the work of His hands. Creation constitutes a property in all our faculties and a claim to our services which no creature hath or can have in another. 2. Our property is most entire, our claim of right most indisputable, in those things which, having been once deprived of them by fraud or violence, we have subsequently paid a price to recover. The flocks and herds in the possession of civilised European settlers in uncivilised countries are often swept away by a barbarous horde of native freebooters. Imagine, then, a case in which, it being impossible to bring the offenders to justice (by reason of their numbers and strength), the owners of the cattle should effect a ransom of their property by laying down a sum equivalent to its value. Is it not thenceforth theirs by a double claim—the claim of original ownership and the claim of subsequent ransom? Such is the claim which God has over us. That claim, grounded originally upon the fact of creation, has been confirmed, enlarged, extended a thousand fold by the fact of redemption (1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18-19). 3. Our text suggests another detail of the claims which our Heavenly Owner has upon our allegiance: “The ass knoweth his master’s crib.” He knows the manger at which he is fed and the hand that feeds him. Here is a palpable claim upon regard, although by no means so high as those previously advanced. It is a claim appreciable by the senses, capable of being understood and responded to by the mere animal nature. In palliation of man’s neglect of those claims of God which are established by creation and redemption, it might haply be pleaded that he is a creature of the senses, and that the facts of creation and redemption are not cognisable by them. These stupendous facts are transacted and past. But even this paltry justification is entirely cut off by the fact here implied, that man is indebted to God for his daily maintenance, for the comfort and the convenience even of his animal life [1276][1276] Of this fact a strongly figurative but very beautiful statement is contained in a passage of Hosea—a passage remarkably illustrative of that before us, inasmuch as there also the imagery is drawn from man’s dealings with the cattle. “I drew them,” says God, “with the cords of a man, with bonds of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.” “I was to them, as they that take off the yoke on their jaws.” The owner of the ox does not overtask his strength, does not cause him to toil in the furrow without intermission. At the approach of evening the faithful animal is driven homewards, and freed from the shackles of the galling and burdensome yoke. An image this of God’s dealing with His human children. Our every period of refreshment and repose, of ease and relaxation from toil, is from the unseen hand of our heavenly Owner. Those many fractions of comfort and happiness which lighten the load of life—those numerous (although momentary) glimpses of sunshine which relieve the plodding routine of our daily career—those flowers with which the path of the great majority is more or less strewed: the innocent sally of mirth, the smile of affection, the expression of sympathy, the cheering word of encouragement from those whose encouragement is justly valued—these, like all other mercies, are from God, and (though these be but a small part of what we have to be thankful for) are designed to draw us towards Him in bonds of gratitude and love. “And I laid meat unto them.” By those who avail themeelves of their services, the cattle are supplied with provender. God not only called us into being, but maintains us in being. He it is who gives us our daily bread, and spreads our board with food convenient for us; for food, for health, for continuance of life our dependence upon Him is absolute. By means of these and similar mercies it is that God establishes a claim to the gratitude and devotedness even of those among His rational creatures who have most deeply buried themselves in the things of time and sense, and whose hearts seem to be stirred by no breath of spiritual aspiration, and troubled by no prospect of eternity.—Goulburn. Observe, also, that it is not the brute creation in a savage state whose relations towards man are here drawn into comparison with the relations of man towards God. To illustrate his argument the inspired writer has chosen instances from the domestic animals, who share man’s daily toils, live as his dependants, and are familiarised by long habit with their master’s abode and ways of life. In drawing out the contrast, he does not mention mankind generally, but “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” It were in some measure excusable that the heathens should refuse acknowledgment to the living God, whom they know not. But what shall we urge in extenuation of the indifference of “Israel,” who from his very infancy has been of the household of God, domesticated by the hearth of the Universal Parent, and furnished with every means of access to His presence? II. A contrast is drawn between the acknowledgment made by dumb animals of their relation to their owners and Israel’s refusal of acknowledgment to his God.The cattle “know” or recognise the voice of their owner; his call they heed, in his steps they follow; irrational creatures though they be, they are not insensible to their benefactor’s fond caress. What a cutting reproof of the insensibility of God’s people! 1. They recognise not God in His warnings, whether they be addressed to them as individuals or to the nation of which they are members. Afflictions arrest them not in their career of vanity and sin. Judgments stir them not out of their lethargy of indifference. They hear not, see not, God in them. 2. They do not acknowledge God in His mercies. God’s blessings of Nature and Providence are accepted by them as a matter of course. If regarded at all, they are traced no higher than to secondary causes. The continual experience of them renders them not one whit more submissive to the yoke of God’s service. As to the higher blessings of forgiveness and grace, they feel no need of them, and evince no gratitude for them. Want of consideration is the root and reason of this strange insensibility. It is not that “Israel” lacks the faculty of apprehending God, but he will not be at pains to exercise that faculty. It is not that he lacks a speculative knowledge of the truths now set forth, but that he does not lay to heart that knowledge, nor allow it its due weight.—E. M. Goulburn, D.C.L.: Sermons, pp. 153–181. A BURDENIsa_1:4. A people laden with iniquity. A very surprising description: “A people laden with iniquity.” On account of their punctilious and costly observance of the Mosaic ritual (see Isaiah 1:11-15), the Jews imagined that they deserved the commendation of Heaven; but God pronounced them to be “a people laden with iniquity.” Men often form very different estimates of the same thing; e.g., buyer and seller (Proverbs 20:14). There is often as marked a difference between the divine and human estimates of character (Luke 18:11; Revelation 3:17). This is so because God and men judge by different standards; men take into account only their occasional good actions; God judges by that feature of their character which is predominant [195] So judging, He condemned those most “religious” Jews. What is His estimate of us? [195] Men are to be estimated, as Johnson says, by the mass of character. A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin; and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin, but still it is silver. The mass of Elijah’s character was excellence; yet he was not without the alloy. The mass of Jehu’s character was base; yet he had a portion of zeal which was directed by God to great ends.—Cecil. A very instructive description: “A people laden with iniquity.” The conception is that of a nation that has gone on adding sin to sin, as a man gathering sticks in the forest adds fagot to fagot, until he staggers beneath the load; that which was eagerly sought after becomes an oppressive burden. How true this is! There are many national burdens; despotism, an incapable government, excessive taxation, &c., but the worst and most oppressive of all is a nation’s iniquities. The iniquities of a nation constitute a burden that impede it— 1. In its pursuit of material prosperity. With what desperate intensity this English nation toils! and for what end? Chiefly that it may accumulate wealth. How greatly it is impeded in this pursuit by its costly government! But how much more by its costly vices! On strong drink alone this nation expends a larger sum than the whole amount both of imperial and local taxation—more than one hundred millions annually! Other vices that are nameless, how much they cost, and what a hindrance they are to the nation in its pursuit of wealth! 2. In its pursuit of social happiness. What a crushing burden of sorrow the nation’s iniquities impose upon it! 3. In its pursuit of moral and intellectual improvement. According to a monkish legend, the church of St. Brannock’s, in Braunton, Devon, could not be erected on its original site, because as fast as the builders reared up the walls by day, by night the stones were carried away by invisible hands. A like contest goes on in our own land. The nation’s virtues are toiling to elevate the national character morally and intellectually, using as their instruments the school, the church, the press; but as fast as the virtues build, the vices pull down. In all these respects the nation’s iniquities constitute its heaviest burden. Consequently, 1. To give a legal sanction to vices, or to connive at what promotes them, for the sake of certain additions to the national revenues, is suicidal folly of the grossest kind. 2. Those are the truest national benefactors who do most to abate the national iniquities. The palm for truest patriotism must be awarded, not to “active politicians,” but to faithful preachers, Sunday-school teachers, temperance reformers, &c. 3. Vices of all kinds should be branded, not only as sins against God, but as treasons against society; and all good men should, in self-defence, as well as in a spirit of enlightened patriotism, band themselves together for their overthrow. That is a mistaken spirituality which leads some good men to leave imperial and local affairs in the hands of the worldly and the vicious. We are bound to labour as well as to pray that God’s will may be done “on earth as it is in heaven,” and that “His kingdom” may come in our own land [198][198] As Christians are to think of living for awhile in the world, it is not unreasonable for them to be affected with its occurrences and changes. Some plead for a kind of abstracted and sublimated devotion, which the circumstances they are placed in by their Creator render equally impracticable and absurd. They are never to notice the affairs of government, or the measures of administration; war, or peace; liberty, or slavery; plenty, or scarcity,—all is to be equally indifferent to them; they are to leave these carnal and worldly things to others. But have they not bodies? Have they not families? Is religion founded on the ruins of humanity? When a man becomes a Christian, does he cease to be a member of civil society? Allowing that he be not the owner of the ship, but only a passenger in it, has he nothing to awaken his concern in the voyage! If he be only a traveller towards a belter country, is he to be told that because he is at an inn which he is soon to leave, it should not excite any emotion in him whether it be invaded by robbers or consumed by flames before the morning! In the peace thereof ye shall have peace: and are not Christians to provide things honest in the sight of all men? Are they to detach themselves while here from the interests of their fellow-creatures; or to rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep? Is not religion variously affected by public transactions? Can a Christian, for instance, be indifferent to the cause of freedom, even on a pious principle? Does not civil liberty necessarily include religious? and is it not necessary to the exertions of ministers, and the spreading of the gospel?—Jay. That which is true of nations is true also of individuals; the heaviest burdens which men can take upon themselves are vices. Vices lay upon men a burden— 1. Of expense. Even so-called “indulgences” are costly; many professing Christians spend more annually on tobacco than they give to the cause of missions. Vices keep millions poor all their lives [201] 2. Of discredit. 3. Of sorrow, clouding all the present. 4. Of fear, darkening all the future. [201] “What are you going to take that for?” said an old labourer to a young one who was about to drink a glass of ale. “To make me work,” was the reply. “Yes,” answered the old man, “you are right; that is just what it will do for a certainty: I began to drink ale when I was about your age, and it has made me work until now!” There is this terrific feature about the burden of iniquity—there is none so hard to be got rid of. It is hard to inspire a nation or a man with the desire to get rid of it. How nations and men hug their vices, notwithstanding the miseries they entail! It is still harder to accomplish the desire! Society is full of men who stagger and groan under this burden, from which they strive in vain to free themselves. In them the fable of Sinbad, unable to rid himself of the old man whom he has taken upon his shoulders, has a melancholy realisation. These men feel themselves to be helpless, and their case would indeed be hopeless were it not that God has laid help for us on One who is mighty to save. Cry to Him, ye burdened ones, and obtain release! Isa_1:4. A seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters. Transmitted depravity is— I. A doctrine of Scripture. II. A fact in human life [204] Application.— 1. God will not fail to make allowance for it in dealing with us. 2. We should make allowance for it in judging our fellow-men. Our censures should be mingled with compassion. 3. By self-restraint and a life of virtue we should endeavour as far as is possible to cut off from our children this sad entail. A bias towards good may be transmitted as well as a bias towards evil [207] 4. In the education of our children, we should be especially solicitous to check and prevent the development of the faults we have transmitted to them, that so, though they are “a seed of evil-doers,” they may not themselves be “corrupters.” [204] As colour and favour, and proportion of hair and face and lineament, and as diseases and infirmities of the body, so, commonly, the liabilities and dispositions and tempers of the mind and affections become hereditary, and run in the blood. An evil bird hatches an evil egg, and one viper will breed a generation of vipers. Most sins pass along from the father to the son, and so downward, by a kind of lineal descent, from predecessors to posterity, and that for the most part with advantage and increase, whole families being tainted with the special vices of their stock. John the Baptist speaks of “a generation of vipers;” and if we should but observe the condition of some families in a long line of succession, might we not espy here and there even whole generations of drunkards, and generations of swearers, and generations of idolaters, and generations of worldlings, and generations of seditious, and of envious, and of riotous, and of haughty, and of unclean persons, and of sinners in other kinds.—Sanderson, 1587–1662. [207] Where children are the children of Christian parents, as they were children of Christian parents, the presumptions are that they will turn out right; not without parental training, but, that being implied, the presumptions are that they will, by the force of natural law, tend in that direction. All the presumptions are that the children of moral and sensible parents will become moral and sensible. Only the grossest neglect and the most culpable exposure to temptation will overrule the presumption and likelihood that the children of good parents will be good. There may be opposing influences; there may be temptations and perversions that shall interrupt the natural course of things; but this does not invalidate the truth that there is a great law by which like produces like. And I say that under this law the Christian parent has a right to this comforting presumption—“My children have all the chances in their favour by reason of the moral constitution which they have inherited.” I know multitudes of families in which the moral element is hereditary; and it is not surprising that the children of those families are moral. Moral qualities are as transmissible as mental traits or physical traits. The same principle applies to every part of the human constitution. And where families have been from generation to generation God-fearing, passion-restraining, truth-telling, and conscience-obeying, the chances are ninety-nine in every hundred in favour of the children.—Beecher. Original or birth sin is not merely a doctrine in religion, it is a fact in man’s world acknowledged by all, whether religious or not. Let a man be providing for an unborn child: in case of distribution of worldly property, he will take care to bind him by conditions and covenants which shall guard against his fraudulently helping himself to that which he is to hold for or to apportion to another. He never saw that child; he does not know but that child may be the most pure and perfect of men; but he knows it will not be safe to put temptation in his way, because he knows he will be born in sin, and liable to sin, and sure to commit sin.—Alford, 1810–1871. THE LORDIsa_1:4. They have forsaken the Lord. How many souls are guilty of forsaking the Lord? They forsake Him by yielding to what are called “little sins” [210] Then they are further removed from Him by habitual wickedness. [210] There is many a man who evinces, for a time, a steadfast attention to religion, walking with all care in the path of God’s commandments, &c., but who, after awhile, declines from spirituality, and is dead, though he may yet have a name to live. But how does it commonly happen that such a man falls away from the struggle for salvation? Is it ordinarily through some one powerful and undisguised assault that he is turned from the faith, or over one huge obstacle that he falls not to rise again? Not so. It is almost invariably through little things. He fails to take notice of little things, and they accumulate into great. He allows himself in little things, and thus forms a strong habit. He relaxes in little things, and thus in time loosens every bond. Because it is a little thing, he counts it of little moment, utterly forgetting that millions are made up of units, that immensity is constituted of atoms. Because it is only a stone, a pebble, against which his foot strikes, he makes light of the hindrance; not caring that he is contracting a habit of stumbling, or of observing that whenever he trips there must be some diminution in the speed with which he runs the way of God’s commandments, and that, however slowly, these diminutions are certainly bringing him to a stand. The astronomer tells us, that, because they move in a resisting medium, which perhaps in a million of years destroys the millionth part of their velocity, the heavenly bodies will at length cease from their mighty march. May not, then, the theologian assure us that little roughnesses in the way, each retarding us, though in an imperceptible degree, will eventually destroy the onward movement, however vigorous and direct it may at one time have seemed? Would to God that we could persuade you of the peril of little offences! We are not half as much afraid of your hurting the head against a rock, as of your hurting the foot against a stone. There is a sort of continued attrition, resulting from our necessary intercourse with the world, which of itself deadens the movements of the soul; there is, moreover, a continued temptation to yield in little points, under the notion of conciliating; to indulge in little things, to forego little strictnesses, to omit little duties; and all with the idea that what looks so light cannot be of real moment. And by these littles, thousands, tens of thousands, perish If they do not come actually and openly to a stand, they stumble and stumble on, getting more and more careless, nearer and nearer to indifference, lowering the Christian standards, suffering religion to be peeled away by inches, persuading themselves that they can spare without injury such inconsiderable bits, and not perceiving that in stripping the bark they stop the sap.—Melvill. I. This conduct is surprising. Is it not most surprising that men should forsake the great God, their Creator and Benefactor? He is all-powerful. He is all-wise. He is all-loving. The soul cannot have a better helper in difficulty, or a truer and wiser friend in sorrow. From the Godward aspect of the case nothing is more surprising than that man should forsake God; but from the manward aspect of things this is not surprising, for man is carnal, and the carnal mind is enmity against God. Satan draws the soul from God. It chases a phantom into the great darkness, and finds in the end that it has wandered from the Infinite Being. II. This conduct is criminal. We should esteem it criminal to forsake a parent, to forsake a benefactor, to forsake a master. But this offence is small compared with that of the soul when it wanders from the Lord. It exhibits insubordination. It rejects the Supreme Moral Ruler of the universe. It exhibits ingratitude. It forsakes its Redeemer. It exhibits folly, for away from Christ the soul cannot obtain true rest. III. This conduct is inexcusable. The soul can give no true reason, or valid excuse, for such unholy conduct. The Lord has dealt bountifully with it, and therefore it has no ground of complaint. He is attractive in character. He is winning in disposition. He is kindly in the discipline of life. He gives holy influences to draw the soul to Himself. Hence man has no excuse for forsaking God. IV. This conduct is common. The world of humanity has forsaken God. One by one souls are returning, and are being welcomed to Christ and to heaven. Many agencies are at work for the return of souls to the heavenly kingdom. Let us seek to make them efficient. Let us pray that they may be successful. Have you forsaken God?—J. S. Exell. TOTAL Isa_1:5-8. 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 it 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 the impending calamities of the people to whom he ministered. [Note that in Isaiah 1:7-8, 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 far 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 of 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 Timothy 3:13; 1 Peter 4:4, &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 [231] The natural tendency of this in born 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 is it now morally and spiritually (Matthew 4:23-24; Matthew 14:36). [231] It is not only the inferior powers of the soul which this plague of sin has seized, but the contagion has ascended into the higher regions of the soul. The most supreme, most spiritual faculty in man’s mind, the understanding power of man, is corrupted, and needs renewing. To a carnal understanding not enlightened by the Word, this always has been and is the greatest paradox. Indeed, when blind reason, which thinks it sees, is judge, it is not strange that this corruption of the understanding should be a wonder to it. For reason, being the supreme faculty of all the rest, which judges all else, and is judged by none but itself, because of its nearness to itself, it least discerns itself. As a man’s eye, though it may see the deformity of another member, yet not the bloodshot that is in itself, but it must have a glass by which to discern it And so, though even corrupt nature discerns the rebellions of the affections and sensual part of man by its own light, as the heathens did, and complained thereof, yet it cannot discern the infection and defilement that is in the spirit itself, but the glass of the Word is the first that discovers it; and when that glass is also brought, there had need be an inward light of grace, which is opposite to this corruption, to discover it.—T. Goodwin, 1600–1679. IV. Moral depravity brings on physical misery. The desolation set forth in Isaiah 1:7-8, was the natural consequence of the depravity denounced in Isaiah 1:5-6. 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 is the realm of unmitigated woe. Were men 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 (Ezekiel 18:30; Ezekiel 18:21). GOD’S TO PUNISHIsa_1:9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. God had humbled His people because of their transgressions, but He had not utterly destroyed them, as He might have done in strict justice. This reminds us— 1. That the punishments that befall wicked men in this world frequently fall short of their deserts. 2. That this disproportion between guilt and chastisement occurs because God is not so much concerned to punish sin as to reclaim sinners. God chastises, in the first instance, that He may correct, and it is with reluctance that He increases the severity of His strokes [234][234] See note (á), page 18. These facts should lead us— 1. To adore the divine benignity. How worthy of our love and worship is this God who is no mere vindictive avenger of broken law, but a loving Father who chastens us, not for His pleasure, but for our profit! 2. To gratefully acknowledge the mercy that has mingled with the judgments which our sins have drawn down upon us (Lamentations 3:10) [237] 3. To shrink with abhorrence from any abuse of the divine long-suffering. The fact that God is so reluctant to punish, instead of encouraging us in rebellion, should incite us to prompt and loving obedience. Nothing can be more base than to “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness;” and nothing could be more dangerous [240] (Proverbs 29:1). [237] If in an affliction we would pour forth to God such acceptable prayers as may obtain comfort in our crosses and deliverance from all our calamities, we must confess our sins, and humbly acknowledge that we deserve to be overwhelmed with much more heavy plagues and punishments. And so the Lord will excuse us when we accuse ourselves, remit our sins when we remember them, and absolve us from punishment when in all humility we acknowledge that we have justly deserved the fearfullest of His plagues. For if we, who have but a little of the milk of mercy, are moved with compassion when either our sons or our servants acknowledge their faults, and offer themselves of their own accord to Buffer that punishment which they have deserved, how can we doubt that God, whose love and mercy towards us are infinite and incomprehensible, will be pitiful and ready to forgive us when He sees us thus humbled?—Downame, 1644. [240] Take heed of abusing this mercy of God. Suck not poison out of the sweet flower of God’s mercy: do not think that because God is merciful you may go on in sin; this is to make mercy your enemy. None might touch the Ark but the priests, who by their office were more holy: none may touch this ark of God’s mercy but such as are resolved to be holy. He that sins because of mercy shall have judgment without mercy. Mercy abused turns to fury (Deuteronomy 29:19-20). “The mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear Him.” Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not God’s mercy is a holy mercy; where it pardons, it heals.—Watson, 1696. THE SUMMONS TO Isa_1:10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. The prophet being about to make a still more terrible announcement, puts forth a renewed call for attention. It is well worthy of our study. We find in it— I. A . “Rulers of Sodom, … people of Gomorrah.” What an astonishing declaration is this, that Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jerusalem are synonymous terms! It reminds us—1. That men may be morally alike to those from whom they think themselves the furthest removed. Many a Protestant who hates the very name of Rome is himself a little Pope: he never doubts his own infallibility, and is ready to anathematise all who dare to dissent from him. Many a man who has never stood in the felon’s dock is a thief at heart [243] The people of Jerusalem were ready to thank God that they were not as Sodom and Gomorrah, whereas they really resembled the people they despised. For, like the inhabitants of those guilty cities, they had been living— (1) In habitual self-indulgence. Self-indulgence may vary in its forms, but in its essential nature it is ever the same. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah had pandered to the lusts of the body, the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the lusts of the mind (see Isaiah 1:17; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 3:16, &c.) (2) In habitual defiance of God. The sins of which they were guilty were as plainly condemned in God’s Word as were those by which the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah polluted themselves. All sin is rebellion against God [246] and the manner in which we sin is comparatively unimportant (James 2:10). If we rebel against God, it does not matter much with what weapons we fight against Him. 2. That men may be utterly unconscious of their own real character. Self-delusion as to character is almost universal. Man can live in the practice of gross sin without any compunction of conscience. Laodicea and the foul criminal David are at peace until the rebukes of God begin to crash like thunders over their heads (Revelation 3:17; 2 Samuel 12:7). As such delusion is most common, so also it is most disastrous. It renders reform impossible. It sends men blindfolded into eternity to the most appalling surprises [249] The remedy for it is earnest, searching, prayerful self-examination, conducted in the light of God’s Word [252] 3. That God describes men according to their essential character. He does not take men according to their own estimates of their character and conduct, and ticket them accordingly. His description of men is often precisely the opposite of that which they would give of themselves, and even of what men would give of them. His neighbours as well as himself would doubtless have described the prosperous farmer (Luke 12:16) as a shrewd and wise man, but God pronounced him to be a fool. So here, these men who prided themselves that they were rulers of Jerusalem, the holy city, were declared to be “rulers of Sodom,” the vilest of cities. Are we quite sure that God describes us as we have been accustomed to describe ourselves? [243] To us there seems a wide difference between the judge, with the robes of office on his back, mind in his eye, and dignity in his mien, and that poor, pale, haggard wretch at the bar, who throws stealthy glances around, and hangs his head with shame. Yet the difference that looks so great to man may be very small in the eyes of God; and would look small in ours if we knew the different upbringing and history of both. The judge never knew what it was to want a meal; the felon often went cold and hungry to bed. The one, sprung of wise, kind, reputable, and perhaps pious parents, was early trained to good, and launched, with all the advantages of school and college, on an honourable and high career; while the other, bred up a stranger to the amenities of cultivated and Christian society, had no such advantages. Born to misery, his struggles with misfortune and evil began at the cradle. None ever took him by the hand to lead him to church or school. A child of poverty, and the offspring of abandoned parents, he was taught no lessons but how to swear, and lie, and drink, and cheat, and steal. The fact is, it is just as difficult for some to be honest as it is easy for others. What merit has that judge in his honesty? None. He had no temptation to be else than honest. And so, I suspect, much of the morality of that unblemished character and decent life in which many trust, saying to some poor guilty thing, “Stand aside, I am holier than thou,” and pluming themselves on this, that they have not sinned as others have done—is due, less to their superior virtue, than to their more favourable circumstances. Have they not sinned as others have done? I reply, They have not been tempted as others have been. And so the difference between many honest men and decent women on the one hand, and those on the other hand on whom a brand of infamy has been burned, and the key of a prison turned, may be just the difference between the green branch on the tree and the white ashes on the hearth. This is bathed in the dews of night and fanned by the breath of heaven, while that, once as green, has been thrust into the burning fire—the one has been tried in a way that the other has not.—Guthrie. [246] As every sin is a violation of a law, so every violation of a law reflects upon the lawmaker. It is the same offence to coin a penny and a piece; the same to counterfeit the seal of a subpœna, as of a pardon. The second table was writ by the hand of God as well as the first, and the majesty of God, as He is the lawgiver, is wounded in an adultery and a theft as well as in an idolatry or a blasphemy.—Donne, 1573–1631. [249] Is there anything more terrible than a false confidence? It is an awful thing to wake up and find that what we have been trusting in is rotten. To embark gaily in a ship that on mid-ocean proves to be worm-eaten and leaky; for a man who believed himself to be wealthy to receive tidings that the failure of a bank has made him a beggar; for a sick man rejoicing in the cessation of his pain to be told by his physician that that is due only to the setting in of mortification that precedes death;—what horrible disappointments are these! But what poor and faint images they furnish of the horror of that man who lives in a state of delusion as to his spiritual condition, who dies in peace, imagining falsely that he is Christ’s, and who, when he has traversed the valley of the shadow of death—when he has reached that point from which there is no return, finds that the doors of heaven are shut against him, discovers that he is shrouded by thick darkness, and begins to feel the fires of hell kindling upon him! Can you picture to yourself his astonishment, his terror, his despair? Do not tell me that such a case is not conceivable—Christ declares that such cases are frequent (Matthew 7:21-25). [252] “Examine yourselves:” a metaphor from metal, that is pierced through to see if it be gold within. Self-examination is a spiritual inquisition set up in one’s soul: a man must search his heart for sin as one would search a house for a traitor: or as Israel sought for leaven to burn it.—Watson, 1696. This duty of examining and proving supposes that there is some sure standard, which if we go by, we are sure not to be deceived. Now that rule is the Word of God. But as in matters of doctrine men have left the Scripture, the sure rule, and taken up antiquity, universality, tradition, and the like for their pride, and by this means have fallen into the ditch; so in matters of godliness, when we should try ourselves according to the characters and signs that the Scripture deciphers, we take up principles in the world, the applause of others, the conversation of most in the world. And thus it is with us as men in an hospital, because every one is either wounded or lame, or some way diseased, therefore none are offensive to each other.—Burgess.Men compare themselves with men, and readily with the worst, and flatter themselves with that comparative betterness. This is not the way to see spots, to look into the muddy streams of profane men’s lives; but look into the clear fountain of the Word, and there we may both discern and wash them; and consider the infinite holiness of God, and this will humble us to the dust.—Leighton, 1611–1684. II. A SOLEMN SUMMONS. “Hear the word of the Lord; … give ear unto the law of our God.” What is the law to which attention is thus emphatically called? It is the great truth announced in the following verses (11–15), that worship offered by ungodly men is not only without value, but is positively hateful in the sight of God. The most flaming zeal concerning the externals of religion is often found in men of unholy life [255] Judas was evidently so zealous in such matters as completely to delude his fellow-disciples: even when Christ announced that there was a traitor in their midst, no suspicion turned towards him; the eleven were more ready to suspect themselves than him (Matthew 26:21). Attention to the externals of religion is in itself a good thing; but unless it be conjoined with integrity and benevolence, it will secure for us at the last not the commendation but the condemnation of the Judge (Matthew 23:23). [255] Fruit-trees that bring forth the fairest and most beautiful blossoms, leaves, and shoots, usually bring forth the fewest and least fruits; because where nature is intent and vigorously pressing to do one work, spending its strength there, it is at the same time weak about other works; but distinct and several works of nature, in moderate and remiss degree, are all promoted at the same time. Generally those persons who are excessive and most curious about the forms of duties, have least of the power of godliness. The Pharisees were excessively careful about the outside of God’s worship. So it was among us of late years; bowing at the name of Jesus, the communion-table, surplice, common prayer, &c.,—those and suchlike were pressed with all eagerness and strictness. The body of religion was large and monstrous, but without a soul; or, if any, it was lean and feeble. These persons are like the Indian fig-tree that Pliny speaks of, which had leaves as broad as targets, but fruits no bigger than a bean. This is a foul fault among us at this day: men stand more about the forms of worship than about the power of it: they look so much after the way, manner, and circumstances that they almost lose the substance; things which are but as husks or shells to the kernels, or as leaves in respect of fruits.—Austen, 1656. Many are set upon excess of ceremonies, because they are defective in the vital parts, and should have no religion if they had not this. All sober Christians are friends to outward decency and order; but it is the empty self-deceiver that is most for the unwarrantable inventions of man, and useth the worship of God but as a masque or puppet-show, where there are great doings with little life, and to little purpose. The chastest woman will wash her face; but it is the harlot, or wanton, or deformed, that will paint it. The soberest and the comeliest will avoid a nasty or ridiculous habit, which may make them seem uncomely where they are not; but a curious dress and excessive care doth signify a crooked or deformed body, or a filthy skin, or, which is worst, an empty soul, that hath need of such a covering. Consciousness of such greater want doth cause them to seek those poor supplies. The gaudiness of men’s religion is not the best sign that it is sincere. Simplicity is the ordinary attendant of sincerity. It hath long been a proverb, “The more ceremony, the less substance; and the more compliment, the more craft.”—Baxter, 1615–1691. TRUE AND FALSE Isa_1:11; Isaiah 1:16-17. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.… Wash you, make you clear; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. What was the business of the ancient prophet? Not merely to predict events. His chief work was to make men realise vividly the presence of God. Religions, in order to their permanence, require system. But religious systems, with their creeds, forms, and ceremonies, have an inevitable tendency to coldness and deadness. The prophet was sent to counteract this tendency. It was his mission to restore to great words their great meanings, to cause moral principles to reassert themselves as the lords of conscience and of will—in a word, to prophesy on the dry bones of a decaying religion until there came upon them flesh and sinew, and there passed into them the breath of spiritual life. Such a mission was that of Isaiah. In his time religion was in a state of petrifaction, nay, rather of putrefaction. From this fact his prophetic message takes its keynote. It begins with an invective that reminds us of John the Baptist. What was the condition of things that provoked his indignation? Not a lack of religious observances; there was a redundancy of them. That which caused a righteous anger to burn within him vehemently was their perversion of the sacrificial system in which they gloried, their dissociation of it from the moral law, to which God intended it to be only a supplement. It was given to teach men the hatefulness and the terrible consequences of sin, and the duty of consecration to God; but they separated it from the moral law, and allowed all its spiritual meaning to drop out of it. Instead of using it as a help to morality, they were making it the substitute for morality. Coming up red-handed from their murders, and reeking with their foul vices, they stood up before God, claiming His favour; for were they not sacrificing to Him, yea, in accordance with the regulations Himself had given? No wonder that a man with veracity in him and a love of righteousness should pour out upon such men and such offerings the whole wrath of his nature. From this exposition take the following practical lessons— 1. All forms of religion have a tendency to lose their original purity and freshness. As a stream, clear at its fountain-head, but turbid before it reaches the sea; as our planet, which physicists say was flung off at first from the sun a glowing mass of light and heat, has been cooling down ever since; so is it with religions and churches. As a rule, their history has been one of gathering accretions and of diminishing purity and power in proportion to their distance from their fountain-head. So was it with Judaism. So has it been with Christianity. Contrast Christianity as we have it in St. Paul’s epistles, all aglow with fervour and love, and that of the time of Leo X., with its professed head and most of his court professed infidels, and the officials of the Church selling indulgences to sin for money! Luther lit the fire again; but Protestantism has had its illustrations of the same law. Witness the state of things in this country in the last century. In view of this fact let the Church pray for prophetic spirits who shall in each generation rekindle the dying fires; and, apart from the influence of specially-gifted men, let each Church betake itself continually to the Fountain-head of spiritual life. 2. False religiousness is worse than none at all. Isaiah says, not simply that such observances are of no avail with God, but that they are abominations to Him. We can see the reason. Such a religion as that which Isaiah denounced works harm to the individual and to the cause of godliness generally; to the individual, by inspiring him with a vain confidence; to the cause of godliness, by furnishing points for the shafts of ridicule, by which faith is killed in many hearts. It would be difficult to say who are the greatest promoters of infidelity—professed atheists or hypocritical religionists. 3. It is a perilous thing to overlook the connection between impression and practice in religion. In Isaiah 1:16-17, the prophet shows us what the true nexus between them is. “Your ceremonies and observances will do you no good unless you practise the morality, the judgment, mercy, and love to which they point.” Our power of receiving impressions is under a directly opposite law from our power of practice. The former steadily decreases by exercise, the latter as steadily increases. This is so in religion, as well as in other things. The impression produced upon the Jews by the sacrifices would decrease as they were repeated, unless by them they were led to practical righteousness, and their whole system would in time become utterly powerless as a moral incentive; just as, if a man is for a few mornings wilfully deaf to an alarum in his bedroom, it presently loses its power even to waken him. The same law will operate with us. The preaching of the gospel is intended to produce impression, and that again to lead to practice. If the latter does not follow at once, the chances are all against its ever following, because the impressions will become feebler with each repetition. A fact this for all hearers to ponder. 4. Religious observances and machinery of all kinds have their end in the development of character. This was so in Isaiah’s time. It is so now. If their religious observances were not leading them to “cease to do evil,” and to “learn to do well,” but were hindering them from doing so, it were better for them to give them up. So our creeds, organisations, ministers, &c., are of use only as related to character. They are the scaffolding, character is the building; they are the tools, that the work. If no building is going on, this parade of scaffolding is an imposture, and had better be swept away.—J. Brierley, B.A. THE OF PUBLIC WORSHIPIsa_1:13. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. I. Public worship is a thing of Divine appointment. A considerable part of the earlier books of Scripture is occupied with injunctions to observe it, and with directions for its conduct. All the best men of ancient times made public worship part of the business of their lives. David, Josiah, Hezekiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah made great sacrifices that it might be duly honoured. Our Lord Himself, who set aside the traditions of men, was careful to observe this Divine ordinance; besides attending the great feasts, He attended the synagogue every Sabbath-day (Luke 4:16). The apostles and early Christians were in this respect His true followers (Acts 2:46; Acts 3:1). And we are expressly warned against neglect of it (Hebrews 10:24-25). II. Public worship may be a means of communion with God. It was this possibility that induced men to build the Temple, that there might be a recognised place of meeting, not only with each other, but with God. There God did often meet with them (Psalms 63:2; Psalms 27:4, &c.) The Temple now is wherever devout men are assembled for worship, and God, in the person of His Son, has expressly promised to be in their midst (Matthew 18:20). III. Consequently public worship may be a thing of the highest profit to man. Upon those to whom communion with God is indeed vouchsafed, public worship exerts a transforming and ennobling influence [258] They are uplifted for a season above the cares, the sorrows, and the joys of life; they receive new strength for the performance of life’s duties and the bearing of life’s burdens; from the mount of supplication they come down bearing a more real and abiding likeness to God than that which in the old time gave to the countenance of Moses an overwhelming splendour. [258] The mind is essentially the same in the peasant and the prince; the forces of it naturally equal in the untaught man and in the philosopher; only the one of these is busied in meaner affairs and within narrower bounds, the other exercises himself in things of weight and moment; and this it is that puts the wide distance between them. Noble objects are to the mind what the sunbeams are to a bud or flower: they open and unfold, as it were, the leaves of it, put it upon exerting and spreading itself every way, and call forth all those powers that lie hid and locked up in it. The praise and admiration of God, therefore, brings this advantage along with it, that it sets our faculties upon their full stretch, and improves them to all the degrees of perfection of which they are capable.—Atterbury, 1663–1732. IV. It may also be a thing supremely acceptable to God. When His children assemble to unite in expressing their common thankfulness, trust, and love for Him, He listens with fatherly delight [261] Compared with angelic worship, human worship is a very poor and imperfect thing; it is but an earthen vessel compared with a chalice of silver or of gold; but the emotions of gratitude, trust, and love with which it is filled, make it precious in His sight. There is a reversal of our Lord’s saying (Matthew 23:19): the rude altar is hallowed by the spiritual sacrifice. [261] No doubt the prayers which the faithful put up to heaven from under their private roofs, were very acceptable unto Him; but if a saint’s single voice in prayer be so sweet to God’s ear, much more the Church choir, His saints’ prayers in consort together. A father is glad to see any one of his children, and makes him welcome when he visits him, but much more when they come together, the greatest feast is when they all meet at his house. The public praises of the Church are the emblem of heaven itself, where all the angels and saints make but one consort. There is a wonderful prevalency in the joint prayers of His people. When Peter was in prison, the Church meets and prays him out of his enemies’ hands. A prince will grant a petition subscribed by the hands of a whole city, which maybe he would not at the request of a private subject, and yet love him well too. There is an especial promise to public prayer: “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.”—Gurnall, 1617–1679. These are some of the possibilities of public worship; but they are not the only ones. The reverse of all this may be true. The worship may be observed and offered without any real regard to the Divine will and pleasure; it may separate God and men still more widely; it may be a curse to those who partake in it, and it may be a grievous offence to the Holy One of Israel. Let us recall some of the things in connection with public worship which are apt to satisfy men. They are such as these: a crowded assembly; sweet singing; a noble liturgy; an eloquent sermon; a large collection. When these things are combined in any service, we are apt to felicitate ourselves exceedingly. But upon that very service God may look with unqualified condemnation. The crowd may have assembled for reasons very far removed from a desire to worship God; the singing may have been merely an artistic performance; the liturgy may have been made up of prayers such as that which a newspaper described as “the most eloquent ever addressed to a Boston audience;” the sermon may have had for its supreme object the glorification of the preacher; the contributors to the collection may have been moved merely by a desire to place the name of their congregation at the head of the subscription-list published in the newspapers on the following day. The whole thing may have been of the earth, earthy, and this may have been God’s verdict concerning it, “It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” What, then, are the elements in worship essential to its acceptance with God? 1. That it be offered by His people. Not from rebels against His authority will He accept expressions of homage [264] in their lips such expressions are mockeries vile and horrible as those wherewith in Pilate’s judgment-hall the Roman soldiers jeered at the Son of God (Matthew 27:27-29). 2. That it be offered with reverence, with that sweet and solemn awe which is born of a recognition of God’s nearness and of His exceeding glory (Psalms 89:7) [267] 3. That it be the expression of love—love singing in the hymns, breathing in the prayers, awakening “godly sorrow” for the sins of the past, leading to sincere and resolute dedication of the whole being to God for the future. Where these principles animate the worshippers, they will be governed by them also in daily life; their whole life will be a service and sacrifice well-pleasing in the sight of God, and what are called their “acts of worship” will not be artificial flowers stuck on to dead and rotting branches for their adornment, but sweet, natural blossoms, upon which God will smile, and which He will pronounce “very good.” [264] If a person was to attend the levee of an earthly prince every court-day, and pay his obeisance punctually and respectfully, but at other times speak and act in opposition to his sovereign, the king would justly deem such a one an hypocrite and an enemy. Nor will a solemn and stated attendance on the means of grace in the house of God prove us to be God’s children and friends,—if we confine our religion to the church walls, and do not devote our lips and lives to the glory of that Saviour we profess to love.—Salter. [267] A remembrance of God’s omnipresence will quell distractions in worship. The actual thoughts of this would establish our thoughts, pull them back when they begin to rove, and blow off all the froth that lies on the top of our spirits. An eye taken up with the presence of one object is not at leisure to be filled with another; he that looks intently upon the sun shall have nothing for a while but the sun in his eye. Oppose to every intruding thought the idea of the Divine omnipresence, and put it to silence by the awe of His majesty. When the master is present, scholars mind their books, keep their places, and run not over the forms to play with one another; and the master’s eye keeps an idle servant to his work, that otherwise would be gazing at every straw, and prating to every passenger. How soon would the remembrance of this dash all extravagant fancies out of countenance, just as the news of the approach of a prince would make the courtiers bustle up themselves, huddle up their vain sports, and prepare themselves for a reverent behaviour in his sight. We should not dare to give God a piece of our heart, when we apprehend Him present with the whole; we should not dare to mock one that we knew were more inwards with us than we are with ourselves, and that beheld every motion of our mind as well as action of our body.—Charnock, 1628–1680. I have sometimes had the misfortune to sit in concerts where persons would chatter and giggle and laugh during the performance of the profoundest passages of the symphonies of the great artists; and I never fail to think, at such times, “I ask to know neither you, nor your father and mother, nor your name: I know what you are, by the way you conduct yourself here—by the want of sympathy and appreciation which you evince respecting what is passing around you.” We could hardly help striking a man who should stand looking upon Niagara Falls without exhibiting emotions of awe and admiration. If we were to see a man walk through galleries of genius, totally unimpressed by what he saw, we should say to ourselves, “Let us be rid of such an unsusceptible creature as that.” Now I ask you to pass upon yourselves the same judgment. What do you suppose angels, that have trembled and quivered with ecstatic joy in the presence of God, think when they see how indifferent you are to the Divine love and goodness in which you are perpetually bathed, and by which you are blessed and sustained every moment of your lives? How can they do otherwise than accuse you of monstrous ingratitude and moral insensibility, which betoken guilt as well as danger?—Beecher. GOD Isa_1:14. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. It is the Almighty who here speaks, and His speech is a protest to men who imagined that by their worship they would conciliate and please Him. Their worship He rejects: it was polluted by the pollution of those who offered it. Instead of cleansing them, as they vainly dreamed, they had defiled it. It is the Almighty who speaks, and in what terms of intensity of pain! He speaks as one who has long been burdened by a load that has at length become intolerable. Strictly speaking, it is of worship offered to Him by ungodly men that He here expresses His abhorrence; but it is not conceivable—it is contrary to repeated declarations of His Word to suppose—that this is the only form of human transgression that is grievous to Him; and therefore we may fairly widen our contemplation, and consider— I. God’s sensibility to human sin. God is unchangeable; with Him there is no fickleness or caprice (James 1:17); this is one of the glories of His nature. But how strangely have philosophers and theologians interpreted this sublime declaration! They have presented us with a deity impassive as the stars, which shine with equal splendour upon the display of great virtues and the perpetration of hideous crimes, calm, serene, undisturbed by anything that takes place on earth. Not such is the God of the Bible. He thrills with intensest emotions of delight or of disapprobation, of joy or of sorrow (Jeremiah 9:24; Nahum 1:6; Zephaniah 3:17; Genesis 3:6). Let philosophers call these “anthropomorphic representations” if they will, but words have no meaning if such declarations do not teach that God is stirred by emotions which are determined by the character and conduct of men. He is no cast-iron deity: He is “the living God.” Sin is hateful to Him, because 1. It is an infraction of that order which He has established for the moral well-being of the universe. As the Sovereign of the universe, He is bound to resent and to punish any injury done to the meanest of His subjects [270] 2. It is a defiance of His authority. Every sinner is a rebel against the authority of the King of kings; and that king would be unworthy of his crown who could see his authority defied without feeling any emotion of displeasure, or without taking steps to vindicate his authority. It was precisely this selfish and pusillanimous weakness that made our Stephen despised and hated by his subjects. With God there is long-suffering and tender mercy, but there is no weakness. Sin is more than a defiance of God’s authority; it is— 3. An offence against His feelings. It is contrary to what we may call His instincts [273] That which is contrary to our best instincts fills us with disgust and anger. What profound emotion is stirred in a man of generosity and benevolence by a story of oppression and wrong! e.g., the effect upon David of Nathan’s parable (2 Samuel 12:8). Whole communities have been roused to uncontrollable indignation by a crime of unusual atrocity, even though no member of the community has been directly affected thereby. “Lynch Law.” So all sin, as sin, arouses the Divine disgust and indignation. “My soul hateth.” 4. It is a degradation of those whom God loves. We all condemn and loathe drunkenness; but who of us loathes it as does that mother who is being hurried by it to an untimely and dishonoured grave? God loves us more than any mother ever loved her son, and His hatred of sin is proportioned by His love for us whom it degrades and destroys [276] 5. It is often a wrong inflicted on those whom He loves. Few men sin without wronging others as well as themselves. Now with what anger do we burn when we detect our children defrauding and oppressing each other! But between the sputtering of a lucifer-match and the glowing fires of a volcano, there is not so much disparity as between the anger which the spectacle of sins against brotherhood kindles in us and that which it rouses in God (Jeremiah 9:9). To form any adequate conception of the offensiveness of sin to God, we must remember that these considerations do not operate singly, but operate in combination to make it hateful to Him. How marvellous, then, is His endurance of it! Consider, then— [270] The tempter persuadeth the sinner that it cannot be that God should make so great a matter of sin, because the thoughts of a man’s heart, or his words, or deeds, are matter of no great moment, when man himself is so poor a worm, and whatever he doth it is no hurt to God. But if God so much regard us as to make us, and preserve us continually, and to become our Governor, and make a law for us and judge us, and reward His servants with no less than heaven; then you may easily see that He so much regardeth us, as to observe whether we obey or break His laws. He that so far careth for a clock or watch, as to make it and wind it up, doth care whether it go true or false. What do these men make of God, who think He cares not what men do! Then He cares not if men beat you, or rob you, or kill you, for none of this hurteth God. And the king may say, “If any murder your friends and children, why should I punish him? he hurt not me.” But justice is to keep order in the world, and not only to preserve the governor from hurt: God may be wronged, though He be not hurt. And He will make you pay for it, if you hurt others: and smart for it, if you hurt yourself.—Baxter, 1615–1691. [273] Our sin is not so much a violation of a law that lies outside of the bosom of God, as it is a disregard of the feelings and nature of God Himself. You will by a moment’s reflection see that there is a marked distinction between personal feeling infringed upon and law transgressed. The magistrate sits upon the bench, and a culprit is brought before him. There are two ways in which that culprit may be considered as transgressing. He may have broken the law of the land, which the magistrate represents officially, but not personally. The magistrate regards him as a culprit, to be sure. But suppose that, in the exercise of truth and justice by a pure administration or decision, the magistrate arounes the anger of the culprit, and he insults him to his face, and in his own court; is there any difference between his former crime, which was the violation of the law of the land, and in his latter crime, which is a transgression of the feeling of the magistrate, acting as a magistrate? [276] Is there any human being who so hates the sin of a child, or the companion of that friend? To whose eye so much as to the eye of the lover is a defect a thing to be abhorred? Is there anywhere in the world such compassion as is found in a father or in a mother over the sin or fault of the child? Yea, with evil associates, with growing bluntness of feeling, with accumulating evasions and deceits, with a development of serpent passions, with a life by day and by night that emasculates manliness, the mother sees her boy going steadily down, step by step; and in her nightly vigils, with strong crying and tears, she pours herself out before God, abhorring with unutterable detestation all these terrible evils that threaten the life and immortality of her son; and for years she carries in her soul the suffering that ought to be in his, and bears his sin, his sorrow, and his shame, and lies humiliated, and bowed down in the dust, the just for the unjust.—Beecher. God hates sin, because it destroys what He loves. He could live high and lifted up above all noise of man’s groaning, all smoke of his torment; but His nature is to come down after man—to grope for him amid all the dark pollutions of sin, and, if possible, to rescue and cleanse him. God hates sin very much, as mothers hate wild beasts. One day a woman stood washing beside a stream. She was in a wild frontier country, and the woods were all around. Her little, only child was playing about near her. By and by she missed the infant’s prattle, and, looking about, she called its name. There was no answer. Alarmed, the mother ran to the house, but her babe was not there. In wild distress the poor woman now fled to search the woods, and there she found her child. But it was only its little body that she clasped to her heart. A wolf had seized her treasure, and when, at last, she rescued it from those bloody fangs, its spirit had gone. Oh, how that mother hated wolves? And do you know that this is the very figure Christ uses to show what feeling He has towards the sin that is seeking to devour His children!—Beecher. It makes a difference to God how we act. His happiness is affected by the conduct of His children; for His heart is the heart of a father. If, when my child sins, a pang goes through my own soul, and I fly to rescue him from further iniquity, it is because God struck into my breast a little spark of what in Him is infinite.—Beecher. It is the same everywhere. When you employ men in your affairs, yon know that there is a distinction between a disregard of the rules of business, and a personal disagreement with yourself. You know that when a man offends against you, his wrong is more heinous and provoking than when he offends against your rules or laws. We know that a child may violate the laws of morality as they are established by the Word of God and by the consent of the community; that he may violate the civil law of the land in which he dwells; that he may violate the rules and regulations of a well-ordered family; and yet, though all these courses of conduct are grievous wrongs which shock the parent, not be as culpable as when he treads on the feeling of the parent. There are exigencies in which the child flies, as it were, in the heart of the father and mother, and does not so much violate their command as their living feeling; and we all know that this is regarded as more intolerable and more flagrant than simply setting aside and forgetting or transgressing a law. In other words, it is possible to break a statute; that is one kind of transgression. It is possible, also, to sin by directly infringing upon the heart and the feeling; that is another kind of transgression, and one that is considered more stinging, more intolerable, and more unforgivable than any other. Now God and His law are one, in the sense in which we approach Him as moral beings—one in such a sense that when we offend against His moral law, we offend against His own personal feeling. He is not a magistrate for whom a system has been framed, and to the administration of which He comes under a sense of justice. He is a universal Father, administering according to His own instincts, His own tastes, His own affections, His own feelings, among His children. God’s law is God’s self, pervading the universe, and our transgression is a personal affront of God Himself. Just as when your taste, or your love, or your conscience, is violated by the direct act of another person against yourself, the offence is greater than if any exterior canon were broken; so it is when we violate the divine commands. This conception of God should quicken every moral sensibility, and make a life of sin painful and distasteful to us. It is one thing to sin against a government, and another thing to sin against a being. There are a great many children that will sin against the family arrangements, who would not sin against their mother. There is many a child to whom the mother says, “My dear child, yon know your father has made a law in this family, that such and such things shall not be done, and you know you have broken that law three or four times; now, for my sake, avoid breaking it again.” The child feels, when the mother interposes herself, that there is something that touches him which did not when it was only a law of the family that he was setting aside. Now, God puts Himself in just that position, and the motive of obedience and righteousness is this: that God is the tenderest, the most patient, the gentlest, and the dearest friend that we have; that He knows everything within and without; and that though we are sinful and wicked, He, in His infinite compassion and mercy, forgives us, and says, “Do not sin against me, nor against mine.”—Beecher. When a man defrauds you in weight, he sins against you, not against the scales, which are only the instruments of determining true and false weight. When men sin, it is against God, and not against His law, which is but the indicator of right and wrong. You care little for sins against God’s law. It has no blood in its veins, no sensibility. Now, every sin that you commit is personal to God, and not merely an infraction of His laws. It is casting javelins and arrows of base desire into His loving bosom. I think no truth can be discovered which would be so powerful upon the moral sense of men, as that which should disclose to them that sinning is always a personal offence against a personal God. Law without is only an echo of God’s heart-beat within.—Beecher. II. God’s patience with human sin. He speaks here of being “troubled” by the worship of ungodly men; it is a burden of which He is “weary.” Why, then, does He bear it for a moment? Why, then, does He not give quick vent to the indignation that burns within Him, and consume His troublers with swift destruction? He bears with us— 1. That by His patience He may appeal to our better feelings. He does us good, and not evil (Matthew 5:45), that we may be made ashamed to sin against such generosity. When men are not altogether hardened in iniquity, there is nothing so likely to overcome them as a requital of wrongs by blessing [279] especially where he who so requites it has full power to avenge himself. By His long-suffering, God has led countless thousands to repentance. 2. That He may set us an example of self-restraint. It is because He is Himself so slow to anger, that He is able to warn us against vindictiveness. God does not only lay upon us precepts of excellence: He Himself embodies them. 3. That He may place the righteousness of His judgments beyond dispute. A space of grace and forbearance seems necessary to enable onlookers to perceive that the awful doom which at length will come upon sinners is fully deserved, and is perfectly consistent with His own mercifulness. If “Wisdom” had not “called,” reproved, counselled, “stretched out her hands” in entreaty, the stern words in which she announces the awful and irrevocable doom of her despisers would shock us (Proverbs 1:20; Proverbs 1:32). 4. That a moral probation may be rendered possible. If punishment always instantly and obviously followed transgression, the world would be ruled by terror so overwhelming that free agency would be destroyed, and virtue consequently rendered impossible. For such reasons as these, God bears with sinners, and “sentence against an evil work” is not executed speedily. [279] A group of rough men were assembled at a tavern one night. One man boasted that it did not make any difference what time he went home, his wife cheerfully opened the door, and provided an entertainment if he was hungry when he got home. So they laid a wager. They said: “Now, we’ll go along with you. So much shall be wagered. We’ll bet so much that when you go home, and make such a demand, she will resist it.” So they went along at two or three o’clock in the morning and knocked at the door. The door opened, and the man said to the wife: “Get us a supper.” She said: “What shall I get?” He selected the articles of food. Very cheerfully were they provided, and about three or four o’clock in the morning they sat down at the table—the most cheerful one in all that company the Christian wife—when the man, the ruffian, the villain, who had demanded all this, broke into tears and said: “I can’t stand this. Oh what a wretch I am!” He disbanded that group. He knelt down with his Christian wife and asked her to pray for the salvation of his immortal soul, and before the morning dawned they were united in the faith and hope of the Gospel. A patient, loving, Christian demeanour in the presence of transgression, in the presence of hardness, in the presence of obduracy and crime, is an argument from the throne of the Lord Almighty.—Talmage. III. God’s protest against human sin. God suffers under human sin, but He does not suffer in silence: He vehemently protests against it. Two reasons should lead us to heed this protest:— 1. Gratitude. He might have sent vengeance without warning. His protests and threatenings are proofs of His love. All that is noblest and best in us should lead us to give instant and thankful heed when God appeals to us, and says, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!” (Jeremiah 44:4). But if sin has so debased your nature that higher considerations such as this cannot move you, then I appeal— 2. to your instinct of self-preservation. God’s protest against sin is no unmeaning form: His threatenings against sin are no empty words (Proverbs 29:1). Rightly considered, the sinner’s untroubled condition is the most awful of all warnings [282][282] Since we know God to be grievously displeased with sin, there is something awful in His keeping silence while it is committed under His eye. If a child comes home conscious of having offended a parent, and the parent says nothing all that night, but merely looks very grave, the child is more frightened than he would be by a sharp rebuke or severe punishment, for if such rebuke or punishment were inflicted, he would at least know the worst; but when the parent is silent, he knows not what may be hanging over him. So when we remember how many things plainly offensive to God are going on all around us, it is a terrible thought that He is still silent. We fear that He is but getting ready to take vengeance on those who defy Him. And so that passage which we have quoted from the Psalms carries on the train of thought in what follows: “God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and God is provoked every day. If a man will not turn, He will whet His sword, He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.” [283] Since we know God to be grievously displeased with sin, there is something awful in His keeping silence while it is committed under His eye. If a child comes home conscious of having offended a parent, and the parent says nothing all that night, but merely looks very grave, the child is more frightened than he would be by a sharp rebuke or severe punishment, for if such rebuke or punishment were inflicted, he would at least know the worst; but when the parent is silent, he knows not what may be hanging over him. So when we remember how many things plainly offensive to God are going on all around us, it is a terrible thought that He is still silent. We fear that He is but getting ready to take vengeance on those who defy Him. And so that passage which we have quoted from the Psalms carries on the train of thought in what follows: “God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and God is provoked every day. If a man will not turn, He will whet His sword, He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.” [284] Since we know God to be grievously displeased with sin, there is something awful in His keeping silence while it is committed under His eye. If a child comes home conscious of having offended a parent, and the parent says nothing all that night, but merely looks very grave, the child is more frightened than he would be by a sharp rebuke or severe punishment, for if such rebuke or punishment were inflicted, he would at least know the worst; but when the parent is silent, he knows not what may be hanging over him. So when we remember how many things plainly offensive to God are going on all around us, it is a terrible thought that He is still silent. We fear that He is but getting ready to take vengeance on those who defy Him. And so that passage which we have quoted from the Psalms carries on the train of thought in what follows: “God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and God is provoked every day. If a man will not turn, He will whet His sword, He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.” In countries where earthquakes happen, a dead silence always goes before the earthquake. Nature seems hushed into an awful stillness, as if she were holding her breath at the thought of the coming disaster. The air hangs heavily; not a breath fans the leaves; the birds make no music; there is no hum of insects; there is no ripple of streams; and this while whole houses, and even cities sometimes, are hanging on the brink of ruin. So it is with God’s silence,—it will be followed, when it seems deepest, by the earthquake of His judgments. And so the holy Apostle writes to the Thessalonians: “When they shall say, Peace and safety” (from the fact of God’s being so still and so dumb), “then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.”—Goulburn. HUSKSIsa_1:15. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. The Jews had been likened unto the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10). As such, they are summoned to listen to a series of declarations of which this is the sum, that worship without holiness is a solemn mockery. Confining ourselves to our text only, we may see that it teaches us— I. The worthlessness of ritualism without spontaneity. “When ye spread forth your hands,” &c. 1. Ritualism is an essential element of public worship. There must be some form by which thought can be expressed, and the devotions of others guided. There may be too little, or too much, but some is indispensable [285] 2. Ritualism may be the expression of earnest spiritual life, and a help thereto. It may be the outcome of sincere feeling and deep piety—such was the ritual which David and his devout companions devised and elaborated for the service of the Temple. It was costly and magnificent beyond even that which is observed in St. Peter’s at Rome; but as practised by them it was as spiritual as the baldest service that has ever been conducted in the barest conventicle. A splendid ritual may be acceptable to the Most High, and the followers of George Fox must not imagine that they are the only persons who worship God “in spirit and in truth.” 3. But ritualism may be, and often is, only a form. It may mean only an exhibition of millinery, a scrupulous observance of a prescribed series of postures and genuflexions. It may be, according to a too suggestive phrase, merely a service “performed.” In this case God passes it by with contempt. To all engaged in such histrionic performances He says, “When ye spread forth your hands,” &c. Supplication without desire will never draw down the Divine benediction. [285] The external part of religion is, doubtless, of little value in comparison with the internal; and so is the cask in comparison with the wine contained in it: but if the cask be staved, the wine must perish. If there were no Sundays or holydays, no ministers, no churches or religious assemblies, no prayers or sacraments, no Scriptures read, or sermons preached, how long would there be any religion left in the world: and who would desire to live in a world where there was none?—Horne, 1730–1792. Forms are necessary to religion as the means of its manifestation. As the invisible God manifests His nature—His power, wisdom, and goodness, in visible material forms, in the bright orbs of heaven, in the everlasting hills, in the broad earth with its fruits and flowers, and in all the living things which He has made,—so the invisible soul of man reveals its convictions and feelings in the outward acts which it performs. As there could be no knowledge of God without the visible forms in which He reveals Himself, so there could be no knowledge of the religion which exists in the soul of man without the outward forms in which it expresses itself. A form is the flag, the banner, the symbol of an inward life; it is to a religious belief what the body is to the soul; as the soul would be utterly unknown without the body, so religion would be unknown without its forms, a light hidden under a bushel, and not set up in a candlestick that it may give light to all that are in the house. Forms are necessary not only to the manifestation of religion, but to its nourishment and continued existence. A religion which expressed itself in no outward word or act would soon die out of the soul altogether. The attempt to embody truth and feeling, to express it in words and actions, is necessary to give it the character of living principle in the soul: in this respect forms are like the healthy exercise which at once expresses and increases the vigorous life of the body, or they may be compared to the leaves of a tree, which not only proceed from its inward life, but catch the vitalising influences of the light, the rain and the atmosphere, and convey them down to the root. What, then, is that formalism which is everywhere in the Scripture, and especially in the discourses of our Lord, described as an offence and an abomination in the sight of God? I answer, formalism is the substitution of the outward rite in the place of the inner spirit and life of the soul; it is the green leaf which still hangs upon the dead branch which has been lopped off.—David Loxton. II. The worthlessness of prayer without purity of heart. “When ye make many prayers, I will not hear.” 1. Prayer is a necessity of the Christian life. A consciousness of weakness and want, and a profound conviction of God’s power and willingness to succour him, prompts the Christian to make “many prayers.” And each supplication so inspired finds its way to the throne and heart of God. To hear and answer the prayers of His children is one of our Heavenly Father’s joys (Isaiah 65:24). 2. But prayer, like ritualism, instead of being the expression of a realised need, may be only an empty form. The supplications that are offered may be uttered merely by rote, with as little feeling as a child recites the multiplication-table; or they may be devices by which deluded men seek to propitiate that God whom they are offending by their conduct every day,—mere lip-homage, which they imagine He will accept in condonation of their habitual disregard of His will. In either case, their “many prayers” are worthless husks which He rejects with disdain. If we would have our worship accepted of God, there must be— 1. Scriptural conceptions of His character. These will prevent us from mocking Him by merely formal prayers or praises. 2. A solemn realisation of His presence. How often this is lacking in those who take part in the service of the sanctuary, and even in those who conduct them! But God is not throned in some distant heaven, to which our prayers struggle up we know not how: He is HERE! We shall never be nearer to Him than we are to-day! 3. An earnest endeavour after holiness in daily life (Psalms 66:18). See why God would not regard the uplifted hands of the Jewish suppliants—“Your hands are full of blood.” See also Isaiah 59:1-3. To no rebel is access to the presence-chamber of the King of kings granted: this is the high privilege of those only who can lift up “holy hands” (1 Timothy 2:8).—A. F. Barfield. [288][288] God doth not institute worship-ordinances for bodily motion only; when He speaketh to man He speaketh as to a man, and requireth human actions from him, even the work of the soul, and not the words of a parrot or the motion of a puppet.—Baxter, 1615–1691. You think you serve God by coming to church; but if you refuse to let the Word convert you, how should God be pleased with such a service as this? It is as if you should tell your servant what you have for him to do, and because he hath given you the hearing, he thinks he should have his wages, though he do nothing of that which you set him to do. Were not this an unreasonable servant? Or would you give him according to his expectation? It is a strange thing that men should think that God will save them for dissembling with Him; and save them for abusing His name and ordinances. Every time you hear, or pray, or praise God, or receive the sacrament, while you deny God your heart and remain unconverted, you do but despise Him and show more of your rebellion than your obedience. Would you take him for a good tenant that at every rent-day would duly wait on you, and put off his hat to you, but bring you never a penny of rent? Or would you take him for a good debtor that brings you nothing but an empty purse, and expects you should take that for payment? God biddeth you come to church and hear the Word; and so you do, and so far you do well; but withal, He chargeth you to suffer the Word to work upon you hearts, and to take it home and consider of it, and obey it, and cast away your former courses, and give your hearts and lives to Him; and this yon will not do. And you think that He will accept of your service!—Baxter, 1615–1691. REASONS FOR THE OF PRAYERIsa_1:15. When ye make many prayers, I will not hear. God has characterised Himself as “the Hearer of prayer;” and it is the great consolation of His people that they cannot seek His face in vain. But here He declares that He will not hear the prayers of Israel, however many. This solemn and momentous declaration may well lead us to inquire why prayer is, in many instances, rejected. Prayer, to be heard, must be both right and real. If it possess neither of these characteristics, or only one of them—if it is neither right nor real, or is right without being real, or real without being right—it cannot fail to be rejected. I. A man may pray rightly, either because he has been taught the principles of orthodoxy, and knows what language is conformable to those principles, or because he uses prayers composed by spiritual men, or, finally, because he uses the very words prescribed or sanctioned by God Himself. But in all these cases, while his prayer may be right, it may be altogether unreal. He may neither know the meaning of the requests it contains, nor desire their fulfilment [291] Thus do many men pray for a free pardon for Christ’s sake, for entire sanctification, and repeat the Lord’s Prayer. There is nothing in the heart corresponding to what is expressed by the lips; nay, the heart and the mouth are often completely at variance with each other. [291] Will men’s prayers be answered? Not if they pray as boys whittle sticks—absently, hardly knowing or caring what they are about. I have known men begin to pray about Adam, and go on from him to the present time, whittling their stick clear to a point, with about as much feeling, and doing about as much good as the boy does.—Beecher. I often say my prayers, But do I ever pray, And do the wishes of my heart Go with the words I say? I may as well kneel down And worship gods of stone, As offer to the living God A prayer of words alone, For words without the heart The Lord will never hear; Nor will He to those lips attend Whose prayers are not sincere. —John Burton. II. Prayer may be real without being right. A man may really acknowledge mercies received, and petition for more; and yet neither the acknowledgment nor the petition may be regarded by God. The acknowledgment and the petition have reference to mere earthly desires already gratified or yet to be gratified. He thanks God that his “lusts have had the food which they craved;” he prays that they may never want it. Pride, vanity, the love of ease, pleasures, and worldly respectability are “lusts” on which he has hitherto “consumed,” and on which he intends still to “consume,” the good things which God has given, or may yet give him. The secret soul of all his supplications is not any zeal for the glory of God, but selfishness. His prayers are of the earth, earthy. The spiritual blessings which God holds out in His right hand he passes by in contemptuous neglect, and clamours for the natural blessings which are in God’s left hand. III. Both the faults of prayer above referred to are often found in one and the same individual, and the guilt of both accumulated on one and the same head. Let it not be inferred from what has been said that we lay an interdict on natural blessings, and forbid the seeking of them in prayer. Our Saviour has given us authority to ask for daily bread, and this fully warrants the conclusion that natural blessings, as well as spiritual, may and ought to form a subject of prayer. We ought to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and then ask Him to fulfil His promise of “adding unto us all other things.”—R. Nesbit, Discourses, pp. 308–319. A CHARGEIsa_1:15. Your hands are full of blood. Such is the reason which God assigns for turning a deaf ear to the prayers of His ancient people: the hands they lifted up to Him in supplication were blood-stained. It was as if Cain, red with the murder of Abel, had lifted up his hands in prayer to God for blessing. By this startling charge we are reminded— I. That between the estimates formed by God and men as to what takes place in the sanctuary there is often an infinite disparity. Behold the court of the temple filled, apparently, with devout worshippers, who lift up their hands to heaven in earnest supplication,—what a pleasing sight! But God looks down, and says, “Those hands are full of blood.” The same contrast is repeated in another form (Isaiah 29:13). Other contrasts: Eli sees what he thinks to be a drunken woman; God sees a humble suppliant (1 Samuel 1:12-13). Men see an eminently religious man praying in the sanctuary; God sees a man prostituting prayer into a means of self-glorification (Luke 18:11-12). Men see a foul wretch whose presence in the sanctuary is a pollution; God sees a broken hearted penitent, and hastens to bless him (Luke 18:13-14). So it is in our sanctuaries to-day. II. That God holds us responsible for the ultimate consequences of our actions. The men who thronged the temple in Isaiah’s time, and whose prayers God rejected, were not bandits and murderers in the ordinary and coarse fashion by which men are brought to the scaffold. Yet the charge brought against them was true. For there are other ways of murdering men than by acts of violence of which human law takes note. By grievous oppression millions of men have been brought to an untimely grave. If a man destroys another by slow poison, is he not as truly a murderer as another who kills his victim by means of prussic acid? In God’s sight oppression is murder; and of oppression in its worst forms the Jews had been guilty (Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 3:14-15, &c.) It is in accordance with this declaration that opprobrium is heaped upon Jeroboam as the man “who made Israel to sin” (2 Kings 10:29); and that we are so sternly warned against leading others into transgression (Matthew 18:6, &c.) This fact— 1. Casts some light on the doctrine of future punishment. The results of the evil actions of men go on eternally propagating themselves, and it is therefore not unjust that the punishment of those actions should be eternal also. 2. Should cause us to halt when we are tempted to acts of unkindness and oppression. Unwillingly we may thereby become murderers. 3. Should lead us to be most watchful as to the example we set before others. If we hold our false lights by which they are caused to make shipwreck “concerning faith” and character, God will hold us responsible for the disaster (Romans 14:15, &c.) III. That sin is naturally indelible. These Jews came into the sanctuary with hands carefully cleansed, but yet in God’s sight they were “full of blood.” 1. The stains of sin cannot be washed out by time. Time obliterates much, but it does not obliterate guilt. Men are apt to be troubled in conscience about recent sins, but to be at ease concerning those committed many years previously. But this is a mistake. Lapse of time makes no difference to God; the inscriptions in His books of record never fade. Hence the wisdom of David’s prayer (Psalms 25:7). 2. The stain of sin cannot be washed out by worship. That it might be so was the vain dream of the Jews, as it is of millions to-day. But worship itself is an offence when it is offered by ungodly men; so far from diminishing their guilt, it increases it (Proverbs 28:9, &c.) 3. The stain of sin cannot be washed out by sorrow. Sorrow for the past alters nothing in the past: the crime remains, no matter how many tears the criminal may shed [294] 4. The stain of sin cannot be washed out even by reformation of conduct and character. Men speak of “turning over a new leaf,” and when they have done what this phrase implies, they are apt to be at peace. But this also is a mistake. They forget that the old, evil leaf remains, and that for what is inscribed thereon God will call them to account. As there is a “godly sorrow” and a “worldly sorrow,” so there is a religious and an irreligious reformation of conduct. The former is the result of evangelical repentance, and is of exceeding worth (Ezekiel 18:27-28); the latter is a mere act of prudence, and is of no moral account. In one way, and in one way only, can the stain of guilt be effaced from the human soul (1 John 1:7-9). [294] Repentance qualifies a man for pardon, but it does not, cannot, entitle him to it. It is one of the most elementary and obvious truths of morality, that the performance of one duty cannot be any compensation for neglect to perform another duty. But when a sinner is penitent for his sins, he is merely doing what, as a sinner, he ought to do; and his feelings of contrition do no more to absolve him from his guilt than the gratitude a man feels to a doctor who has cured him from a dangerous illness does to discharge the doctor’s bill. As in this case there ought to be both gratitude and payment, so in the case of the sinner there must be both penitence and atonement. The sinner’s sorrow for his sin, while in itself a proper thing, is no more an atonement for his sin than is the remorse that fills the breasts of most murderers any atonement for the murders they have committed. Judas was sorry, profoundly and intensely sorry, for having betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ, but did that do away with the guilt of that betrayal? Was Peter not to be blamed for his denial of his Master, because afterwards “he went out and wept bitterly”? Did the tears he shed give him any right to say in after years—“Yes, I denied my Lord, but I was sorry for it, and go made it straight”? Do you think that just as with soap and water you can wash the dirt off your hands, you can with a few tears, or with many tears, wash the guilt of sin from off your soul? No delusion could be more groundless. Oh no! You have the real fact and the true philosophy of the matter in the well-known verse— “Not the labours of my hands Can fulfil Thy law’s demands. Could my zeal no respite know Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone: THOU must save, and THOU alone.” TRUE AND FALSE Isa_1:11; Isaiah 1:16-17. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.… Wash you, make you clear; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. What was the business of the ancient prophet? Not merely to predict events. His chief work was to make men realise vividly the presence of God. Religions, in order to their permanence, require system. But religious systems, with their creeds, forms, and ceremonies, have an inevitable tendency to coldness and deadness. The prophet was sent to counteract this tendency. It was his mission to restore to great words their great meanings, to cause moral principles to reassert themselves as the lords of conscience and of will—in a word, to prophesy on the dry bones of a decaying religion until there came upon them flesh and sinew, and there passed into them the breath of spiritual life. Such a mission was that of Isaiah. In his time religion was in a state of petrifaction, nay, rather of putrefaction. From this fact his prophetic message takes its keynote. It begins with an invective that reminds us of John the Baptist. What was the condition of things that provoked his indignation? Not a lack of religious observances; there was a redundancy of them. That which caused a righteous anger to burn within him vehemently was their perversion of the sacrificial system in which they gloried, their dissociation of it from the moral law, to which God intended it to be only a supplement. It was given to teach men the hatefulness and the terrible consequences of sin, and the duty of consecration to God; but they separated it from the moral law, and allowed all its spiritual meaning to drop out of it. Instead of using it as a help to morality, they were making it the substitute for morality. Coming up red-handed from their murders, and reeking with their foul vices, they stood up before God, claiming His favour; for were they not sacrificing to Him, yea, in accordance with the regulations Himself had given? No wonder that a man with veracity in him and a love of righteousness should pour out upon such men and such offerings the whole wrath of his nature. From this exposition take the following practical lessons— 1. All forms of religion have a tendency to lose their original purity and freshness. As a stream, clear at its fountain-head, but turbid before it reaches the sea; as our planet, which physicists say was flung off at first from the sun a glowing mass of light and heat, has been cooling down ever since; so is it with religions and churches. As a rule, their history has been one of gathering accretions and of diminishing purity and power in proportion to their distance from their fountain-head. So was it with Judaism. So has it been with Christianity. Contrast Christianity as we have it in St. Paul’s epistles, all aglow with fervour and love, and that of the time of Leo X., with its professed head and most of his court professed infidels, and the officials of the Church selling indulgences to sin for money! Luther lit the fire again; but Protestantism has had its illustrations of the same law. Witness the state of things in this country in the last century. In view of this fact let the Church pray for prophetic spirits who shall in each generation rekindle the dying fires; and, apart from the influence of specially-gifted men, let each Church betake itself continually to the Fountain-head of spiritual life. 2. False religiousness is worse than none at all. Isaiah says, not simply that such observances are of no avail with God, but that they are abominations to Him. We can see the reason. Such a religion as that which Isaiah denounced works harm to the individual and to the cause of godliness generally; to the individual, by inspiring him with a vain confidence; to the cause of godliness, by furnishing points for the shafts of ridicule, by which faith is killed in many hearts. It would be difficult to say who are the greatest promoters of infidelity—professed atheists or hypocritical religionists. 3. It is a perilous thing to overlook the connection between impression and practice in religion. In Isaiah 1:16-17, the prophet shows us what the true nexus between them is. “Your ceremonies and observances will do you no good unless you practise the morality, the judgment, mercy, and love to which they point.” Our power of receiving impressions is under a directly opposite law from our power of practice. The former steadily decreases by exercise, the latter as steadily increases. This is so in religion, as well as in other things. The impression produced upon the Jews by the sacrifices would decrease as they were repeated, unless by them they were led to practical righteousness, and their whole system would in time become utterly powerless as a moral incentive; just as, if a man is for a few mornings wilfully deaf to an alarum in his bedroom, it presently loses its power even to waken him. The same law will operate with us. The preaching of the gospel is intended to produce impression, and that again to lead to practice. If the latter does not follow at once, the chances are all against its ever following, because the impressions will become feebler with each repetition. A fact this for all hearers to ponder. 4. Religious observances and machinery of all kinds have their end in the development of character. This was so in Isaiah’s time. It is so now. If their religious observances were not leading them to “cease to do evil,” and to “learn to do well,” but were hindering them from doing so, it were better for them to give them up. So our creeds, organisations, ministers, &c., are of use only as related to character. They are the scaffolding, character is the building; they are the tools, that the work. If no building is going on, this parade of scaffolding is an imposture, and had better be swept away.—J. Brierley, B.A. THE GREAT TASKIsa_1:17. Learn to do well. Negative goodness is not enough to meet the Divine requirements. Those who have “ceased to do evil” must “learn to do well.” God demands positive excellence [333] The cultivation of well-doing is the surest guarantee against evil-doing [336][333] All the religion of some men runs upon nots. “I am not as this publican.” That ground is nought, though it brings not forth briars and thorns, if it yieldeth not good increase. Not only the unruly servant (Matthew 24:48-49) is cast into hell, but also the idle servant (Matthew 25:30). Meroz is cursed not for opposing and fighting, but for not helping. Dives did not take away food from Lazarus, but he did not give him any of his crumbs. “I set up no other gods;” ay, but dost thou reverence and obey the true God? “I do not profane the Sabbath.” Dost thou sanctify it? Thou dost not wrong thy parents; but dost thou reverence them? Thou dost not murder; but dost thou do good to thy neighbour? Usually men cut off half of their bill, as the unjust steward bade the man who owed a hundred set down fifty. We do not think of sins of omission. If we are no drunkards, adulterers, and profane persons, we do not think what it is to omit respects to God, not to reverence His holy majesty, not to delight in Him and His ways.—Manton, 1620–1667. [336] Fighting faults is the most discouraging thing in the world. When corn reaches a certain height, no more weeds can grow among it. The corn overshadows and grows them down. Let men fill themselves full of good things. Let them make their love and purity and kindness grow up like corn, that every evil and noxious thing within them may be overshadowed and die.—Beecher. I. Well-doing is a thing to be learned. We have been too prone to look at it in its other aspect only, as a thing springing from faith and love, not as a thing to be cultivated. But see Philippians 4:9; 1 Timothy 5:4; Titus 3:14; Matthew 11:29; Hebrews 5:3. All experience is in accordance with the teaching of these texts. Has any case occurred in which at the beginning of the Christian life a person was proficient in well-doing? Men are not born into the Christian life with a perfect capacity to do well, any more than they are born into the natural life with a perfect capacity to speak well. Conversion is a beginning, not an ending [339] We then begin to learn the standards, methods, opportunities, and practice of excellence. In the hour of conversion we do but pass into Christ’s school, and begin to be His disciples. Well-doing is not to be learned in one lesson, nor in six lessons. [Illustration: frequent advertisement, “French in six lessons.” Absurd!] It was only after a prolonged training and most varied discipline that St. Paul could say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Is that a lesson to be acquired in a day? Let our own hearts supply further proof. Look within, and see the evils yet unsubdued, the excellences yet unattained, the difficulty with which many a duty is discharged, and you will see the necessity of learning to do well. We have learned to do well only when it has become a habit to us, when we do it as easily and naturally as a well-trained merchant’s clerk adds up a column of figures correctly. But can any habit be acquired without prolonged practice? [342][339] No man is born into the full Christian character, any more than he is born into the character of a man when he comes into the world. A man at conversion is in the state of one who has just come into the possession of an old homestead. He has the title, and he can make for himself a beautiful home. But the dust, the dirt, and the cobwebs of years choke all the rooms, and must be cleared away. Many sills and beams are rotten, and must be replaced by new ones. Chambers must be refitted, walls newly plastered, the whole roof must be searched over, and every leak stopped. There must be a thorough cleansing and repair before the mansion is habitable; and when all this is done, it is only an empty house that the man has. The same kind of thing that man has who has trained himself into freedom from wrong, without having become faithful in right deeds.—Beecher. [342] Character is consolidated habit, and habit forms itself by repeated action. Habits are like paths beaten hard and clear by the multitude of light footsteps which go to and fro. The daily restraint or indulgence of the nature, in the business, in the home, in the imagination, which is the inner laboratory of the life, creates the character which, whether it be here or there, settles the destiny.—J. Baldwin Brown. II. Well-doing is learned much in the same way as other things are learned. Learning a language involves study, patience, perseverance, practice. Not otherwise can we learn to do well [345][345] It is not great, or special, or extraordinary experiences which constitute in the best sense the religious character. It is the uniform daily walk with God, serving Him in little things as well as great—in the ordinary duties and everyday avocations, as well as in the midst of grave and eventful contingencies. As the sublimest symphony is made up of separate single notes;—as the wealth of the cornfield is made up of separate stalks, or rather of separate grains;—as the magnificent texture, with its gorgeous combinations of colour, is made up of individual threads;—as the mightiest avalanche that ever came thundering down from its Alpine throne, uprooting villages and forests, is-made up of tiny snowflakes;—so it is with the spiritual life. That life is itself the grandest illustration of the power of littles. Character is the product of daily, hourly actions words, thoughts; daily forgivenesses, unselfishnesses, kindnesses, sympathies, charities, sacrifices for the good of others, struggles against temptations, submissiveness under trial. Oh it is these, like the blending colours in a picture, or the blending notes of music, which constitute the man.—Macduff. III. In learning to do well, we need both inspiration and help. We have both: the inspiration in the example of our Lord (Acts 10:38; Hebrews 12:2); the help in the gracious assistance of the Holy Ghost (Romans 8:26). Therefore, difficult as the task is, we may address ourselves to it with good hope of success.—William Jones. THE NOBLEST ARTIsa_1:17. Learn to do well. I. To do well is a thing that requires to be learned. 1. It does not come to us naturally, as breathing and sleeping do. That which comes to us naturally is to do evil. This is manifest in every child: it needs no teaching to do evil, but it needs a great deal of teaching before it will habitually do well. Nor does proficiency in well-doing come to us even with our new birth. Then come new desires after righteousness, but the knowledge and practice of righteousness have to be learned [348] At our new birth we are born “babes in Christ:” manhood in Christ is reached only by growth [351] 2. It is not a thing we acquire unconsciously, as infants learn to see and hear, or as older persons acquire the accent of the country in which they reside, or as invalids gain health at the seaside. Living in a religious atmosphere will not of itself make us religious, nor will mere companionship with good men. Association with artists will not of itself make a man an artist; and association with Christians will not of itself make any man a Christian. Judas was in constant association with Christ himself for more than three years, and at the end of that period, instead of doing well, he committed the foulest of all crimes. To do well is an art, and, like every other art, it can be mastered only by deliberate efforts of the will [354] This is the testimony both of Scripture and experience. (See preceding outline.) [348] The process of being born again is like that which a portrait goes through under the hand of the artist. When a man is converted, he is but the outline sketch of a character which he is to fill up. He first lays in the dead colouring. Then comes the work of laying in the colours, and he goes on, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, blending them, and heightening the effect. It is a life’s work; and when he dies he is still laying in and blending the colours, and heightening the effect. And if men suppose the work is done when they are converted, why should we expect anything but lopsided Christian character?—Beecher. [351] God deals in spiritual proceedings, as in natural, to extremes by the mean. We are not born old men; but first an infant, then a man, then old. We are conceived of immortal seed, born of the Spirit, so go on to perfection. There is first a seed, then a plant, then a tree. We get not at one jump into heaven, nor at one stroke kill the enemy.—Adams, 1653. [354] Cast a sponge into water, and, the fluid filling its empty cells, it swells out before our eyes, increases more and more. There is no effort here, and could be none; for though once a living animal, the sponge is now dead and dry. But it is not as sponges fill with water, nor to use a Scripture figure often employed, and sometimes misapplied, as Gideon’s fleece was filled with dews, that God’s people are replenished with His grace. More is needed than simply to bring ourselves in contact with ordinances, to read the Bible, to repair on Sabbath to Church, to sit down in communion seasons at the Lord’s table.—Guthrie. Who starts up a finished Christian? The very best men come from their graves, like Lazarus, “bound with grave-clothes”—not like Jesus, who left the death-dress behind Him; and, alas! in their remaining corruptions all carry some of these cerements about with them, nor drop them but at the gate of heaven.—Guthrie. II. To do well is a thing that may be learned. Not all persons, however earnest their desires or persevering their efforts, can become poets, painters, statesmen, orators. But to do well is an art in which all regenerate persons may become proficient, some with greater ease than others, but to none is the task impossible. There is no vice which a regenerate man may not lay aside, no excellence to which he may not attain. III. To do well is a thing that must be learned. It is an imperative demand which God makes upon all His people. We cannot satisfy it by “ceasing to do evil.” It is not enough for the “branches” of the True Vine not to bring forth “wild grapes;” they must bear fruit—much fruit—to the glory of the Husbandman (John 15:8). Not only must Christ’s followers be “blameless,” they must be conspicuous for excellence. “Let your light so SHINE before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” These truths being settled in our minds, let us ask ourselves. IV. How this noblest of arts may be acquired. 1. By setting before ourselves, and carefully studying, the noblest models. Thus do those who would become proficient in other arts: music, painting, sculpture, architecture, &c. Now the great Master in the art of well-doing was our Lord Jesus Christ: we must therefore study Him aud His works. But as it is often a help to the discovery of the secrets of a great master’s excellences to study the works of his disciples, as thus our attention is sometimes directed to points we might otherwise overlook, and as by the contrast between him and them, even when they have done their best, we get a clearer view of his transcendent power—so it will be helpful to us to study the character of Christ’s noblest disciples [357] however, coming back to the study of His character, remembering that we shall succeed in doing well only in proportion as we become like Him. 2. By becoming imbued with the principles by which the great masters in this art were animated. Mere mechanical imitation is always a poor thing, and often a grotesque and pitiable thing; because circumstances are continually varying. What kind of an English home would the most exact reproduction of the most beautiful of all classic villas be? The architect who forgot that the climate of England is not that of Rome or Athens would be accounted a fool. Yet many professed imitators of Christ have fallen into a similar mistake: they have imitated merely the outward circumstances of His life, and have forgotten that the essential thing is to have “the mind that was in Christ.” When we have that, all else will follow as a matter of course. Now the great principle which governed Christ and His noblest disciples was love—love to God and man: a docile love, which did not seek to please God in its way, but in His way, and evermore searched the Scriptures to discover upon what things God looks with delight. 3. By patient and persevering endeavours to embody in our practice the truths we have thus discovered. Only by such endeavours can the mastery in any art be won. 4. By fidelity in little things. The master’s ease is reached only by the student’s painstaking—by his careful endeavour to be right in each individual note, line, shade, stroke, word. It is thus, and thus only, that the habit of doing well is gained. [357] God hath provided and recommended to us one example as a perfect standard of good practice—the example of our Lord. That indeed is the most universal, absolute, and assured pattern; yet doth it not supersede the use of other examples. Not only the valour and conduct of the general, but those of inferior officers, yea the resolution of common soldiers, doth serve to animate their fellows. The stars have their season to guide us as well as the sun; especially when our eyes are so weak as hardly to bear the day. Even considering our infirmity, inferior examples by their imperfection sometimes have a peculiar advantage. Our Lord’s most imitable practice did proceed from an immense virtue of Divine grace which we cannot arrive to; it is in itself so perfect and high, that we may not ever reach it: looking upon it may therefore sometimes dazzle and discourage our weakness. But other good men had assistance in measure such as we may hope to approach unto; they were subject to the difficulties which we feel; they were exposed to the perils of falling which we fear; we may therefore hope to march on in a reasonable distance after them; we may, by help of the same grace, come near in transcribing their less exact copy.—Barrow, 1630–1677. V. Let us remember certain things for our encouragement. 1. We are not left to learn this art alone: we have the constant help of the most reasonable, patient, and successful of all teachers. We are disciples of Christ. How much that means! He does not expect us to become proficients in a few lessons. He remembers that the most advanced of us are only little children in His great school. If He sees in us the earnest desire and the resolute endeavour to learn, He is well satisfied [360] He will most carefully adapt His methods of instruction to our individual capacity. He will lead us on to the goal step by step. Already in countless thousands of instances He has dealt successfully with most intractable materials: scholars who seemed hopelessly dull and inapt He has so instructed that they have passed the great examination that awaits us all at death; and they are now carrying on their studies in the great university of heaven. 2. In no other art does progress bring so much happiness: the testimony of a good conscience; consciousness of the approval of God; a pleasant retrospect; brightening hopes. 3. In no other art does proficiency ensure such rich rewards. Proficiency in any other art can but win for us the honours and joys of earth; proficiency in this will secure for us the honours and joys of heaven. It is one great doctrine of Scripture, that we are saved through our faith: it is another, that we are rewarded according to our works. [360] Gotthold observed a boy in a writing-school eyeing attentively the line placed before him, and labouring to write with equal correctness and beauty. Mark, said he to the bystanders, how all perfection is the offspring of imperfection, and how by frequent mistakes we learn to do well. It is not required of this boy that his penmanship shall equal that of the line. He satisfies his master by the pains he takes; for these are a ground of hope that he will progressively improve, and at last learn to write with rapidity and elegance. We also have a pattern to copy. It has been left us by the Lord Jesus Christ, and is His most perfect and holy life. And think not that He exacts more from us than the teacher does from the pupil. No, indeed; if He find us carefully studying His example, and diligent in our endeavours to imitate it, He exercises forbearance towards our faults, and by His grace and Spirit daily strengthens us to amend.—Scriver, 1629–1693. THE AND THEIR RELIEFIsa_1:17. Relieve the oppressed. Religion means sympathy with man in his oppressed condition. The truth alone can give men freedom. I. The oppressed. 1. There are those oppressed by sinful habits. Many men are their own tyrants. They build their own prison, make their own fetters, and whip themselves. Their oppression is the consequence of their sin. Such are to be relieved, however little they may appear to desire or deserve it, by the compassion of the good. 2. There are those oppressed by commercial difficulty. There are many men whose commercial life is one continuous struggle to get on, and to provide things honest in the sight of the world. They have small capital. Fortune seems against them. They are active, but they do not succeed. Such ought to be relieved by the generous consideration of the good. 3. There are those oppressed by domestic misfortune. The wife has lost her husband. The children have buried their parents. They are out alone in the wide world. They are liable to the thoughtless but stern oppression of men. Such must be relieved by the good. 4. There are those oppressed by religious bigotry. There are many great souls who are larger than a sect, oppressed by the conventionally orthodox. They are driven from their pulpits. They are excommunicated from their synagogue. They need the relief of true sympathy. II. Their relief. 1. By personal sympathy [363] Genuine sympathy is always a relief to an oppressed soul [366] It heals the soul and lightens its burden [369] A kind word, a cheering look, is welcome to the oppressed. 2. By intelligent advocacy. The cause of the oppressed should be advocated where it is likely to be redressed. Politics can be employed in no higher ministry than in seeking the relief of the oppressed. 3. By practical help. Sympathy must not be substituted for personal and self-denying help. Words are well; smiles are welcome; but personal help is the most effective to the removal of oppression.—J. S. Exell. [363] We are all sons of one Father, members of one body, and heirs of one kingdom, in respect of which near-linking together there should be compassion and sympathy betwixt us. If one member do but grieve, all suffer with it. When a thorn is got into the foot, how is it that the back bows, the eyes pry into the hurt, and the hands are busied to pluck out the cause of the anguish? And we, being members of one another, should bear with and forbear one the other, the not doing whereof will stick as a brand upon our souls that we are of the number of them that have forsaken the fear of the Almighty.—Spencer, 1658. [366] Certain it is, that as nothing can better do it, so there is nothing greater, for which God made our tongues, next to reciting His praises, than to minister comfort to a weary soul. And what greater pleasure can we have than that we should bring joy to our brother, who, with his dreary eyes, looks to heaven and round about, and cannot find so much rest as to lay his eyelids close together, than that thy tongue should be tuned with heavenly accents, and make the weary soul to listen for light and ease; and when he perceives that there is such a thing in the world, and in the order of things as comfort and joy, to begin to break out from the prison of his sorrows, at the door of sighs and tears, and, by little and little, melts into showers and refreshment? This is glory to thy voice and employment fit for the brightest angel. But so have I seen the sun kiss the frozen earth, which was bound up with images of death, and the colder breath of the north; and then the waters break from their enclosures, and melt with joy, and run in useful channels; and the flies do rise again from their little graves in the walls, and dance awhile in the air, to tell that there is joy within, and that the great mother of creatures will open the stock of her new refreshment, become useful to mankind, and sing praises to her Redeemer: so is the heart of a sorrowful man under the discourses of a wise comforter; he breaks from the despairs of the grave, and the fetters and chains of sorrow; he blesses God, and he blesses thee, and he feels his life returning: for to be miserable is death, but nothing is life but to be comforted: and God is pleased with no music from below so much as in the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows, of supported orphans, of rejoicing and comforted and thankful persons.—Jeremy Taylor, 1612–1667. [369] Till we have reflected on it, we are scarcely aware how much the sum of human happiness in the world is indebted to this one feeling—sympathy. We get cheerfulness and vigour, we scarcely know how or when, from mere association with our fellow-men; and from the looks reflected on us of gladness and enjoyment we catch inspiration and power to go on, from human presence and from cheerful looks. The workman works with added energy from having others by. The full family circle has a strength and a life peculiarly its own. The substantial good and the effectual relief which men extend to one another is trifling. It is not by these, but by something far less costly, that the work is done. God has ensured it by a much more simple machinery. He has given to the weakest and the poorest power to contribute largely to the common stock of gladness. The child’s smile and laugh are mighty powers in this world. When bereavement has left you desolate, what substantial benefit is there which makes condolence acceptable? It cannot replace the loved ones you have lost. It can bestow upon you nothing permanent. But a warm hand has touched yours, and its thrill told you that there was a living response there to your emotion. One look, one human sigh, has done more for you than the costliest present could convey.—Robertson, 1816–1853. GOD’S IDEAL OF Isa_1:17. Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. This verse is more correctly translated thus—“Learn to do well; seek judgment, restrain the oppressor, right the fatherless, maintain the cause of the widow,”—or, “Learn to do good; seek out judgment, redress wrong, judge the fatherless, befriend the widow.” The form of these admonitions was determined by the sins of which the rulers of Jerusalem had been guilty. By them the course of justice had been perverted (Isaiah 1:23; Micah 3:11, &c.); wrongs had been left unredressed, and oppressors unrestrained; the orphans and the widows, having neither money to bribe nor power to overawe the corrupt judges, had sought in vain for justice,—such judges as our Lord has depicted in His parable (Luke 18:2) were common. The four specific admonitions of this verse are a divinely-inspired exposition of the general admonition with which it commences. So regarded, we find in it God’s ideal of goodness. The command is given, “Learn to do well.” Yes, but what is meant by learning to do well? “To do well,” says the prophet, is “to seek out judgment, to restrain the oppressor, to judge the fatherless, to befriend the widow.” This Divine ideal of goodness is in startling opposition to certain standards of excellence widely accepted both in the Church and in the world. It, is in opposition (1) to the idea that a good man is one who does no harm. How prevalent is the notion that a man who refrains from injuring his neighbours is a person worthy of high commendation! But to do no harm merely is to fall far short of the Scripture standard of excellence [372] It is in opposition (2) to the idea that a man who confines himself to the cultivation of personal virtues is a true follower of Christ. In all our Churches there are multitudes of persons whose “religion” is a purely selfish consideration. They have been taught that certain excellences are necessary to qualify them for admission to heaven, and to the cultivation of these excellences they address themselves assiduously, merely that they may secure their own eternal well-being. But such persons fail to observe that the mind that was in Christ was not a spirit of self-seeking but of self-sacrifice. It is in opposition (3) to the idea that the more spiritual a man is, the more indifferent he will be to what happens in the world. It is precisely to concern as to what happens in the world that we are here called. We are to “seek out justice,” to use all our influence that justice and righteousness shall prevail in the community in which we dwell. We are not simply to mourn over wrongs; we are to redress them, and we are to restrain the oppressors. Especially are we to see to it that justice is done to the orphans, and to all helpless ones such as they. The widow we are to befriend; she is to be our “client,” and we are to see to it that she is not wronged because God has been pleased to remove her natural defender. To live thus for others, to be the friend of the friendless, the defender of the weak, the resolute opposer of all oppressors,—this, and this only, is to realise the Divine ideal of goodness ([375]). [372] He is not half a saint who is but a negative saint. The forbearance of gross corruptions is the easiest and least part of religion, and therefore will not speak any man in a state of salvation. The tree that is barren and without good fruit is for the fire, as well as the tree that brings forth evil fruit. [375] A religion that does not take hold of the life that now is, is like a cloud that does not rain. A cloud may roll in grandeur, and be an object of admiration, but if it does not rain, it is of little account so far as utility is concerned. And a religion that consists in the observance of magnificent ceremonies, but that does not touch the duties of daily life, is a religion of show and of sham.—Beecher. For men to think to excuse themselves that they do no hurt, wrong neither man, woman, or child, and are not, as the Pharisee said, as the publicans, who generally were oppressors, is but a vain, foolish thing. The idle servant might have said, “Lord, I did no harm with my talent; I did not lay it out in rioting and drunkenness, or any way to Thy dishonour; I only hid it, and did not improve it,”—yet this was enough to condemn him. Can we call ground good ground for bearing no weeds, if it never bring forth good corn? Or do we count that servant a good servant who doth not wrong his master in his estate by purloining or wasting it, if he live idle all day, and neglect the business his master appoints him?—Swinnock, 1673. .— 1. Men are good precisely in proportion as they are like God [376] Between a merely “harmless” man and God there is no resemblance. Between a man who lives only to secure his own well-being and God there is a positive contrast. Between a man who is indifferent to the sorrows and the wrongs of his fellow-men there is a still greater contrast. He is not indifferent to what takes place on earth. It is His supreme glory that He burns with indignation against oppression, and that He is the friend especially of the friendless and the weak (Psalms 146:7-9; Psalms 147:2-6). It is to resemblance to Him in these things, and not merely in abstinence from evil, that we are called (James 1:27). 2. A selfish life is a godless life. Men may be eminently respectable members of society, and highly esteemed members of churches, and yet be utterly unlike God. Men who live only for themselves, or to promote the happiness merely of their own households, and selfishly decline to take any part in philanthropic labours, or in social and political movements which have for their object the removal of public wrongs, are utterly out of sympathy with Him upon whose approval they reckon so confidently and so mistakenly. Had they any true love for God, they would have an unselfish love for men, and would be quick to feel and to resent the wrongs that are done them (1 John 3:14, &c.) Dives was probably a highly respectable citizen of Jerusalem, and on good terms with the authorities of the temple, but the selfishness of his life sufficed at the last to exclude him from the Divine presence [379] 3. A godlike life can never be a life of ease. How many members of our churches have incurred Christ’s woe! (Luke 6:26). Prudent men, they have been careful never to “meddle” in affairs of their neighbours; they have never identified themselves with any revolutionary movements; against wrongs which have not troubled themselves they have never uttered words of flaming indignation! And yet they imagine themselves to be followers of Him who spoke of “the cross” which each of His disciples would have to carry. What He meant by this saying is a mystery to them. But let them begin to endeavour to “learn to do well” in the manner pointed out in the text, and this saying of His will be a mystery to them no longer. The world will very soon hate them even as it hated Him. But this is one of the surest signs that we are His (John 15:18-19). [376] To be godly is to be godlike. The full accord of all the soul with His character, in whom, as their native home, dwell “whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,” and the full conformity of the will to His sovereign will, who is the life of our lives—this, and nothing shallower, nothing narrower, is religion in its perfection, and the measure in which we have attained to this harmony with God is the measure in which we are Christians. As two stringed instruments may be so tuned to one keynote that if you strike the one, a faint ethereal echo is heard from the other, which blends undistinguishably with its parent sound; so drawing near to God, and brought into unison with His mind and will, our responsive spirits vibrate in accord with His, and give forth tones, low and thin indeed, but still repeating the mighty music of heaven.—Maclaren. [379] They are selfish—because they have no motive of action beyond themselves. They individualise existence. The spider weaves a web, and that is its world. It retires into its corner for observation, and has no concern for any surrounding objects, except as they may be caught upon its net, and appropriated to its use. So they who live without God reticulate life with selfishness. Nothing concerns them except as it may he drawn into the mesh of scheming for ministering to their own wants and wishes.—Bellew. GOD’S TO SINNERSIsa_1:18. Come now, and. let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. It is scarcely possible to conceive of a more interesting and delightful exhibition of the love and mercy of God than is presented to us in these words; unless they had been found in the volume of eternal truth, we might have justly doubted their veracity. For the speaker is Jehovah, a Being infinitely happy and glorious in Himself. He needs not, on His own account, the return of the sinner to Himself. Besides, He is the offended party. How marvellous, then, that He should stoop to ask reconciliation with poor wretched man, the rebel and traitor against heaven. Notice— I. The characters addressed. Not such as excel in moral excellency, but the vilest and most degraded of sinners. How apt we are to think that such are past reclamation. Yet it is to these that the invitation of our text is addressed—those whose sins are as scarlet and crimson. This description includes— 1. Those whose sins are glaring and manifest. In the heart of men there is much evil that man or angel never sees. External circumstances act in the moral world as the shore to the ocean, limiting and bounding its waters. The control thus exerted upon men is well for them, for society, and for the Church. But numbers cast it off, sin in open day, and glory in their shame. Their sins are as scarlet or as crimson. 2. Those whose iniquities are specially productive of much evil and misery—ringleaders in sin; ridiculers of piety, who labour to throng the road to hell; ungodly masters; ungodly heads of households, &c. 3. Those who have sinned against great privileges and mercies (Matthew 11:20-24.) As it is with nations and cities, so it is with individuals [382] How many have had privileges of a high character—pious parents, religious society, a faithful ministry, special providences, &c. 4. Backsliders, who by their fall have hardened others in iniquity, and caused them to scoff at religion. 5. Aged transgressors. [382] All our sins are of a “crimson dye, for remember, it is not needful to have steeped our hands in a brother’s blood to make our guilt “scarlet.” God measures sins by privileges. One evil thought in one man is as much as a thousand crimes in auother man.—Vaughan. II. The invitation presented. “Come and let us reason,” &c. He wishes to have your state and condition tested by reason. He gives you opportunities of self-defence; he is willing to hear all your motives, arguments, &c. Now, will you come to God, and reason with Him? What will you say? 1. You cannot plead ignorance. You have seen the evil of your way, and yet have chosen it. 2. You cannot plead necessity. The Jews of old declared that they were not free agents, and that they could not help committing the sins of which they were guilty (Jeremiah 7:10). This is the grossest self-deception. It cannot be the will of God that you should do evil (1 Thessalonians 4:3; James 1:13; 1 Peter 1:16). To attribute our sins to Him is the most outrageous impiety. You have sinned freely; it has been your own act and choice. 3. You must plead guilty. Cast yourself on the mercy of God, pleading guilty, you shall not be condemned, if— 4. You plead the merits of Christ. He is “the propitiation for our sin.” Here is your hope, your plea. In availing yourself of this plea, all that God requires is repentance and faith. III. The gracious promise.—Jabez Burns, D.D., Pulpit Cyclopœdia, iii. 161–165. FOR THE VILESTIsa_1:18. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. We are informed by the Rabbins that the high priest bound a scarlet fillet round the neck of the scapegoat, and that when the priest confessed his own sins and the sins of the people, the fillet became white if the atonement was accepted by God, but that if it was not accepted, the fillet remained scarlet still. The Rabbins further say that the goat was led about twelve furlongs out of Jerusalem, where it was thrown down a precipice, and was mangled to atoms by the fall. In case of the sacrifice being received by Heaven, a scarlet ribbon which hung at the door of the temple changed from scarlet to pure white. They affirm that it is to this changing of the fillet and ribbon from scarlet to white that Isaiah refers in our text. While we regard these as fictions, and not as facts, they serve to illustrate the nature and greatness of the change spoken of in it. I. Scarlet and crimson represent sins of excessive and glaring notoriety. 1. The soul has been steeped in the dyeing element. 2. It has carried away as much of the dyeing quality as it can hold. It is twice dipped in the dye-vat. 3. The sins glare and arrest the eye like scarlet in the sun. As the uniform of the British soldier is most conspicuous, so these sins glare in the eye (1) of society (2) of conscience, (3) of Divine justice. II. Scarlet and crimson symbolise the fast and permanent hold of these sins upon the soul. 1. The sins are not a stain but a dye. 2. The sins are not superficial: they have penetrated into the fabric, every thread of which has been dyed. The faculties are the threads: the whole man the web. 3. The sins are not typified by any dye, but by scarlet and crimson, which are as permanent as the fabric they colour. They resist sun, dew, rain, the wash. III. Scarlet and crimson becoming white as snow represents the perfect removal of the greatest sins. The colouring element is removed. The soul is restored. The power that removes the sin yet saves the soul. Application.—There is hope, then, even for the vilest. The most desperately sinful need not despair [385]J. Stirling. [385] In nature there is hardly a stone that is not capable of crystallising into something purer and brighter than its normal state. Coal, by a slightly different arrangement of its particles, is capable of becoming the radiant diamond. The slag cast out from the furnace as useless waste forms into globular masses of radiating crystals. From tar and pitch the loveliest colours are now manufactured. The very mud of the road, trampled under foot as the type of all impurity, can be changed by chemical art into metals and gems of surpassing beauty; and so the most unpromising materials, the most worthless moral rubbish that men cast out and despise, may be converted by the Divine alchemy into the gold of the sanctuary, and made jewels fit for the mediatorial crown of the Redeemer. Let the case of Mary Magdalene, of John Newton, of John Bunyan, of thousands more, encourage those who are still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Seek to be subjected to the same purifying process; lay yourselves open to the same spiritual influences; yield yourselves up into the hands of the Spirit to become His finished and exquisite workmanship; seek diligently a saving and sanctifying union with Christ by faith, and He will perfect that which concerneth you, and lay your stones with fair colours (Psalms 68:13).—Macmillan. COMFORT FOR THE Isa_1:18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Some are kept in a desponding state— I. By the views they entertain of the sovereignty of God and the doctrine of election. But— 1. The election of God, whatever it is, is an election unto life, and not unto destruction. It should therefore be a source of encouragement, not discouragement: it should awaken hope and joy, rather than despondency. 2. God’s election is His rule of action, not yours: yours is the Bible [388] 3. The thing you are required to believe in order to salvation is not your election, but God’s truth. 4. In your present state you have nothing to do with election [391] but if you will entertain the question, the evidence is much more in favour of your election than against it. [388] Whatever the decrees of God be concerning the eternal state of men, since they are secret to us, they can certainly be no rule either of our duty or comfort. And no man hath reason to think himself rejected of God who does not find the marks of reprobation in himself—I mean an evil heart and life. By this, indeed, a man may know that he is out of God’s favour for the present; but he hath no reason at all from hence to conclude that God hath from all eternity and for ever cast him off. That God calls him to repentance, and affords him the space and means of it, is a much plainer sign that God is willing to have mercy upon him, than anything else can be that God hath utterly cast him off. For men to judge of their condition by the decrees of God, which are hid from us, and not by His Word, which is near us, is as if a man wandering in the wide sea in a dark night, when the heaven is all clouded, should resolve to steer his course by the stars which he cannot see, but only guess at, and neglect the compass which is at hand, and would afford him much better and more certain direction.—Tillotson, 1630–1694. [391] We have no ground at first to trouble ourselves about God’s election. “Secret things belong to God.” God’s revealed will is, that all who believe in Christ shall not perish. It is my duty, therefore, knowing this, to believe: by doing whereof I put that question, whether God be mine or no? out of all question, for all that believe in Christ are Christ’s, and all that are Christ’s are God’s. It is not my duty to look to God’s secret counsel, but to His open offer, invitation, and command, and thereupon adventure my soul. In war men will venture their lives, because they think some will escape, and why not they? In traffic beyond the seas many adventure a great estate, because some grow rich by a good return, though some miscarry. The husbandman adventures his seed, though sometimes the year proves so bad that he never sees it more. And shall not we make a spiritual adventure, in casting ourselves upon God, when we have so good a warrant as His command, and so good an encouragement as His promise, that He will not fail those that rely on Him?—Sibbes, 1577–1635. II. By the views they take of certain isolated passages of Scripture (Matthew 12:31-32; Hebrews 12:17; Proverbs 1:24-31). Not one of these passages, rightly understood, need quench your hope. Where there is one obscure passage that seems to make against you, there is a hundred which plainly and positively tell you that if you turn you shall live, if you believe you shall be saved. III. By an apprehension that their repentance has not been deep enough. But— 1. The genuineness of your repentance is not to be estimated by the pungency of your feelings [394] 2. It is not the depth of your feelings that is your warrant to come to Christ. 3. Your penitential feelings will not be likely to be increased by staying away from Christ. [394] I see no reason to call in question the truth and sincerity of that man’s repentance who hates sin and forsakes it, and returns to God and his duty, though he cannot shed tears, and express the bitterness of his soul by the same significations that a mother does in the loss of her only son. He that cannot weep like a child may resolve like a man, and that undoubtedly will find acceptance with God. Two persons walking together espy a serpent; the one shrieks and cries out at the sight of it, the other kills it. So is it with sorrow for sin: some express it by great lamentations and tears, and vehement transports of passion; others by greater and more real effects of detestation—by forsaking their sins, by mortifying and subduing their lusts; but he that kills it doth certainly best express his inward enmity against it.—Tillotson, 1630–1694. IV. By the fear that they have gone too far and sinned too much to be forgiven. But, admitting the very worst you can say of yourself, there is everything in the character of God, in the work of Christ, in the power of the Spirit, in the experience of other sinners [397] in the promises of the Bible, to inspire and sustain your hope.—John Corbin. [397] Oh who can read of a Manasseh, a Magdalene, a Saul, yea, an Adam, who undid himself and a whole world with him, in the roll of pardoned sinners, and yet turn away from the promise, out of a fear that there is not mercy in it to serve his turn? These are landmarks that show what large boundaries mercy hath set to itself, and how far it hath gone, even to take into its arms the greatest sinners that make not themselves incapable thereof by final impenitency. It were a healthful walk, poor doubting Christian, for thy soul to go this circuit, and oft see where the utmost stone is laid and boundary set by God’s pardoning mercy, beyond which He will not go.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. SIN AND GRACEIsa_1:18. Come now, and let us reason together, smith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. For an exposition of the symbolism of this verse, see note [400][400] Jehovah here challenges Israel to a formal trial: nocach is thus used in a reciprocal sense, and with the same meaning as nishpat in Isaiah 43:26 (Ges. § 51, 2). In such a trial Israel must lose, for Israel’s self-righteousness rests upon sham righteousness; and this sham righteousness, when rightly examined, is but unrighteousness dripping with blood. It is taken for granted that this must be the result of the investigation. Israel is therefore worthy of death. Yet Jehovah will not treat Israel according to His retributive justice, but according to His free compassion. He will remit the punishment, and not only regard the sin as not existing, but change it into its very opposite. The reddest possible sin shall become, through His mercy, the purest white. On the two hiphils here applied to colour, see Ges. § 53, 2; though he gives the meaning incorrectly, viz., “to take a colour,” whereas the words signify rather to emit a colour, not colorem accipere, but colorem dare. Shâne, bright red (the plural Shânim, as in Proverbs 31:21, signifies materials dyed with shâni) and tolâ, warm colour, are simply different names for the same colour, viz., the crimson obtained from the cochineal insect, color coccineus. The representation of the work of grace promised by God as a change from red to white is founded upon the symbolism of colours, quite as much as when the saints in the Revelation (Isaiah 19:8) are described as clothed in white raiment, whilst the clothing of Babylon is purple and scarlet (Isaiah 17:4). Red is the colour of fire, and therefore of life: the blood is red because life is a fiery process. For this reason the heifer, from which the ashes of purification were obtained for those who had been defiled through contact with the dead, was to be red; and the sprinkling-bush, with which the unclean were sprinkled, was to be tied around with a band of scarlet wool. But red, as contrasted with white, the colour of light (Matthew 17:2), is the colour of selfish, covetous, passionate life, which is self-seeking in its nature, which goes out of itself only to destroy, and drives about with wild tempestuous violence: it is therefore the colour of wrath and sin. It is generally supposed that Isaiah speaks of red as the colour of sin, because sin ends in murder; and this is not really wrong, though it is too restricted. Sin is called red, inasmuch as it is a burning heat which consumes a man, and when it breaks forth consumes his fellow-man as well. According to the biblical view, throughout, sin stands in the same relation to what is well-pleasing to God, and wrath in the same relation to love or grace, as fire to light; and therefore as red to white, or black to white, for red and black are colours which border upon one another. In the Song of Solomon (Isaiah 7:5), the black locks of Shulamith are described as being “like purple,” and Homer applies the same epithet to the dark waves of the sea. But the ground of this relation lies deeper still. Red is the colour of fire, which flashes out of darkness and returns to it again; whereas white, without any admixture of darkness, represents the pure, absolute triumph of light. It is a deeply significant symbol of the act of justification. Jehovah offers to Israel an actio forensis, out of which it shall come forth justified by grace, although it has merited death on account of its sins. The righteousness, white as snow and wool, with which Israel comes forth, is a gift conferred upon it out of pure compassion, without being conditional upon any legal performance whatever.—Delitsch, Commentary on Isaiah, vol. i. pp. 98, 99. A subordinate point in the imagery is, that scarlet and crimson were the firmest of dyes, least capable of being washed out.—Dr. Kay. I. THE WONDERS OF DIVINE . 1. How marvellous that God should condescend to “reason” with sinful men! Not thus do human governments deal with rebels against their authority. The stern proclamation goes forth, “Submit, or die.” To admit helpless rebels to a conference on equal terms (such as “reasoning” implies) is an idea that never occurs to earthly sovereigns; but (Isaiah 55:8-9)— 2. How marvellous that God should invite sinful men to reason with Him, with a view to reconciliation with them! The result of such an investigation of their conduct could only be their condemnation; but this is not God’s ultimate design. He does not desire to humiliate sinners, but to bring them to repentance and confession, in order that it may be possible for Him to pardon them. According to human standards, it would have been a great thing had God been willing to be reconciled to those who have offended Him so grievously; but how astonishing is this, that He, the offended party, should seek to reconcile the offenders to Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; John 3:19). II. THE OF HUMAN SIN. “Though your sins be as scarlet … though they be red like crimson.” Sins that take complete possession of a man, and that are conspicuous to the public eye, may be described as crimson and scarlet sins. How common such sins are! What a spectacle the human race must present to angelic eyes! Scarlet and crimson sins are more common than we are apt to suppose, because responsibility is in proportion to privilege. In proportion to the sinner’s light is the sinner’s guilt. Consequently that which is a trivial fault in one man may be a crimson sin in another. When an offence is contrary to a man’s whole training, though it may be a small matter in the sight of man, it may be as scarlet and crimson sin in the sight of God. In these possibilities of human sin we have—1. A reason for universal watchfulness. Taken even in its most obvious sense, the possibility of which our text speaks is the possibility of every man. There is no human being who may not fall into crime. Many men, after living half a century blamelessly in the sight of men, suddenly yield to temptation, and are consigned to felons’ cells. David was no stripling when he committed his great transgression. Said Hazael, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?” Yet he did it! (2 Kings 8:13, &c.) Peter rejected Christ’s warning as incredible. Therefore (Romans 11:20; 1 Corinthians 10:12) [403] 2. A reason for universal humiliation and prayer. Just because our privileges have been so great, God may put a very different estimate upon our transgressions than we are disposed to do. Therefore let us humbly seek pardon for the past, and preventing grace for the future (Psalms 19:12-13). [403] The strong men are fallen; even Solomon himself, and David, and Noah, and Lot, and Samson, and Peter, the lights of the world, fell like stars from heaven. These tall cedars, strong oaks, fair pillars, lie in the dust, whose tops glittered in the air; that “they which think they stand may take heed lest they fall.” Can I look upon these ruins without compassion? or remember them without fear, unless I be a reprobate, and my heart of flint? Who am I that I should stand like a shrub, when these cedars are blown down to the ground, and showed themselves but men? The best man is but a man: the worst are worse than beasts. No man is untainted but Christ. They who had greater gifts than we, they who had deeper roots than we, they who had stronger hearts than we, they who had more props than we, are fallen like a bird which is weary of her flight, and turned back like the wind, in the twinkling of an eye. What shall we do then, when we hear of other men’s faults? Not talk of them as we do, but beware by them, and think—Am I better than he? Am I stronger than Samson? Am I wiser than Solomon? Am I chaster than David? Am I soberer than Noah? Am I firmer than Peter? There is no salt but may lose its saltness, no wine but may lose its strength, no flower but may lose its scent, no light but may be eclipsed, no beauty but may be stained, no fruit but may be blasted, no soul but may be corrupted. We stand all in a slippery place, where it is easy to slide and hard to get up.—Henry Smith, 1592. III. THE OF DIVINE GRACE. “They shall be as white as snow.” Where sin abounds, grace shall more abound. In God there is mercy to pardon every sin [406] and grace to cleanse from every form and degree of moral pollution. Here, then, we have—1. A reason for repentance. There is no argument so powerful as this: God is ready to forgive. Many a prodigal has been deterred from saying, “I will arise and go to my father,” by a remembrance of his father’s sternness, and by a doubt as to whether his father would receive him. But no such doubt need deter us. We are not called to the exercises of a sorrow that will be unavailing. Our Father waits to be gracious [409] Hear His solemn and touching message (Isaiah 55:6-7; TEXT). 2. An encouragement for those who are striving after moral purity. Many who try to live a Christian life grow discouraged. There are discouragements that come from without: the constant recurrence of temptation, the unfavourable spiritual atmosphere in which they live, the glaring inconsistencies of some of the professing Christians by whom they are surrounded, the low tone of the spiritual life of those whose conduct is not so open to censure. Still sorer discouragements come from within: the faults that will not be shaken off; the evil tendencies that will manifest themselves; the evil thoughts that will keep welling up from the fountain of the heart, revealing its intense depravity. These things are carefully hidden from men, but God knows them, and the believer knows them, and because of them is apt to grow discouraged. It seems to him that he can never be “made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” But God has declared that he shall be: God has undertaken to perfect him in purity. “Be of good courage, all ye that hope in the Lord.” God is able to make all grace abound toward you, and He is faithful to all His promises. See what He has promised in our text. He has already fulfilled this promise in innumerable cases (Revelation 7:9), and He will fulfil it in yours. Be not discouraged because your moral progress is so slow. How long does the sun shine on the fruit seemingly in vain! All the summer the peach remains hard as a stone. But the sun is not shining in vain. Some week in the autumn this is seen. All at once it softens and becomes ripe; not as the result of that one week’s sun, but of all the sunlight and warmth of the preceding weeks. The chestnut opens in a night; but for months the opening process is going on. In a moment many chemicals seem to crystallise, but the process of crystallisation goes on long before it becomes apparent. So there is a ripening, a crystallising, a cleansing process going on in the heart of the believer: though we see it not now, Yet we shall have ample proof of it by and by. In this matter walk by faith, not by sight. Be of good courage! We shall yet be “white as snow.” [406] Man may be willing to forgive a mite, the Lord a million; three hundred pence and ten thousand talents are all one to His mercy.—Adams, 1653. [409] Joy is the highest testimony that can be given to our complacency in any thing or person. Love or joy is a fuel to the fire; if love lay little fuel of desires on the heart, then the flame of joy that comes thence will not be great. Now God’s joy is great in pardoning poor sinners that come in; therefore His affection is great in the offer thereof. It is made the very motive that prevails with God to pardon sinners, “Because He delighteth in mercy,” “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, for He delighteth in mercy.” God doth all this, “because He delighteth in mercy.” Ask why the fisher stands all night with his angle in the river; he will tell you, because he delights in the sport. Well, you know now the reason why God stands so long waiting on sinners, months, years, preaching to them; it is that He may be gracious in pardoning them, and in that act delight Himself. Princes very often pardon traitors to please others more than themselves, or else it would never be done; but God doth it chiefly to delight and gladden His own merciful heart. Hence the business Christ came about (which was no other but to reconcile sinners to God) is called “the pleasure of the Lord” (Isaiah 53:10).—Gurnall, 1617–1679. Many people get a wrong idea of God by thinking of Him as infinite only in justice and power; but infinite applies to the feelings of God as much as to the stretch of His right hand. There is nothing in His nature which is not measureless. Many think God sits brooding in heaven, as storms brood in summer skies, full of bolts and rain, and believe that they must come to Him under the covert of some apology, or beneath some umbrellaed excuse, lest the clouds should break, and the tempest overwhelm them. But when men repent towards God, they go not to storms, but to serene and tranquil skies, and to a Father who waits to receive them with all tenderness and delicacy and love. His eye is not dark with vengeance, nor His heart turbulent with wrath; and to repent towards His justice and vindictiveness must always be from a lower motive than to repent towards His generosity and love. When you wish to please God, treat Him as one who feels sorry for sinners; treat Him as one who longs to help those who need help; go to Him confidingly. No matter how bad you are—the worse the better. Old Martin Luther said, “I bless God for my sins.” He would never have had such a sense of the pardoning mercy of God if he had not himself been sinful. By as much as you are wicked, God is glorious in restoring you to purity. Let Him do for you those things which are the most generous and magnanimous, and that will please Him best. He is a Being whose feelings and affections move on such vast lines of latitude and longitude, that the more you presume upon His goodness, and cast yourself before Him saying, “I need a miracle of grace and mercy,” the better He is pleased. Now I beseech you to kindle up a thought of what your mother would do if you were a sinful, heart-broken, discouraged man, but repentant, saying, “I have trod the thorny way of life, and learned its mischief, can you, mother, help me to begin anew?” What mother would cast away such a son? What father would not receive a son on such terms? And if earthly parents can lift themselves up into feelings of holy sympathy for a repentant child, what must be the feelings of God when His children come to Him for help to break away from sin, and to lead lives of rectitude? Read the 15th chapter of Luke, and find out what God’s feelings are; and then say, “I will arise, and go to my Father.”—Beecher. He is rich in mercy, abundant in goodness and truth. Thy sins are like a spark of fire that falls into the ocean, it is quenched presently; so are all thy sins in the ocean of God’s mercy. There is not more water in the sea than there is mercy in God.—Manton, 1620–1667. Why dost thou not believe in God’s mercy? Is it thy sins discourage? God’s mercy can pardon great sins, nay, because they are great (Psalms 25:11). The sea covers great rocks as well as lesser sands.—Watson, 1696. Like some black rock that heaves itself above the surface of a sunlit sea, and the wave runs dashing over it, and the spray, as it falls down its sides, is all rainbowed and lightened, and there comes beauty into the mighty grimness of the black thing; so a man’s transgressions rear themselves up, and God’s great love comes sweeping itself against them and over them, makes out of the sin an occasion for the flashing more brightly of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned penitent into a life of which even the sin is not pain to remember.—Maclaren. SELF- IN GOD’S Isa_1:18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. The outflow of holy displeasure contained in the earlier portions of this chapter would prepare us to expect an everlasting reprobacy of the rebellious and unfaithful Church, but it is strangely followed by the most yearning and melting entreaty ever addressed by the Most High to the creatures of His footstool. I. The text represents God as saying to the trangressors of His law, “Come, and let us reason together.” The first lesson to be learned, consequently, is the duty of examining our moral character and conduct along with God. When a responsible being has made a wrong use of his powers, nothing is more reasonable than that he should call himself to account for this abuse. Nothing, certainly, is more necessary. There can be no amendment for the future until the past has been cared for. But that this examination may be both thorough and profitable, it must be made in company with the Searcher of hearts. For there are always two beings who are concerned with sin: the being who commits it, and the Being against whom it is committed. Whenever therefore, an examination is made into the nature of moral evil as it exists in the individual heart, both parties concerned should share in the examination. Such a joint examination as this produces a very keen and clear sense of the evil and guilt of sin. Conscience, indeed, makes cowards of us all, but when the eye of God is felt to be upon us, it smites us to the ground. 1. When the soul is shut up along with the Holy One of Israel, there are great searchings of heart. Man is honest and anxious at such a time. His usual thoughtlessness and torpidity upon the subject of religion leave him, and he becomes a serious and deeply-interested creature. 2. Another effect of this “reasoning together” with God respecting our character and conduct is to render our views discriminating. The action of the mind is not only intense, it is also intelligent. The sinner knows that he is wrong, and his Maker is right—that he is wicked, and that God is holy. He perceives these two fundamental facts with a simplicity and a certainty that admit of no debate. The confusion and obscurity of his mind, and particularly the queryings whether these things are so, begin to disappear like a fog when disparted and scattered by sunrise. Objects are seen in their true proportions and meanings; right and wrong, the carnal mind and the spiritual mind, heaven and hell—all the great contraries that pertain to the subject of religion—are distinctly understood, and thus the first step is taken towards a better state of things in the soul [412][412] Man is not straitened upon the side of the Divine mercy. The obstacle in the way of his salvation is in himself; and the particular, fatal obstacle consists in the fact that he does not feel that he needs mercy. God in Christ stands ready to pardon, but man, the sinner, stands up before Him, like the besotted criminal in our courts of law, with no feeling upon the subject. The Judge assures him that He has a boundless grace and clemency to bestow; but the stolid, hardened man is not even aware that he has committed a dreadful crime, and needs grace and clemency. There is food in infinite abundance, but no hunger upon the part of the man. The water of life is flowing by in torrents, but men have no thirst. In this state of things nothing can be done but to pass a sentence of condemnation. God cannot forgive a being who does not even know that he needs to be forgiven. Knowledge, then, self-knowledge, is the great requisite; and the want of it is the cause of perdition. This “reasoning together” with God, respecting our past and present character and conduct, is the first step to be taken by any one who would make preparation for eternity. As soon as we come to a right understanding of our lost and guilty condition, we shall cry, “Be merciful to me, a sinner; create within me a clean heart, O God.” Without such an understanding—such an intelligent perception of our sin and guilt—we never shall, and we never can.—Shedd. II. The second lesson taught in the text is, that there is forgiveness with God. If mercy were not a manifested attribute of God, all self-examination, and especially all this conjoint Divine scrutiny, would be a pure torment and a pure gratuity. We have the amplest assurance in the whole written revelation of God, but nowhere else, that “there is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared.” The text is an exceedingly explicit assertion of this great truth. The very same Being who invites us to reason with Him and canvass the subject of our criminality, in the very same breath, if we may so speak, assures us that He will forgive all that is found in this examination. And upon such terms cannot the criminal well afford to examine into his crime? The Divine pity outruns and exceeds the crime. Paradoxical as it may appear, self-examination, when joined with a distinct recognition of the Divine character, and a conscious sense of God’s scrutiny, is the surest means of producing in a guilty mind a firm conviction that God is merciful, and is the swiftest way of finding Him to be so. Abhorrent as iniquity is to the pure mind of God, it is nevertheless a fact that that sinner who goes directly into this Dread Presence with all his sins upon his head, in order to know them, to be condemned and crushed by them, and to confess them, is the one who soonest returns with peace and hope in his soul. For he discovers that God is as cordial and sincere in His offer to forgive as He is in His threat to punish; and having, to his sorrow, felt the reality and power of the Divine anger, he now, to his joy, feels the equal reality and power of the Divine love. And this is the one great lesson which every man must learn, or perish for ever. From these two lessons of our text we deduce the following practical directions— 1. In all states of religious anxiety we should betake ourselves instantly and directly to God; there is no other refuge for the human soul but God in Christ. Are we sinners, and in fear for the final result of our life? Though it may seem like running into fire, we must, nevertheless, betake ourselves first and immediately to that Being who hates and punishes sin (1 Chronicles 20:1-3). 2. In all our religious anxiety we should make a full and plain statement of everything to God. Even when the story is one of shame and remorse, we find it to be mental relief, patiently, and without any reservation or palliation, to expose the whole, not only to our own eye, but to that of our Judge. For to this very thing have we been invited. This is precisely the “reasoning together” which God proposes to us. God has not offered clemency to a sinful world with the expectation or desire that there be, on the part of those to whom it is offered, such a stinted and meagre confession, such a glozing over and diminution of sin, as to make that clemency appear a very small matter. He well knows the depth and the immensity of the sin which He proposes to pardon, and has made provision accordingly. In the phrase of Luther, it is no painted sinner who is to be forgiven, and it is no painted Saviour who is offered. The transgression is deep and real, and the atonement is deep and real. The crime cannot be exaggerated, neither can the expiation. He, therefore, who makes the plainest and most childlike statement of himself to God, acts most in accordance with the mind and will and gospel of God. If man can only be hearty, full, and unreserved in confession, he will find God to be hearty, full, and unreserved in absolution.—W. G. T. Shedd, D.D., The American Pulpit of the Day, vol. i. pp. 829–842. SINNERS SELF-Isa_1:19. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Delitsch translates—“If ye then shall willingly hear, ye shall eat the good of the land; if ye shall obstinately rebel, ye shall be eaten by the sword: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.” Strachey translates—“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall feed on the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, the sword shall feed on you,” which brings out one of the contrasts of the verse still more clearly. “The promise of eating, i.e., of the full enjoyment of domestic blessings, and therefore of settled, peaceful rest at home, is placed in contrast with the curse of being eaten with the sword.”—Delitsch. Note the close connection between these verses and Isaiah 1:18. God condescends to invite rebels to a conference with Himself, He is willing to grant them the fullest forgiveness; but it is on the condition of future obedience. On this condition He is prepared to do more than forgive them,—He will enrich them with all needful blessings, of which peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of the earth is here named as a symbol; but if they will not listen to His invitation, accept His gracious offer, and yield the obedience He righteously demands, then the vengeance they have deserved will come upon them. They have the matter entirely in their own hands; it rests with them to determine whether their future shall be one of happiness or misery. Thus we are led to the great doctrine of these verses, that sinners are self-destroyed. This is a doctrine frequently insisted on in Scripture (Ezekiel 33:11; 2 Samuel 14:14; Hosea 13:9; 2 Peter 3:9). It is true in a twofold sense. 1. They sin voluntarily. God never foreordained any man to work iniquity [415] Some are indeed surrounded from their birth by evil influences, and on this account, as well as on account of that corrupt nature which we all inherit, they do sinful acts from their infancy, but they do not sin until the dawn of moral consciousness; and after that, every act of iniquity they perpetrate they perpetrate voluntarily. 2. They suffer voluntarily. They do not merely expose themselves to the penalty of sin, they take it upon them voluntarily. God offers to remit it, on condition of their repentance, but they reject the proffered boon; like a suicide who repels the surgeon who would close his bleeding wounds. [415] The argument which the fatalist bases upon organisation is self-annihilating when applied to the common relations of life. The fatalist himself does not believe in his own doctrine; in speculative reasoning he is eager to charge moral crime upon organic defect; yet, in practical magistracy, he arraigns and condemns the criminal to punishment. But how monstrous an outrage is this upon his own creed! The criminal was compelled through stress of organisation to commit the crime, yet the fatalist punishes him for doing what he could not help! Let the principle of the fatalist be admitted, and there is an end to all legislation—an end, indeed, to the social compact itself. All associated life is regulated by a system of restraints; but restraint implies self-control, and self-control is directly opposed to fatalism. Let a criminal plead that he could not help committing a certain crime; and if the judge allow the plea, he will at once treat the criminal as a lunatic, and instruct the officers of justice accordingly. Magistracy proceeds upon the principle that men can “help” committing crime. All human legislation assumes a man’s power of self-regulation, and grounds itself on the grand doctrine of man’s responsibility to man. At this point, upon the same principle in relation to God. Theology says, You hold yourselves responsible to one another on all social matters, you punish the criminal, you ignore the plea of fatalism on all questions of property, order, and security; now go further, heighten your own social base, carry out to their logical issues your own principles and methods, and you will reach all that God requires of man. If it be urged that God gave the criminal his organisation, the objection does not touch the argument. The argument is, that in human consciousness the plea of fatalism is ignored on all practical matters; away beyond all written statutes there is a conviction that man can regulate his actions, and ought to be held responsible for such regulation. Man himself thus, by his own conduct and his own law, acquits God of all charge upon this matter; the very recognition by the magistrate of man’s responsibility is itself a direct acquittal of God from the accusations of fatalism. God need not be interrogated upon the subject, for the magistrate himself, faithful to the consciousness of universal humanity, treats the fatalistic theory as an absurdity.—Joseph Parker. In this fact that sinners thus destroy themselves we have— I. A terrible illustration of the depth of human depravity. Sinners not only hate God so much as to break His laws, but so much as to harden themselves against His love, and to reject His mercy. II. A sufficient vindication of the severities of the Divine justice. 1. No sinner in hell will be able to reproach God for his misery. 2. We who contemplate the awful fact that human souls are suffering in hell have no right to reproach God for their sufferings. These sufferers deliberately turned their backs upon God and heaven, and went of their own accord to perdition. Application.— 1. Before you to-day blessing and cursing, life and death are set: choose ye which ye will. 2. “If ye be willing” God will open to you all the treasures of His grace. But not otherwise! He will compel no man to accept His mercy. 3. Whatever be your choice, God will ratify it. If you choose destruction, you shall have it, and then you will not be able to revoke your choice (Proverbs 1:22-31) [418][418] The argument which the fatalist bases upon organisation is self-annihilating when applied to the common relations of life. The fatalist himself does not believe in his own doctrine; in speculative reasoning he is eager to charge moral crime upon organic defect; yet, in practical magistracy, he arraigns and condemns the criminal to punishment. But how monstrous an outrage is this upon his own creed! The criminal was compelled through stress of organisation to commit the crime, yet the fatalist punishes him for doing what he could not help! Let the principle of the fatalist be admitted, and there is an end to all legislation—an end, indeed, to the social compact itself. All associated life is regulated by a system of restraints; but restraint implies self-control, and self-control is directly opposed to fatalism. Let a criminal plead that he could not help committing a certain crime; and if the judge allow the plea, he will at once treat the criminal as a lunatic, and instruct the officers of justice accordingly. Magistracy proceeds upon the principle that men can “help” committing crime. All human legislation assumes a man’s power of self-regulation, and grounds itself on the grand doctrine of man’s responsibility to man. At this point, upon the same principle in relation to God. Theology says, You hold yourselves responsible to one another on all social matters, you punish the criminal, you ignore the plea of fatalism on all questions of property, order, and security; now go further, heighten your own social base, carry out to their logical issues your own principles and methods, and you will reach all that God requires of man. If it be urged that God gave the criminal his organisation, the objection does not touch the argument. The argument is, that in human consciousness the plea of fatalism is ignored on all practical matters; away beyond all written statutes there is a conviction that man can regulate his actions, and ought to be held responsible for such regulation. Man himself thus, by his own conduct and his own law, acquits God of all charge upon this matter; the very recognition by the magistrate of man’s responsibility is itself a direct acquittal of God from the accusations of fatalism. God need not be interrogated upon the subject, for the magistrate himself, faithful to the consciousness of universal humanity, treats the fatalistic theory as an absurdity.—Joseph Parker. THE OF THE OF THE Isa_1:19. If ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Let a man look steadily at the sun for a few moments, and for a long time afterwards he will see nothing else; whithersoever he turns, he will behold the sun. Some men have looked at God’s wondrous mercy so exclusively, that they can see in Him and His Word nothing but mercy, and they doubt, and teach others to doubt, whether God will fulfil His threatenings against sin. Let such persons consider these three facts.— I. That God’s justice requires that He should execute His threatenings against iniquity. He Himself would commit a frightful injustice, and would be the most active promoter and abettor of evil in the universe, if He were to treat all men alike. His mere delay to take vengeance upon transgressors gives rise to some of the most perplexing of moral problems (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3; Psalms 73:1-9, &c.), and if He were; never to do so, the whole universe would be driven into atheism. This is the tendency even of His merciful delays (Psalms 10:11; Psalms 73:11, &c.) II. That God’s truth requires that He should execute His threatenings against iniquity. “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,” and shall He not fulfil His Word? So settled is the conviction of the human mind that He must do so, that it has been found one of the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. How God can be truthful, and yet pardon the sinner, it has transcended the human mind to conceive. The atonement of Christ is the practical solution of this mystery. III. That the history of His ancient people shows that while in God there is a goodness most marvellous and tender, on account of which we should praise Him evermore, there is also a severity so terrible, that on account of it all the world should stand in awe of Him. Remember what frightful calamities (the sword, famine, pestilence, exile) God sent upon His ancient people in this world; and shall we imagine that He who displayed such a capacity for sternness in this world will be found incapable of it in the world which is to come? Let us dismiss this delusion which is at once utterly groundless and unspeakably dangerous [421][421] If Scripture be certainly true, then the most terrible passages in it are certainly true; nothing is more hardly believed by men than that which will be most tormenting to their minds, when it is believed that none shall be saved but the regenerate and holy; and those that live not after the flesh, but the Spirit, and love God in Christ above all the world, even their own lives; and that, besides these few, all the rest shall be tormented in hell for ever. This is the doctrine that flesh and blood will hardly down with. They say or think they will never believe that God will be so unmerciful; as if God must needs be less merciful than man, because He is more just and holy, and will not be so indulgent to their flesh and sin as they are themselves, and would have Him to be. And I have known even godly men, through the remnant of their corruption and darkness in the things of God, and the violence of temptation, much troubled with their unbelief in this particular. But God cannot lie the Scripture being true, and the Christian religion certainly true, every part of it must needs be true. But because sensual nature looks for sensible demonstration or proof, let me ask the unbelievers this one question—“Do you believe that which you see and feel, and all the world feels as well as you!” You know that all mankind liveth here a life of trouble and misery; we come into the world in a very poor condition, and we pass through it in daily labour and sorrow, and we pass out of it through the dreadful pangs of death. What incessant labour have the most of them, how much want and misery, how much care and grief! Do you not see and feel how sicknesses do torment us? When one pain is over, another is at hand. Have you not seen some, under such terrible fits of the gout, or stone, or other diseases, that they thought no torment could be greater; some with their legs rotting, and must be cut off; some with loathsome cancers and leprosies on them many years together; some that have lost their eyesight, have lost almost all the comfort of life; some that never could see; some that never could hear or speak? I have known some in such pain that they have cried out they did not believe there was greater in hell; some are mad, and some idiots: are not all these in a very miserable case? Now I would ask you further if God may, without any unmercifulness, do all this to men, and that as a chastisement in the way to bring them to repentance; if He may, without unmercifulness, make a David cry out in misery, and wash his couch with his tears; and make a Job to lie scraping his sores on a dunghill; why should you think he cannot, without unmercifulness, torment incurable sinners in hell? Further, I would ask you this question; suppose you had lived in Adam’s paradise, or some condition of pleasure and rest, where you never had tasted of sickness, or labour, or want, or feared death, if God’s Word had there told you, but that man shall endure so much misery as I have here mentioned and men daily suffer, and should die at last for his sin, would you have said, “I will never believe God would be so unmerciful?” You that say so now, would likely have said so then in this case; for feeling the pleasure yourselves, you would on the same ground have said, “God is unmerciful if He should make man so miserable;” and yet you see and feel that God doth it, and we know that He is not unmerciful.—Baxter, 1615–1691. Application.— 1. True reverence for God will lead us to accept with equal implicitness all the disclosures which He has been pleased to give of His character. He will be to us neither a God all mercy nor a God all justice. In Him both these high qualities are found in equal perfection: they are not opponents, but allies. Each is always in absolute harmony with the other. 2. True reverence for God will lead us to tremble in view of His threatenings, as well as to rejoice in view of His promises. 3. It is with the God of the Bible, and not with the God of our own sentimental fancies, that we shall have to deal with at the last. 4. If we take nature as our guide to the interpretation of revelation, we shall find it easier to believe in God’s severity than in His benignity. In nature there are appalling indications of sternness. The world in which we now are is full of suffering [424] 5. It is in mercy that the threatenings of God’s justice are now sent forth [427][424] Suffering comes to us through and from our whole nature. It cannot be winked out of sight. It cannot be thrust into a subordinate place in the picture of human life. It is the chief burden of history. It is the solemn theme of one of the highest departments of literature, the tragic drama. It gives to fictions their deep interest: it wails through much of our poetry. A large part of human vocations are intended to shut up some of its avenues. It has left traces on every human countenance over which years have passed. It is not to a few the most vivid recollection of life.—W. Ellery Channing. [427] God indeed tells us of hell, but it is to persuade us to flee to heaven; and as a skilful painter fills the background of his picture with his darker colours, God introduces the smoke of torment, and the black thunder-clouds of Sinai, to give brighter prominence to Jesus, the Cross of Calvary, and His love to the chief of sinners. His voice of terror is like the scream of the mother-bird when the hawk is in the sky. She alarms her brood, that they may run and hide beneath her feathers; and as I believe that God had left that mother dumb unless He had given her wings to cover them, I am sure that He, who is very “pitiful,” and has no pleasure in any creature’s pain, had never turned our eyes to the horrible gulf unless for the voice that cries, “Deliver from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom.” We had never heard of sin had there been no Saviour. We had never heard of hell had there been no heaven. “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” And never had Bible light flashed before the eyes of the sleeping felon, to wake him from his happy dream, but that he might see the smiling form of Mercy, and hear her as she says, with finger pointing the way, “Behold I have set before thee an open door.”—Guthrie. MORAL Isa_1:21-23. How is the faithful city become an harlot! [430] It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers [433] Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. [430] “The faithful city is become an harlot:”—Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, the wife of the Holy One of Israel, has broken the bond of her covenant with Him, has set at nought the Divine constitution and order in which He originally placed, and has continued to sustain her: and, as the outward consequence and sign of this spiritual defection, has actually fallen to the worship of other gods. Throughout this prophecy Isaiah dwells chiefly on the sins of the princes and rulers of the nation, and only incidentally on those of the people; and accordingly he now dilates on the characteristic vices of the former, which are the fruits of their national unfaithfulness. Social and political morality have vanished along with religious faith; thieves and murderers are found instead of virtuous citizens; the nobles and men in authority are the first to break the laws they should enforce; the administration of justice is so corrupt that the judges take bribes, connive at the robbers whose booty they share, and permit the rich man to pervert the law for the oppression of the fatherless and widow, who have no patrons to demand, and no money to buy, justice: and thus the aristocracy, setting aside all belief that they hold their wealth and power in trust from God for the benefit of the people under them, do but employ these as irresistible engines for breaking down all rights that can oppose them in their pursuit of luxury and vice.—Strachey. [433] Jerusalem was once full of such right; and Righteousness was not merely there in the form of a hastily-passing guest, but had come down from above to take up her permanent abode in Jerusalem: she tarried there day and night, as if it were her home. The prophet had in his mind the times of David and Solomon, and also more especially the time of Jehoshaphat (about one hundred and fifty years before Isaiah’s appearance), who restored the administration of justice, which had fallen into neglect since the closing years of Solomon’s reign and the time of Rehoboam and Abijah, to which Asa’s reformation had not extended, and reorganised it entirely in the spirit of the law. It is possible also that Jehoiada, the high priest in the time of Joash, may have revived the institutions of Jehoshaphat so far as they had fallen into disuse under his three godless successors; but even in the second half of the reign of Joash the administration of justice fell into the same disgraceful state, at least as compared with the times of David, Solomon, and Jehoshaphat, as that in which Isaiah found it. The glaring contrast between the present and the past is indicated by the expression “and now.”—Delitsch. I. Moral declensions may take place in the best of men. “The faithful city—silver—wine—princes,” the very best things depraved. II. There are no limits to the moral declensions that may take place in the best of men. “The faithful city is become an harlot,” &c. We have here an argument— 1. For universal humility (1 Corinthians 10:12; Galatians 6:1). 2. For universal watchfulness (Mark 14:38). 3. For universal prayer (Psalms 19:12-13; Psalms 139:23-24). THE OF THINGSIsa_1:22. Thy silver is become dross. There are many valuable and good things in the world that through varied causes are rendered comparatively useless. They once were silver, but now they are dross. I. The silver of thy character has become dross because of little failings. There have been men known to all of us, of good moral characters, of lofty and heroic soul, but they were betrayed into occasional faults [436] which many condoned, which others magnified, but which they themselves did not correct, until at last their silver became dross. The character depreciated in moral worth. It was no longer current as a thing of beauty. It had lost its value. [436] You need not break the glasses of a telescope, or coat them over with paint, in order to prevent you from seeing through them. Just breathe upon them, and the dew of your breath will shut out all the stars. So it does not require great crimes to hide the light of God’s countenance. Little faults can do it just as well. Take a shield, and cast a spear upon it, and it will leave in it one great dent. Prick it all over with a million little needle shafts, and they will take the polish from it far more than the piercing of the spear. So it is not so much the great sins which take the freshness from our consciences, as the numberless petty faults which we are all the while committing.—Beecher. II. The silver of thy service has become dross because of unholy motives. Christian service is a good and precious thing, but how frequently is it rendered useless and vain by pride, by thoughts of self, and by secular motive [439] It is, indeed, as silver when rendered by a pure and loving heart, but alas! it too often becomes dross because of the unhallowed sentiment of the soul. The mite of the widow cast into the treasury was as silver, but the munificent gifts of the Pharisees were as dross. How much of the service rendered to the great God in the pulpit, pew, and school, is but dross! This is a solemn thought. [439] Our end or motive in acting determines more than anything the quality of our actions. Not that a good end will sanctify a bad action, but a bad end will vitiate every action connected with it. If, for instance, in our religious services we seek the applause of men, we must expect no reward from God; the gratification of our pride and vanity is all the reward that such polluted services can obtain. In the account which is given of Jehu, we find that the very same action which was rewarded on account of its outward conformity with God’s command, was punished on account of the base principle by which he was influenced in performing it. He did well in extirpating the seed of Ahab, and was rewarded for it to the fourth generation: the blood which was shed was imputed to him as murder. Nor is there anything more common than for even religious persons to mistake the path of duty through an inattention to their own spirit. The disciples doubtless thought themselves under the influence of a commendable zeal when they would have called fire from heaven to consume a Samaritan village; as did Peter, also, when he cut off the ear of Malchus. We should therefore be peculiarly cautious with respect to this, lest by the mixture of any selfish motive or base affection we offend Him whom it is our desire and endeavour to please.—Simeon. III. The silver of thy money has become dross because of selfishness. We cannot estimate the wealth of a man by the money he has in possession, but often far better by the money he gives away. When men keep their riches to themselves, solely for their own use, they cease to be rich—they are laden with coin that is not current; their silver has become dross. Liberality makes money worth its value [442] Generosity preserves wealth from all degenerating influences. How many so-called rich men have more dross than silver in this world. [442] If we so love our riches that we would eternally possess them, let us not hoard them up in the earth, where we are sure to leave them, carrying nothing with us but the canker of our coin, which shall bear witness against us at the Day of Judgment; but let us send them before us into heaven, delivering them unto the poor, who are God’s factors and receivers; and so having conveyed and made over our goods, as it were by bills of exchange, we shall find the Lord a sure and all-sufficient paymaster, who will give us more than double usance, and yet pay us at the first sight. If we would have our coin continue sweet and good for a great space, let us know that there are for this purpose no garners comparable to poor men’s stomachs, which will preserve our grain for our use unto life eternal. If we would have our clothes preserved from moths, and to last long, the backs of the naked are our safest wardrobes.—Downame, 1644.IV. The silver of thy talents has become dross because of indolence. Silver is bright when kept in use. Talents are valuable when active. The mind has talents of thought and wisdom. The heart has talents of sympathy and love. The hand has talents of help. The mouth has talents of blessing. Take care that thy silver does not become as dross.—J. S. Exell. THE PURPOSE OF Isa_1:24-27. Therefore thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: and I will turn mine hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterwards thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. The denunciation of the iniquity of Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:21-23) is followed by a solemn announcement of God’s determination to punish it. I. God will certainly punish sin. “Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.” See preceding outline, and that on Isaiah 1:20. II. In punishing sin God is not moved by any vindictive purpose. True, He speaks here of taking vengeance upon His enemies, but these words coming from the lips of Jehovah must not be interpreted as we should have to interpret them if they came from the lips of a Ghengis Khan or a Tippoo Saib. We must remember that this is the utterance of the Mighty One of Israel, who is infinitely uplifted above every unholy passion. Whatever misconstruction this phrase, taken alone, might be open to, is entirely obviated by the declarations which follow it, which teach us—III. That God’s aim even in the severest chastisements is the reformation of the offenders, and their restoration to true blessedness. For what purpose will He turn His hand upon Jerusalem? Not that He may destroy her, but that He may purify her, as silver is purified in the furnace; and through this painful process she is caused to pass, that she may be restored to her former dignity and blessedness. It is for these purposes that God chastises nations and individuals to-day. Application.— 1. Those who are living sinful lives may certainly expect severe judgments. Sin and sorrow are inseparably linked, and God is solemnly pledged not to “clear” the guilty. 2. Those on whom judgments on account of sin have fallen should neither despise them nor be driven by them to despair (Hebrews 12:5). These are two great evils. Indifference to chastisement brings on still severer strokes [454] God will break the stubborn sinners who refuse to bend (Isaiah 1:28) (â). Despair defeats the very object for which our chastisements are sent, and is itself a grievous offence against God. Instead of yielding to despair, we should be filled with hope, for God has loving purposes towards us, and our prayer should be, not that the afflictions should be removed, but that God’s purposes in them should be fulfilled. It is worth while to go into the furnace, if thereby we may be cleansed from the dross by which we are defiled. [454] The physician, when he findeth that the potion which he hath given his patient will not work, he seconds it with one more violent; but if he perceive the disease to be settled, then he puts him into a course of physic, so that medicè miserè (he shall have at present but small comfort of his life). And thus doth the surgeon too: if a gentle plaster will not serve, then he applies that which is more corroding, and, to prevent a gangrene, he makes use of his cauterising knife, and takes off the joint or member that is so ill affected. Even so God, when men profit not by such crosses as He hath formerly exercised them with, when they are not bettered by lighter afflictions, then He sends heavier, and proceeds from milder to sharper courses. If the dross of their sin will not come off, He will throw them into the melting-pot again and again, crush them harder in the press, and lay on such irons as shall enter more deeply into their souls. If He strikes and they grieve not, if they be so foolish that they will not know the judgment of their God, He will bring seven times more plagues upon them—cross upon cross, loss upon loss, trouble upon trouble, one sorrow on the neck of another—till they are, in a manner, wasted and consumed.—Firmicus. This we may rest satisfied of, that whensoever God’s hand is upon us, we must either yield a voluntary, or be forced to a violent, submission. If our stubbornness is such that we will not bend, it is certain that our weakness is also such that we must needs break. If God’s message will not win upon Pharaoh, His plagues shall compel him; and therefore, when He sent Moses to him, He put a rod into his hand, as well as a word into his mouth. When God fully purposes to afflict a man, he is like a bird in a net, the more he strives and flutters, the more he is entangled; for the Supreme Judge of all things is resolved to go through with His great work of judgment, and to make all obstinate, sturdy sinners know, that He has power to constrain where His goodness will not persuade.—South, 1633–1716. THE DIVINE IDEA OF Isa_1:25-26. And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city. We have here the promise of a redemption which God would accomplish for Jerusalem, and from the terms of the promise, especially taken in connection with the preceding statements (Isaiah 1:21-23), we may learn what God’s idea of redemption is: it is to purge away all that debases and to restore all that is lost. In other words, redemption consists in restoration to the Divine ideal. Such was the redemption which God promised to accomplish for Jerusalem: such is the redemption which He offers to accomplish for us. Here we have— I. A correction of a common error. Most men, when they hear of redemption, think of it merely as salvation from suffering, rescue from the peril of hell. This is a consequence of redemption, but redemption consists in the cleansing of our nature from all defilement, and in our restoration to the Divine ideal of humanity (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24; Ephesians 4:13). God is going to do something grander for us than save us from hell. He is going to make us “meet” for heaven (1 John 3:2). It would be truer to say that God’s idea of redemption is “salvation by suffering,” than to say that it is “salvation from suffering.” The figure used in the text is expressive of the keenest suffering—“I will purely purge away thy dross.” But dross is purged away by fire! Suffering is one of the instruments which God most frequently uses to save men from sin. II. A model for preachers. Guided by a Divine inspiration, the prophet does not speak of happiness, but of purity and righteousness; he names these as the great favours which God was about to bestow upon His people. So should preachers to-day strive to make men understand that these are the greatest blessings which God can confer upon man. All other blessings spring from them; as all social blessings are secured to a community when its “judges” are righteous and its “counsellors” fear God. Let preachers do their utmost to make it plain to the men of this generation, that just as if we have the sun we shall have light and heat, so if they have purity, they shall have peace; if they attain to holiness, they shall attain to a nobler and completer happiness than those who long for happiness merely ever dream of. III. An ennobling ideal to be striven after by all men. Happy is the man who has a great purpose in life. And what is the purpose with which a study of our text should inspire us? Not merely to “flee from the wrath to come,” but to become “partakers of the Divine nature,” and so to attain to God’s ideal of humanity. God is striving to restore us to His own likeness: let us do all that in us lies to help on this restoration (Philippians 2:12-13). The “salvation” we are to “work out” is not salvation from guilt (that is Christ’s work, accomplished by Him once for all on the cross), but from the indwelling corruption which is to us what dross is to the precious metals. Nor are we merely to seek to put away that which is evil [457] we are to strive to set up in us all noblenesses which are to character what “judges” and “counsellors” are to a city (2 Peter 1:5-7; Philippians 4:8). Blessed is the man who has this ideal in life. [457] Christianity ends not in negatives. No man clears his garden of weeds but in order to the planting of flowers or useful herbs in their room. God calls upon us to dispossess our corruptions, but it is for the reception of new inhabitants. A room may be clean, and yet empty; but it is not enough that our hearts be swept, unless they be also garnished, or that we lay aside our pride, our luxury, our covetousness, unless humility, temperance, and liberality rise up and thrive in their places. The design of religion would be very poor and short should it look no further than only to keep men from being swine, goals, and tigers, without improving the principles of humanity into positive and higher perfections. The soul may be cleansed from all blots, and yet still be left but a blank. But Christianity is of a thriving and aspiring nature, and requires us to proceed from grace to grace (2 Peter 1:5-7), ascending by degrees, till at length the top of the ladder reaches heaven, and conveys the soul so qualified into the mansions of glory.—South, 1633–1716. I. He is saved from fear, the haunting dread of failure which oppresses those whose supreme desire is merely to be saved from hell. II. He has a sustaining hope, based upon the sure promises of God’s Word (1 Peter 1:10-11). III. He has a present and growing joy, such as can come only from self-conquest and moral progress. The joy of “the just,” that is, of the men whose steadfast aim is righteousness, is like “the path of the just” (Proverbs 4:18). SOCIAL Isa_1:26. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city. We have in the contest a picture of a dismantled city, a disorganised community; and here God tells us that He will undertake the work of its reconstruction. I. All the arrangements of society are absolutely in God’s hands. “I will restore,” &c. No man can overturn, or build up, but by His permission. On Him all projects of national, social, or ecclesiastical reconstruction depend for their success. That on which He smiles flourishes; that on which He frowns withers away. Let reformers and reconstructors of society remember and recognise this great fact, that God rules on earth as in heaven. II. All interruptions of social order are under the control of God. Revolutions occur not by chance, not by the will of man, but by the will of God. They occur only when, and continue only as long as He pleases. By Him judges and counsellors are swept away, and by Him they are restored. No nation is so broken that it cannot be uplifted by Him to power and glory, “as at the first.” III. No social state can be purified but by religious processes. There are many philanthropic and political projects which have for their aim national regeneration, but they are all foredoomed to come to nought, because they lack the religious element. Moral reformation must go before social advancement: a return to righteousness is the first step to national exaltation [460] [460] Think not that any change in the form of government would cure that which is caused by the people’s sin, or the common depravity of human nature. Some think they can contrive such forms of government as that the rulers shall be able to do no hurt; but either they will disable them to do good, or else their engine is but glass, and will fail or break when it comes to execution. Men that are themselves so bad and unhumbled as not to know how bad they are, and how bad mankind is, are still laying the blame upon the form of government when anything is amiss, and think by a change to find a cure. As if when an army is infected with the plague, or composed of cowards, the change of the general or form of government would prove a cure. But if a monarch be faulty, in an aristocracy you will have but many faulty governors for one, and in a democracy a multitude of tyrants.—Baxter, 1615–1691. IV. The great name will follow the true regeneration. “Afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Not first the exalted title, but the illustrative character; not first the splendid renown but the glorious achievement!—Joseph Parker, D.D. THE TWOFOLD EFFECT OF DIVINE Isa_1:27-28. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness: and the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. These verses are closely and vitally connected: it is a mistake to separate them, as in the Authorised Version. Their meaning would be conveyed to the English reader, if they were translated—“Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness; and thereby also the transgressors and sinners shall be destroyed, yea they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed” [463] By judgment is meant the doom which in the preceding verses had been threatened against guilty Jerusalem (e.g., Isaiah 1:18): this “judgment” would be a manifestation of God’s punitive righteousness, and the declaration is that the infliction of this “judgment” would have a twofold effect—it would redeem Zion and her converts, and it would destroy the transgressors and sinners. [463] The word “together” does not mean that the transgressor shall be destroyed together with the sinner; but that the destruction of this one class, called both transgressors and sinners, shall come in close connection, “together with,” the salvation of the penitent who are brought back to God by correction, as is said in the previous verses. The same sort of infliction that reclaimed the “converts” (Isaiah 1:27), bardened and sealed over to ruin those who would still “forsake the Lord.”—Cowles. The diverse effects of Divine judgments is a matter well worthy of our study. I. One effect of those judgments by which God manifests His righteous indignation against sin is to redeem His people from their transgressions. A prolonged period of peace and prosperity such as the Jews enjoyed under Uzziah is always perilous to the vital religion of a nation. Formalism is apt to prevail. The lines of demarcation between the Church and the world are apt to be effaced; “Zion” is apt to become merged in “Jerusalem.” In love to His people, God is therefore compelled to send upon their nation great calamities. These lead to searchings of heart, and reformations of conduct and character. Men learn again to wait upon God, and reverently to regard His will (Isaiah 26:9). The Church shines once more with the glory of spiritual conformity to God, and the result is that she is increased by converts from the world: to these also the season of judgment is also the season of redemption. But, II. Another effect of God’s judgments is to harden the obdurate. His chastisements lead some men to further acts of rebellion against Him (Isaiah 1:5). Like Pharaoh, they harden themselves more and more as God sends plague after plague upon them (Exodus 8:19; Exodus 8:32, &c.) Hence seasons of public calamity (such as that of the plague in London, &c.) have always been seasons of public crime. Transgressors madly dare Omnipotence to a trial of strength, and the result is their utter destruction. Our subject as thus unfolded gives rise to the following practical reflections— 1. In a season of national or individual prosperity we should be especially watchful and prayerful against conformity to the world [466] 2. We should not regard judgments that come upon our nation or ourselves merely as calamities: they may be God’s angels sent in truest mercy, and they bring with them to the people of God great moral and spiritual compensations. 3. Judgments, when they come upon us, afford us an admirable test of our real character: if we be indeed the people of God, they will lead us to submission and to more earnest strivings after holiness; but if they awaken within us a spirit of murmuring, of repining, of resentment against God, we have good cause to suspect that our religion has never been the work of God in our hearts [469] 4. In the season of judgment we really have only one alternative before us—to turn or burn. No stoutness of heart will enable us to resist God’s consuming wrath against iniquity (Malachi 4:1). [466] How often does worldly prosperity tend to this lapsing of the soul from God! How often do our very outward mercies and blessings superinduce this spiritual languor and decay! It is with believers individually as with the Church collectively—they are never in a condition less favourable to spiritual health and advancement than when they have no trial or cross to brace their energies and invigorate their graces. The soldier gets supine after battle. History tells us how the bravest veterans of the great Carthaginian general got demoralised and degenerate when, victory over, they sat down to rejoicing and revelry, before the gates of Capua; they never were the same heroes again.—Macduff. [469] As it is easy to know a piece of gold from a piece of brass when they come both to the anvil and be stricken with the hammer, for brass will not be handled, but when it cometh to the beating breaketh and maketh a sharp din and irksome, but gold soundeth sweetly, and is pliable; so when the hypocrite cometh between the anvil and the hammer of affliction, he breaketh with impatience, and lamenteth in blasphemies against God; whereas a faithful Christian praiseth God, and layeth out his heart, submitting himself willingly under the Lord’s hand that striketh him.—Cawdray, 1598–1684. THE LORDIsa_1:28. They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. I. The guilt of forsaking the service of the Lord. 1. Man is bound by the law of his nature to obey that Almighty Being by whom he was made an intelligent and immortal creature. Every discovery which reason opens to him of the transcendant perfections of the Lord of the universe urges the duty of offering to this great and glorious Being the homage of his heart and life. Every day’s preservation increases his obligation to serve his gracious Preserver. 2. Many in forsaking the Lord violate their own express and solemn engagements (Hebrews 10:29). II. The folly of forsaking, &c. If we do so, we shall (1) incur the reproaches of our own mind; (2) forfeit the esteem and confidence of all good men; (3) forfeit the favour and incur the wrath of God. And for what are all those tremendous sacrifices made? For “the pleasures of sin,” which are but “for a season”! III. The danger of forsaking, &c.—“shall be consumed.” The threatened doom is (1) awful; (2) certain.—J. H. Hobart, D.D., Posthumous Works, ii 220–229. THE DOOM OF THE Isa_1:28-31. They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they [472] shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye [475] have denied, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. [472] In Isaiah 1:29 is an instance of what seemed to Lowth’s classical taste a corrupt reading—“They shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired.” But this variation of the persons of the verb is not unusual in Hebrew, and certainly no corruption. Indeed, if we look at Psalms 91, which is very artistically constructed, we shall see reason to think that what jars so harshly on a classically trained ear was a beauty to the Hebrew poets.—Strachey. [475] “Which ye have desired.” He was speaking of “the sinners,” he suddenly turns round to the men of his own generation, and says, “You are the men who are thus storing up shame and confusion.”—Kay. In modern days, when men “forsake the Lord,” they become simply irreligious—practical atheists; but in ancient times such men became idolaters, they became worshippers of idols set up under the “oaks” planted on the hilltops, or in gardens [478] It is almost impossible for us to understand the fascination of idol-worship, but it was very powerful, and the idols were made objects of passionate trust. They were regarded as the strength of those who served them. Trusting in their protection their votaries went forth confidently to battle. Defeat did not dispel this delusion; it was interpreted to mean merely that the god of the victors was mightier than the god of the vanquished. To men glorying in their false deities, and confiding in their protection, the prophet predicts utter destruction. You shall be consumed, he says; the day is at hand when ye shall be caused to blush for your gods; you yourselves shall be withered oaks, and gardens without water; yea, your idols, and ye who have made them, for they are but things, the work of your hands, shall be burned together in unquenchable fire [481] The theme of these verses is therefore the doom of the apostates, and of the objects of their trust. [478] In the judgments and the restoration which the prophet foretells, he declares that the people shall learn the worthlessness of the idols which they have been worshipping under the oak-trees, and in the sacred groves and gardens. The worship of the high places was partly a local worship of Jehovah, which only became irregular and blameable in later times; but there was also a widespread worship of Baal, Astarte, and Moloch, the old gods of the Canaanites and other nations, in sacred groves and gardens, as well as on the hill-tops—a worship of impersonated and deified sensuality and cruelty—which sometimes even established itself within the precincts of the temple itself, and was still more readily blended with, or substituted for, the worship of Jehovah in the high places. And this idolatrous worship was going on in Judæa during the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, at the same time with the temple services, as appears from 2 Kings 15:3-4, compared with 2 Chronicles 27:2. In the day of judgment and restoration, says the prophet, these men who have been flourishing in their sin like their oaks, and living in pleasures like those of their well-watered gardens, shall find that the idols to which these oaks and gardens are dedicated have no power to save them from a destruction which shall make them “as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water,” images which will be the more forcible if we remember that in a southern climate trees fade rather from excessive heat than from seasonable cold, and a garden without water is a mere desert of sand. Then shall the strong, the mighty, and the unjust ruler become tow, and his idols, the work of his hands, a spark; they shall both burn together, and no man shall quench them.—Strachey. [481] The interpretation of Isa 1:31 on which the above outline is based is that of Calvin and the earlier Protestant commentators. That which in modern days has been almost universally adopted, is given in the preceding extract from Strachey, and the homiletic use to which it may be put is indicated in the next outline: “The tow and the spark.” We are persuaded, however, that the earlier interpretation is that which is most in harmony with the scope of the whole passage. All the ancient versions treat äָ ?ñå as an abstract, meaning strength, and Dr. Alexander admits that “this agrees well with its form, resembling that of an infinitive or verbal noun.” Latterly it has become the fashion to translate it “strong man,” but the harmony of the whole passage is best maintained by rendering it “their strength,” that is, that which the idolaters have regarded as their “strength,” the deity in whose protection they have trusted. I. Idolatry is still the sin of our race. It is not confined to “heathen” lands. There is need in this land for a proclamation of the first commandment. For what is idolatry in its essence? It is loving and trusting some being or thing more than God. Every man’s God is what he lives for. Hence the declaration that “covetousness is idolatry; it is one form of the widespread sin. II. The confidence of men in their idols is still limitless and exultant. Every idolater is persuaded that that which he lives for is worth living for; this is the conviction of the miser, the ambitious man, &c. III. The time is at hand when the falsity of this confidence shall be exposed. There are coming upon those who cherish it calamities amid which they will seek in vain for comfort from their “idols.” How often this is verified in daily life! In the withered, desolate condition of those who have forsaken the Lord how awfully is their folly demonstrated! IV. Yea, there is a day appointing in which all idolaters and their idols shall be consumed together. In the day of judgment the worshippers of Dagon, of Astarte, of Baal, and of Brahm will not be the only persons on whom utter destruction shall come: those who have made gold their confidence, &c., shall be burned up, together with their “gods.” The objects of their trust shall be as powerless as is “tow” to resist flame, and they themselves shall be but as “sparks,” swept away by the blast of the Divine indignation. Application.— 1. The day of judgment is a great reality; it is no mere dream of theologians, it is A FACT with which we shall soon be brought face to face. 2. This fact should govern us in selecting the object of our supreme love and trust. 3. It should prevent us from envying those who have forsaken the Lord, because of the temporary prosperity in which they are rejoicing [484] 4. It should make us earnest in our endeavours to reclaim them from their apostasy while the day of Divine long-suffering and mercy still continues. [484] O sirs! do wicked men purchase their present pleasures at so dear a rate as eternal torments, and do we envy their enjoyment of them so short a time? Would any envy a man going to execution because he saw him in a prison nobly feasted, and nobly attended, and bravely courted? or because he saw him go up the ladder with a gold chain about his neck, and a scarlet gown upon his back? or because he saw him walk to execution through pleasant fields or delightsome gardens? or because there went before him drums beating, colours flying, and trumpets sounding? &c. Surely no! Oh, no more should we envy the grandeur of the men of the world, for every step they take is but a step to an eternal execution.—Brooks, 1628–1680. What reason have we to envy the wicked in their riches and prosperity? If a man be standing firmly on a river’s bank, and sees another gliding gaily but inevitably down to a tremendous precipice below, shall he be envious of the pleasant sail that intervenes before the dread catastrophe? Shall he stand and envy him, and wish to exchange places with him? Oh no, but let him rather cry aloud, and warn him of his danger. Let him hasten to the rescue; throw out his arms with right good-will, and if it may be, save a soul from death.—Nason. THE TOW AND THE SPARKIsa_1:31. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. For the phrases “and the maker of it,” the margin reads, “and his work.” So Alexander and Henderson. This reading renders the passage intelligible in meaning and terrible in import. It then in simple, vivid manner sets forth the reciprocal influence of the sinner and his sin. The man in committing sin degrades and enfeebles himself, and then the sin he has committed reacts upon his degraded and enfeebled nature to kindle in it the fire of its corruption. It is worth observing that these terrible words of warning are not levelled (1) against low and vile people. The term “strong” precludes that opinion. They are spoken against those who have been, or are still, esteemed, exalted, and powerful,—presumably against the princes, the judges, the counsellors of the nation (Isaiah 1:23-26). Nor are they spoken (2) against the avowedly irreligious. The people addressed performed a multitude of sacrifices (Isaiah 1:11), were punctilious in their attendance on the house of God, &c. (Isaiah 1:12-14), were full of apparent devotion (Isaiah 1:15). Nor (3) do they refer to the grosser forms of sin. These would of course come under the same condemnation. But spiritual sins, though more refined to our perception, are more fatal even than sensual sins. It is pre-eminently a spiritual sin in root, however sensual in fruit, that is here arrived at. It is all summed up in the one evil, “forsaking the Lord” (Isaiah 1:28). It is important to bear these considerations in mind if we would obtain personal and profitable application of these words. Consider— I. The radical change sin works in the constitution of the sinner. Sin is lawlessness, an outbreak of self-will (1 John 3:4). It is conscious wrongdoing (James 4:17). And sin, the prophet says in effect, has a disintegrating, deteriorating, degrading influence upon the man’s nature who yields to it. “The strong shall be as tow.” Tow is the coarse, broken part of flax or hemp—waste, refuse. Used here in contrast to that which is strong. Used also as pattern of what is inflammable. 1. Sin lowers the tone and tenor of our nature. Man’s nature is originally a very high nature. “A little lower than the angels” (Psalms 8:5); a little lower than Divinity (see Alexander and Thrupp in loc.) Originally a king with all highest forms of existence grouped around his throne (Psalms 8:6-8). He falls by sin. How low? To level of beasts that perish? (Psalms 49:20). Lower than that (Isaiah 1:3). To level of trees and shrubs? Lower than that. See, that heap of coarse and tangled refuse was a plant once, a living thing. Now it is cut down, dried, dead; choicest parts gone, wasted! “Tow”—that is the symbol of the sinful man. The height from which he has fallen measures the degradation incurred. To that which is by nature “tow,” it is no degradation to be as “tow.” But for that which is “strong” to become as “tow”—for the highest of God’s creations to become as the lowest—this is disgraceful, dreadful. 2. Sin, depraving and degrading the type and tenor of our nature, enfeebles our powers of resistance to the assaults of external evil. Sin is weakness as well as wickedness; weakness as the result of wickedness. The “strong” becomes as “tow,” becomes weak. Hard to tell which is the worse to bear, the paroxysms of remorse, or the paralysis of power which the habit of sin engenders [487] To feel that when some “temptation comes and calmly states itself before us” we are helplessly a prey to it, is terrible indeed. The first sin of any kind greatly facilitates a second commission of the same [490] and every repetition increases that facility till the ease of doing it almost amounts to a practical inability to abstain from doing it [493] Sin gets dominion over us. Men are “sold under sin.” 3. Sin imparts to us an increased susceptibility to evil—makes us more inflammable. And Satan’s “fiery darts” striking, inflame us [496] Some counsellors advise young people to indulge in a certain measure of sin as a remedy for its enkindling impulses; they call it “sowing their wild oats.” A figure is sometimes the best vail for a fact. One would think that “sowing” would of itself suggest reproduction and multiplied reproduction (Galatians 6:7-8). If you wish your nature to become hopelessly inflammable, utterly uncontrollable, give way to the indulgence of its hot impulses while you are young. [487] One of the affecting features in a life of vice is the longing, wistful outlooks given, by the wretches who struggle with unbridled passions towards virtues which are no longer within their reach. Men in the tide of vice are sometimes like the poor creatures swept down the stream of mighty rivers, who see people safe on shore, and trees and flowers, as they go quickly past, and all things that are desirable gleam upon them a moment to heighten their trouble, and to aggravate their swift-coming destruction.—Beecher. [490] A brand that has been once in the fire easily catches the second time.—Flavel, 1630–1696. [493] Sin is like the descent of a hill, where every step we take increases the difficulty of our return. Sin, in its habits, becomes stronger every day—the heart grows harder, the conscience grows duller, the distance between God and the soul grows greater, and like a rock hurled from a mountain’s top, the further we descend we go down, and down, and down, with greater and greater rapidity.—Guthrie. [496] It is in our own bosom that the power of temptation is found. Temptation is but a spark; and if a spark fall upon ice, if it fall upon snow, if it fall upon water, what is the harm of a spark? But if it fall upon powder—the powder is yours, the spark only is the devil’s.—Beecher. The power of temptation is in proportion to the nature of the soul tempted. A thoughtless miner takes an uncovered light into the mine: where there is but little gas, there is but a wavering and flickering of a transient flame,—hardly flame, indeed; but where there is an accumulation of gas, the uncovered light occasions an explosion which shivers the rocks and brings swift destruction upon all who are in the mine. In both cases it was the same mine, the same miner, but the condition of the air was different. So is it with the fiery darts of the wicked one; they are shot into all human hearts, and just in proportion to the materials, so to speak, which are to be found there, will be the success or failure of the enemy.—Dr Parker. Every commission of sin imprints upon the soul further disposition and proneness to sin; as the second, third, and fourth degrees of heat are more easily introduced than the first. Every one is both a preparative and a step to the next. Drinking both quenches the present thirst and provokes it for the future. When the soul is beaten from its first station, and the mounds and earthworks of virtue are once broken down, it becomes quite another thing from what it was before. In one single eating of the forbidden fruit, when the act is gone, yet the relish remains; and the remembrance of the first is an easy allurement to the second. One visit is enough to begin an acquaintance; and this point is gained by it, that when the visitant comes again, he is no more a stranger.—South, 1633–1716. II. The way in which the sinner and his sin co-operate for their common destruction. We all know the influence of coming into contact with the instruments, the companions, the locality even, of a former sin. They stir up in us the memories, the emotions, the impulse to the same transgression. So the sinner goes about the world setting new snares for his feet at every turn as he sins. The relation of sin to the sinner and to his sinful deed is like that of a lamp placed between two mirrors, which reflect and re-reflect the light, till both the mirrors seem full of lamps. Sin is ever multiplying itself between the sinner and his sinful deed. And the issue is irremediable ruin. “They shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.” And the moral is, that if we would keep out of hell, we must keep out of sin.—W. Roberts, B.A. ISAIAH’S VISION OF THE LAST DAYSIsa_2:1-5. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw, &c.1. The marvellous power of the ancient prophets in giving embodiment and figure to the Word of God. It was a “word” that Isaiah saw; not that he heard, but that shaped itself before his vision, and made him glad, as if a new star had arisen to guide him. 2. Isaiah speaks with magnificent confidence as to the summing up of earthly dispensations. Casting his eye overall the uproar and tumults of intervening time, he sees a heavenly repose settling on the engagements and destinies of mankind. Herein is the peculiar power of the old prophets, viz., that they did not confine their attention within a brief and inadequate period, but projected their minds over historic spaces within which, so to speak, God had room to disclose somewhat of the proportions and significance of His plans. The whole year can never be judged from any one season. The prophets seemed to see things in their wholeness, and this made them calm in the midst of transitory confusion and distress. 3. The house of the Lord is to be exalted above all rivalry. The strength of the hills is to be a pedestal for the sanctuary. At the last right shall be uppermost, and holiness supreme. In the “last days” the house of the Lord shall exert a universal fascination; nation shall challenge nation to go up in holy and triumphant procession to the heights of Zion; and the voice of other allurements shall be lost in the infinite charm of the invitation. 4. Nor is this to be the indulgence of a mere sentiment; it will be the expression of a desire to be spiritually right, and thus to be spiritually secure: “He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” Lawless sentiment is to have no place in spiritual discipline. We are not called to a high revel, but to a pure and tender obedience to an unchangeable law. 5. The house of the Lord is to be a centre of judgment and rebuke towards people who are living in impiety and political corruption. The consequence of this judgment, if properly received, will be the establishment and perpetuation of righteous peace. When the nations are right with God, they will be right with each other. Merely negative peace may be disturbed, but the peace which comes by righteousness will be its own guarantee of completeness and continuity. 6. All these blissful anticipations should constrain towards present obedience, and be fruitful of present joy. So the prophet thought when he exclaimed, O house of Jacob, come ye, &c. Those who have great prospects should even now show themselves to be the heirs of glory. Christian joy is not all future. Even now, though we have to complain of so much of cloud and storm, there is a light that is distinctively divine, and under its benign rays we ought to walk until the fuller glory is revealed.—Joseph Parker, D.D. THE LATTER-DAY GLORYIsa_2:2-5. And it shall come to pass in the last days, &c.Theme: The Glory of the Latter Days. “The last days,” when men shall no longer need to offer the prayer, “Thy kingdom come.” The glory of the latter days will consist— I. In the exaltation of the Lord’s house above all other institutions (Isaiah 2:2). Now the Exchange, the Senate, the University, &c., are the great “mountains” of society; then the sanctuary will be supreme. In other words, religion will be the ruling force in society, dominating and directing all the others. This is the truth set forth by the figure of the upraising of Mount Zion above all the other mountains, “so as to be visible in all directions.” II. In universal submission to the authority of God (Isaiah 2:3). Not by the Jews only (as in Isaiah’s time), but by “all nations” [499] and not (as now) by some individuals merely, but by “all nations,” will this authority be recognised and obeyed. Sin will be the exception, righteousness the rule. And so, as a consequence of this— [499] What words are these! What ideas! What radiances of glory and hope for the long-afflicted Church! Nations abolishing war and crimes, to cultivate righteousness and peace! nations emerging from ignorance and idolatry, to join themselves to the Church, and to walk in the light of the Lord! How marvellous that words like these should proceed from the Hebrew prophets! that men of the most confined education with regard to the Gentiles should thus lose the glory of Israel in the overflowing glory of the converted world! Can we ask for clearer proof that those holy men were purely the organs of the Holy Ghost, and transported in the spirit to publish the righteousness of God to every nation and language of the earth?—Sutcliffe. I would urge the thoughtful consideration of these verses (2–9) on any one who is perplexed by the confident assertion of writers who prefer vague declamation to close investigation and reasoning, that the Hebrew prophets were actuated by a bitter hatred of foreigners. He will, I think, discover (from this and such like study) that they were possessed by views and hopes of a philanthropy which even our own times have not been able to extend: they longed for fellowship with all men, under the only conditions in which fellowship is possible; they desired an universal communion of virtue, humanity, and goodness, and could not be content to have a general licenses of vice, brutality, and wickedness instead; and they advocated what they saw, and what all history has proved, to be the only way of avoiding the one and securing the other.—Strachey. III. In universal peace among men (Isaiah 2:4) [502] All contentions necessarily cease when men know and do the will of God. James 3:14 to James 4:1. Love towards man always results from genuine love towards God. [502] This verse shows that there will come a time when men shall have found out that they are men and not brutes, and when they shall settle matters, not by the force of their animal powers, but by the force of superior intelligence.—James Wells. A contemplation of their glorious future is calculated— 1. To sustain us amid the sins and sorrows of our time. When we look at the condition of the world as it is, we are tempted to despair. But there is a better day to come. In the widening diffusion of Christian truth, and in the growing power of Christian principle, even now we may see at least streaks of light which tell that the dawn is near. 2. To animate us in our efforts to regenerate society. These efforts are not in vain, though they sometimes seem so. We are working in the line of victory (1 Corinthians 15:58). 3. The blessings of the future we can make our own now. “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord,” that is, “in His paths” (Isaiah 2:3). We can make religion the supreme force of our life, and can act with a constant recognition of God’s authority; and doing this, we shall have peace—with God, with ourselves, and in our homes. (Isaiah 32:17-18). THE FUTURE OF THE GOSPELIsa_2:2. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it. This poetic imagery delineates the final and universal prevalence of religion. Christianity is a temple majestic and conspicuous, and all nations crowd its courts in united adoration. There are many interesting indications that this prophecy is soon to be fulfilled, such as— I. The political aspect of the globe. The vast political changes that have taken place during the last four centuries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America have all been favourable to the extension of Christianity. The area of Christian knowledge and influence has been steadily extending [505] [505] All the might of the world is now on the side of Christianity. Those barbarous, inchoate powers which still cling to heathenism are already trembling before the advancing strides of the Christian nations; Christian just enough to rouse all their energies and to make them intensely ambitious, and on the alert to increase their own dominion, without having learned Christianity’s highest lesson, the lesson of love. Even that heathenism which seems to have some power is only waiting for its time of decay. In vast, undisturbed forests, whose interlacing branches exclude the light, moisture is generated, and rills, fed by marshes and quiet pools, unite to form running rivers. But let the trees be cut down, and the ground be laid open to the sun, and the swamps will dry up, and the rivers run no more. So is it with the Brahmins, and all the effete teachers of heathenism. As long as the dense shadows of ignorance brood over the people, they will possess some little trickling power; but let the light of knowledge shine in upon the masses, and the channels of their influence will dry up and be forgotten.—Beecher. II. The progress of civilisation and of the arts. A few years ago is required the painful labour of years to copy a Bible, and the wealth of a prince to purchase one: now the art of printing scatters the Word of God like autumn leaves, and it is found in the humblest dwelling. Then none could read but the learned few; now knowledge is becoming like the sunlight, everywhere diffused. War has long been one of the greatest obstacles in the way of human improvement; now various causes are operating to render it less frequent, such as (1) the rapid extension of piety, carrying with it the principles of peace; (2) the extension of enlightened views of national policy; (3) the transference of power from kings and nobles to the people, the victims of war, who will become its powerful opponents; (4) the invention of terrible engines of destruction, which will tend to deter nations from plunging into war. Slavery, too, is rapidly disappearing from the earth. The wonderful facilities of intercommunication which now exist are weakening and effacing national prejudices. All these causes are hastening on the promised millennium. III. The present state of the sciences. This statement seems to be contradicted by the attitude of many students of science towards Christianity. But we must remember that all the sciences in their infancy have been arrayed as hostile to scriptural truth—astronomy, geology, physiology, chronology; but one by one each of these sciences, as it developed and attained maturity, has passed over to the side of Christianity, and has powerfully helped to build up what it feebly and impotently laboured to destroy. That which hath been is that which shall be. In science the cause of revealed truth will continue to find one of her most ready and efficient helpers. IV. The past achievements of Christianity foreshadow its eventful and perfect triumph. The hostility of earth has marshalled every possible power, in every possible combination, against Christianity—the persecution of political power, the arguments of philosophy, satire, learning, poetry, wealth—and all in vain. The past triumphs of the religion of Christ show that it possesses an inherent energy which must inevitably make it triumphant over the world. The mighty influence which swept away the gods of Greece and Rome will not be baffled by the mud-idols of India. V. The triumphant advances Christianity is now making indicate its universal extension. Application.—What are you doing to hasten this certain and glorious triumph?—J. S. C. Abbott, American National Preacher, xvii. 169–176. THE OF WARIsa_2:4. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any moreA prediction of times yet to come. It has never yet been fulfilled. It is true that when the religion of Christ came to the world it came with the spirit and principles of an all-pacific dispensation (“On earth peace, good-will towards men”); and true that, in the degree of its actual prevalence, this has been the effect. But how far is this from anything adequate to the terms of the prediction, which exhibit a bright and ample idea of this spirit and tendency of Christianity realised, reduced to fact, on the great scale! I. War has been a prominent character of all ages.1. Man, when he came fresh from his Creator’s hands, must have had in his soul the principle of all kind affections (Genesis 1:27), a state of feeling that would have been struck with horror at the thought of inflicting suffering. Yet in the first family of man war and slaughter began. Men may argue and quibble against our notion of “the fall,” but here was fall enough! and demonstration enough! 2. War prevailed among the antediluvians (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 6:12). We are told of some that “became mighty men, men of renown.” How? Partly perhaps in a war against savage beasts, but far more in the exploits of that “violence” which filled the earth, and doomed it to be overwhelmed. 3. War prevailed among the race descended from Noah. It was by the descendants of the only faithful friend and servant of the Almighty found on earth that the desolated world was to be repeopled, and we might have hoped for a better race, if human nature were intrinsically good, or corrigible by the most awful dispensations. But the Flood could not cleanse the nature of man, nor the awful memory of it repress the coming forth of selfishness, pride, ambition, anger, and revenge. (1.) The history of the Jews is to a large extent a history of wars. (2.) The history of the other races is a history of their conflicts with each other, of a terrible process by which the smaller states were absorbed in others, until they were all included in the Roman empire. How many millions of human beings were destroyed in the process! (3.) Since that period the history of the world has been to a large extent written in blood, [1279][1279] What a vision of destruction! Think of all that tormented and desolated the earth during the long period of the fall of the Roman Empire,—of that inundation of ravage and death, the progress and utmost extension of the Mahomedan power; of the mighty account of slaughter in the Spanish conquest of America; of the almost incessant wars among the states of civilised Europe down nearly to the present hour. Think even of the bloody wars within our own island, especially on the border between its northern and southern divisions; the hundreds of remaining fortresses, monumental of war. And to complete the account—as if the whole solid earth were not wide enough—the sea has been coloured with blood, and received into its dark gulf myriads of the slain, as if it could not destroy enough by its tempests and wrecks!—Foster. Reflections:— 1. What a state of the spirit of mankind is here disclosed to us! 2. What a state of Christianity, or to any real prevalence of it, among the nations denominated Christian! 3. How necessary that all religioirs persons, especially tutors and parents, should set themselves systematically, as opportunities offer, to counterwork that maddening enchantment of the “glory” of war; of war considered merely as the field of great exploits. Let them strive to break up, in the view of young and ardent minds, this splendid, pestilent delusion about heroes, conquests, fame, and glory. II. War is not necessarily sinful, nor are those engaged in it to be always condemned. Defensive war does not violate Christian principles. Nay, it is sometimes a duty. [1282] An opposite opinion is held by some who rest on the literal and extreme construction of a few expressions, such as “Resist not evil,” “Give place to wrath,” “Love your enemies,” “To him that smiteth thee on one cheek, turn also the other.” These interdict revenge. But their unqualified literal interpretation requires that Christianity should subject mankind universally to the unrestrained will of whoever is the most unjust and wicked; should teach that so long as there are men who have more of Satan and Moloch in them than the rest, and are intent on practising oppression and cruelty, it is the absolute duty of Christians, as such, individually and nationally, to let them do it,—at least rather than resist them in such a way as to endanger their persons. This would be a delightful doctrine to all the tyrants, bigots, slave—drivers, robbers, and murderers! But the magistrate is not so to leave the matter to God’s disposal, or to refrain from using the “sword” against the doers of evil. And the government of a nation is but a magistracy on a large scale. [1282] About four or five years since, our Government had a war with the Pindarees—a terrible assemblage of outlaws, robbers, and murderers, to the number of fifty thousand, occupying a strong and almost inaccessible tract on the northern frontier. Thence with impetuous rapidity, they rushed down, all horsemen, on the country, inhabited by a population of cultivators; seized whatever could easily be carried off, and with furious eagerness demolished, burnt, destroyed the rest. But far more than this, they were universally possessed with the spirit of murder; they killed the people without regard to sex or age. Not only so, but when sufficiently at leisure for such amusement, they inflicted excruciating tortures previous to death. Now, when the Governor-General had intelligence of this—what was he to do? what, acting as a Christian? Nothing? What, as a great magistrate, did he “bear the sword” for? What was he Governor at all for? To live in splendid state, and number and tax the people? Or was he to direct that prayer should be made in the churches for something very like a miracle? And on failure of that, prayers that the wretched people he governed might be all meekly resigned to their fate! and that even should the fell and fiendish legion, being unresisted, choose to pursue their way all down to Calcutta, all the people in their tract that could not escape, and at last himself and the people of the city, might be enabled calmly to submit to a sovereign dispensation of Providence? He did not do this. He chose rather to act on the rule of his appointment, to be “a terror to evil-doers,” “a minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon them that do evil” (Romans 13:4). But if war is in all possible cases wrong, he perpetrated an enormous crime against Christianity in marching his armies with a celerity unparalleled in that climate, and encountering, intercepting, and exterminating the murderers, so that the surviving people could feel themselves in peace. Put the stronger case of an immense host of northern barbarians being landed on our coasts (Tartars, Cossacks, Calmucks), and joined there by the legions of the Popish states, what would happen if we all, as Christians, judged it wrong and wicked to fight? Unless, indeed, we should suppose a divided opinion in the nation with respect to the Christian principle of the case, and that so a very large and powerful proportion was resolute to resist in all the array and action of war. Now, while with the utmost sacrifice and peril they were doing so, and suppose successfully, what a remarkable phenomenon would be presented! namely, the other division of the people deploring these very proceedings and successes by which their houses are saved from ravage and desolation,—deploring them as an awful outrage against Christian rectitude,—praying for the instant conversion of these deluded men to a right apprehension of Christian duty,—that they might immediately throw away their arms and allow the barbarian inundation to burst forward! Or, having failed in this prayer (and a mighty victory having finally cleared the land of the infernal irruption), then lamenting that a dreadful national violation of Christian principles had been irretrievably consummated! And as success purchased by crime can in the result be little else than a calamity and a judgment, they might be alarmed and dismayed to find themselves still in possession of their former freedom of worship, of speech, and of action, and of all their rights as citizens.—Foster. (Written in 1823.) But those principles upon which a Christian casuist would justify war, under certain possible circumstances, would not justify perhaps one in twenty of the wars that have been waged. Very rare has been the instance of a war, on either side, strictly and purely defensive, of either the nation itself or any other endangered or oppressed people depending on its protection. Hence— III. We rejoice over this prediction that war is to cease on the earth.1. This prediction spreads a visionary scene before us so new, strange, and delightful, that nothing but prophecy, and faith in the divine power and goodness, could enable us to expect its realisation. [1285][1285] It is difficult to realise the fact to our imagination. No fighting on the face of the whole earth! no armies, nor military profession, nor garrisons, nor arms, nor banners, nor proclamations! No leagues, offensive or defensive; no guarding of frontiers; no fortresses; no military prisons! No celebrating of victories in gaudy pomps and revelries for the vulgar, or in prostituted poetry for the more refined! A wondering what kind of times those could be in which mankind accounted it the highest glory to kill one another! Truly this is a state of things we are ill prepared even to conceive!—Foster. 2. It is difficult to conceive the practicability of its attainment. For it is something intrinsic in the soul and nature of man, throughout the whole race, that war has sprung from. There is the hot and terrible element that has burst abroad in so many thunders. And yet it is man that is to be universally at peace! How can it be? (2 Kings 7:2.) Vicious selfishness, ambition, envy, rivalry, rapacity, revenge, these are the things in men that cause wars between them, on the small scale and the great. How can these ever be so repressed, subdued, extirpated, that all war shall cease? 3. Certainly not by experience, philosophy, or civilisation, [1288][1288] Such things will be included, certainly, in whatever process can and shall reduce the world at length to peace; they will be taken as accessories and subsidiaries to the Master Power in operation. But whoever would reckon on such things alone should be strangely mortified, one thinks, in adverting to many facts of old and recent history. What, for example, is he to do with the history of Greece? or of the Italian Republics? Or nearer home, Britain and France account themselves the most enlightened and civilised states in the world: have they not been, with all their might, fighting and slaying each other and neighbouring nations for centuries, almost without intermission, down to this time? In the French revolutionary government, which, after a time, became essentially warlike, there were more philosophers, speculative, literary men, than ever in any other. In our own country, through the last half-century, the enlightened and civilised people (often so described and lauded at least) have needed but a little excitement, at any time, to rush out into war. Our institutions of learning, and even theology, have constantly abetted the spirit. An ever-flowing, impetuous stream there has been of oratory, poetry, and even pulpit declamation, mingling with and inspiriting the coarse torrent of the popular zeal for battles and victories. We have had both poets and divines actually sending the most immoral heroes to heaven, on the mere strength of their falling in patriotic combat. All this tells but ill for the efficacy of civilisation, literature, refinement, and the instruction of experience to promote the spirit of peace, without the predominance of some mightier cause.—Foster. 4. Nothing will operate efficaciously to this grand effect that does not go deep into the constitution of men’s souls, and quell internally those fatal passions which have perpetuated external war. And that is what cannot be done by any civilisation, national refinement, science, or even an enlightened theoretical policy. All these may be but like fair structures and gardens extended over a ground where volcanic fires are in a temporary slumber below. All these may be shattered and exploded by some mighty impulse of ambition or some blast of revengeful anger. No; there must be a greater, nobler power brought into prevalence among mankind. Nothing springing merely from the action of the human mind can suffice. It must be something coming from heaven. is the appointed and qualified agent. IV. It is credible that Christianity will cause wars to cease upon the earth. 1. It has accomplished something in this direction already. To it is mainly attributable the mitigation of ferocity and exterminatory rage, so evident in modern wars. We dare not assert even that it may not have prevented some wars. 2. It is essentially a peacemaker. Look at its genuine tendency, as displayed on the smaller scale, in a family, a neighbourhood, a district: a family in a constant state of hostility within itself, but at length the members of it are converted by the religion of Jesus Christ. The consequence how happy! (H. E. I. 1126.) 3. Precisely as it progresses among any people it will produce a distaste for war. [1291][1291] What will the natural consequence be in respect to war? Will it not be coldness towards that pernicious phantasm, martial “glory”;—a loathing of that sort of eloquence and poetry that are making a god of it;—a hatred of the very name of ambitious conquerors;—horror at the image of vast masses of men waiting to destroy one another;—a sense of the flagrant absurdity, as well as iniquity, of avenging some little wrong at the cost of so mighty a portion and variety of misery;—and a faith that Providence has not so abandoned the world that we are not to wait one moment for any interposition from it in favour of justice, but, the instant the scales of justice are poised, we must throw in the sword? Such would be the spirit and temper of a nation predominantly Christian.—Foster. 4. Consequently its progress among the nations is a progressive abolition of war. Every extension of this blessed religion is so much gained against war; quenching still another and another spark of infernal fire; repressing in some more minds those evil passions which are the prompters and the essential power of war. 5. Christianity is progressing among the nations. 6. Consequently it is reasonable to cherish the hope of a scene of universal peace (P. D. 2675). .— 1. The universal cessation of war means much more than merely the cessation of much mischief. Think what will be effected when the wealth, time, labour, art, ingenuity, of truly Christian nations are directed to the noblest purposes of peace! 2. Extirpate the war-spirit from your own breast. The selfish, proud, arrogant, envious, revengeful, are essentially of the war tribe, however little they have to do with actual war, however much they may condemn and profess to deplore it. Such individuals are not fit for that future terrestrial “kingdom of heaven.”—John Foster: Lectures, Second Series, pp. 142–173. THE LIGHT OF THE LORDIsa_2:5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. “The light of the Lord” streams upon us from His Word (Psalms 119:105). The knowledge of God and of His holy will which the Bible imparts to us is the meridian sun which casts his rays on the cold scenes of our earthly career. I. The religion of the Bible illumines. Into how many errors did unaided human reason fall, when the nature of God and of His operations was the subject of its inquiries! [508] Did not the wisest grope in darkness? Did they not conceive absurdities, even when man and his fate were the subject of their inquiries? [511] How full, clear, and steady is the light which the Scriptures cast upon these and other great subjects of human thought! [508] Men who seek God by reason and natural strength (though we do not deny common notions and general impressions of a sovereign power) are like mariners who voyaged before the invention of the compass, who were but coasters, and unwillingly left the sight of the land. Such are they who would arrive at God by this world, and contemplate Him only in His creatures and seeming demonstration. Certainly every creature shows God, as a glass; but glimmeringly and transitorily, by the frailty both of the receiver and beholder; ourselves have His image, as medals, permanently and preciously delivered. But by these meditations we get no further than to know what He doth, not what He is.—Donne, 1573–1631. [511] Reason sees that man is ignorant, guilty, mortal, miserable, transported with vain passions, tormented with accusations of conscience, but it could not redress those evils. Corrupt nature is like an imperfect building that lies in rubbish: the imperfection is visible but not the way to finish it; for through ignorance of the first design every one follows his own fancy, whereas, when the Architect comes to finish His own project, it appears regular and beautiful. Thus the various directions of philosophers to recover fallen man out of his ruins, and to raise him to his first state, were vain. Some glimmerings they had that the happiness of a reasonable nature consisted in its union with God, but in order to this they propounded such means as were not only ineffectual, but opposite. Such is the pride and folly of carnal wisdom, that to bring God and man together, it advances man, but depresses God.—Bates, 1625–1699. All the days of sinful nature are dark night, in which there is no right discerning of spiritual things: some light there is, of reason, to direct natural and civil actions, but no daylight. Till the sun rise it is night still, for all the stars, and the moon to help them.—Leighton, 1611–1684. None but the true God can discover[make known] what the true worship of God is. As that glorious eye of heaven is not to be seen but by its own proper light,—a million of torches cannot show us the sun: so it is not all the natural reason in the world that can either discover what God is, or what worship He expects, without Divine and supernatural revelation from Himself.—Arrowsmith, 1602–1659. II. The religion of the Bible warms. That God is great and all-powerful some philosophers imagined before the divine light of inspired truth shone forth; but the human heart remained cold, and felt in itself no point of contact and union with so exalted a Being. Until God said, “I am your Father,” we were as orphans in a strange land; but then at once the world became to us as a parent’s dwelling, and our heart began to warm with love towards God and man. III. The religion of the Bible vivifies. It animates and restores the weary, the dying! IV. The religion of the Bible blesses—now [514] and for ever (1 Timothy 4:8).—G. Salomon, Twelve Sermons, pp. 1–24. [514] It is a peculiar advantage of piety, that it furnisheth employment fit for us, worthy of us, hugely grateful, and highly beneficial to us. Man is a very busy and active creature, which cannot live and do nothing, whose thoughts are in restless motion, whose desires are ever stretching at somewhat, who perpetually will be working either good or evil to himself: wherefore greatly profitable must that thing be which determineth him to act well, to spend his care and pain on that which is truly advantageous to him; and that is religion only. It alone fasteneth our thoughts, affections, and endeavours upon occupations worthy the dignity of our nature, suiting the excellence of our natural capacities and endowments, tending to the perfection and advancement of our reason, to the enriching and ennobling of our souls. Secluding that, we have nothing in the world to study, to affect, to pursue, not very mean and below us, not very base and unbecoming us, as men of reason and judgment. What have we to do but to eat and drink, like horses or like swine; but to sport and play, like children or apes; but to bicker and scuffle about trifles and impertinences, like idiots? What but to scrape or scramble for useless pelf, to hunt after empty shows and shadows of honour, or the vain fancies or dreams of men? What but to wallow or bask in sordid pleasures, the which soon degenerate into remorse and bitterness? To which sort of employments were a man confined, what a pitiful thing he would be, and how inconsiderable would be his life! Were a man designed only, like a fly, to buzz about here for a time, sucking in the air and licking the dew, then soon to vanish back into nothing, or to be transformed into worms, how sorry and despicable a thing were he! And such without religion we should be. But it supplieth us with business of a most worthy nature and lofty importance; it setteth us upon doing things great and noble as can be; it engageth us to free our minds from all fond conceits, and cleanse our hearts from all corrupt affections,—to conform the dispositions of our soul and the actions of our life to the eternal laws of righteousness and goodness: it putteth us upon the imitation of God, upon obtaining a friendship and maintaining a correspondence with the High and Holy One, upon filling our minds for conversation and society with the wisest and purest spirits above, upon providing for our immortal state, upon the acquist of joy and glory everlasting. It employeth us in the divinest actions—promoting virtue, performing beneficence, serving the public, and doing good to all: the being exercised in which things doth indeed render a man highly considerable, and his life excellently valuable.—Barrow, 1630–1677. ATHE WALK OF THE SOUL IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORDIsa_2:5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. There are many lights shining upon the paths of men in this world. There are the lights of science and philosophy; they beam out from the human mind, and are kindled by eager research and investigation. These have been advancing in splendour and in value, age by age, and will, no doubt, continue to do so to the end of time. Men walk in these lights, and vainly imagine that they have found the sun of the soul. They seek no higher illumination. They are mistaken. The lights of science are of but little service to the moral nature; they cannot chase away its darkness, or open up to it a vision of destiny. The True Light cometh down from above, and is Divine in its origin. It is bright. It is beauteous. It is sufficient for the guidance of the soul. Wise men will walk in it. “O house of Jacob,” &c. I. The walk of the soul. “Let us walk.” 1. The moral walk of the soul is a necessity. The soul of man is endowed with certain convictions and activities which render inaction an impossibility. It must walk either in one direction or another; either toward moral purity or moral evil; either to Christ or to Satan. The moral sensibilities with which it is gifted, the laws under which it is placed, the influences to which it is subject, and the prospects that are stretched out before the soul, render moral progress a necessity of being. 2. The moral walk of the soul is educational. Men gain knowledge in this world by travel. In this way they augment their mental stores. And the soul gains knowledge, strengthens its capabilities, and deepens its experience, by walking forth into the great moral universe in which it lives. Only the souls that have walked in the paths of truth and life know what things are, and they only are able to guide others. 3. The moral walk of the soul is healthful. Those who are inactive are always physically weak. The soul that never takes moral exercise, that never gets out into the broad acres of truth, and that never climbs the great mountains of God, will ever be sickly. If the soul is to be strong, equal to the duties of life, and to the demands of being, it must not indolently repose in its own quiet hiding-place. It must go forth to meet the Eternal. 4. The moral walk of the soul is often perilous. The traveller has often to walk through dark places, along difficult paths, and near the deep precipice. He is in a strange country. And so in the walk of the soul. It is in a land of which it knows but little. It has to pass through the dark mystery of truth, to traverse the windings of intricate problems, and to find its way, through perplexing circumstances, to the throne of God. II. The light of the Lord. “In the light of the Lord.” The soul of man was not constituted to walk in darkness. It was created with keen moral vision; but, alas! its eye is dimmed by sin, and is but seldom open to the light of heaven. 1. This light is Divine in its origin. It does not come from the orb in the heavens. It comes from beyond the clouds—from the Sun of Righteousness, whose rays are never lost in night. It is not the light of the finite, but of the Infinite. It is perennial and pure. It is unparalleled in beauty. It is unique in lustre. It is life-giving in its influence. The soul can walk in no better radiance. 2. This light is clear in its revelation. But for the sun we should know nothing of this world. And but for the light of the Lord we should be entirely ignorant of the moral world, in which the soul lives and has its being. This light which shines from the Spirit of God, from the Bible, and from the enlightened conscience, reveals the existence of God, the spirituality of His nature, the purity of His character, and the devotion of which He is worthy. It reveals the soul to itself, and bends it in humility, but in joy, as it unfolds the forgiving mercy of the Cross. But for this light of the Lord we should be ignorant of the things of the moral universe. It illumines the soul in its walk to the great and unknown future. 3. This light is cheering in its influence. The light of the sun is cheering to man, and is ever welcome to him. So the light of the Lord is cheering to the pure soul; it enlivens its energies, and lends new beauty to its visions. 4. This light is abiding in its duration. The light of the Lord will never go down from the pure soul, but will only brighten through death into the perfect day.—By what light do we walk? “Come ye,” now, gladly, devoutly, “and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”—J. S. Exell. A PICTUREIsa_2:6-22 Here is the “word” (vision) which Isaiah “saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:1). The prophet has been enraptured by the wondrous prospect of the distant future, when religion shall be the supreme force of life (Isaiah 2:2), and all men (Isaiah 2:2-3), walking in “the light of the Lord,” shall be at peace with each other (Isaiah 2:4): now he looks down to the present, and how dark and terrible is the picture which he sees before him! He sees— I. A nation forsaken of God (Isaiah 2:6). One of the most awful of all spectacles: an engine of tremendous power, without a driver, rushing down a steep incline! II. A nation pursuing childish superstitions (Isaiah 2:6): “They be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines.” When a nation forsakes God, this is a common result (Romans 1:21-22). Witness the rapid spread in our own day of “spiritualism” among the sceptical and irreligious classes of England and America. III. A nation seeking strength and safety in alliances with the enemies of God, allying itself with the very powers which Omnipotent Righteousness was pledged to crush! Instead of dwelling apart, as God intended (Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 33:28, &c.), and in dependence upon His protection, the Israelites sought to strengthen themselves by alliances with surrounding nations. “They please themselves with the children of strangers.” The same sin is repeated in these days, when God’s people mix with worldly society for the sake of its “advantages.” IV. A nation blinded by external prosperity to its real condition and peril (Isaiah 2:7). Abounding with every evidence of prosperity, how could they suspect that they were forsaken of God, and that a terrible doom was hanging over them? What is our condition, and what are our prospects as a nation? Let us not lay too much stress upon our great national wealth? V. A nation given over to a debasing idolatry (Isaiah 2:8; Romans 1:23). A moral degradation extending to all classes (Isaiah 2:9). Just what we behold in Roman Catholic and Ritualistic churches, where rich and poor alike prostrate themselves before the wheaten wafer which their priest has transformed into a god! The prophet himself now becomes part of the picture, and we have—VI. The awful spectacle of a good man invoking the vengeance of Heaven upon the nation to which he belongs (Isaiah 2:10): “Therefore forgive them not.” This was the natural cry of the prophet’s soul, filled with horror and indignation at what he saw. The imprecations of Scripture are the natural (and fitting) utterance of righteousness in view of wickedness. It is only because the tone of our own spiritual life is so low that we are offended at them. From whom, among ourselves, does the cry for the uplifting of the strong arm of human law against the perpetrators of crimes of violence come? Not from the classes most likely to suffer from them, but from the refined and gentle, who, just because of their refinement and gentleness, are inspired by them with disgust and anger. So it is those who are most in sympathy with God who are most likely to burn with holy indignation against such things as the prophet saw. The men who offer such prayers as this, “Forgive them not,” would be the first to reverse it did the offenders give any sign of repentance. VII. A crushing doom impending over an unsuspecting nation. No sooner has the prophet uttered his prayer, than he sees it was needless, and that the thunderclouds of the Divine anger were already thickly massed over the guilty nation; without any visible sign there was gathering over them a storm that would suddenly break forth with destructive force. Therefore he breaks out into a strain of impassioned warning and appeal to the very men for whose punishment he had prayed (Isaiah 2:10, &c.) What lessons shall we learn from our survey of this dark picture? 1. Not to judge of the relations of nations, individuals, or ourselves to God by the test of temporal circumstances. It is an old but gross fallacy that temporal prosperity is a sure sign of the Divine favour (Ecclesiastes 9:1-3; Job 21:7-15, &c.) [517] Let us not ask what our circumstances are, but what our character is, and what our conduct has been. If we are unrighteous, temporal prosperity should alarm us, as a sign that God has forsaken us (Hebrews 12:8). 2. Not to be hasty to impute the temporal prosperity of the wicked to a slumbering of the Divine justice. We need scarcely trouble ourselves to pray for a doom upon the ungodly (Exodus 34:7; 2 Peter 2:3; Job 21:17-18; Psalms 73:18-19; Isaiah 3:11). 3. Let us remember that we ourselves, as sinners, are exposed to the Divine judgments, and let us “enter into the Rock”—“the Rock of Ages,” that, sheltered in Him, we may be safe when the storms of the final judgment shall burst upon our guilty world. [517] When the Lord hath set thee up as high as Haman in the court of Ahasuerus, or promoted thee to ride with Joseph in the second chariot of Egypt; were thy stock of cattle exceeding Job’s, “seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen;” did thy wardrobe put down Solomon’s, and thy cupboard of plate Belshazzar’s when the vessels of God’s temple were the ornature,—yet all these are but the gifts of Wisdom’s left hand, and the possessors may be under the malediction of God, and go down to damnation.—Adams, 1654. The eagles and lions seek their meat of God. But though all the sons of Jacob have good cheer from Joseph, yet Benjamin’s mess exceeds. Esau shall have the prosperity of the earth, but Jacob goes away with the blessing. Ishmael may have outward favours, but the inheritance belongs to Isaac.—Adams, 1654. THE SINNER’S DANGER AND REFUGEIsa_2:10. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty. This is the counsel which the prophet gives his fellow-countrymen, in view of the desolations which God was about to send upon their land on account of their sins. He sees God’s judgments sweeping down upon them like an invading army, and therefore he cries to them, “Flee into the caverns in the mountains:” like the Simoom, and therefore he cries to them, “Hide yourselves in the dust: bow down before the destroying blast from which it is impossible to escape. God has been silent, as if He were indifferent to your transgressions, but now He is coming forth, in all the terrors of His majesty to requite the evil doers according to their works” [532] The counsel is, of course, metaphorical; the rocks and the dust could afford no refuge from an angry God. The summons is to profound and penitential humility, the proper attitude of man to God. It is a summons, therefore, which may be fitly addressed to all men. [532] “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, their sin is hid” (Hosea 13:12). Not that his sin was hid from God, but his sin is hid; that is, it is recorded, it is laid up against a day of reckoning. That this is the meaning, is clear by the foregoing words, his iniquity is bound up: as the clerk of the assizes binds up the indictments of malefactors in a bundle, and, at the assizes, brings out the indictments, and reads them in court, so God binds up men’s sins in a bundle; and, at the day of judgment, this bundle shall be opened, and all their sins brought to light before men and angels.—Watson, 1696.I. Profound humility in regard to God would be befitting in us as creatures, even were we absolutely without sin. Such humility is reasonable— 1. In view of our relation to and dependence upon God. He is our Maker; we are daily pensioners on His bounty; we are the instruments with which He carries out His purposes (Isaiah 10:15). 2. In view of His position as the Ruler of the universe. 3. In view of the transcendent excellencies of His character. The pupils of a great artist, such as Raphael, the associates of a great patriot, such as Washington, are filled with involuntary admiration and veneration for him. They feel themselves to be as nothing in comparison with him. How much more should we feel so in comparison with God! Those sinless beings who see Him as He is show us by their conduct what would be befitting in us even were we also without spot or stain (Isaiah 6:2-3). II. But as sinners that which is befitting in us is, not only profound, but penitential humility. To live without any sense of guilt in our hearts—with indifference to the fact that we have broken God’s laws and are exposed to His judgments—is itself a gross iniquity; it is an outrageous defiance of the Majesty in whose presence we are. What would be said of a rebel who in the presence of his outraged sovereign should absolutely ignore him? Would not this be regarded as a repetition of his offence in the most aggravated form? But is not this precisely the offence which every stout-hearted sinner daily commits? As sinners there are two things especially incumbent upon us. 1. To humbly acknowledge that we are exposed to the Divine judgments, and need a refuge therefrom. There are two ways of contemplating the Day of Judgment: (1) As a certain and solemn fact in the history of our race. Contemplating it thus, we may show argumentatively that such an event ought to occur; and we may anticipate to some extent the principles upon which the Judge, when He shall have summoned mankind before His bar, will proceed. We may do this, and be merely theological or rhetorical. Or (2) we may regard it as a certain and terrible fact in our own history. And it is thus that we should regard it. It is we who are to stand before the great White Throne. A realisation of this fact will powerfully affect our feelings and our conduct; we shall (1) acknowledge, at the least, that we need a refuge. And we shall be prepared (2) thankfully to avail ourselves of the refuge which God in His mercy has provided for us. With yet greater fulness and definiteness of meaning God’s messengers can repeat the prophet’s counsel, “Enter into the rock, &c.” The sinner’s refuge is the Son of God, “the Rock of our salvation.” Our refuge from God as our Judge is God Himself as our Saviour. It is as such that He now reveals Himself to us. “Behold now is the day of salvation;” but the day of judgment is at hand! Ere it burst upon us, let us flee unto “the Rock of Israel” (Isaiah 30:29) crying to Him, with penitent confession of our sins, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me,Let me hide myself in Thee.” GOD EXALTED IN THE GREAT DAY(Advent Sermon.) Isaiah 2:17. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Two questions: What is “that day?” How shall the Lord then be exalted? I. “That day.” “The first five verses of this chapter foretell the kingdom of the Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into the Church. From the sixth verse to the end is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God’s protection; and, moreover, the destruction of idolatry in consequence of the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom.”—Lowth. But here, as in many other portions of Scripture, a larger and remoter meaning looms beyond and behind the first sense of the expressions, which would otherwise be too big and swelling for the actual interpretation of them. Compare the description in which the text twice occurs with the almost parallel passages in chap. Isaiah 5:14-16. How magnificent! What startling terms! What emphatic iterations! Surely a want of fitness and congruity would almost be felt if expressions such as these referred only to some temporal calamity of the Jewish nation; surely we cannot mistake in looking onward to some mightier catastrophe, to some final exaltation of God and abasement of all creatures. By “that day,” therefore, we mean what is elsewhere called “the day,” “the great day,” “the day of judgment,” “the great and terrible day of the Lord”—the consummation of all things. When that day shall come I do not know, and I am content to remain in ignorance. It may come suddenly, without warning, unannounced. Then it is for men always to have their lamps burning and their hearts in readiness, lest they be taken by surprise. It may come with great signs preceding and accompanying it. Then it is for men, according to their capacity, to note and discern those signs. It is the very uncertainty connected with it that is to make us watchful (Matthew 24:36; Matthew 24:42). We are to be vigilant and observant, without pretending to determine what God has left unrevealed. Such attempts have in all ages been made, and in all ages have been falsified. The failure of those attempts has not only covered those who made them or believed in them with ridicule, it has brought into discredit the sacred Book which the aim was to expound. It is our first duty and highest interest to be at every moment prepared; but a far other and better preparation may, and must be made for it, than in the futile endeavour to discover its precise date. [1294][1294] During the fifth century Chrysostom expressed himself in language which sounds almost like an anticipation of much that we hear at the present day. “No long time now remains until the consummation; but the world is hastening to its end. This the wars declare, this the afflictions, this the love which hath waxed cold. For as the body, when in its last gasp and near to death, draws to itself ten thousand sufferings; and as when a house is about to fall, many portions are wont to fall beforehand from the roofs and walls; so is the end of the world nigh and at the very doors, and, therefore, ten thousand woes are everywhere scattered abroad” (Homily xxxiv.) Towards the close of the tenth century, Bernhard, a hermit of Thuringia, and other persons, spread or encouraged the belief, that after the end of the thousandth year, the fetters of Satan were to be broken; and that, after the reign of Antichrist should be terminated, the world would be consumed by sudden conflagration. This wild and extraordinary delusion pervaded and possessed every rank of society. It seized on nobles, princes, and even bishops, as well as on the common people. Many renounced their pursuits and professions; abandoned their friends and families; gave themselves up to superstitious prayer and terrifying expectations, and made over all their substance to some adjacent church or monastery. Almost all the donations which were made to the Church in this century proceeded from this avowed motive, that the end of the world was drawing near. The form ran, “Appropinquante jam mundi termino,” &c. Others permitted their lands to lie waste, and their houses to decay; or betook themselves in hasty flight to the shelter of rocks and caverns, as if the temples of nature were destined to preservation amidst the wreck of man and his works.—Boone. Equally unwise is the disposition to specify with a minute particularity the events which are to usher in the great day of the Lord, or the convulsions of nature which shall herald and proclaim it, or the astonishing circumstances with which it shall be arrayed. God has chosen to involve them in a mysterious and solemn indistinctness. In bold and sublime figures the inspired writers have delineated a scene which must stand singular and by itself, without any precedent or parallel, and which, therefore, neither human language can directly express nor human understanding adequately comprehend. Instead of endeavouring to explain the images and symbols employed, prudence will lead us to confine ourselves to the very words of Scripture, such as Daniel 12:2; Joe 3:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-32; Revelation 20:11-13; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. [1297] On these declarations we should meditate with serious and chastened minds, for if Scripture be true these words cannot be without a real and solemn meaning, and that meaning can only be that there shall be a day in which the world shall be judged by God in Christ, and that from before the Divine tribunal the good and the evil, separated from each other, shall depart to destinies final and irreversible (P. D. 2109). [1297] I forbear to expatiate on the phenomena or the tokens which shall be premonitory of the Millennium or of the day of judgment. God has not seen fit, even in Scripture, to withdraw the curtain of obscurity from between us and that supreme future. We may well be content that our apprehensions should be vague, when the language of the Bible is not definite, and when we find rather the sublime and half-luminous gloom with which poetry or painting can invest its delineations, than the sharp and precise outline which the chisel can carve.—Boone. II. In that day the Lord alone shall be exalted. 1. How is this possible? Is not God always exalted far above all blessing and praise? He will then be exalted in the sense in which He is now said to be glorified. He will be exalted in the visible homage and submission of an assembled universe. He will be exalted by the full manifestation of His attributes, in their unclouded and effulgent lustre, by the exhibition, before men and angels, of His omnipotence and justice, His wisdom and truth, His love and mercy, of the holiness of His law, the equity of His administration, the abundance of His grace, so that all hearts shall be bowed down at His footstool, and every mouth shall be stopped. 2. In that day God shall be exalted alone. (1) The text may lead our minds to other deities as opposed to Jehovah. They shall indeed be gone; in that day they shall be seen to be less than the least of all their worshippers. (2) It will be the great day of the disclosure of all things; and all creatures shall see the Lord as He is, and themselves also as they are. Therefore shall all the highest orders of celestial intelligences, the cherubim and seraphim, and all the ranks of existence which may occupy the interval between man and his Maker, veil their faces before His throne; they shall be as nothing in His sight. Then shall all creatureship fall low before the one Creator; all derived, dependent being shall shrink into its true dimensions before the Absolute, the Eternal, the I AM. (3) Even Christ Himself, His office as the Messiah having been accomplished, and His administration of the Church, in His human character, being brought to a close, shall resign His mediatorial sway (1 Corinthians 15:24-28; H. E. I. 985). (4) But our chief concern, as we are men, is with humanity: “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” That day shall indeed declare the impotence of human power, the emptiness of human ambition, the nothingness of human renown. [1300] The very circumstances on account of which men have most lifted themselves up in their lifetime will be the occasions of their profoundest humiliation then. [1300] What shall they all be, the strong rivalries and contentions, which shall have been hushed in the grave; the towering structures of vanity and earthly hope, which shall have been crushed before the moth; the schemes and plottings, the contrivances and expectations, the struggles and triumphs, which shall have been dropped into the burial-place where the worm is feeding on them! Oh, the thrones and dominions of mortality, the crowns and sceptres, the regal splendours and the imperial sway, how shall they then be reduced to their real and intrinsic insignificance! The victories of the warrior who conquered in a hundred fights, and the projects of the politician, whose statesmanship could grasp the globe; the famous men and heroes of the earth, with the poets who celebrated them, and the historians who recounted their exploits, what shall they be before the word of Omnipotence! The learning and science of the philosophers who framed their system of the universe for the admiration of posterity, what shall they be, before the blaze of illumination which shall be poured upon us in another world! The pageantries of courts and palaces; the banquets and the wine-cups, the spectacles and the entertainments, the mirrors and the lamps, the golden furniture of pomp, and the flowing robe of luxury; the great and the affluent, whose patronage was requested for busy undertakings, who were besieged with flattery and obsequiousness from morning to night; the noble and the beautiful, who gathered homage as they moved; the writers and the orators, whose popularity was unbounded, and who lived amidst the incense of human applause; they, and all that appertained to them, where and what shall they be, as we stand poor, and naked, and miserable before Him with whom we have to do! They, the heedless and the selfish, swimming in pleasure, who thought that the whole voyage of life was to be like Cleopatra’s passage along the Cydnus, one scene of mirth and gorgeousness; of prodigal dissipation and fatal revelry, with soft music and delicate odours floating in the air; what shall become of them! How black and cold shall be the cinders of their joy! All human dynasties will then have crumbled to pieces, and all the gradations in the scale of human rank will then have been blotted out; for all must be dwarfed and prostrated before the ineffable majesty of the Most High God. All other differences must fade when the Divine summits are placed in contrast with them; as from the top of an exceeding high mountain the whole ground beneath is as a level plain, because from that vast altitude all smaller elevations are lost, all minuter inequalities of surface vanish. Human celebrity will then be as a sound, the very echoes of which will have departed. The pompous titles with which the vanity of man was pampered; the distinctions which kings could confer, or heraldry emblazon; privileges of caste, nobility of blood, the pride of ancestry, the blaze of reputation, the splendour of talents, shall then be confounded, one and all, as frivolous toys and trifling baubles. The mighty ones of the earth shall be no more than they who were of the poorest condition; the great shall stand abashed with the mean, the learned with the ignorant, monarchs with their subjects, senators and princes, commanders of fleets and armies, the loftiest and most renowned by the side of the husbandman and the labourer; for what shall they all be in contrast with Him, the Universal Creator, whose dwelling-place is eternity, and to whom belong, throughout all ages, all glory and dominion, sovereignty and praise?—Boone. In that day our sinfulnesses shall sink us into the dust, and cover us with shame and confusion even more than our vanities. Shall any one of us hope then to be exalted, when the memories of us all shall retrace so many sterile and unproductive intentions, so many good impressions never fostered and ripened into fruits of righteousness, so many talents misused by our iniquity, or buried by our idleness? Then there shall be no more concealments, no more deceits, no more false excuses, no more of those pretences, equivocations, subterfuges, and sophisms which our reason is now so fatally ingenious in playing off upon itself (P. D. 661, 2106). Oh, think of these things, and let not your sins be dearer to you than your salvation. Think of them ere the night cometh, and the sun of your probation has quite gone down. “The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Will He then confound the righteous with the wicked? As compared with God there shall be no distinctions between men. All men on that great day at the bar of the Omniscient and the All Holy shall have upon them a universal sense of imperfection, unworthiness, insufficiency, nothingness. But as compared with each other there will be immense differences between them. It is one purpose of the great day to make manifest to all orders of being the infinite value and superiority of moral goodness, the infinite preciousness of a holy obedience above and beyond all else; then God, who sees it in secret, will reward it openly. When the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the people that forget God, the righteous shall shine forth as the stars of heaven. Therefore estimate all things now as you will estimate them then. Lean less upon earth and man and the things present, set your affections more upon the things to come, upon heaven, and upon the Ruler of heaven. Cultivate diligently those dispositions which are pleasing in His sight. For then, when all social forms shall have vanished away, when all material substances shall have been obliterated, as the shapes in a cloud, and dissipated as the morning dew, your moral temper will abide with you, and your spiritual state, as discerned by the unerring Judge, will decide, and will attend, your immortal destiny (H. E. I. 720).—James Shergold Boone, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 359–399. THE GREAT Isa_2:18. And the idols He shall utterly abolish. There are a great number of things which would be incredible if they had not actually happened! Men who, like ourselves, boasted of “reason” and “common sense,” sought to settle their disputes and to vindicate their honour by the duel; they have stoutly believed in witchcraft, in “touching for the king’s evil,” and in other absurdities. But surely the supreme folly of which men have been guilty is idolatry. That men should fashion an idol of wood or stone, and then bow down to worship it, what absurdity is this! Yet I. The idols have had a long reign in the earth. Trace human history back as far as all extant records will enable you to do so, and you will find idols enthroned in the affections of men. That they should ever have been set up there must be regarded as one of Satan’s subtlest and greatest triumphs. The instincts that lead men to worship are so strong, that his only hope of preventing fallen men from returning to their allegiance to God lay in persuading them to worship some other thing or being. His difficulty and his device were those of Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26-28). He seems to have led men down step by step: stars, images as their respresentatives, then the images themselves: first, natural principles, then living creatures in which these principles were supposed to be embodied, then the living creatures themselves. To have begun at the end would have been too great a shock; the absurdity as well as the wickedness of such worship would have been too obvious. Thus was the empire of the idols founded, and it continues to this day. II. The empire of the idols has been world-wide. It might have been supposed to be a folly that could be imposed only on a few barbarous tribes, and that all civilised nations would have rejected it with disdain; but as a matter of fact, it is precisely among these nations (Egypt, Greece, Rome, Judæa, India) that idolatry flourished most and in its basest forms. Hence the empire of idolatry was co-extensive with the globe. In Elijah’s time even God thought it a great thing that He would assure His prophet that there were seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). III. The idols have been served with passionate devotion. In almost all ages worshippers of idols have put to shame the worshippers of God, by their fidelity to their convictions, the scrupulousness of their observance of the rites which they have esteemed religious, and the greatness of the cost at which they have done honour to their gods. IV. The idols have had for their allies the most influential of social and moral forces. Their priests and dependents (Acts 19:25) have jealously watched every encroachment on the empire of their gods. Rulers, for political reasons, have strenuously endeavoured to uphold the national faiths. Custom and fashion have wrought in the same direction But, above all, the idols have had their most powerful allies in the human breast—in the instinct of worship, and the craving for sensual indulgences. Idolatry has combined these most powerful of all cravings—has provided deities in whose worship the worst passions of man’s animal nature have been gratified. V. Nevertheless the empire of idolatry shall be utterly destroyed. It shall vanish as utterly as the great empire of Assyria. “The idols He shall utterly abolish.” Already that empire has been overthrown where it seemed most firmly established, and the complete fulfilment of the prediction of our text is obviously now only a question of time. Even in heathen countries, men are becoming ashamed of their idols, and are representing them as merely the media of worship. The victory of Christianity over idolatry is already assured. The struggles that are yet to shake the world will be, not between Christianity and idolatry; not even between Christianity and atheism, for atheism is necessarily merely a brief episode in human experience; but between Christianity and other forms of monotheism. . 1. In the wide-spread and long-continued empire of the idols we have a conclusive proof of man’s need of a Divine revelation. The natural progress of fallen man is not to light, but to darkness (Romans 1:21-23; 1 Corinthians 1:21). 2. In the prediction of our text, we have a conclusive proof of that in the Bible we have such a revelation. Consider the circumstances of the prophet: idolatry on every hand, corrupting even His own people. It was contrary to all experience; it must have seemed to many who first heard it as the ravings of a lunatic. Such a prediction, already so marvellously fulfilled, came from God! 3. In the approaching complete fulfilment of the prediction of our text, let us rejoice. And let us labour as well as pray, that the time may be hastened when by idolatry God shall be no longer dishonoured nor man degraded. MAN’S AND GOD’S Isa_2:22. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?In this verse the whole Bible is summed up. The folly of trusting in man, and the necessity of trusting in God alone, is its great lesson, from its commencement to its close. This is what we are taught— I. By its record of God’s providential dealings with the Jews and other nations. Continually He has accomplished His ends by very different means than man would have selected. Egypt saved from perishing by famine through the instrumentality of a young slave; Naaman delivered from his leprosy through the ministration of a little maid; Israel rescued by Gideon and his three hundred soldiers; the boastful Philistines defeated by a young shepherd, &c. II. By the grand scheme of human redemption which it discloses. In it God is everything, and man nothing. The only means by which man can be restored to holiness, to the Divine favour and life everlasting, were provided by God; man contributed nothing either to its completeness or efficiency. The benefit is man’s, the glory all belongs to God. Nor in appropriating it does he do anything that is meritorious. In repentance there is no merit: it is simply that state of mind which is required of us in view of the sins we have committed. Nor in faith; it is simply the recognition of the ability of another, and the consequent entrustment of ourselves to Him, to do that for us which we confess our inability to do for ourselves.—Blessed is the man, and he only, who has learned these two things. So long as a man depends on his own wisdom, power, and goodness, or on the wisdom, power and goodness of other men, he must be disquieted and unhappy. We can attain to substantial quiet and an abiding satisfying peace only when we feel that our dependence is on a Being omnipotent, independent, and supreme, as well as abundant in truth and love (Isaiah 26:3).—Joseph Holdech, D.D., American National Preacher, 36:255–265.LESSONS FROM A (Sermon preached on the Sunday after the death of President Harrison.) Isaiah 2:22. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?The event which has just befallen us as a nation is fitted to teach— I. The vanity of human dependence. The atheism of the human heart displays itself in a disposition to confide entirely in an arm of flesh. This is so in the family, the church, the nation. In various ways God endeavours to teach nations their real dependence upon Himself—by famine, by pestilence, by commercial disasters, by the death of their rulers. What “fools” we must be, and how “brutish” must be our understanding, if we do not lay to heart the lesson which He has now given us (Psalms 146:3). II. The pettiness of party strife. How much of selfishness, unkindness, anger, and untruthfulness does the spirit of party give birth to! How seldom politicians of opposite parties do each other common justice! How fierce are there rivalries! But how mean, how worthless, how unworthy appear the objects of their strife when death enters the arenas and waves his skeleton arm! What a great calm falls upon the agitated spirits of men! How noise is hushed and excitement subdued! How like do the flushed and eager politicians seem then to silly children quarrelling for the possession of a bubble that has just been blown into the air, and that will disappear the moment it is grasped! [535] [535] Here, like a shepherd gazing from his hut, Touching his reed, or leaning on his staff, Eager Ambition’s fiery chase I see; I see the circling hunt of noisy men Burst law’s enclosure, leap the mounds of right, Pursuing and pursued, each other’s prey; As wolves for rapine; as the fox for wiles; Till Death, that mighty hunter, earths them all. Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? What though we wade in wealth, or soar in fame? Earth’s highest station ends in “Here he lies”— And “Dust to dust” concludes her noblest song.—Young. III. The vanity of the world, the certainty of death, and the nearness of eternity. These lessons are taught when a beggar dies, but are more likely to be laid to heart when a prince is laid low [538] [538] The glories of our birth and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against fate: Death lays his icy hand on kings; Sceptre and crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade. Some men with swords may reap the field, And plant fresh laurels where they kill; But their strong nerves at last must yield: They tame but one another still; Early or late They stoop to fate, And must give up their murmuring breath, When they, pale captives, creep to death. The garlands wither on your brow; Then boast no more your mighty deeds; Upon death’s purple altar, now, See where the victor victim bleeds! All heads must come To the cold tomb! Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust. —Shirley. IV. The supreme importance of a right moral character. Most instructive is the interest felt by survivors in the moral character of the departed, in the evidences of his preparation for death, in the manner in which the great summons affected him. This is the testimony of the human conscience, that in comparison with a fitness to appear before the tribunal of God, everything else loses its importance. When was the amount of a man’s possessions inscribed on his tombstone? The bare suggestion of such a thing would be construed as a mockery of death, under whose denuding hand the rich man leaves the world naked as he entered it. But if, in all his life, there was one virtue in his moral character, one trait which can afford satisfactory evidence of God’s approval, this, be sure, you will find sculptured in conspicuous characters on his monumental marble. One thing alone can prepare any for their last account—the belief and the practice of the Gospel of God. Have you the great calm which is inspired by the confidence of being thus prepared for the great change?—W. Adams, American National Preacher, 15:97–105. THE DEATH OF (Funeral Sermon for the Right Hon. George Canning.) Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 3:3. For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah … the counsellor, … and the eloquent orator. By the death of a great statesman at the head of a government, we are reminded.— I. Of the weight of government in a fallen world. It is a burden that has crushed many, and has brought them to an untimely grave. II. Of the weakness of the shoulders of mortal men. The government of a single country, especially in troublous times, has proved a burden too great for the courage and the endurance of the strongest of men. III. Of the uncertainty of all human affairs. Often does the statesman think of the uncertainty of arriving at the object of his ambition, but seldom of the uncertainty of his remaining there, except when he recollects how many are struggling to replace him. Little does he think of another foe, who lurks behind, and who in some unexpected moment will hush his eloquent tongue, and turn his fertile brain to dust. IV. Of our absolute dependence on the Supreme Governor. We are apt to think that it is on the profound counsellor and mighty orator that the nation’s welfare depends, and to think little of Him who made them what they are, to be employed as He pleases, laid aside when He pleases, and replaced if He pleases, by others as richly endowed. V. Of the necessity of personal preparation for death [541]J. Bennett, D.D., The British Pulpit, i. 297–304. [541] So live, that, when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, that moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not like the quarry slave at night Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.—Bryant. Isa_3:1-8. For, behold, &c.I. The elements of national greatness are intellectual and moral, rather than material. A nation may have “the staff of bread” and “the stay of water,” but lacking the persons enumerated in Isaiah 3:2-3, it cannot be a great nation. While, therefore, it is reasonable to put forth efforts to increase the material resources of the nation, we should be more concerned to improve the producers than the produce. II. For the supply and continuance of these supreme elements of national greatness, we are absolutely dependent upon God. Well to remember that for all material blessings we are absolutely dependent upon Him. The moral value of a bad harvest is often great; it reminds us that, do what the most skilful agriculturists may, it is “God that giveth the increase.” Not less dependent are we upon Him for the men without whom no nation can be great. Wise statesmen, skilful inventors, eloquent orators, &c., are very special gifts of God; such men cannot be manufactured. III. These essential elements of national greatness God will take away from those nations that are regardless of His goodness and defiant of His authority (Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 3:8). National sins bring on national judgments. No national judgment is more severe or prolific of disasters than the removal or denial of great leaders. IV. Not only can God abase the greatest nation, but He can reduce it to depths of humiliation which beforehand it would have regarded as inconceivable. See through what stages of national sorrow and shame the prophet declared that Israel should be led. (1.) The diminution of its material resources and the removal of all its leaders of society (Isaiah 3:1-3). (2.) The government entrusted to weak and childish rulers (Isaiah 3:4). (3.) Social anarchy (Isaiah 3:5). (4.) Social degradation so extreme, that men are solicited to rule merely because they have a little wealth (Isaiah 3:6). (5.) The last stage of national degradation—its supreme places of authority have become so contemptible and perilous that no one can be induced to fill them (Isaiah 3:7). These considerations concern us individually. The nation is but an aggregate of individuals; and what they are, it is. Hence it behoves us— 1. To strive after personal holiness. This seems a very small remedy for national evils. But it is only by each man adopting it that the nation can be made religious. If each drop in the ocean could eliminate the salt with which it is charged, the ocean would become fresh. Besides, by our example we may stimulate others to personal reforms, and they again others. 2. To entreat God to deal with us as a nation in the way of mercy, and not of judgment (Psalms 103:10). There is a mighty power in intercessory prayer. 3. Diligently to promote all moral and social reforms. We must labour as well as pray. A Christian man will assist in all political reforms, because it is the will of God that righteousness should prevail in all things. But much more interested will he be in all movements and institutions having for their end the intellectual and moral advancement of the people: the school, the temperance society, better dwellings for the working classes, the diffusion of a pure literature, &c. 4. To put forth constant efforts to bring and keep our fellow-countrymen under the influence of the Gospel. Of all regenerative and conservative influences the Gospel is the most active and powerful. A nation composed entirely of genuine Christians would be at once the most happy, prosperous, and powerful the world has ever seen. The direct and short way to exalt Great Britain is to strive to lead all our countrymen to the knowledge and service of Christ. This is a work, not for ministers only, but for the whole Church. There would be more happy Christians if there were more working Christians. It is not the running brooks, but the standing pools, that become stagnant. SINNERSIsa_3:9. They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Extremes are generally detestable: equatorial heat, arctic cold; the speaker whom we must strain to hear, the orator who roars, &c. So in morals: foolhardy rashness, cowardice; prodigality, penuriousness; hypocrites, and such shameless sinners as are spoken of here. Such persons are even more detestable than hypocrites; these at least pay this homage to virtue, that they array themselves in her outer garments. Desperate and vain is the endeavour to cloak iniquity, yet even this is better than the effrontery which leads some to flaunt it in open day. How surprising is such effrontery! When we consider what sin is—a thing horribly degrading to man as well as insufferably offensive to God—we should have expected beforehand that men would have been as anxious to hide their vices, as they are to conceal any loathsome disease with which they may be afflicted. But it is not so. There are tens of thousands of sinners as devoid of shame as were those who dwelt in Sodom; nay, they glory in their shame. Consider— I. THE CAUSES OF IN SIN. 1. Ignorance. There are many so uninstructed in moral and spiritual things; they have grown up surrounded by such evil examples, that they have no consciousness of the foulness of their vices, any more than a peasant has of the ungracefulness of his manners. This cause operates among the lower classes to an extent scarcely conceivable by the cultured and refined. 2. Habit. Many an open and shameless sinner, at the outset of his career, when he was first betrayed into transgression, was ashamed almost to walk through the street, and imagined that every one whom he met had heard of, and despised him for, his offence. But the offence was repeated; it became a habit; and in proportion as it has done so, has the offender’s sense of shame died out of him. He thinks as little of it as a soldier does of his uniform, which when it was first put on caused him to think that all eyes were fixed upon him. 3. A desire to silence conscience. The effrontery is often assumed, just as the rustic traveller when near a churchyard whistles, not because he is courageous, but to keep his courage up. Conscience reproaches and warns, and the sinner seeks to silence it by greater desperation in wickedness. 4. A seared conscience. In the course just named the sinner too often succeeds. Conscience, defied and outraged, desists from her useless efforts, and gives herself over to an insensible lethargy; there will come an hour of terrible awakening; but meanwhile she is blind, deaf, dumb, and the sinner perpetrates the most abominable iniquities without a blush [544] 5. Infidelity. The sinner has succeeded at last in persuading himself that what he wishes were true is true, and that there is no God, and, consequently, no day of judgment and no hell. As soon as men have cast off fear of God, it is easy for them to cast off fear of man. The ordinary fruit of infidelity is vice. What but prudence is left to restrain the infidel from partaking in the pleasures of sin? And how weak prudence is in any real contest with passion! [544] Blind and ignorant consciences speak peace, or hold their peace, because they have not skill enough to find fault; they swallow many a fly, and digest all well enough. While the scales were upon Paul’s eyes, he was alive and quiet; he thought concupiscence, the sin and breeder of all sin, to be no sin. Such consciences discern sin as we do stars in a dark night,—see only the great ones of the first magnitude, whereas a bright even discovers millions; or as we see a few motes in the dark houses, which sunlight shows to be infinite. Such think good meaning will serve the turn, that all religions will save, or a “Lord, have mercy on us,” at the last gasp. The law which nature has engraven, they tread out with sins, as men do the engravings of tombs they walk on with foul shoes: they dare not look in the glass of God’s law, which makes sin abound, lest the foulness of their souls should affright them. A number of such Scottish souls there be, whose consciences, if God opens, as He did the eyes of the prophet’s servant, they shall see armies and legions of sins and devils in them.—Ward, 1577–1639. II. THE OF IN SIN. This is declared by the prophet to be woe—woe of peculiar intensity and awfulnes. “Woe unto their soul!” &c. They stand in peril of the severest chastisements of the Divine justice—1. Because shamelessness in sin is an aggravation of sin. It is felt to be so in the home, in the nation. Disloyalty is an evil thing, but to break forth into open rebellion, and to take the field against the monarch, is worse. 2. Because shamelessness in sin adds to the contagiousness of sin. One reason why sin is so hateful in the sight of God is because it renders every sinner a moral pestilence. Corrupt, he corrupts others (Ecclesiastes 9:18). But of shameless sinners this is especially true. 1. They lead many to imitate them in their wickedness. In every community these shameless sinners are ringleaders in vice and recruiting-sergeants for the devil. 2. They confirm many in wickedness. Many are “halting between two opinions,” and these shameless offenders, by their example, and often by their persuasions, supply that which is needed to bring these irresolute ones to a decision for a life of iniquity. Thus they are soul-murderers as well as soul-suicides. Justice, therefore, demands that their punishment shall be especially severe. Their doom will probably be as manifest as their guilt. . 1. Let those who have been thus shameless in sin humble themselves before Almighty God. Even for them to-day there is mercy (Isaiah 55:7; Isaiah 1:18). Let no sinner be deterred from seeking mercy by the greatness of his sins (Ezra 9:6, with Psalms 108:4, and Romans 5:20). Yet let no sinner presume further to transgress because God is so merciful. There is an awful warning in the gracious invitation (Isaiah 55:6). 2. As ignorance is one main cause of shamelessness in sin, let Sunday-school teachers recognise the importance of the task in which they are engaged. Though they may not be able to point to individual conversions as the result of their efforts, they are not labouring in vain; by them the moral sense of the community is being raised. Evil as are our days, the testimony is conclusive that the former days were not better, but worse. 3. As habit is another main cause of shamelessness in sin, let the young be anxiously on their guard against the formation of evil habits. But habits grow from acts. A single action is consequently more important than it seems. There are certain actions which have in themselves a special decisiveness of influence. When a young man has once entered a bar parlour, he has entered upon the high way to drunkenness; he may not reach it, but he is on the high way to it. Another most decisive step towards shamelessness in sin is taken when a young person who has been trained under Christian influence joins a Sunday excursion. It is by this gate that millions have entered that path of open transgression, along which they have hastened to perdition. 4. Let the people of God be very careful to leave shameless sinners without excuse. It is by the inconsistencies of professing Christians that such persons endeavour to shield themselves from censure and to silence their consciences. Hence Ephesians 5:15; Colossians 4:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:22. WORDS AND SOLEMN Isa_3:10-11. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat of the fruit of their own doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Into these two orders, the righteous and the wicked, the Bible is accustomed to divide the whole population of the globe.—A crimson line runs between the righteous and the wicked, the line of atoning sacrifice: faith crosses that line, but nothing else can. There can be no righteousness where there is no faith.—This distinction is so sharp and definite, that no man can dwell in a borderland between the two conditions. A clear line of demarcation exists between life and death, and such a division is fixed by God between the righteous and the wicked. There are no monstrous nondescripts, who are neither sinners nor saints. This text ought, therefore, to lead to great searching of heart. I. The well-being of the righteous. 1. It is a great fact that it is well with the righteous. It is well with him always: in prosperity, which is a time of peril; in persecution, which is hard to bear; in childhood, manhood, and old age; in time, and throughout eternity. 2. We are assured of this fact on Divine authority. Reason might assure us of it, but it is better to have it under the hand and seal of omniscience. If thou canst not see it, let God’s word stand thee instead of sight. 3. It is the will of God that His people should know this great fact. He would have his saints happy, and therefore He says to His prophets, “Say ye,” &c. 4. With God’s people it is emphatically “well.” When GOD says it is “well” with a man, it must be well indeed. 5. There are many obvious reasons why it is well with the righteous. (1.) His greatest trouble is past. His greatest trouble was the guilt of sin. (2.) His next greatest trouble is doomed. The dominion of sin over him shall speedily come to an end. (3.) His best things are safe. His treasures are in heaven. (4.) His worst things work only for his good. (5.) He is well fed, for he feeds upon Christ; well clad, for he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; well housed, for he dwells in God who has been the dwelling-place of His people in all generations; well married, for his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; well provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd. (6.) God has put within him many graces, that help to make things well; faith, which laughs at difficulties; love, which accepts them; patience, which endures them; hope, which expects a rest to come. (7.) Day by day, God the Holy Ghost visits him with fresh life and power. (8.) He has a bank that never breaks—the glorious “throne of grace;” and he has only to apply on bended knee to get what he will. (9.) He has ever near him a most sweet Companion, whose loving converse is so delightful that the roughest roads grow smooth, and the darkest nights glow with brightness. (10.) He has an arm to lean upon that is never weary, never feeble, never withdrawn. (11.) He is favoured with a perpetual Comforter, who pours wine and oil into every wound, and brings to his remembrance the things which Christ has spoken. It is well with the righteous in life, well when he comes to die, and well after death. 6. The blessedness of the righteous rests upon a solid ground. The text says, “they shall eat the fruit of their doings.” Those are the only terms upon which the old covenant can promise that it shall be well with us; but this is not the ground upon which you and I stand under the gospel dispensation. Absolutely to eat the fruit of our doings would be even to us, if judgment were brought to the line and righteousness to the plummet, a very dreadful thing. Yet there is a limited sense in which the righteous man will do this. “I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat,” &c., is good gospel language; and when the Master shall say, “Inasmuch as ye did this unto one of the least of these my people, ye did it unto me,” the reward will not be of debt, but still it will be a reward, and the righteous will eat the fruit of his doings. I prefer, however, to remark, that there is One whose doings for us is the ground of our dependence, and we shall eat of the fruit of His doings. II. The misery of the wicked. To expound the woe pronounced against him, you have only to negative all that I have already said about the righteous. It is ill with the wicked; always ill with him; we know this on Divine authority; it is emphatically “ill” with him; and it shall be ill with him for ever [547] But why is it ill with the wicked? 1. He is out of joint with all the world. Ordinary creatures are obedient to God, but he has set himself in opposition to the whole current of creation. 2. He has an enemy who is omnipotent. 3. His joys all hang on a thread. Let life’s thread be cut, and where are his merriments? 4. After these joys are over, he has no more to come. 5. Of all the comforts and hopes of the righteous, he is utterly destitute.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xiii. 13–24. [547] Many sinners who seem so jocund in our eyes have not such merry lives as you think. A book may be fairly bound and gilded, yet have but sad stories writ within it. Sinners will not tell us all the secret rebukes that conscience gives them. If you will judge of Herod by the jollity of his feast, you may think he wanted no joy; but at another time we see that John’s ghost walked in his conscience. And so doth the Word haunt many, who appear to us to lay nothing to heart. In the midst of their laughter, their heart is sad: you see the lightning in their face, but hear not the thunder that rumbles in their conscience.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. Suppose a man were in prison, committed for some great offence, and condemned to die under the displeasure of his prince or state, and his servant should come to him, saying, “Sir, be of good comfort; your wife is well at home; you have very sweet children, an excellent crop of corn; your neighbours love you dearly; your sheep and cattle thrive, and all your houses are in good repair.” Would he not answer that servant, “What is all this, so long as I am condemned to die”? Thus is it with every wicked man. He is under the displeasure of the great God, a condemned man, and God is angry with him every day; and if his heart were open to be sensible of it, he would say, “You tell me of my friends, and goods, and name, and trade; but what is all this, so long as I am a condemned person, and God is angry with me every day I rise?”—Bridge, 1600–1670. Who would think, now, that sees how quietly the multitude of the ungodly live, that they must very shortly lie roaring in everlasting flames? They lie down, and rise, and sleep as quietly; they eat and drink as quietly; they go about their work as cheerfully; they talk as pleasantly, as if nothing ailed them, or as if they were as far out of danger as an obedient believer. Like a man that hath the falling sickness, you would little think, while he is labouring as strongly and talking as heartily as another man, how he will presently fall down, lie gasping and foaming, and beating his breast in torment! so it is with these men. They are as free from the fears of hell as others, as free from any vexing sorrows, not so much as troubled with any cares of the state of their souls, nor with any sad and serious thoughts of what shall become of them in another world; yea, and for the most part, they have less doubts and disquiet of mind, than those who shall be saved. Oh, happy men, if they could be always thus; and if this peace would prove a lasting peace! But, alas, there is the misery! it will not. They are now in their own element, as the fish in the water; but little knows that silly creature when he is most fearlessly and delightfully swallowing down the bait, how suddenly he shall be snatched out, and lie dead upon the bank; and as little think these careless sinners what a change is near. The sheep or ox is driven quietly to the slaughter, because he knows not whither he goes; if he knew it were to his death, you could not drive him so easily. How contented is the swine when the butcher’s knife is shaving his throat, little thinking that it is to prepare for his death! Why, it is even so with these sensual, careless men; they fear the mischief least, when it is nearest to them, because they see it not!—Baxter, 1615–1691. THE GREAT LAW OF Isa_3:10-11. Say ye to the righteous, &c.This is the testimony of conscience; conscience testifies that that which is here predicted ought to take place—that the condition and circumstances of men ought to be conformed to their character. This is the testimony of reason: in its clearest, calmest, strongest hours, it endorses this testimony of the conscience. This is the declaration of Almighty God: He here promises that He will do that which conscience and reason agree that He ought to do. Thus we have here a conclusive concurrence of testimony, and the truths announced in our text should be recorded in our memory as absolutely certain. These declarations remind us of two things. I. That we are living now in a season of probation. These messages are much needed, because we are surrounded by much that is perplexing. Here and now fidelity to conscience often entails much loss, sorrow, and suffering. Many of the wicked are prosperous and triumphant. Iniquity pays. Moreover, the sufferings of the righteous and the successes of the wicked are often lifelong. This contrast between what ought to be and what is, has been a source of moral disquietude in all ages (Psalms 73, &c). Yet it is absolutely necessary. Without this moral obscurity there could not have been any moral probation. There is no temptation in prussic acid, because its deadly qualities are indisputable, and because they operate instantaneously. If all sins had their penalties as clearly and closely tied to them, vice would be impossible. And so would virtue! Obedience to the Divine will would then be, not an act of choice, but the result of an irresistible moral compulsion, and it would have in it no morally educational influence, and nothing to render it acceptable to God. Not by chance, then, not by mistake, not as the result of a harsh and unloving decree, but as the result of ordinances of the highest wisdom and grace, we are now living in a season of moral probation. But, II. We are hastening on to a season of rectifications and rewards. Conscience and reason attest that there ought to be such a season, and the Scriptures assure us that there shall be (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:6-10, &c.) The great facts of which our text reminds us, 1. Should give calmness and steadiness to our faith. We should not be greatly moved either by the distresses of the righteous or the triumphs of the wicked. These are most transient. The longest life is really a most inconsiderable episode in our being. This is but the beginning of our voyage; what matters it whether we clear out of port in a storm or amid bright sunshine? What will happen to us on mid-ocean is the only thing worthy of our concern. 2. They should govern us in the decisions we have continually to make in life, between courses that are right, but involve present suffering, and those which are pleasant, but wrong. The sick man who refuses to undergo the present pain which will assure him of future health, and prefers the transient ease which will presently give place to intolerable agony, is insane. Let us not imitate him in his folly. But if the rewards of every man’s hands shall be given him, how shall any man be saved? This is precisely the difficulty which the Gospel was designed to meet. It is precisely because no man can be saved on his own merits that Christ came into the world, and died for every man, and now offers redemption to every man. This offer is made to YOU. For Christ’s sake, the sins of the righteous shall be forgiven them; and for His sake likewise, they shall be rewarded according to their works (Matthew 10:42; Matthew 16:27; Hebrews 6:10, &c.) Between the doctrine of justification by faith and the doctrine of good works there is the most perfect harmony. THE CURSE OF A WEAK Isa_3:12. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. “Children,” “women,” are not to be taken literally. In interpreting the second of these figures, we must remember the status of women in ancient times in the East. I. A weak government is a curse. 1. By such a government the affairs of a nation are mismanaged, its resources squandered, and its great possibilities unrealised. 2. A weak government always becomes in the end an oppressive government. By it the national burdens are caused to press most heavily on those least able to bear them. 3. Under such a government, privileged classes and monopolies multiply and grow strong, to the hurt of the nation at large. 4. Worst of all, and as the source of countless evils, government itself comes to be despised, and the national respect for law destroyed. In short, under a weak government a nation makes rapid progress towards anarchy. II. The curse of a weak government is not long in overtaking a nation that gives itself up to luxury and loses its regard for moral considerations. 1. It is only by such a nation that such a government would be tolerated. 2. By such a nation such a government is likely to be for a time most popular (Jeremiah 5:31). The cures for political evils are not political but moral. Political remedies will but modify the symptoms. Political evils are really due to moral causes, and can only be removed by moral reformations. Hence, while good men will never neglect their political duties (no good man will neglect any duty), they will be especially in earnest to uplift the nation morally, and therefore will do their utmost to strengthen those agencies which have this for their aim—the church, the school, and those societies which exist for the diffusion of the Scriptures and of religious liberty Wherever the Bible becomes the book of the people, oppression by “children” becomes impossible, and the government of “women” is set aside. BLIND LEADERSIsa_3:12. O my people, they which lead thee [550] cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. [550] The marginal reading, “they which call thee happy” (Malachi 3:12; Malachi 3:15), represents vividly the method adopted by the false prophets; who, instead of warning the people against the dangers of prosperity, were ever felicitating them upon it, saying, “Peace, peace, when there was no peace.” But the textual rendering appears to be the preferable one.—Kay. This is at once a lament and a condemnation—a lament over the misfortunes of those who are misguided, a condemnation of their folly and wickedness in permitting themselves to be led astray. I. Men need to be led. 1. This is our need as individuals. Every day we need an answer to the questions, What ought I to do? Which way should I go In the journey of life, we continually come to crossings at which we are conscious of our need of guidance. 2. Guidance is still more necessary for men collectively. What shall be the belief of a community? What its action? Like the apostolic band (John 21:2-3), communities remain idle, undecided, until the born leader says, “I go a-fishing,” and instantly they say to him, “We also go with thee.” Men are naturally gregarious; like a flock of sheep they crowd and inconvenience each other, not knowing which way to turn, until one bolder than the rest breaks away from the flock, and then instantly the flock begins to follow him. II. As a rule men are misled. Boldness and wisdom do not always go together. Not seldom the courage which prompts men to become the leaders of others, and which goes so far to command the assent of others, is a compound of self-conceit and ignorance. Men are always prone to trust in the self-confident: they will believe the boastful quack rather than the diffident philosopher. Hence in all ages men have been caused to err—the blind have been led by the blind. How true this is to-day in political matters, in social, in commercial, in religious! [Give instances.] On every hand, in all these realms of thought and action, there are those who can only rightly be described as leaders who cause the people to err. Yea, all men carry within them two leaders, in whom they are disposed implicitly to trust, but by whom in the majority of instances they are misled—reason and conscience. How absolute is the confidence placed in these guides, and how seldom it is justified! III. To be misled is one of the most terrible of evils. 1. It involves the loss of all the good to which right leadership would have conducted men. 2. It involves disappointment, shame, sorrow, and often irretrievable ruin. 3. It plunges men into painful perplexities, so that even when they have begun to suspect that the path they are pursuing is erroneous, they know not how to discover the true one; it seems to them to be “destroyed;” they search for it in vain. They are like travellers who, in the darkness following Will-of-the-Wisp, have strayed from the highway into a morass: to stand still is impossible, and yet to step in any direction, may plunge them into worse perils (Matthew 15:14). How criminal is the conduct of those who betray their fellow-men into misery such as this! In view of these facts, 1. We should not entrust ourselves to the first guide who offers himself to us. Let us examine the credentials of those who ask us to trust ourselves to their care (Matthew 24:24; 1 John 4:1-3; Isaiah 8:20). 2. In weighing the claims of men to be our leaders, we should have regard supremely to their moral qualifications. Their intellectual competency is, of course, not to be disregarded, but moral character is infinitely more important. Not all good men are fitted to be leaders; but no bad man can safely be followed by others. He is continually apt to be guided by policy, rather than principle, and policy leads to perdition [553] Policy is at the best but guess-work—steering by the current: the man who is governed by principle steers by the stars, and neither can be long misled, nor will he wilfully mislead others. Practical Application.—Never vote for any candidate for a public office, however clever he may be, if his integrity is doubtful. 3. Every man needs guidance more close and intimate than any of his fellow-men can afford him: he needs to be led even in choosing his leaders. Whither shall he look for this guidance? To his reason, his conscience? These guides themselves need instruction [556] in the absence of it, they have led millions to perdition. We need supernatural and sure guidance, and we have it (1) in God’s Word, and (2) in God’s Spirit (Proverbs 3:5-6). The man who follows these guides will be led always in the paths of righteousness and peace. [553] Men know where they are going when they follow a principle; because principles are rays of light. If you trace a ray of light in all its reflections, you will find that it runs back to the central sun; and every great line of honesty, every great line of honour, runs back towards the centre of God. And the man that follows these things knows that he is steering right Godward. But the man that follows policies, and worldly maxims, does not know where he is steering, except that in general he is steering toward the devil.—Beecher. [556] Reason is God’s candle in man. But, as a candle must first be lighted, ere it will enlighten, so reason must be illuminated by Divine grace, ere it can savingly discern spiritual things.—Toplady, 1740–1778. Conscience, as an expression of the law or will and mind of God, is not now to be implicitly depended on. It is not infallible. What was true to its office in Eden, has been deranged and shattered by the fall; and now lies, as I have seen a sun-dial in the neglected garden of an old, desolate ruin, thrown down from its pedestal, prostrate on the ground, and covered by tall, rank weeds. So far from being since that fatal event an infallible directory of duty, conscience has often lent its sanction to the grossest errors, and prompted to the greatest crimes. Did not Saul of Tarsus, for instance, hale men and women to prison; compel them to blaspheme; and imbrue his hands in saintly blood, while conscience approved the deed—he judging the while that he did God service? What wild and profane imaginations has it accepted as the oracles of God? and as if fiends had taken possession of a God-deserted shrine, have not the foulest crimes, as well as the most shocking cruelties, been perpetrated in its name? Read the Book of Martyrs, read the sufferings of our forefathers; and, under the cowl of a shaven monk, or the trappings of a haughty Churchman, you shall see conscience persecuting the saints of God, and dragging even tender women and children to the bloody scaffold or the burning stake. With eyes swimming in tears, or flashing fire, we close the painful record, to apply to Conscience the words addressed to Liberty by the French heroine, when, passing its statue, she rose in the cart that bore her to the guillotine, and throwing up her arms, exclaimed, “O Liberty, what crimes have been done in thy name!” And what crimes in thine, O Conscience! deeds from which even humanity shrinks; against which religion lifts her loudest protest; and which furnish the best explanation of these awful words, “If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!” So far as doctrines and duties are concerned, not conscience, but the revealed Word of God, is our one, only sure and safe directory.—Guthrie. THE PLEADER AND THE JUDGEIsa_3:13-15. The Lord standeth up to plead, &c.I. THE PLEADER WHO HERE HIMSELF. Note 1. His majesty. The ancient idea of an advocate was that of a venerable person who would be heard for his own sake, and who would therefore be able to secure for the cause of his clients an attention that would not otherwise he accorded to it. The ideal of a pleader was that of a person noble in birth and blameless in character. To a considerable extent this ideal has been preserved in our English courts of law. A barrister must be a gentleman (at least in this sense, that he has never earned his bread by manual labour), and of good repute as a man of honour. Certain barristers have established such a reputation, not only for ability and learning, but also for character, and are always listened to with respect; happy therefore is the suitor who is able to secure their advocacy. But this Pleader—how august and venerable is He! How infatuated are those who do not stand prepared to listen carefully and respectfully to whatever He may advance! 2. His benevolence. The ancient idea of a pleader was again that of a person who undertook to advocate the cause of another out of a sense of justice and compassion. Advocacy was esteemed too sacred a thing to be purchased with money. In the course of time the practice sprang up of rewarding the exertions of an advocate by an honorarium; but the distinction that still exists between a barrister and an attorney, shows us what the ancient idea of the advocate was. In God this idea is perfectly fulfilled. Without fee or reward, out of pure compassion and justice, He has become “counsel” for the poor and oppressed. Of this fact there is abundant evidence in Scripture, and surely it should kindle within us admiration and love. We justly venerate Howard, Clarkson, Wilberforce—shall we not still more greatly honour God, who stoops to regard them that are of low degree, and becomes the advocate of those who have no other friend? 3. His earnestness. The advocate is supposed to make the cause of his client for the time being his own. Often the supposition is realised in a remarkable degree. But in God it is perfectly realised. The oppressed for whom He pleads He speaks of, not merely as “these people,” but as “my people.” In all their afflictions He is afflicted. However frequently men may forget it, He remembers that He is the Father of all mankind, and the wrongs of His children He feels to be His wrongs; the feebler they are, the less able they are to defend themselves, the more do their wrongs wound Him, and provoke Him to anger—This is the Advocate who stands up to plead for the oppressed. Will the oppressors be so infatuated as to turn a deaf ear to His pleading? Let those who are tempted to do so pause, and consider II. THAT HE WHO NOW PLEADS BEFORE THEM WILL BE THEIR JUDGE. An astonishing reversal of circumstances is about to take place: the Advocate is about to ascend the judicial bench, and those before whom He pleads are to stand at His bar. He has announced beforehand the principles upon which then He will proceed. 1. He will have no regard to rank. He will “enter into judgment with the ancients and princes.” In many countries, great criminals have been able to defy the judge; but none shall be able to defy this Judge [562] 2. He will pronounce mere indifference to want and suffering a crime (Matthew 25:42-45). 3. Those who have inflicted suffering He will judge upon the strict rule of retribution, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (James 2:13). [562] Justice, when equal scales she holds, is blind, Nor cruelty nor mercy change her mind. When some escape for that which others die, Mercy to those, to these is cruelty: A fine and slender net the spider weaves: Which little and slight animals receives; And if she catch a summer bee or fly, They with a piteous groan and murmur die; But if a wasp or hornet she entrap, They tear her cords, like Sampson, and escape; So, like a fly, the poor offender dies; But like the wasp, the rich escapes and flies. —Sir John Denham. In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft ’tis seen, the wicked prize itself Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above: There is no shuffling, there the action lies In its nature; and we ourselves compell’d, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. —Shakespeare. By these truths let us be guided in our use of whatever power over others that may have been entrusted to us. Let us hear God proclaiming that the poor are His people, and let us so comport ourselves towards them, that in the end we may come to know the fulness of the meaning of the Master’s declaration, that “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” OF THE POORIsa_3:15. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts. That infidelity should progress among the labouring classes is one of the most surprising and unreasonable things imaginable. For there is no book so emphatically on the side of the poor as is the Bible. Were the Bible obeyed, the miseries of the poor would vanish. The truth, however, is, that the Bible has suffered from its professed friends. The upper classes who have patronised it have not put its precepts into practice, and the victims of their greed and oppression have foolishly accepted their conduct as an exposition of the teaching of the book which they have professed to venerate. Hence the wrongs which the poor have suffered have prepared them to listen to the blasphemies and to accept the sophisms of infidel lecturers. The employer of labour who oppresses his men during the six days of the week, and goes to church twice on the Sunday, is more dangerous to society than a score of Tom Paines or Bradlaughs. Hence also it is the duty of God’s “prophets” in all ages to confront such men with the question of our text. I. Oppression of the poor is one of the most common of all sins. It has been practised in all ages, in all countries, by all classes, in most varied forms. “Poor” is a relative term. Masters have oppressed their servants, debtors their creditors, officers their soldiers, kings their subjects, people their pastors. The oppression has often been so terrible that the oppressed have sought refuge in suicide. “Man’s cruelty to manMakes countless thousands mourn.”II. Oppression of the poor is one of the most hateful of all sins. 1. It is a misuse of strength. Strength is given to men that they may be helpful to each other; but the oppressor uses his strength as if he were a tiger or a wolf; as if he were a wrecker who drowns the shipwrecked mariner whom he ought to rescue. 2. It is a cowardly and shameful advantage that is taken of human weakness. To lead a blind man into a quagmire or over a precipice would be thought a shameful act, even by the most degraded villains. But in what respect would it differ in principle from oppression of the poor? The weak and needy, by reason of their feebleness and poverty, have a claim upon our pity and help; to oppress them is to outrage the primary laws of conscience. Yet how often it is done! III. Oppression of the poor is among those sins which are certain to be most terribly punished. The oppressor proceeds on the idea, that the man whom he oppresses has no friends to succour and avenge him. What a mistake! All the oppressed have a friend and avenger in GOD. Shall oppression go unrequited? Nay, verily! For, 1. It is an offence against God’s laws. He has distinctly commanded us to love our neighbour as ourselves, and how manifold are the applications of this great commandment! 2. It is an offence against God’s feelings. In a peculiar manner His sensibilities are outraged when His children act cruelly towards each other. Oppression of the poor kindles within Him mingled disgust and indignation, [559][559] These things are done before God, who looks upon every part of the human family as His own. How should you feel if you were to enter the room where your child is sleeping, and find upon it a stealthy cat, stationed at the portal of life, and stopping its very breath? How should you feel were you to find upon your child a vampire that had fastened into its flesh his blood-sucking bill, and was fast consuming its vitality? How do you feel when one of your children tramples upon another? or when your neighbour’s children crush yours? or when ruffian violence strikes against those whose hearts for ever carry the core of your heart? Judge from your own feelings how God, with His infinite sensibility, must feel when He sees men rising up against their fellow-men; performing gross deeds of cruelty on every hand, waging wars that cause blood to flow throughout the globe; when, in short, He sees them devastating society by every infernal mischief that their ingenuity can invent.—Beecher. What shall become of the oppressor? No creature in heaven or earth shall testify his innocency. But the sighs, cries, and groans of undone parents, of beggared widows and orphans, shall witness the contrary. All his money, like hempseed, is sowed with curses; and every obligation is written on earth with ink and blood, and in hell with blood and fire.—Adams, 1653. . 1. A due consideration of our text would deter men from the sin here denounced. The question which God now addresses to oppressors He will, with a slight difference, put to them again—when they shall he gathered at His bar! “What meant ye that ye did beat my people to pieces, and did grind the faces of the poor?” Bethink you, O ye oppressors, what will ye answer then? Will it be, “Lord, we thought Thou wert too great to take any notice of what men did on earth”? or, “Lord, we oppressed them because they were weak, and we saw we could make a good profit out of their defencelessness”? Do these excuses seem to you too flimsy to be seriously suggested? Consider, then, what more valid vindication will be at your command in that day. In that day you will stand “speechless!” 2. A remembrance of the prevalence of the crime denounced in our text will give soundness and vigour to our theology. The demand of our day is for “a God all mercy.” Men are endeavouring to cover up hell with the rose-leaves of a spurious benevolence. But a remembrance of the wrongs that are done upon earth, the frightful cruelties that are every day perpetrated, will convince us that hell is a moral necessity. “A God all mercy” would be not only “a God unkind,” but a God unjust, a God worthy only of the pity and contempt of his creatures. 3. A due consideration of the manner in which God intervenes on behalf of the wronged and defenceless, will inspire all noble minds with veneration and admiration for His character. Jehovah is no Brahma, throned in eternal calm, and indifferent to the sins and sufferings of mankind; He is a Father, prompt to feel and to avenge the wrongs of His children. Let us resolve to be like Him. Let us not only avoid oppression in all its forms; let us be swift to sympathise with and to succour the oppressed. FEMALE PRIDE AND LUXURYIsa_3:16, Isaiah 4:1. Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.We have here a terrible denunciation of female pride and luxury. Consider— I. ITS . In almost every age and country there have been women such as are here described. II. ITS CAUSES. There must be powerful causes to produce such a wide-spread effect. Like all things that are wrong, these evil things—the pride and luxury of so many women—are due to perversions of things that are right,—mainly, to certain things which are among the differentia of the female sex, such as— 1. A keener love of beauty than is common among men. The love of many women for soft textures and bright colours is as innocent, and free from all trace of personal vanity, as is the love of children for flowers. 2. A stronger yearning for admiration than is common among men. There are vain men, always on the outlook for indications of admiration, and they are simply contemptible. But it is an instinct of the true woman-nature to desire to be loved, and to value highly all things that tend to win love. 3. A recognition of the gifts of personal beauty. As a rule, women have more to be proud of in this respect than have men. If a woman is fair, she is simply a hypocrite if she pretends not to know it. Then there come in, 4. Rivalry, which in itself is a right thing, but becomes a harmful thing when women set themselves to out-dress each other. 5. Timidity, one of the graces of the female character, but that often leads to great evils. Few men have the courage to be singular, and fewer women sufficient self-reliance not to follow the fashion. But the pride and luxury of women is largely due also to the folly of men:— (1.) Most men esteem and reward clothes more than character. Men are taken by such things as are mentioned in our text, and the fisher is not much to be blamed for adapting the bait to the taste of the fish. (2.) Even of those men who condemn female luxury in the abstract, few have the courage to banish it from their own homes. (3.) The lips of many men are sealed on this question by their own vices. They have their indulgences, and one of the prices which they pay for peace in their pursuit is silence as to this indulgence on the part of their wives and daughters. There is an unexpressed but wicked compromise on this matter. III. ITS . 1. The intellectual degradation of woman, the concentration of nearly all her thoughts on the question of dress. 2. The moral debasement of many women. For the means of gratifying their craving for luxury and display, how many have sold their virtue! 3. The destruction of that female influence which should always be exerted, and when exerted, is so powerful in aid of moral nobility. Sensual grossness in men is at once a cause and consequence of licentious vanity in women. 4. Commercial frauds, to which men resort to provide the means for the maintenance of the luxury of their homes. Men and women are thus partakers in this sin, and as such, in the days of visitation, they shall suffer together (Isaiah 3:17; Isaiah 3:25; Isaiah 4:1) [568][568] Isaiah 4:1. The Jewess, like the ancient Roman, or modern Englishwoman, was called by her husband’s name; and she prized the honour of wedlock, and dreaded the reproach of childlessness, at least as much as either of these; but we most contrast the dignified expression of these feelings by Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth, nay, even that of the jealous and petulant Rachel, with the exhibition which the prophet now contemplates in his mind’s eye, in order to see the picture of social disorganisation which he sees. If a harem of wives and concubines was still a part of the king’s state in Isaiah’s time, though we have no proof of this, it is quite improbable that polygamy was the common custom of the nation, or that they had not long passed out of the half-civilised condition and habits for which Moses had provided in his laws for the protection of the female slaves whom a man might take at the same time for his wives; but now Isaiah says that these women, whose luxury and pride he has just described, will abandon even the natural reserve of their sex, and not only force themselves several upon one man, but declare that they will be content to share with each other a legalised concubinage in which they will not claim the concubine’s ancient right of bread and apparel, which the old law (Exodus 21:10) had in express terms secured to her, if only they may bear his name. It need not be supposed that Isaiah anticipated the literal fulfilment of his words; we shall probably understand him better by taking this as an instance of that poetic or rhetorical hyperbole, which he so delights to use for the more forcible expression of his moral and political teaching. The mystery which some commentators have seen in the numbers “seven” and “one” in this passage, and which is even said to have occasioned the separation of this portion of the prophecy into a distinct chapter, perhaps makes worth while the obvious remark that it is nothing more than the wide-spread idiom of modern as well as ancient languages, by which a definite or round number is put for an indefinite. Seven is thus generally used by the Hebrews for any considerable number, as it was among the Egyptians and Persians, and is still said to be in the East. The Moguls are said to employ nine in like manner. So, in English, we put five or ten for any small, and a hundred for a large number, in conversation; though the genius of our language forbids such idioms in graver discourse.—Strachey, pp. 55, 56. THE AND POWER OF WARIsa_4:1. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will at our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach [571][571] See note to preceding outline. This verse gives us a vivid picture of the desolating and disorganising power of war. The 25th and 26th verses of the previous chapter say “Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground.” This righteous chastisement has come. So often have the men been called into the field, so exterminating has been the carnage, as that now few men remain. The natural proportion of the sexes is disturbed. This disorganisation invades woman’s nature. Her natural modesty departs. With violent importunity seven women press marriage on one man. They will be no expense to him; they will earn their own food and raiment, if he will only give them his name in marriage. The writer of this outline has recently travelled in a land [Mexico] whose revolutions during the last fifty years have been so frequent as that he found parts of the country where the prophet’s words are true to-day. The men have been killed in battle. In some districts there are seven women to one man. I. The tendency of sin is to produce war and to degrade women. The apostle James has described the genesis of war (Isaiah 4:1). Nations are but the aggregate of individuals. If the lusts of selfishness, greed, malice, &c., nestle like vipers in the hearts of individual men, they will be manifest in the nation. 1. Sin deteriorates man’s intellectual faculties. In its present unpurified condition, the human intellect is not inventive enough to discover those commercial relationships which will eventually bind in bonds of amity the nations of the world together. 2. Sin intensifies human selfishness. One of the most desolating wars of modern times originated in that gross selfishness which was too blind to see that it was a sin to hold property in man. 3. Sin intensifies human greed. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark,” is a despised threat. Again and again has war originated in greed of territory and lust of plunder. 4. Sin intensifies human ambition. In the heart of all great conquerors, from Nimrod to Napoleon, has lain the lust of unholy ambition. Their motto has ever been “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” 5. Side by side with these lusts of selfishness, greed, ambition, &c, there has been a lack of justice and mercy. No mind having these latter sentiments healthily developed could “cry havock and let slip the dogs of war.” When the leaders of nations learn “to do justly and love mercy,” wars will be less common. 6. With war have come numerous evils to woman. The text describes some of them. Others come to the surface every day. Her husband has been forced from her side, or her sons have died on the battlefield; very bitter have been woman’s sorrows,—“Yea, a sword hath pierced through her own soul also.” And always where soldiers are multiplied in a land, and taken away from useful employment, women have been polluted and degraded. War and womanly degradation are inseparable evils. II. It is the tendency of Christianity to produce peace and elevate woman. 1. To produce peace in its loftiest and widest sense Christ came into the world. The prophet Isaiah predicted Him as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). At His birth angels sang, “Peace on earth, good-will to man” (Luke 2:14). 2. By His atoning work He has laid the foundation of peace between man and God, and consequently between man and man. 3. The direct influence of Christ’s religion is to restrain and destroy those evil propensities out of which wars originate—lust of greed, ambition, malice, &c. What is in the individual comes out in the community. As individuals and nations become truly Christian and form the majority, wars will cease. 4. Prophecy speaks of a time coming when the principles of Christianity shall be in the ascendant, and then men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, &c., &c. (chap. Isaiah 2:4). 5. As the gospel of peace advances in a land woman’s condition is always elevated. The Christian man honours woman as no other man does. As he grows into the stature of Christ, woman’s lot is always happier. Compare woman’s status in pagan, Mohammedan, and barbarous lands, with her status in Christendom. III. Hence while the Gospel claims as its advocate every Christian man, it has special claims on the service of every pious woman.—Every good man is called upon to spread the blessings of Christianity as widely as possible. But there are some evils whose removal appeals specially to pious women. Every good woman should throw her influence into the aggregate of the peace spirit, as against that war spirit which in certain stages of civilisation seems so natural to man. All women should join together to make up an army of peace promoters, outnumbering the men of the sword. To relieve their sisters from sorrow and save them from degradation, should be the aim of all good women.—William Parkes. FEMALE PRIDE AND LUXURYIsa_3:16, Isaiah 4:1. Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.We have here a terrible denunciation of female pride and luxury. Consider— I. ITS . In almost every age and country there have been women such as are here described. II. ITS CAUSES. There must be powerful causes to produce such a wide-spread effect. Like all things that are wrong, these evil things—the pride and luxury of so many women—are due to perversions of things that are right,—mainly, to certain things which are among the differentia of the female sex, such as— 1. A keener love of beauty than is common among men. The love of many women for soft textures and bright colours is as innocent, and free from all trace of personal vanity, as is the love of children for flowers. 2. A stronger yearning for admiration than is common among men. There are vain men, always on the outlook for indications of admiration, and they are simply contemptible. But it is an instinct of the true woman-nature to desire to be loved, and to value highly all things that tend to win love. 3. A recognition of the gifts of personal beauty. As a rule, women have more to be proud of in this respect than have men. If a woman is fair, she is simply a hypocrite if she pretends not to know it. Then there come in, 4. Rivalry, which in itself is a right thing, but becomes a harmful thing when women set themselves to out-dress each other. 5. Timidity, one of the graces of the female character, but that often leads to great evils. Few men have the courage to be singular, and fewer women sufficient self-reliance not to follow the fashion. But the pride and luxury of women is largely due also to the folly of men:— (1.) Most men esteem and reward clothes more than character. Men are taken by such things as are mentioned in our text, and the fisher is not much to be blamed for adapting the bait to the taste of the fish. (2.) Even of those men who condemn female luxury in the abstract, few have the courage to banish it from their own homes. (3.) The lips of many men are sealed on this question by their own vices. They have their indulgences, and one of the prices which they pay for peace in their pursuit is silence as to this indulgence on the part of their wives and daughters. There is an unexpressed but wicked compromise on this matter. III. ITS . 1. The intellectual degradation of woman, the concentration of nearly all her thoughts on the question of dress. 2. The moral debasement of many women. For the means of gratifying their craving for luxury and display, how many have sold their virtue! 3. The destruction of that female influence which should always be exerted, and when exerted, is so powerful in aid of moral nobility. Sensual grossness in men is at once a cause and consequence of licentious vanity in women. 4. Commercial frauds, to which men resort to provide the means for the maintenance of the luxury of their homes. Men and women are thus partakers in this sin, and as such, in the days of visitation, they shall suffer together (Isaiah 3:17; Isaiah 3:25; Isaiah 4:1) [568][568] Isaiah 4:1. The Jewess, like the ancient Roman, or modern Englishwoman, was called by her husband’s name; and she prized the honour of wedlock, and dreaded the reproach of childlessness, at least as much as either of these; but we most contrast the dignified expression of these feelings by Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth, nay, even that of the jealous and petulant Rachel, with the exhibition which the prophet now contemplates in his mind’s eye, in order to see the picture of social disorganisation which he sees. If a harem of wives and concubines was still a part of the king’s state in Isaiah’s time, though we have no proof of this, it is quite improbable that polygamy was the common custom of the nation, or that they had not long passed out of the half-civilised condition and habits for which Moses had provided in his laws for the protection of the female slaves whom a man might take at the same time for his wives; but now Isaiah says that these women, whose luxury and pride he has just described, will abandon even the natural reserve of their sex, and not only force themselves several upon one man, but declare that they will be content to share with each other a legalised concubinage in which they will not claim the concubine’s ancient right of bread and apparel, which the old law (Exodus 21:10) had in express terms secured to her, if only they may bear his name. It need not be supposed that Isaiah anticipated the literal fulfilment of his words; we shall probably understand him better by taking this as an instance of that poetic or rhetorical hyperbole, which he so delights to use for the more forcible expression of his moral and political teaching. The mystery which some commentators have seen in the numbers “seven” and “one” in this passage, and which is even said to have occasioned the separation of this portion of the prophecy into a distinct chapter, perhaps makes worth while the obvious remark that it is nothing more than the wide-spread idiom of modern as well as ancient languages, by which a definite or round number is put for an indefinite. Seven is thus generally used by the Hebrews for any considerable number, as it was among the Egyptians and Persians, and is still said to be in the East. The Moguls are said to employ nine in like manner. So, in English, we put five or ten for any small, and a hundred for a large number, in conversation; though the genius of our language forbids such idioms in graver discourse.—Strachey, pp. 55, 56. THE AND POWER OF WARIsa_4:1. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will at our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach [571][571] See note to preceding outline. This verse gives us a vivid picture of the desolating and disorganising power of war. The 25th and 26th verses of the previous chapter say “Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground.” This righteous chastisement has come. So often have the men been called into the field, so exterminating has been the carnage, as that now few men remain. The natural proportion of the sexes is disturbed. This disorganisation invades woman’s nature. Her natural modesty departs. With violent importunity seven women press marriage on one man. They will be no expense to him; they will earn their own food and raiment, if he will only give them his name in marriage. The writer of this outline has recently travelled in a land [Mexico] whose revolutions during the last fifty years have been so frequent as that he found parts of the country where the prophet’s words are true to-day. The men have been killed in battle. In some districts there are seven women to one man. I. The tendency of sin is to produce war and to degrade women. The apostle James has described the genesis of war (Isaiah 4:1). Nations are but the aggregate of individuals. If the lusts of selfishness, greed, malice, &c., nestle like vipers in the hearts of individual men, they will be manifest in the nation. 1. Sin deteriorates man’s intellectual faculties. In its present unpurified condition, the human intellect is not inventive enough to discover those commercial relationships which will eventually bind in bonds of amity the nations of the world together. 2. Sin intensifies human selfishness. One of the most desolating wars of modern times originated in that gross selfishness which was too blind to see that it was a sin to hold property in man. 3. Sin intensifies human greed. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark,” is a despised threat. Again and again has war originated in greed of territory and lust of plunder. 4. Sin intensifies human ambition. In the heart of all great conquerors, from Nimrod to Napoleon, has lain the lust of unholy ambition. Their motto has ever been “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” 5. Side by side with these lusts of selfishness, greed, ambition, &c, there has been a lack of justice and mercy. No mind having these latter sentiments healthily developed could “cry havock and let slip the dogs of war.” When the leaders of nations learn “to do justly and love mercy,” wars will be less common. 6. With war have come numerous evils to woman. The text describes some of them. Others come to the surface every day. Her husband has been forced from her side, or her sons have died on the battlefield; very bitter have been woman’s sorrows,—“Yea, a sword hath pierced through her own soul also.” And always where soldiers are multiplied in a land, and taken away from useful employment, women have been polluted and degraded. War and womanly degradation are inseparable evils. II. It is the tendency of Christianity to produce peace and elevate woman. 1. To produce peace in its loftiest and widest sense Christ came into the world. The prophet Isaiah predicted Him as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). At His birth angels sang, “Peace on earth, good-will to man” (Luke 2:14). 2. By His atoning work He has laid the foundation of peace between man and God, and consequently between man and man. 3. The direct influence of Christ’s religion is to restrain and destroy those evil propensities out of which wars originate—lust of greed, ambition, malice, &c. What is in the individual comes out in the community. As individuals and nations become truly Christian and form the majority, wars will cease. 4. Prophecy speaks of a time coming when the principles of Christianity shall be in the ascendant, and then men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, &c., &c. (chap. Isaiah 2:4). 5. As the gospel of peace advances in a land woman’s condition is always elevated. The Christian man honours woman as no other man does. As he grows into the stature of Christ, woman’s lot is always happier. Compare woman’s status in pagan, Mohammedan, and barbarous lands, with her status in Christendom. III. Hence while the Gospel claims as its advocate every Christian man, it has special claims on the service of every pious woman.—Every good man is called upon to spread the blessings of Christianity as widely as possible. But there are some evils whose removal appeals specially to pious women. Every good woman should throw her influence into the aggregate of the peace spirit, as against that war spirit which in certain stages of civilisation seems so natural to man. All women should join together to make up an army of peace promoters, outnumbering the men of the sword. To relieve their sisters from sorrow and save them from degradation, should be the aim of all good women.—William Parkes. THE DIVINE IDEAL OF ISRAEL Isa_4:2-6. In that day shall the Branch of the Lord, &c.“That day” is the glorious period described in Isaiah 2:1-4, and those verses and our text should be read together, as the beginning and conclusion of one prophecy. At the beginning, the prophet fixes his gaze upon the sun-illumined peaks of holiness and blessing in the far future, and his spirit rises within him in exultant gladness (Isaiah 2:5); and then he begins to survey the spaces of time that lie between. Immediately at his feet he sees almost the whole nation given over to utter ungodliness, the men and the women vying with each other in their pride and luxuriousness, and in their contempt and oppression of the poor; and then he beholds the clouds of Divine vengeance gathering and bursting over the stout-hearted sinners; he sees the nation spoiled of the men who had constituted its strength, and the enfeebled people utterly desolated by war. All is blackness and darkness. But he lifts his eyes again, and there still shines before him the true Zion, dwelling in inviolable peace beneath the manifestations of the presence of her God. This was the vision which was granted him, and which he recorded for the instruction of men in all after-time. Confining our attention to the closing section of it, we are instructed— I. That underneath all God’s purposes of judgment He has designs of mercy. In certain portions of this great prophecy God comes forth in terrible majesty, and were we to have regard to them only we should be moved to pray that He would not speak to us any more (Exodus 20:19). But these judgments that cause us to tremble—what is their purpose? Not merely the infliction of righteous vengeance, but also and more that a way may be opened for manifestations of the Divine goodness. If into Zion He sends “the spirit of judgment and burning,” it is that by the purging away of her filth and blood-guiltiness she may be made meet to be the dwelling-place of God. II. That God resolved to carry out His purposes of mercy by a suitable agent. He is here designated by a twofold description, the parts of which appear to be contradictory. He is at once “the Branch of the Lord” and “the Fruit of the earth.” The significance of the first of these titles becomes more plain as we trace it in prophecy (Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12). So that “the Branch of the Lord” is a man, the son of David, that son concerning whom he sang in the Seventy-second Psalm, the Messiah—our Lord Jesus Christ! As soon as we arrive at this great truth, we perceive what is the explanation of the mysterious contradiction in the two parts of the title of the great Deliverer whom God was about to raise up for Zion (1 Timothy 3:16; Romans 1:3-4). III. That in the day when God’s designs of mercy are fulfilled, the suitability and glory of the Agent whom God resolved to employ will be universally recognised. We know how He was treated when He came forth on His great mission: He was despised and rejected of men. Yet not long after He had been put to the most ignominious of deaths, an apostle could write, “Unto you that believe He is precious.” So even on earth there was a commencement of the fulfilment of the prediction that He should be “beautiful and glorious … excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” We have been permitted also to see how He is regarded by the ransomed ones who have entered into the rest in which they await the manifestation of the sons of God (Revelation 5:6-14). By this disclosure we are enabled to form some conceptions of the manner in which this portion of the prophecy will be fulfilled “in that day” when upon the new earth “the holy city, New Jerusalem,” has come down from God out of heaven. IV. That God’s great design both in the infliction of His judgments and the operation of His mercy is the creation of universal holiness. The work entrusted to the Messiah was to “wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and to purge the blood-guiltiness of Jerusalem from the midst thereof.” There were some “written down for life in Jerusalem” (Acts 13:48),—doubtless those whom God foresaw would tremble at His threatenings and accept His gracious offers of mercy; and these the Messiah was so to purify that they should be worthy to “be called holy.” Thus one part of GOD’S IDEAL ISRAEL (Exodus 19:6) was to be realised. It was for the accomplishment of this great purpose that Christ died (Ephesians 5:25-27). It was for this end that He was exalted to God’s right hand (Acts 5:31). It is for the accomplishment of this great purpose that He now sometimes subjects His people to painful discipline (Hebrews 12:10) [574] [574] As God makes use of all the seasons of the year for the harvest, the frost of winter as well as the heat of summer, so doth He of fair and foul, pleasing and unpleasing providences for promoting holiness. Winter providences kill the weeds of lusts, and summer providences ripen and mellow the fruits of righteousness. When He afflicts it is for our profit, to make us partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Bernard compares afflictions to the teasel, which though it be sharp and scratching, is to make the cloth more pure and fine. God would not rub so hard if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is ingrained in our natures. God loves purity so well that He would rather see a hole than a spot in His child’s garments. When He deals more gently in His providences, and lets His people sit under the sunny bank of comforts and enjoyments, fencing them from the cold blasts of affliction, it is to draw forth the sap of grace, and hasten their growth in holiness.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. V. That the day of universal holiness will be a day of universal blessing. This great truth is set forth by symbols which would appeal most powerfully to the imagination and the hopes of the godly among Isaiah’s contemporaries (Isaiah 4:5-6). That which had been the distinguishing glory of the Tabernacle was to become the common glory of every dwelling in the New Jerusalem. Moreover, the whole city was to be a covering—a canopy such as in a Jewish wedding was held over the bride and bridegroom; the symbol of God’s protecting love. Beneath it, as in a tabernacle, they should dwell securely. Thus the second portion of God’s ideal concerning Israel was to be realised (Deuteronomy 28:9-10; Deuteronomy 33:28). First purity, then peace; perfect purity, perfect peace. A little later Isaiah had another vision concerning this tabernacle (Isaiah 32:2). God’s protecting love for His people is embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ; “in Him all the promises of God are Yea and Amen.” GOD’S WITH HIS PEOPLEIsa_4:2-5. In that day shall the Branch of the Lord, &c.The contrast between the preceding chapter, in which denunciations fall upon the ear like thunder, and the sunny promises of this. The references to Zion both in the Psalms and in the Prophecies are frequent and striking. Originally crowned by the Jebusite citadel, it was besieged and taken by David, who transferred his court from Hebron thither; he afterwards erected a tabernacle upon its height, and it there became the chosen resting-place of the ark of the Lord. Hence, in Scripture language, it came sometimes to denote the entire city of Jerusalem, and sometimes the Church or commonwealth of the faithful, which the Highest has promised to establish, and out of which God, the perfection of beauty, shines. You will have no difficulty in thus understanding the reference in the words before us. Applied to the ancient Zion, or even to the entire city of Jerusalem, the words are extravagant and unmeaning; applied to the Church of God—His living, spiritual temple—they are sober, comforting truths. Consider I. THE FOR THE PROMISE—(Isaiah 4:2-4). Two things are presented as antecedent to the gifts of blessing—the coming of the Divine Saviour, and His discipline for holiness within His Church. 1. The coming of the Divine Saviour (Isaiah 4:2). The transition from the gloomy judgment to the grandeur of deliverance is abrupt and striking, as if from a savage wilderness one were to emerge suddenly into green pastures and among gay flowers. So great a change passes upon human destinies when Christ the Lord comes down. We are naturally heirs of judgment. But a Saviour has been provided—a Saviour who, in the mysterious union of natures, combines perfection of sympathy and almightiness of power. Without Christ, we are hopeless and lost. Give us Christ, and we are heirs to all the fulness of God. 2. The Saviour’s discipline for holiness within His Church (Isaiah 4:3-4). With God the great thing is holiness. To work this holiness in His people, God subjects them to discipline, and, if necessary, to the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. There are some stains so deep that the fire must purge them. The constant superintendence over human affairs which these words imply is assured to us by the experience of our own witnessing hearts, which corroborate the declarations of the inspired Word. In this superintendence the Christian will rejoice. In his anxiety to be conformed to the whole image of God, he will not be careful or delicate about the means God may use. Here is a test by which to try yourselves. Are you willing to submit to this preparation for the promise? Do not shrink from the hissing brand; it will only burn away the core of the ulcer. II. THE PROMISE ITSELF (Isaiah 4:5). As we read these words, we go back to former ages and a fierce wilderness, where a pilgrim host marches, and there, now in their van for guidance, now in their rear for protection, rises a pillar of cloud by day, and by night a pillar of flame. This was the vision prominent in the prophet’s mind, when he symbolised by it God’s presence and protection to His chosen Church. We are the heirs of the glorious things thus spoken of the city of God. There is the presence of God with His Church—that is the central thought; then there are right-hand and left-hand thoughts or aspects in which that presence manifests itself, radiating itself on the one hand for counsel, and on the other hand for defence. 1. The central thought, The presence of God. It was in cloud and in fire that God specially revealed Himself to His people in days of old (Genesis 15:17; Exodus 19:18; Exodus 33:9; 1 Kings 8:10; Habakkuk 3:3-5). So long as the cloud and fire were in the camp, so long the wilderness lost half its terror, because the Israelites knew that God was in the midst of them for good. That God is still present in His Church is no impious fanatic’s dream. To be sure He does not come as He did in former times, bewildering the sight and overawing the mind. The dispensations are different. The Divine manifestations of terror which made even Moses fear and quake, would not suit this later and better dispensation of love. Yet our tabernacles are not merely places of human assembly; they are tabernacles of God’s presence, and our worship ascends not to a remote or absent God. 2. The right-hand thought, The presence of God for counsel. You remember that this was the primary purpose for which the pillar of cloud and fire was given. Consider how much it was needed by the Israelites in the trackless wilderness. (1.) For guidance in their perplexities, God’s presence is promised to the churches of to-day. Nobody can look upon the history of the Church with eyes that are not blinded by infidel films without discovering traces of a presence and counsel higher than that of the mightiest and wisest men. What chance had she at the beginning but in the support and upholding that was itself Divine! Through what perils she has been safely guided since! (2.) If I were to come nearer home, if I were to ask you to look not at the history of the Church, but at your own history, is there not something that would cause you to respond with a joy not less deep and solemn, as you think how the Lord through all your wanderings has been a guide and counsel for you? 3. The left-hand thought, The presence of God for defence. You know what the pillar of fire was—to the Israelites a lamp, brilliant, exquisite, and heartening; to the Egyptians that followed, a consuming fire. There is defence as well as counsel for the Church to-day. Expositors have differed a little about the reading of the last clause in this verse. Some tell us it ought to read, “upon all the glory shall be a defence;” that is, there shall be protection round about the glory which is created by this luminous cloud and by this kindled fire. Some tell us it should be read, “upon all the glory shall be a defence;” that is, the luminous cloud and the brilliant fire shall be itself the defence of the Church. What does it matter which way we take it? The defence is sure, the salvation of the Lord is for bulwarks equally in the one case as in the other; and so the Church is safe, whatever betide. Powerful adversaries have banded themselves for her destruction, and yet she still lives, while their names are forgotten, or remembered with accusation and shame. Let us, then, not be afraid of future assaults (Numbers 23:23). The defence is not merely for Zion as a whole, but for every dwelling-place therein. Every believer has a pillar of cloud and fire over his own homestead, visible not to your eyes, but to those of the angels. There cannot be a cloud upon “the assembly” unless there are first clouds upon the dwelling-places. Consecrated homes furnish consecrated congregations; consecrated houses bring the baptism of fire. Dear brethren, this promise is yours, if you like to have it. It is the simple, quiet soul that sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to His voice, that has all this done for him (Hebrews 1:14). “Which of the petty kings of earthCan boast a guard like ours,Encirled from our second birthWith all the heavenly powers?”—W. Morley Punshon, LL.D., Christian World Pulpit, ii. 372–377. THE SPIRITIsa_4:4. By the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning. In Isaiah 2:1-5, the prophet gives us a vision of the glory which shall distinguish Messianic times. From Isaiah 4:6, however, and through that chapter and the next, he depicts scenes of darkness and distress, that were to come upon the Jewish nation in correction of its haughtiness, arrogance, and rebellion. In ch. 4 the light again breaks through these fearful clouds of judgment, and under the glory of the Messianic period we see the beauty and purity of the chastened people of the Lord. The filth of the daughters of Zion has been washed away, the blood of Jerusalem has been purged from the midst thereof. But how? “By the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning.” Here we have the source and cause of the change.—This language is very striking and suggestive, and reveals the Divine procedure in the cleansing of the heart. I. THE SPIRIT OF . God’s Spirit effects this reformation by a process of discernment and conviction. We observe— 1. That a real change of heart is usually preceded by a discovery of its sinful condition. The natural tendency of the depraved heart is to ignore and deny its corrupted state. The light must be let in to show that it is depraved [577] 2. That this reformation is preceded by a discovery of the enormity as well as the fact of sin. Even a converted sinner tries to palliate or soften the sins that condemn him. Hence men contrive such flimsy distinctions as “white lies” and “black lies.” But “the Spirit of judgment” goes to the root of the matter, and discovers sin as sin (1 Kings 8:28). So in the text, it is the filth of the daughters of Zion that has had to be washed away; it is the blood of Jerusalem that has had to be purged from its midst [580][577] It is with the children of men as with the housewife, that having diligently swept her house, and cast the dust out of doors, can see nothing amiss, not so much as a speck of dust in it; whereas if the sun do but a little shine in, through some cranny in the wall or some broken quarry in the window, she may soon see the whole house swim and swarm with innumerable atoms of dust, floating to and fro in the air, which, for dimness of light or sight, she was not able to discern. Even so is it with many that were careful of their ways, so that little may be seen that is amiss; yet when they shall come to look more attentively into God’s law, a little beam of light, reflecting upon their souls from it, will discover unto them such an innumerable company, as well of corruptions in their heart as of error and oversight in their lives, that it shall make them, as men amazed, cry out, “Lord, what earthly man doth know the errors of his life?”—Spencer, 1658. [580] As the Lord led Ezekiel from one place to another, and the further he went the greater abominations he discerned (Ezekiel 8), from the door of the court to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house, and from thence to the inner court; so the Spirit of the Lord leads the sinner from one part of his house to another, from one room—one faculty of his soul to another, and still discovers greater, more and more abominations,—leads from the profaneness of his ordinary conversation to the sins of his religious duties, from the sins of his life to the sins of his heart, from the streams of sin in his actions to the spring of sin which bubbles up continually in every part of his soul. He brings to mind the sins that he has forgotten, makes him “possess the sins of his youth;” and now the “bag” (Job 14:17) is opened, and the sinner sees what he is to reckon for, he cries out as the prophet’s servant, “How shall we do?” and as David (Psalms 38:4). He comes not to the assizes as formerly, to see others tried and condemned; he sees himself now at the bar, himself arraigned and indicted; he cannot but plead guilty. He is clearly cast in law, and bears the sentence of condemnation as though the Lord did by name pronounce sentence of condemnation against him.—Clarkson, 1621–1686. II. THE SPIRIT OF BURNING. From this description of the Holy Ghost, we learn— 1. That the detection of sin is, in the Divine purpose, to be followed by its destruction. There can be no home for sin in a pure heart, nor will God make any concession to it (Habakkuk 1:13; Psalms 5:5). 2. This process is extremely searching and painful. It is one of “burning” (Matthew 3:11). How many have quailed under the testing ordeal!—e.g., loss of wealth! loss of friends! personal affliction, &c. From the subject three general reflections arise:— 1. God does not chastise arbitrarily or at random. He does it by “the Spirit of judgment.” 2. Neither does He fail in the work by reason of a weak indulgence, which really would be unkindness. He does it by “the Spirit of burning.” 3. The object He has in view is to promote and secure our personal holiness, to make us indeed like Himself (Hebrews 12:10)—the most blessed result to which discipline can lead us.—W. Manning. THE PARABLE OF THE Isa_5:1-7. Now will I sing, &c.I. The Privileges conferred on the Jewish nation (Isaiah 5:2-3). It would be vain and useless to attempt, as some have done, to find in the privileges of the Jews an exact counterpart to the various items here specified concerning this “vineyard.” For example, Jerome regards the fencing of the vineyard as symbolical of the protection of the Jews by the angels; the gathering out of the stones, the removal of the idols; the tower, the temple erected in Jerusalem; the wine-press, the altar [583] To seek thus for minute analogies is at once to destroy the oratorical force and the simplicity of the parable. Rather let us lay hold of its leading truths. The prophet desired to remind the Jews that they had received extraordinary privileges from God; consequently he employed figures calculated to impress his hearers with that truth; and he does not fail to specify every particular which those acquainted with a vineyard would expect, if it were one from which a copious supply of choice fruit might be reasonably expected. 1. The choice which God made of the Jews as a nation was the first and fundamental privilege which He conferred upon them. 2. Having chosen them, God revealed Himself to them as clearly as was then possible through the symbolism of the Mosaic Law. Through its statutes and ceremonies were shadowed forth the great truths of His holiness, His mercy, His sanctifying grace, and the Sacrifice which in the fulness of time was to be offered for the sin of the world (Romans 3:1-2). 3. In addition to the Law, God gave to His people the inestimable help of Prophetical Teaching, to assist them to understand its meaning, and to stimulate them to keep it with full purpose of heart. [583] “The house of Israel” (beth Yisrâel) was the whole nation, which is also represented in other passages under the same figure of a vineyard (Isaiah 27:2, sqq.; Psalms 80, &c). But as Isaiah was prophet in Judah, he applies the figure more particularly to Judah, which was called Jehovah’s favourite plantation, inasmuch as it was the seat of the Divine sanctuary and of the Davidic kingdom. This makes it easy enough to interpret the different parts of the simile employed. The fat mountain horn was Canaan, flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 15:17); the digging of the vineyard, and clearing it of stones, was the clearing of Canaan from its former heathen inhabitants (Psalms 44:3); the sorek-vines were the holy priests and prophets and kings of Israel of the earlier and better times (Jeremiah 2:21); the defensive and ornamental tower in the midst of the vineyard was Jerusalem as the royal city, with Zion the royal fortress (Micah 4:8); the winepress-trough was the temple, where, according to Psalms 36:8, the wine of heavenly pleasures flowed in streams, and from which, according to Psalms 42 and many other passages, the thirst of the soul might all be quenched. The grazing and treading down are explained in Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 12:10.—Delitsch. I believe that in a poetical allegory there is always more or less of allusion to the details of that which is allegorised; but it is only allusion,—to be realised by the imagination, rather than by the understanding, of the reader, as well as the poet. The several images are parts of a picture, which must be contemplated as a picture, and its meaning is to enter into the mind through the imagination. Still, a matter-of-fact commentator, like Vitringa, deeply imbued with the spirit of his author, will sometimes greatly help his reader’s imagination by his minute analysis; and I think this is the case in his explanation of the details of this description of the vineyard. “A vineyard” consists of vines planted for the sake of their fruit: the Hebrew nation with its tribes, its families, and its persons, was such a vineyard, appointed to bring forth the fruits of personal and social religion and virtue,—holiness, righteousness, and love to God and man: this nation was established in a land flowing with milk and honey, endowed with all natural advantages, all circumstances which could favour inward life by outward prosperity; and the grace and favour of Jehovah, and the influences of His Spirit, always symbolised by oil, were continually causing it to be fruitful. “And He fenced it,”—the arm of the LORD of hosts, employing kings and heroes, was its defence against all enemies; its institutions were fitted to preserve internal order, and to prevent the admixture of evil from without, with the chosen and separated nation; and its territory was marked out and protected by natural boundaries in a noticeable manner. “Gathered out the stones,”—the heathen nations, and the stocks and stones they worshipped. “And planted it with the choicest vine,”—a nation of the noble stock of the patriarchs, and chosen and cultivated by the Lord of the vineyard, with especial care, for His own use. “And built a tower in it,”—namely, Jerusalem—for the protection and superintendence of the vineyard, as well as to be its farmhouse, so to speak. “And also made a wine-press therein,”—where the wine-press seems to point to the same idea as the sending the servants to receive the fruit, in our Lord’s modification of this parable: lawgivers, kings, and judges, the temple with its priesthood and ordinances, and the schools of the prophets, were the appointed means for pressing out and receiving the wine—the spiritual virtues and graces of the vineyard. And the end is, that “He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”—Strachey, pp. 62, 63.II. The consequent obligations under which the Jews were laid. From the vineyard, for which the great Husbandman had done so much, He naturally looked for fruit. The fruits which the prophet specifies as being required by God from the Jews correspond precisely with their privileges (Isaiah 5:7). He had given them a code of laws by which their actions were to be guided, and had impressed upon them the duty of doing to others as they would be done to. Now He looked for the fruits of justice and righteousness. It was a reasonable demand, the lowest that could have been made. Yet even this demand was not met. III. The Judgment which God designed to bring upon them (Isaiah 5:6-7). As we objected to the attempt to find exact counterparts between the various privileges of the Jews and the labours which had been bestowed upon the vineyard, so we set aside as needless all attempts to discover parallels between the various items of the threatening against the vineyard and the judgments by which the Jews were visited. All that the prophet means to say is this, that the privileges which the Jews enjoyed pre-eminently above all the other nations God would take from them, and they should be reduced to the level of their neighbours. The removal of those privileges was itself the heaviest judgment that could have befallen them. LESSON.—Where there is privilege there is obligation. 1. You who are Christians are responsible for your privileges. Consider how great they are: a knowledge of the will of God; the example of Christ; a throne of grace ever accessible; the counsel and help of the Holy Spirit. If God looked for the fruits of justice and righteousness from the Jews, what manner of fruit may He reasonably expect from you? 2. Even those of you who are not Christians, but are still living in sin, have privileges: a preached Gospel; the offer of a free, full, and present salvation; the strivings with you of the Holy Ghost. Despise them not, or you will perish.—Thomas Neave. THE PARABLE OF THE Isa_5:1-7. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song, &c.The points of moral instruction made prominent in this parable are—I. That God’s gifts of truth, light as to duty, moral culture, and opportunities for doing good, create peculiar obligations to be morally fruitful, to do justice, and love mercy. II. That men so blessed with privileges will be held to a stern accountability. III. That failing to meet this, they must expect that God will take away their privileges and give them to others who will render the fruits in their season (Matthew 21:43). IV. That there is a line beyond which God does not deem it wise to waste His moral efforts upon self-hardened sinners. V. That in His view the exigencies of His moral kingdom demand of Him rather that He make sinners, beyond that line, an example of His righteous displeasure against their awful wickedness, and a warning to other sinners lest they venture too far in abusing His compassionate and long-suffering efforts to reclaim and save them. It is a terrible thing to withstand God in His labours to save the soul.—Henry Cowles, D.D., Commentary on Isaiah, p. 30. GREAT Isa_5:1-7. Now will I sing to my well-beloved, &c.I. Great privileges are bestowed by God according to the good pleasure of His will. 1. Obviously this is true of the great privileges accorded to the Jewish nation. They were not granted because of anything in them (Deuteronomy 7:7; Deuteronomy 9:4-6, &c.). There were other “hills” that would have been just as suitable for a vineyard, and just as fruitful, had the great Husbandman been pleased to deal with them in the same manner. 2. If we consider our own religious privileges, we must acknowledge the same great principle: other nations still heathen deserve them just as much as we do; and our heathen forefathers to whom they were first granted were in no sense superior to the heathen of to-day. We owe our superiority to our privileges, not our privileges to our superiority. 3. The same principle is as true of temporal as of spiritual privileges. Why are some born clever, and others stupid? some strong and others weak? some rich, and others poor? We can return no other answer than that such is the will of God.—This principle seems to be surrounded by a cloud of mystery; but there are rays of light that relieve it,—to some of them we shall presently refer; and we must be careful not to darken it by our own folly. We must not imagine, because God acts according to the good pleasure of His will, that therefore He acts arbitrarily, capriciously, out of mere whim and fancy. Though He may not disclose to us the reasons for many of His procedures, we may be sure that He has good reasons. In withholding them from us—possibly because we are as yet incapable of understanding them,—and thus making demands upon our faith, He deals with us just as we frequently deal with our children. II. Great privileges involve great responsibilities. From the vineyard so carefully cultivated choice grapes are justly expected. This is a truth so familiar that it is apt to become to us a mere truism. But we shall do well to look at it steadily,— 1. As a guide to us in our duty. It is well to pause and consider what privileges God has conferred upon us, that we may be aroused to a perception of the nature and extent of the demands which He is certain to make upon us. In view of our privileges, what ought our life to be? (Luke 12:48). 2. As a help to us in our perplexities. In view of such providential arrangements as have been referred to, these are sometimes very painful. But we must remember that the great principle before us admits of being very variously stated. It is just as true that “small privileges involve small responsibilities.” We shall adopt the slander of the wicked and slothful servant, if we think of God as a hard master who seeks to reap where He has not sown. If God has entrusted to any man only one talent,—and He entrusts to every man at least as much as that,—He will not demand from Him the usury upon ten talents, nor upon two. III. Great privileges do not necessarily result in great happiness. They ought to do so; they often do so; but as frequently they fail to do so. Even in temporal things, the happiest men are not always those whose possessions are most various and ample. The most learned men are not always those who own the largest libraries. And the holiest men are not always those whose religious opportunities are most numerous and great. Why is it, that great privileges and great happiness are not always associated? Because man is a voluntary agent, and God will not force happiness upon any man. He may offer us eternal life, but we must “lay hold” of it. He may shed upon our path great light, but we must walk in it (Isaiah 2:5). LESSON.—Instead of repining because our privileges are not more numerous and great, let us diligently use those which have been granted to us, and so make them what they were intended to be—sources of blessing to us. Enclosed within God’s vineyard, and carefully cultured by Him, let us see to it that the grapes we bring forth are not wild grapes. IV. Great privileges neglected or misused bring on great condemnations (Isaiah 5:5-6). Compare also Luke 13:6-9. Had that fig-tree been growing on some open common, notwithstanding its barrenness, it might have stood till it decayed, but because it was barren in a “vineyard” the righteous order is given, “Cut it down!” This principle, also, we may turn to practical account. Like a former one, we may use it— 1. To help us in our perplexities. Sometimes we are in trouble to know what will become of the heathen in the day of judgment. Well, even if they are condemned, they will be condemned less severely than those who have misused greater privileges (Matthew 11:22; Luke 12:48). 2. To stimulate us to a faithful discharge of duty. Fear is not the highest motive, but it is a very useful one, and no truly wise man will leave it out of account. We need every kind of help to fortify us against temptation, and it is good to remember what will be the result if we yield to it, and so remain barren and unfruitful, or even bring forth “wild grapes” (Hebrews 4:1; 1 Peter 1:7; Philippians 2:12). Fear is useful as a motive, but hope is still more helpful; and in the matter of our salvation we may employ both fear and hope as allies. Reverse the last principle, and read it thus, Great privileges well used secure corresponding rewards. Compare Luke 19:17. If the choice vine planted in the fruitful vineyard bring forth “good grapes,” the Husbandman will pronounce over it rejoicing benedictions (Hebrews 6:7). DIVINE Isa_5:2. He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. “I believe in God.” Which God? The God constructed for us by philosophers, who is impassive, throned in eternal calm, unmoved by the crimes or the virtues of men, all of which He has foreseen from eternal ages, and which cannot in any way affect Him at the time of their occurrence; a God who towers above men, majestic and unchangeable, like an Alpine peak, which is the same whether sunlight cheers or clouds darken the valleys beneath? No, but the God of the Bible, who loves and hates, who rejoices with us in our gladness and sorrows with us in our griefs, who foresees and overrules all, and yet can hope and be disappointed. I. That God can be disappointed is distinctly the implication of our text. “He looked that it,” &c. 1. Isaiah’s parable recalls the privileges which God had conferred upon the Jews; and we know that He dealt with them as He did, in order that they might become a holy nation (Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 26:18-19). Was their persistent unholiness no disappointment to Him? 2. The same truth is implied in what we are told of God’s feelings in view of the wickedness of the antediluvians (Genesis 6:5-6). He had made man in His own image, in order that He might continue therein, and shine with the lustre of His own moral perfections; each man was to be a planet in the moral universe, reflecting the glory of the great central Sun; and when He saw man transformed into the image of Satan, and His purposes concerning him frustrated, He was filled with profound regret. 3. The same truth is implied in what we are told concerning Christ. “He came unto His own” (John 1:11). For what purpose? Certainly not that He might be rejected, but that He might be received by them. But He was rejected! See how forcibly this is brought out in His parable (Luke 20:9-15—especially Isaiah 5:13). 4. It is implied in Christ’s tears and lament over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41; Matthew 23:37). 5. It is implied in the apostolic declarations, that God is desirous that all men should repent and be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). We must not minimise the force of θέλει—ὃςπάνταςἀνθρώπουςθέλεισωθῆναι. The strength of any one’s desire is to be measured by what he will do or sacrifice to accomplish it; and God gave His only begotten Son in order that all men might have everlasting life. But all men are not saved. That the Scriptures teach that God can be—and often is—disappointed, is clear. II. “But it is impossible that God can be disappointed, seeing that He is omniscient and foresees all things. Surprise, and consequently disappointment, is not possible to perfect knowledge.” 1. This objection appears to be very reasonable, but against it there is this fatal objection, that we cannot measure God by our reason [586] We cannot tell how He will act or feel under certain circumstances: all we know is, that under all circumstances God will act and feel in a manner worthy of Himself. But what is, or is not, consistent with His attributes, we are not in a position to determine. Take, for instance, His omnipresence. If we were present when dastardly wrongs and great crimes are committed, and were clothed with power to prevent them, how certain it is that we should prevent them [589] But every day He stands by and sees such wickednesses perpetrated, and is silent, and gives no sign. Let us, then, not be in a hurry to decide that disappointment is not consistent with omniscience. 2. There is an experience very frequent among men, which may perhaps help us a little to understand what disappointment is in God. Evils may be long distinctly foreseen—as, for example, the death of a dear friend suffering from an incurable disease—but yet not realised until they actually occur. The blow is foreseen long before it falls, but it is felt when it falls. Every man knows that he must die, and yet how nearly a surprise is death to every man! 3. Whether we can understand it or not, it is our duty to accept this declaration, that in view of the ingratitude and sinfulness of men whom God has blessed and has sought to win to virtue and holiness, He is profoundly grieved and disappointed. Such declarations are not to be dismissed as “anthromorphological.” However much that is in them may be figurative, there is a reality behind the figures. [586] God is to us, and to every creature incomprehensible. If thou couldst fathom or measure Him, and know His greatness by a comprehensive knowledge, He were not God. A creature can comprehend nothing but a creature. You may know God, but not comprehend Him; as your foot treadeth on the earth, but doth not cover all the earth. The sea is not a sea if you can hold it in a spoon. Thou canst not comprehend the sun which thou seest, and by which thou seest all things else, nor the sea, nor the earth, no, nor a worm, nor a blade of grass: thy understanding knoweth not all that God hath put into the least of these; thou art a stranger to thyself, both body and soul. And thinkest thou, that perfectly comprehendest nothing, to comprehend God? Stop then thy over-bold inquiries, and remember that thou art a shallow, finite worm, and God is infinite. First seek to comprehend the heaven and earth and whole creation, before thou think of comprehending Him to whom the whole world is nothing, or vanity.—Baxter, 1615–1691. [589] During one part of the trip our party was augmented by a redif, or soldier of the reserves, who was going home on leave of absence. He wore the uniform of the Turkish soldier, but I observed that in the evening he threw over his shoulders a woman’s robe, made of a soft thin kind of felt, worn by the women in this country, and beautifully embroidered in colours around the neck and bosom. I had the curiosity to inquire into the history of this gown, and could scarcely restrain my indignation at the story I heard. This soldier said he had got the gown at Saitschar. After the discovery of the evacuation of the place by the Servians, he and a party of four or five more entered the town. In one of the houses they found a Servian family that had decided to remain in their house, and throw themselves on the mercy of the Turks. This family consisted of an old man, a married daughter with two children, and a girl of fourteen, whose relationship to the rest of the family they did not take the trouble to inquire into. The husband of the woman, if she had one, was absent. They began by fastening all the doors, so that nobody could escape: then they thoroughly pillaged the house, and took and divided everything of value among themselves. They were in the house a day and a night, for it was a rich one apparently, and it took some time to get everything properly divided and packed; and besides, they were disposed to be merry and make a night of it. I will not enter into the details of what they did during this night, because there are people who do not apparently object in the least to the commission of these deeds, who object to anybody lifting a finger to prevent them, or even to the expression of any indignation on the subject, but who are dreadfully shocked at the recital of them; and I wish to spare the feelings of these sensitive persons. Suffice it to say that the next morning the question arose as to what should be done with the two women, the two children, and the old man. Some of the party were in favour of letting them go; but the rest were of opinion that it would be amusing to kill them, and a discussion ensued, which lasted more than an hour, in presence of the weeping, trembling victims, who were wildly begging for mercy, and among whom, it should be remembered, there was a mother begging for the lives of her two children. The narrator said that he, with another of the party, had leant to the side of mercy, but that the majority were against them, and that they finally ended the discussion and the prayers of the victims by falling upon them with their sabres. I asked him how he had come by the gown, and he replied that, seeing what the result was going to be, he had stripped it from the girl while the discussion was in progress, before she was killed, so that it might not be blood-stained. He had taken a fancy to it, because it would just be right for his daughter, who was about the same age; and his companions, perceiving this, made him pay rather high for it—fifty piastres. He was a heavy, dull-looking brute, and it seemed strange to think that he had a daughter, a pretty, tender, joyous little thing, perhaps, that would wear this gown with delight. He told the story in a quiet, phlegmatic manner, and spoke very freely, looking upon me as an Englishman, and therefore as a friend.—Letter in the “Daily News,” Nov. 15, 1876. III. Whatever mystery may attach to this declaration, consider how precious it is— 1. A God who can be disappointed is precisely the God we need. How else could we be assured of His sympathy with us in the disappointments which so frequently come upon us, and which make up so considerable a part of the experiences of our life? Were God such a being as the philosophers have imagined, we might feel that He understood us, as an anatomist understands exactly how a frog on which he is operating will act when exposed to galvanic shocks, but we could not have had the inexpressible consolation of the assurance of His sympathy. It is only a mother who has been bereaved who can comfort a mother who is weeping over her dead child. 2. A God who is so much interested in us that our failures in virtue inspire Him with profound grief and disappointment, is again precisely the God we need. Of what value to us would be a God who looked upon us with as little emotion as a king may be supposed to do upon the ants who crawl across his path? It is because men do not think of God as He is revealed in our text, that they sin against Him; if they did but realise how He feels about them, it would be impossible for them to transgress as they do. I accept His declaration, that He is disappointed in view of human sin, and I try to measure His disappointment. I find help in this endeavour in this Old Testament parable: how profound would be the disappointment of a husbandman under such circumstances as are supposed! But I find yet more valuable help in the greatest of the New Testament parables. How bitter must have been the disappointment of the father of the Prodigal when he went away into a far country! Such disappointments break the hearts of tens of thousands of fathers and mothers, and brings down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave; and precisely such disappointment it is, only vaster, deeper, sadder, that fills the heart of our Heavenly Father when His children go astray. It is thus that some of you have grieved Him; it is thus that some of you are grieving Him to-day by your contemptuous disregard of His offers of mercy and forgiveness. Oh, think what it is that you do, and surely your carelessness must give place to profound contrition, and you will resemble the Prodigal in your penitence, as you have done in your ingratitude and your guilt. A SAD Isa_5:4-6. What could have been done more to my vineyard? &c.There are certain epochs in the history of the Church when on every hand may be seen the saddest indifference. This state of things is not owing to a suspension of Divine gifts, nor to the absence of earnest pastors, nor to the circumstances by which God’s people are surrounded. Everything has been done for the vineyard which the wise and gracious husbandman could perform, yet no fruit is produced. The fault lies with the Church itself. Individual members have relapsed into a state of ease and supineness. Faithful warnings have been unheeded; earnest entreaties have been disregarded; mercies have been unnoticed; chastisements have been profitless. At such a time they who sigh and cry for this desolation, turn to the despised or forgotten Lord, and sing their mournful canticle, “My well-beloved,” &c. (Isaiah 5:1-2). Then the Lord replies, “Judge, I pray you,” &c. (Isaiah 5:3-6). It is too true the sorrowful singer admits, and says, ‘He looked for judgment,’ &c. (Isaiah 5:7). Let us consider the similitude under which the Church is represented, the just complaint of the Lord, and the terrible condemnation He pronounces. I. The similitude. A vineyard. This parable is peculiarly interesting on account of the fact that our Lord Jesus uttered one in many respects similar to it (Matthew 21:33). The figure of the vineyard is often used in the Old Testament, generally to represent the Church. The vineyard of the parable is represented as being— 1. In a very favourable locality. 2. Planted with the choicest vine. 3. Carefully fenced and diligently cultivated. 4. Having the husbandman living in the midst. “Built a tower.” God is His own watchman on the walls of Zion. II. The Complaint. “It brought forth wild grapes.” Observe the complaint is not based upon the poverty or paucity of the crop, or even upon the absence of a crop altogether, or because of the lateness of the crop. There is an abundant crop; but of what? “wild grapes,” i.e., “poisonous berries,” like those the servant of Elisha gathered, (2 Kings 4:39). A crop that could have grown without the husbandman at all. An unnatural production. One calculated to injure, if not to destroy life. The husbandman’s design is thwarted; he expected that which would nourish and stimulate life; whereas the opposite is produced. The allegory explains itself. The inconsistencies and follies, the disobedience and idolatry of the Church, are like deadly upas trees in the world; they tend to produce infidelity, i.e., moral death, among men. The mission of the Church is to proclaim life, by God’s Spirit to communicate it; instead of that, a worldly and apostate Church leads men to say and believe, “There is no God.” This is unnatural; the proper fruit of the Church is holiness, obedience, and zeal. III. The Condemnation. (Isaiah 5:5-6). 1. Observe the mercy of the condemnation. “It shall be eaten up.” The obnoxious growth shall be destroyed. The pride, the ignorance, the idolatry of the Church shall be removed. God will not abandon her, as He does the world, to fill up her measure of iniquity. He must be glorified in His saints, although not now, yet afterward. The patient husbandman will wait for another year, when his choice vine shall yield choice fruit. 2. Observe the severity of the condemnation. Her privileges shall not be enjoyed. “The hedge taken away.” Direful persecution shall be experienced. “It shall be trodden down.” The Spirit’s influence shall be withheld. “I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” It is so with the Jews. That vineyard is desolate now;—the vines are trodden under foot; the rain rains not on them, BUT THEY ARE NOT ROOTED UP. God shall plant another hedge, dwell again in the forsaken tower; and His ancient people shall grow and flourish on the fruitful hill; bringing forth such fruit that the husbandman shall rejoice, and earth and heaven be glad.—Stems and Twigs, vol. i. pp. 246–249. ON THE OF SMALL OF LAND TO THE POORIsa_5:7-8. He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. Woe unto them that join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place. I. The Almighty expects from all His creatures, and especially from those to whom He has given wealth or power, the practice of justice and righteousness. II. The Almighty, instead of finding justice and righteousness among His creatures, discovers oppression on the part of the powerful, and a cry of lamentation and of indignation on the part of the poor: the proof of the oppression, and the cause of the cry is, that no place is left for the poor. There is a strong tendency to the accumulation of property, and especially of land, in the hands of a few; but such accumulations of land in a few hands tends to grave national evils—to luxury on the part of the rich, and to lawlessness on the part of the poor—and, therefore, instead of being promoted, should be discouraged by the legislature. But year by year we have been adding “field to field, and house to house,” till we have left the poor no place. Rights of common and rights of pasture have been taken away, and the beer-shop established by law to occupy that time which otherwise would have been employed in healthy toil for a happy family. Little farms, held by working farmers, have been joined together, so that one may live in luxury, where ten families once dwelt in simplicity and plenty. The cottager, with his little field, that once looked so fruitful and trim, cheering the eye and charming the heart, not only of himself, but of beings dear to and dependent upon him, has been driven into some town to add to its misery, its debasement, and its discontent. Let us pray that there may come a time when the gentle in rank shall be gentle in very deed; when the rich shall recognise that they are trustees for God, and shall use their property for the purposes for which He has placed it in their hands; when allotment acts shall remedy the ruin which enclosure acts have wrought; when an enlightened self-love, arising out of the possession of something to love, shall render the demagogue and the inciter to outrage a foreigner to our land; and when our “common Father shall find that “justice and righteousness” for which He looks.—R. C. Parkman, B.A., Sermons (1843), No. X. WILD GRAPESIsa_5:8-23. Woe unto them that join house to house, &c.It is important to remember that this whole chapter constitutes one prophecy. Much of the power of its teaching will be lost, if this fact be overlooked. In Isaiah 5:1-7, we have the astonishing declaration that in “the vineyard of the Lord of hosts” He has discovered, not the excellent fruit He had a right to expect, but “wild grapes.” In Isaiah 5:8-23; some of these “wild grapes” are specified and denounced. Surveying His vineyard the Husbandman beheld— I. Not the gracious fruit of generosity, but the evil fruits of GREED and PRIDE. He saw men, not content with the possessions which Providence had conferred upon them, nor those which honest industry would enable them to secure, but coveting their neighbour’s possessions, and hesitating at no means that would enable them to gratify their desires (Micah 2:1-2); beating down their equals, that they themselves might dwell in solitary grandeur (Isaiah 5:8). Note, 1, that the aggregation of landed property here denounced was directly contrary to most explicit Divine ordinances (Numbers 36:7; Leviticus 25:23-24) [592] 2. The conduct here denounced has its counterparts to-day—in the matter of land, great landowners buying up all the little farms adjoining their estates, and turning fruitful valleys into deer-runs; in trade, great capitalists subjecting their less wealthy rivals to ruinous competition, &c., &c., [595] 3. That it is not merely particular manifestations of the spirit of greed and pride, but the spirit itself, that provokes the indignation of the bountiful Giver of all good. Covetousness and arrogance are not confined to any particular class. The tenth commandment exists for the poor as well as for the rich. [592] Political philosophy has much to say in favour of laws and institutions, at certain periods of a nation’s growth, for encouraging, or at least permitting, the disposition of its members to found families, to be maintained by hereditary possessions in land. Yet, if this disposition be not kept within bounds, those who are influenced by it will “join house to house, and field to field, till there be no place;” till the race of small landholders, yeomen, and partly independent tenants, is swallowed up by a few rich despots. To prevent this evil among the Hebrews, Moses directed as equal a division of the land as possible in the first instance, among the 600,000 families who originally formed the nation; and provided against the permanent alienation of any estate, by giving a right of repurchase to the seller and his relations, and of repossession without purchase at the Jubilee. The story of Naboth illustrates the effect of these laws in forming an order of sturdy, independent yeomen; but it must also be taken as an instance of the habitual breach of the same laws by the rich and powerful (cf. Micah 2; Nehemiah 5:1-13; 2 Chronicles 36:21); as they in like manner disobeyed that respecting the liberation of slaves at the Jubilee (Jeremiah 34:8-16). In England, where the Norman conquest accumulated all the land in the hands of a few nobles, the like accumulation has been opposed—however imperfectly—by laws in their form exactly opposite to those of Moses; by the permission to cut off old entails, and the prohibition to make new ones except for one generation, and by allowing land to be bought and sold like other commodities.—Strachey, pp. 65, 66. [595] The covetous man is like a spider. As in this, that he does nothing but lay his nets to catch every fly, gaping only for a booty of gain. So yet more, in that while he makes nets for these flies, he consumes his own bowels; so that which is his life is his death. If there be any creature miserable, it is he; and yet he is least to be pitied, because he makes himself miserable. Such as he is I will account him; and will therefore sweep down his webs, and hate his poison.—Hall, 1574–1656. Covetous worldlings will hardly spare the poor some of their fire to warm them, some of their water to drink, some of their ground to lodge on, though it were no more hurt to them than the lighting of a candle at their torch.—Adams, 1653. II. Not the excellent fruit of temperance, but the evil fruit of SENSUAL (Isaiah 5:11-12). He saw men living for mere pleasure, without any recognition of the “work” which He had wrought for them as a nation, without any acknowledgment of His goodness to them as individuals, without any remembrance of the purpose of their being [598][598] Let us remember that it will be to small purpose to enjoy these worldly pleasures of sin for a season, and in the end plunge ourselves into everlasting death;—that the world’s music is but the syren’s song, which allures us to make shipwreck of our souls on the rocks of sin, and while it tickles the ear it wounds us to the very heart;—that though the cup which it offers be of gold, and the drink sweet in taste, yet it is deadly poison in operation; for they that drink thereof are so lulled asleep in pleasures and security, that they never awaken out of their spiritual lethargy; or if they do, yet like Sampson, without strength to resist the spiritual Philistines, after the world (like Delilah) has lulled them awhile in her lap of carnal pleasures.—Downame, 1642. III. Not the excellent fruit of reverence for God’s Word, but the evil fruit of . The messengers whom He sent to recall them to duty, they scorned; the warnings which He mercifully sent to them of the judgments impending over them, they turned into merriment. Instead of forsaking their sins, they yoked themselves to them with renewed determination (Isaiah 5:18-19). IV. Not the noble fruit of a recognition of the truth, but the evil fruit of —that intellectual scepticism which seeks to destroy the very foundations of morality, and which prepares men for vice of all kinds, and hardens them therein, by confounding vice with virtue, and denying man’s moral accountability. V. Not the befitting fruit of humility and desire for Divine guidance, but the evil fruit of SELF- (Isaiah 5:21). Clever and successful “men of the world,” they resented the idea of their needing counsel and help as an insult. They were their own gods. Trusting in themselves with unfaltering confidence, they excluded from their minds all thought of Him in whom they lived and moved and had their being. Conceiving that they owed all their prosperity to their own wisdom and prudence, how could they give Him thanks? Confident that they would be equal to every emergency of life, how could they lift up to Him one real prayer? VI. Not the indispensable fruit of righteousness in those who are called to rule, but that evil fruit which always excites His hottest indignation, DENIAL OF JUSTICE TO THE POOR. He saw the judges taking their seats on the judicial bench, not with clear intellects and the love of righteousness enthroned in their hearts, but besotted and brutalised by strong drink; not dispensing justice, but selling their verdict to those who could furnish them most amply with the means of gratifying their sensual lusts (Isaiah 5:22-23). Than the denial of justice there is no more cruel wrong. These were the “wild grapes” which God saw when He looked down upon His ancient vineyard. Was it any vonder that He brake down the wall thereof, and gave it over to destruction? These are the “wild grapes” which He sees brought forth only too abundantly when He looks down upon this land. Is it not a wonder that He spares the nation to which we belong? 1. Let us beseech Him still to spare as, for the sake of the “ten righteous” who dwell among us. 2. Let us recognise that the most urgent duty to which we are called as patriots is the abatement of those iniquities which justly kindle God’s indignation against us. 3. Let us as individuals search and see what fruits are being brought forth in the vineyard of our own souls, lest while we are deploring the iniquities of our land and time, and, it may be, are labouring to lessen them, there grow up within us “wild grapes” which will bring down upon us the Divine condemnation. Isa_5:11-17. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, &c.National ungodliness. I. Its phases, dissipation, drunkenness, forgetfulness of God. II. Its punishment, captivity, famine, pestilence, humiliation. III. The certainty of its visitation, God must be vindicated, His people must be delivered [622] Lyth, D.D. [622] The individual culprit may sometimes Unpunished to his after-reckoning go: Not thus collective man; for public crimes Draw on their proper punishment below. When nations go astray, from age to age The effects remain, a fatal heritage. Bear witness, Egypt, thy huge monuments, Of priestly fraud and tyranny austere! Bear witness thou, whose only name presents All holy feelings to religion dear— In earth’s dark circlet once the precious gem Of living light—O fallen Jerusalem! —Southey. Isa_5:11-12. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. Sensuality. I. Its features. II. Follies. III. Its inconsideration [625] IV. Its punishment.—J. Lyth, D.D. [625] Of all men out of hell, none more to be pitied than he who hangs over its mouth, and yet is without fear. What good does physic poured down a dead man’s throat? If he cannot be chafed to some sense of his condition, all applications are hopeless; and if sharp affliction, which is the strongest physic, leaves the sinner senseless, there is little prospect that anything else will do him good.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. Oh, what a sight is it to see a man go merry and laughing towards damnation, and make a jest of his own undoing! to see him at the brink of hell, and will not believe it; like a madman boasting of his wit, or a drunken man boasting of his sobriety; or as the swine is delighted when the butcher is shaving his throat to cut it; or as the fatted lambs are skipping in the pasture, that to-morrow must be killed and eaten; or as the bird sits singing when the gun is levelled to kill him; or as the greedy fish run, striving which shall catch the bait, that must presently be snatched out of their element, and lie dying on the bank.—Baxter, 1615–1691. EARTHLY Isa_5:12. The harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. Earthly amusement. I. Its ordinary features. II. Its mischievous tendency [628] III. Its consequent sinfulness.—J. Lyth, D.D. [628] If you have glutted yourself with worldly pleasures, it is no wonder that you should find an unsavoury taste in spiritual delights. Doves that are already filled find cherries bitter.—Francis de Sales. AND Isa_5:12. The harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. I. Prosperity ought to lead to praise. We should have expected that when a man was able to spread a feast, and God had caused his “cup to run over” with bounties, his heart would have overflowed with gratitude to the Giver of all good. II. As a matter of fact, prosperity is hostile to the spiritual life. Experience teaches that in proportion as men prosper, they seek luxury, invent pleasures, and give up allegiance to God [631] and as soon as men yield to the passions of the flesh, and pursue the fashions of the world, all adequate sense or knowledge of the operations of a Supreme Being is gone; all serious views of life are set aside; and the end of such a career is banished from view [634] [631] Nothing shall more effectually betray the heart into a love of sin and a loathing of holiness, than an ill-managed prosperity. It is like some meats, the more luscious, so much the more dangerous. Prosperity and case upon an unsanctified, impure heart, is like the sunbeams upon a dunghill; it raises many filthy, noisome exhalations. The same soldiers who, in hard service, are in perfect subjection to their leaders, in peace and luxury are apt to rebel;[and the passions, which in adversity are easily controlled, in prosperity are apt to break loose]. That corrupt affection which has lain, as it were, dead and frozen in the midst of distracting business, or under adversity, when the sun of prosperity has shined upon it, then, like a snake, it presently recovers its former strength and venom. Vice must be caressed and smiled upon that it may thrive and sting. It is starved by poverty, it droops under the frowns of fortune, and pines away upon bread and water; but when the channels of plenty run high, and every appetite is plied with abundance and variety, so that satisfaction is but a mean word to express its enjoyment, then the inbred corruption of the heart shows itself pampered and insolent, too unruly for discipline, and too big for correction.—South, 1633–1716. [634] It is a hard thing for princes to remember death. They have no leisure to think of it, but chop into the earth before they beware, like a man who walks over a field covered with snow, and sees not his way, but when he thinks to run on, suddenly falls into a pit: even so they who have all things at will, and swim in pleasure, which as a snow covers their way and dazzles their sight, while they think to live on, and rejoice still, suddenly rush upon death, and make shipwreck in a calm sea.—Henry Smith, 1593.III. To permit the pleasures of life to absorb our attention is degrading to the nature entrusted to us by God. IV. It is destructive of the happiness which thus is mistakenly sought. In the hearts of the guests at a feast there is often anything but festivity. Many vacant minds and languid hearts are there; some who are in reality fleeing from themselves, and drowning rising reflections in fresh engagements of pleasure [637] Could you see those hearts as God sees them, if you are a Christian, you would be thankful that you are excluded from the festivity. [637] Colonel Gardiner relates that when he was considered by his gay military companions to be one of the most handsome and highly favoured officers of his day, he has seen a dog enter the mess-room, prowling for food, and looked at the creature with envy, inwardly groaning and exclaiming, “Oh, that I were that dog!” Since his time thousands have felt the same iron enter their souls, although looked upon by their comrades as men enjoying life in rich abundance.—Holderness. .— 1. To the rich and prosperous. Be on your guard. In your prosperity there is a deadly peril. Remember that while innocent enjoyment is lawful, there are other duties of more importance—duties of mind and soul, of influence and responsibility; duties toward the men of our generation, and towards God to whom we are accountable. 2. To the poor. Murmur not that prosperity has been denied you. Wealth might have been your eternal ruin. Envy not the momentary flash of worldly pomp: soon the deluded soul must be summoned into the solitude of the chamber of death; nothing to console the vacant mind; nothing to cheer the throbbing heart; the rolling eye looks in vain for rest, but the life of vanity closes, and conscience pierces the departing soul with this declaration, “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.”—B. Thompson, Church Sermons by Eminent Clergymen, i. 395–400. THE EVILS OF (Sunday School or Bible Society Sermon.) Isaiah 5:13-15. Therefore my people are gone away into captivity, because they have no knowledge, &c.Isaiah speaks of the future as if it were already present. He traces the terrible disasters about to befall his countrymen to their true cause—their ignorance of God,—in their case a wilful ignorance (Hosea 4:6), which had betrayed them into courses of conduct ruinous in themselves, and certain to bring down the judgments of the Almighty. The history of mankind justifies us in laying down two propositions: I. That ignorance is a terrible evil. To be in ignorance of the great facts of God’s universe, of the great laws by which He governs it, is to be in a condition of constant peril. We are as men who wander in darkness over the great mountains; every step may be taking us further from the right path, the next step may hurl us over some unsuspected precipice. Remember what calamities—political, commercial, social—have been due solely to ignorance. [Illustrate by examples] [640] [640] As blindness is the deformity of the face, so is ignorance the deformity of the soul. As the want of fleshly eyes spoils the beauty of the face, so the want of spiritual eyes spoils the beauty of the soul. A man without knowledge is as a workman without his hands, as a painter without his eyes, as a traveller without his legs, or as a ship without sails, or a bird without wings, or like a body without a soul.—Brooks, 1680.II. That the most terrible of all kinds of ignorance is ignorance of God Himself. 1. Much sin is due to ignorance [643] Not all sin, for there are many transgressions committed against full light—the worst form of iniquity. But concerning multitudes of sinners we may pray, as did our Lord for His executioners, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” The most appalling of all sins was committed in ignorance (1 Corinthians 2:8). Did men truly know God, they would fear, love, and gladly serve Him. For lack of a true knowledge of God, men who desired to serve Him have perpetrated the most frightful crimes (John 16:2; Acts 26:9). 2. Sins committed in ignorance entail terrible disasters. That unavoidable ignorance is a palliation of the guilt of transgressors is clearly the teaching of the New Testament (Luke 23:34; 1 Timothy 1:13), as it had been previously of the Old (Numbers 15:28; Deuteronomy 19:4, &c.); and it will affect their condition in the eternal world (Luke 12:47-48). But here and now it does nothing to exempt men from the natural consequences of their transgressions. The man who swallows a poison by mistake is killed by it as surely as the deliberate suicide, &c. [643] Ignorance opens the door for Satan to enter in with his troops of lusts; where the watch is blind, the city is soon taken.—Gurnall, 1617–1679. In view of these solemn truths, of which all human history is one prolonged corroboration,— 1. We should constantly endeavour to grow in knowledge. “More light!” should be our constant prayer. Every means of acquainting ourselves with God and His will we should diligently use. Let us beware of the temptation indolently to rest in a voluntary ignorance. Voluntary ignorance is no palliation, but a tremendous aggravation of iniquity [646] 2. Let us diligently impart to our fellow-men such knowledge as we have already acquired. Benevolence should move us to do this. We can confer upon our fellow-men no greater or more needed blessing. Self-interest should impel us to the same course. In teaching we learn. In labouring to cause others to see, we ourselves for the first time attain to clear vision. Knowledge is like the bread with which the five thousand were fed; it multiplies as it is dispensed, and when the feast is over, those who carried it to others themselves possess more than they did when the feast began. 3. Every organisation which exists for the diffusion of knowledge should have our sympathy and support both as patriots and Christians. This is true even of secular knowledge, but especially of that knowledge which is able to make men “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” [649][646] He that knew not his Lord’s will, because he wilfully rejected the means of coming to the knowledge of it, deserves to be beaten with as many stripes as if he had known it and would not. He that will not take notice of the king’s proclamation, or will stop his ears when it is read, and afterwards offends against it, does equally deserve punishment with those who have read it, and heard it, and disobey it; because he was as grossly faulty in not knowing it; and there is no reason that any man’s gross fault should be his excuse.—Tillotson, 1630–1694. [649] Oh, for the coming of that glorious time When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth And best protection, this imperial realm, While she exacts allegiance, shall admit An obligation, on her part, to teach Them who are born to serve her and obey; Binding herself by stature to secure For all the children whom her soil maintains The rudiments of letters, and inform The mind with moral and religious truth, Both understood and practised,—so that none, However destitute, be left to droop By culture unsustained; or run Into a wild disorder; or be forced To drudge through a weary life without the help Of intellectual implements and tools; A savage horde among the civilised; A servile band among the lordly free. —Wordsworth. DEATH AND THE GRAVE(For Easter Sunday.) Isaiah 5:14-15. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, &c.In these terms of appalling sublimity Isaiah warns his countrymen of the calamities that were about to come upon them, on account of the innumerable transgressions into which they had been betrayed by their wilful ignorance of God. Therefore they should be carried away into captivity (Isaiah 5:13), and therefore also the sword, famine, and pestilence would conspire to fill the “under-world” with inhabitants. That “under-world” is represented as preparing itself for their reception, as a ravenous beast opens wide its jaws to devour its prey (Text). A prediction which, to the prosperous, wealthy, and powerful nation over which Uzziah ruled, doubtless seemed the most extravagant raving of fanaticism, but which was fulfilled nevertheless. It is of the “under-world” that Isaiah speaks. “Therefore the under-world opens its jaws wide, and stretches open its mouth immeasurably wide; and the glory of Jerusalem descends, and its tumult, and noise, and those who rejoice within it. There are mean men bowed down, and lords humbled, and the eyes of lofty men are humbled.”—Delitsch. Our translation “hell” must not lead us to think merely of the place where the wicked are tormented; it is of conquests about to be achieved by death and the grave that Isaiah warned the men of his time. His prediction suggests a topic of which men of all times will do well to think, and that again another topic peculiarly suited to this day. Let us bethink ourselves— I. Of THE OF DEATH AND THE GRAVE. I. These conquests have been effected in all ages. Generation after generation of mankind has been swept away by these grim and ancient warriors. During successive centuries men have gained wonderful power over the forces of nature, but they have acquired no real increase of ability to withstand these dread destroyers. All that science can do is in a few cases for a very short time to defer their victory. The “Elixir of Life” has been sought for in vain.—If in feebleness of mankind we had not sufficient proof of our fallen condition, certainly we should find it in the fact, that so many men have allied themselves with these foes of our race. All nations have conferred their brightest honours on those who have been the most successful ministers of death. Warrior and hero have been regarded as synonymous terms. In no respect is modern science more industrious, earnest or successful, than in the search for the means by which human life may be destroyed most easily on the largest scale. II. They have been characterised by a solemn impartiality. With them there has been no respect of persons. (1.) Meanness is no security against them. Poverty and lowliness are not without their compensations, as the poorer Jews discovered, when they saw the nobles and men of wealth, whom they had been accustomed to envy, carried away miserable captives, while they themselves were left behind (2 Kings 24:14-16, &c). There are those whom human conquerors will not stoop to molest. But death and the grave have no such fastidiousness. They prey on the mean as well as the mighty. (2.) Might is no defence against them. Rank and wealth can accomplish much, but they cannot overawe or bribe death [652] Death works like a reaper in the dark, cutting down the tall ears of corn as well as the grass that struggles for existence between them, the fair flowers as well as the noisome weeds. [652] Look how easily Jehu stamped Jezebel in pieces, and Tamerlane’s troops of horse the Turkish footmen; or as the sturdy steed dashes out the little whappet’s brains, so easily does Death, with the least kick and spurn of his heel, the halest complexion, the stoutest constitution,—triumphing like an emperor over all sorts of people; treading on the necks of kings and princes, as Joshua over them in the cave; insulting in the terms of Rabshakeh: “Where is Hamath? the kings of Arphad, Ivah, and Sepharvaim? Elam, Meshach, and Tubal, whose fear was upon the living, are they not descended into the grave? made their beds in the slimy valley, and laid their swords under their heads? Hath wisdom delivered, strength rescued, or wealth rescued any out my fingers?”—Ward, 1577–1639. Oh, eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world has flattered, thou alone hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all with those two narrow words, Hic jacet.—Sir Walter Raleigh. III. They have been characterised by a terrible unexpectedness. They are certain, but they cannot be foreseen. While they proceed with all the steadiness of gravitation, it is as impossible to foretell where they will be next accomplished, as it is to predict from which part of the heavens the next flash of lightning will burst forth, on which spot of earth the destructive fire will fall. Hence the wisdom of living in continual preparedness for the great change which will come to us all [655][655] We put far away the evil day, and therefore we are not duly impressed by the thought. But fourscore years are soon cut off, and we fly away; and how uncertain is our reaching that lonely verge of life, where the flowery meadows and the golden corn-fields slope gradually down into the bare and stony beach that fringes the eternal sea. The coast of death to most is an abrupt precipice; we are cut off in the midst of our days.—Macmillan. Why should a man defer that which ought to be the occupation of a life, which ought to command all his powers in all their vigour—why should a man defer that to the last few abrupt moments, to his departure from time to eternity? When a man is going to any distant part of the globe—say to America—what preparation there is! How much it is talked about! It is a long, a distant, an eventful journey. The man talks about it; his friends prepare in every conceivable way. Oh, what infatuation and stupidity, what folly it is for a man to make no preparation for this distant voyage—the voyage to eternity!—Beaumont. II. This survey of the conquests of death and the grave should remind us that there is another side to this solemn theme, and therefore I proceed to remind you, secondly, of THE OF DEATH AND THE GRAVE. Through how many centuries did men live without any conception that these conquerors of our race might themselves be subjugated! Two astonishing events, indeed, occurred—the translation of Enoch and the rapture of Elijah—but their significance could not be fully understood at the time of their occurrence. The data for their complete interpretation had not then been furnished. But when that supreme event which we commemorate to-day occurred, these and many other mysteries were solved. When the Son of man, who had been crucified, emerged from the tomb, proclamation was made to the universe that the ancient power of death and the grave was broken. It was seen that it is possible to pass through them unharmed, and to return to the activities of life, not with diminished, but with increased, vigour. And He who demonstrated this astonishing truth has pledged Himself to accomplish for all who trust in Him a victory similar to His own. By faith in this pledge, countless millions have been enabled to triumph in spirit over Death at the very moment when he seemed to be numbering them also among his victims (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). I. The victory of Christ’s followers over death and the grave is real. There seems to be one event unto all (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3). But it is not so. Death is not the conqueror of Christ’s servants; he is God’s servant, sent to conduct them to the rest prepared for them. The grave is not their prison, but a quiet resting-place from which presently the mortal body shall come forth immortal to greet the eternal morning. II. The victory of Christ’s followers over death and the grave will ere long be manifest (1 Thessalonians 4:14-16, &c.) In the doctrine of the resurrection, there is much that is mysterious and inexplicable, but this is certain, that the seeming victory of death and the grave over Christ’s followers shall be utterly reversed; as not a hoof belonging to God’s ancient people was left behind in Egypt, so NOTHING that belongs to a single follower of Christ upon which death and the grave have seized shall remain in their power (Hosea 13:14). The resurrection will be more than a ransom. It will be a development (1 Corinthians 15:37-38; 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Corinthians 15:44). In view of these truths, let us to-day keep Easter with thankful and joyful hearts. CORDS OF VANITYIsa_5:18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope. “ ‘Sin’ in the last clause is parallel with iniquity in the first—a noun and not a verb. Both are said to be ‘drawn.’ The style of sinning here contemplated is fully given in the next verse.”—Cowles. “They were proud of their unbelief; but this unbelief was like a halter with which, like beasts of burden, they were harnessed to sin, and therefore to the punishment of sin, which they went on drawing further and further, in utter ignorance of the waggon behind them.”—Delitsch. “Cart ropes, you know, are composed of several small cords firmly twisted together, which serve to connect the beasts of burden with the draught they pull after them. These represent a complication of means closely united, whereby the people here described continue to join themselves to the most wearisome of all burdens. They consist of false reasonings, foolish pretexts, and corrupt maxims, by which obstinate transgressors become firmly united to their sins, and persist in dragging after them their iniquities. Of this sort the following are a few specimens: God is merciful, and His goodness will not suffer any of His creatures to be completely and everlastingly miserable. Others, as well as they, are transgressors. Repentance will be time enough upon a deathbed, or in old age. The greatest of sinners often pass unpunished. A future state of retribution is uncertain. Unite these, and such like cords, and, I suppose, you have the cart ropes, whereby the persons mentioned draw after them much sin and iniquity. All these pretexts, however, are light as vanity.”—Maculloch. CORDS AND CART-ROPESIsa_5:18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope [658][658] See Notes on pp. 121, 122. There is a certain oddity and grotesqueness in these words as they stand. It disappears as soon as we perceive that we have here an instance of Hebrew parallelism. (Compare chap. Isaiah 1:18.) “Sin” is a noun, not a verb, and is a synonym for iniquity; to sin men yoke themselves as it were with “cords of vanity” or as with “a cart-rope.” “Cords of vanity” are such as have no substance in them, that will not stand any real strain; “a cart-rope” will stand an immense strain. Where, then, is the propriety of describing that by which the sinner binds himself to his sin by such opposite terms? In this, that in the first clause these bands are regarded from the point of view of a sound judgment, in the second from the point of view of the sinner’s experience. Subjected to a real examination they are seen to be of no strength at all, and yet they suffice to bind the sinner to his sin as thoroughly as if they were strong as “a cart-rope.” What are these “cords of vanity”? They are false ideas—of God, of truth, of duty. This is plain from Isaiah 5:19, which is an explanation of this one. There we have an illustrative case. Certain men are represented as bound to their iniquity by the false idea that God will not fulfil His threatenings against iniquity. Our text furnishes the solution of a mystery which often perplexes us in daily life. We see men cleaving to ruinous iniquities, and cleaving to them in spite of the remonstrances and entreaties of their friends and of God’s servants. We who have felt “the powers of the world to come” wonder that men do not repent and believe, and so escape from “the wrath to come.” Here is the explanation: they are bound to their ungodly practices as it were with a cart-rope; and yet they are thus enslaved by what, when rightly tested, are only cords of vanity. They are like a horse tied to a post by a bridle-rein: it could snap the rein in an instant, but it does not attempt to do so because it has no suspicion of the weakness of the rein. Look at some of the “cords of vanity” by which men are bound to their iniquities; the exposure of their essential weakness may excite some who are now fettered and bound to make an effort to attain to moral freedom. I. One prevalent “cord of vanity” is unbelief in God’s threatenings against iniquity. That God has threatened to do certain terrible things to impenitent sinners is admitted, but there lurks in the sinner’s heart the idea that God is like certain foolish parents who threaten their children with punishments which they are much too good-natured ever to inflict. But whence did you derive this idea of God? Certainly not from His Word. He there distinctly forewarns us, that, though He is merciful and gracious, He will “by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7). Not from any intelligent examination of His dealings in providence. There neglect or infraction of law is invariably followed by punishment. If a whole nation were to neglect to sow its fields, would God be too good-natured to permit it to starve? But if God invariably punishes men for their infractions of His material laws, what reason can we have for hoping that He will not fulfil His threatenings against those who despise His spiritual ordinances? And why should we hope this? What reverence could we have for, what trust could we repose in, a God who did not fulfil His threatenings? How could we then trust in His promises? Surely this is a “cord of vanity!” and yet how many are bound by it as if it were “a cart-rope”! II. Another cord is the reflection, “We are no worse than others.” Men compare themselves with others, perhaps even more iniquitous than themselves, and so arrive at the conclusion that they are not in any great danger. They do this even in temporal things,—e.g., in the matter of drainage. The authorities of a country village or town will listen with the most complete indifference to the warnings of a Government inspector, that they are inviting an outbreak of fever or cholera; and the ground of their indifference is that they know of other villages or towns as badly drained as their own. But does that afford them any protection against the dangers of which they are warned? Men act as foolishly in spiritual matters. Because there are so many sinners they close their eyes to their own dangers or sins. Will God be either unable or afraid to punish transgressors because they are so numerous? Surely this also is a “cord of vanity;” and yet thousands are bound by it to their eternal destruction! III. “We shall be able to shake ourselves loose from our evil habits by and by.” They imagine that they can repent and reform at any time, and they are firmly resolved to do so before death. Perhaps there could not be found a single sinner who does not secretly cherish in his breast wicked Balaam’s desire, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” But this idea that men can repent and reform at any time is a delusion. As men continue in sin (1) The power to reform decays. (2) The desire to reform dies out. The love of sin takes entire possession of the man. It enwraps him as ivy unchecked will enwrap a tree; at first with no more strength than a child’s finger, in the end with the strength of a thousand giants. It is the oldest sinners who cling to their vices most desperately, who are bound by them as by cart-ropes. (3.) The opportunities for reform rapidly diminish and often end unexpectedly (Proverbs 29:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). Inquire by what cords of vanity you are bound. Break them! (Daniel 4:27.) Look to Jesus, who came into the world for the very purpose of setting at liberty them that are bound. Isa_5:19. That say, Let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. Scepticism, I. Denies the judgments of God. II. Draws an argument from their delay [661] III. Impiously scoffs at the Divine counsels. IV. Defies God to do His worst.—J. Lyth, D.D. [661] The whole force of life and experience goes to prove that right or wrong-doing, whether in relation to the physical or the spiritual nature, is sure, in the end, to meet its appropriate reward or punishment. Penalties are often so long delayed, that men think they shall escape them; but some time they are certain to follow. When the whirlwind sweeps through the forest, at its first breath, or almost as if the fearful stillness that precedes had crushed it, the giant tree, with all its boughs, falls crashing to the ground. But it had been preparing to fall for twenty years. Twenty years before it received a gash. Twenty years before the water commenced to settle in at some crotch, and from thence decay began to reach in with its silent fingers towards the heart of the tree. Every year the work of death progressed, till at length it stood, all rottenness, only clasped about by the bark with a semblance of life, and the first gale felled it to the ground. Now, there are men who, for twenty years, have shamed the day and wearied the night with their debaucheries, but who yet seem strong and vigorous, and exclaim, “You need not talk of penalties. Look at me! I have revelled in pleasure for twenty years, and I am as hale and hearty to-day as ever.” But in reality they are full of weakness and decay. They have been preparing to fall for twenty years, and the first disease strikes them down in a moment. Ascending from the physical nature of man to the mind and character, we find the same laws prevail. People sometimes say, “Dishonesty is as good as honesty, for aught I see. There are such and such men who have pursued for years the most corrupt courses in their business, and yet they prosper, and are getting rich every day.” Wait till you see their end. Every year how many such men are overtaken with sudden destruction, and swept for ever out of sight and remembrance! Many a man has gone on in sin, practising secret fraud and villanies, yet trusted and honoured, till at length, in some unsuspected hour, he is detected, and, denounced by the world, he falls from his high estate as if a cannon-ball had struck him—for there is no cannon that can strike more fatally than outraged public sentiment—and flies over the mountains, or across the sea, to escape the odium of his life. He believed that his evil course was building him up in fame and fortune; but financiering is the devil’s forge, and his every act was a blow upon the anvil, shaping the dagger that should one day strike home to his heart and make him a suicide. The pea contains the vine, and the flower, and the pod, in embryo, and, I am sure, when I plant it, that it will produce them and nothing else. Now, every action of our lives is embryonic, and, according as it is right or wrong, it will surely bring forth sweet flowers of joy, or the poison fruits of sorrow. Such is the constitution of this world, and the Bible assures us that the next world only carries it forward. Here and hereafter, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”—Beecher. MORAL Isa_5:20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.If the judgments of men are habitually influenced by their affections, it is not surprising that their speech should bear the impress of the same controlling power. What we hear men say in the way of passing judgment upon things and persons, unless said deliberately for the purpose of deception, will afford us, for the most part, a correct idea of their dispositions and prevailing inclinations. There is, indeed, a customary mode of talking in which familiar formulas of praise and censure as to moral objects are employed as if by rote; but this dialect, however near it may approach to that of evangelical morality, is still distinguished from it by indubitable marks. One who thus indulges in the use of such expressions as imply a recognition of the principles of Biblical morality, but whose conduct repudiates them, in expressing his opinions on moral subjects avoids, as if instinctively, the terms of censure and of approbation which belong to Scripture. He will speak of an act or a course of acts as wrong, perhaps as vicious,—it may even be as wicked, but not as sinful. There are crimes and vices, but no sins in his vocabulary. Vice and sin are referable, it would seem, to an abstract and perhaps variable standard, while sin brings into view the legislative and judicial character of God. Two men shall converse together upon truth and falsehood, employing the same words and phrases; and yet when you come to ascertain the sense in which they severally use the same language, you shall find that while the one adopts the rigorous and simple rule of truth and falsehood laid down in the Bible and by common sense, the other holds it with so many qualifications and exceptions as almost to render it a rule more honoured in the breach than the observance. But who does not know that men are often worse in the bent of their affections than in the general drift of their discourse? If we err, therefore, in the application of the test proposed, we are far more apt to err in favour of the subject than against him. He who is invariably prompted, when there is no counteracting influence, to call evil good and good evil, is one who, like the fallen angel, says in his heart, “Evil, be thou my good!” and is, therefore, a just subject of the woe denounced by the prophet in the text. I. The expression is descriptive of those who hate good and love evil—not of those who err as to what is good and what is evil. A rational nature is incapable of loving evil, simply viewed as evil, or of hating good when simply viewed as good. Whatever thing you love, you thereby recognise as good; and what you hate or abhor, you thereby recognise as evil. No man can dislike a taste, or smell, or sound which at the same time he regards as pleasant, nor can he like one which he thinks unpleasant. But change the standard of comparison, and what appeared impossible is realised. The music which is sweetest to your ear may be offensive when it breaks the slumber of your sleeping friend; the harshest voice may charm you when it announces that your friend still lives. The darling sin is hated by the sinner as the means of his damnation, though he loves it as the source of present pleasure. When, therefore, men profess to look upon that as excellent which in their hearts and lives they treat as hateful, and to regard as evil and abominable that which they are seeking after and which they delight in, they are not expressing their own feelings, but assenting to the judgment of others. And if they are really so far enlightened as to think sincerely that the objects of their passionate attachment are evil, this is only admitting that their own affections are disordered and at variance with reason. It is as if a man’s sense of taste should be so vitiated through disease, that what is sweet to others is to him a pungent bitter. So the sinner may believe, on God’s authority or man’s, that sin is evil and holiness is good, but his diseased eye will still confound light with darkness, and his lips, whenever they express the feelings of his heart, will continue to call good evil and evil good. The three forms of expression in the text appear to be significant of one and the same thing. The thought is clothed first in literal and then in metaphorical expressions. The character thus drawn is generally applicable to ungodly men. If the verse be taken merely in this general sense, the woe which it pronounces is a general woe, or declaration of Divine displeasure and denunciation of impending wrath against the wicked generally, simply equivalent to that in chap. Isaiah 3:11. Such a declaration, awful as it is, would furnish no specific test of character, because it would still leave the question undecided who it is that chooses evil and rejects good. But the prophet is very far from meaning merely to assert the general liability of sinners to the wrath of God. In view of the context, then, consider— II. An enumeration of particular offences then especially prevailing. The text is the fourth in a series of six woes denounced upon as many outward manifestations of corrupt affection then especially prevalent, but by no means limited to that age or country; and these are set forth, not as the product of so many evil principles, but as the varied exhibition of that universal and profound corruption which he had just asserted to exist in general terms. 1. The avaricious and ambitious grasping after great possessions, not merely as a means of luxurious indulgence, but as a distinction and a gratification of pride (Isaiah 5:8). To such the prophet threatened woe (Isaiah 5:9), and to such the Apostle James also (James 5:4). 2. Drunkenness (Isaiah 5:11). Here also the description of the vice is followed by its punishment, including not only personal but national calamities, as war, desolation, and captivity. 3. Presumption and blasphemy (Isaiah 5:18-19). 4. Moral perversity, as set forth in the text. 5. Overweening confidence in human reason as opposed to God’s unerring revelation (Isaiah 5:21). 6. Drunkenness, considered, not, as in the former case, as a personal excess, producing inconsideration and neglect of God, but as a vice of magistrates and rulers, and as leading to oppression and all practical injustice (Isaiah 5:22-23). This view of the context is given for two reasons— 1. To show that in this whole passage the prophet refers to species of iniquity familiar to our own time and country; and, 2. Chiefly to show that we have in the text the description of a certain outward form in which the prevailing wickedness betrayed itself. An outward mark of those who hate God and whom He designs to punish is their confounding moral distinctions in their conversation. Consider, then— III. How moral distinctions are confounded. When one admits in words the great first principles in morals, yet takes away so much as to obliterate the practical distinction between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, religion and irreligion, he does virtually, actually, call evil good and good evil. When one admits generally the turpitude of fraud, impurity, intemperance, malignity, &c., and yet in insulated cases treats these as peccadilloes, inadvertences, &c., he cannot be protected by the mere assertion of a few general principles from the fatal charge of calling evil good. And as the counterpart of this, he who praises and admires all goodness in the abstract, but detests it when realised in concrete excellence, really and practically calls good evil. And he who, in relation to the self-same acts performed by different men, has a judgment suited to the case of each, all compassion to the wilful transgressions of the wicked, and all inexorable sternness to the infirmities of godly men, to all intents and purposes incurs the woe pronounced on those who call evil good and good evil. These distinctions may at present appear arbitrary, frivolous, or false, and, as a necessary consequence, the guilt of confounding them may almost fade to nothing,—to a stain so faint upon the conscience as to need no blood of expiation to remove it. But the day is coming when the eye of reason shall no longer find it possible to look at light and darkness as the same, and the woe already heard shall then be seen and felt. From the darkness and bitterness of that damnation may we all find deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord!—J. Addison Alexander, D.D.: The Gospel of Jesus Christ, pp. 568–578. SELF-CONCEITIsa_5:21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Self-conceit. I. Its signs: dogmatism; contempt of others; scepticism. II. Its causes: ignorance [667] vanity. [667] The truest characters of ignorance Are vanity, and pride, and arrogance; As blind men use to bear their noses higher Than those that have their eyes and sight entire. —Butler. By ignorance is pride increased; Those most assume who know the least: Their own self-balance gives them weight, But every other finds them light. —Gay. III. Its folly: it makes a man ridiculous; leads him into error. IV. Its offensiveness to God; in spirit—principle—action. V. Its certain humiliation.—J. Lyth, D.D. PRIDEIsa_5:21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Woe to the intellectually proud. I. To the self-conceited sceptic, who sits in judgment upon the Word of God, and condemns it [670] II. To the self-conceited enthusiast, who substitutes his own fancies for Divine truth. III. To the self-conceited Pharisee, who trusts in his own works. IV. To the self-conceited sinner, who despises instruction. V. Woe! for they shall all perish.—J. Lyth, D.D. [670] The denial of anything does not falsify it. If a man has swallowed poison, his adopting an opinion that it cannot kill him, contributes nothing to his safety; and it is awful to stand and see his conviction and his death arriving together. Your denying a resurrection, will not hide you for ever in the grave. Your disbelieving a day of retribution, will not keep you from appearing before God. “Their judgment,” says the apostle, “now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not:” while they reason, it rolls on; every argument brings it one distance nearer.—Jay. THE WOE OF THE Isa_5:22. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. There are certain vices which the customs of certain countries seem to place only in the number of human infirmities; and yet, if we look at their effects, we shall see that really they are as black as those sins which God and man visits with the severest punishments. I. The Drunkard’s excuses, by which he endeavours to defend or palliate his crime. 1. Good fellowship. But can friendship be founded on vice? especially on a vice which notoriously impairs the memory and the sense of obligation, leads to the betrayal of secrets, and stirs up strife and contention? Instead of promoting conversation it destroys it by destroying the very capability of communicating rational and agreeable thoughts. The drunkard may make his company merry, but they laugh at, not with, him, and merely because they are delighted with the sight of one even sillier than themselves. 2. “It drowns care.” But the drunkard’s care must arise either from his ill state of health, the unfortunate posture of his worldly affairs, or the stings of his guilty conscience; and, in either case, his temporary oblivion is purchased at the cost of an aggravation of the evils which cause him to desire it. To drink to drown remorse is especially absurd, for all that the drunkard can expect from this course is the benefit of travelling some part of the road to eternal misery with his eyes covered. 3. The drunkard has other excuses: he says that he is so exposed to company and business, that he cannot avoid drinking to excess, or that he is of so easy and flexible a temper, that he cannot resist the importunities of his friends, as he calls them. Thus he is for softening his vice into a sort of virtue, and calling that good nature, which his creditor calls villany, and his family cruelty. II. The drunkard’s woe. This is made up of the miserable effects, as well temporal as spiritual, of his favourite vice. 1. Poverty. 2. Contempt. 3. Ill-health. 4. An untimely death. Consider, too, the spiritual evils that spring from and punish the vice of drunkenness. 1. The understanding is depraved and darkened. 2. The will is enfeebled and dethroned. 3. The passions are inflamed and rendered ungovernable. 4. Regard for men and reverence for God are destroyed. Drunkenness travels with a whole train of other vices, and requires the whole width of the broad way to give it room. Where its journey is to end, we know; so that if the guilt and misery which attend it here, be not enough, there, at least, the drunkard, having opened his eyes and recovered the use of his reason, will perceive the truth of the text.—Skelton, in Clapham’s Selected Sermons, ii. 384–392. THE WOE OF THE Isa_5:22. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. Woe to the drunkard. I. To his reputation [673] II. To his interests. III. To his health. IV. To his family. V. To his soul [676]J. Lyth, D.D. [673] Some of you glory in your shame, that you have drunk down your companions, and carried it away,—the honour of a sponge or a tub, which can drink up or hold liquor as well as you.—Baxter, 1615–1691. [676] We commend wine for the excellency of it; but if it could speak, as it can take away speech, it would complain, that by our abuse both the excellencies are lost; for the excellent man doth so spoil the excellent wine, until the excellent wine hath spoiled the excellent man. Oh, that a man should take pleasure in that which makes him no man; that he should let a thief in at his mouth to steal away his wit; that for a little throat-indulgence, he should kill in himself both the first Adam, his reason, and even the second Adam, his regeneration, and so commit two murders at once.—Adams, 1653. How base a price dost thou set upon thy Saviour and salvation, that will not forbear so much as a cup of drink for them? The smallness of the thing showeth the smallness of thy love to God, and the smallness of thy regard to His Word and to thy soul. Is that loving God as God, when thou lovest a cup of drink better? Art thou not ashamed of thy hypocrisy, when thou sayest thou lovest God above all, when thou lovest Him not so well as thy wine and ale? Surely he that loveth Him not above ale, loveth Him not above all! Thy choice showeth what thou lovest best, more certainly than thy tongue doth. It is the dish that a man greedily eateth of that he loveth, and not that which he commendeth but will not meddle with. God trieth men’s love to Him, by their keeping His commandments. It was the aggravation of the first sin, that they would not deny so small a thing as the forbidden fruit, in obedience to God! And so it is of thine, that wilt not leave a forbidden cup for Him! O miserable wretch! dost thou not know thou canst not be Christ’s disciple, if thou forsake not all for Him, and hate not even thy life in comparison of Him, and wouldst not rather die than forsake Him! And art thou like to lay down thy life for Him that wilt not leave a cup of drink for Him? Canst thou burn at a stake for Him, that canst not leave an alehouse, or vain company, or excess for Him? What a sentence of condemnation dost thou pass upon thyself!—Baxter, 1615–1691. DRINK AND ITS WOESIsa_5:22. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. Human depravity and iniquity have existed in all ages and countries. The vices flowing therefrom have been much the same—selfishness, pride, sensualism, oppression, drunkenness. Alcohol acting directly on the brain, the seat of the mind, tends not only to derange, but to enfeeble and pervert, and produces moral obliquity, moral infatuation, and intensified delusion. All sorts of deceits are the consequence. Observe—I. THE (Isaiah 5:22). Observe also Isaiah 5:11-12. In the last verses there is reference to confirmed drunkards, daily, early, and late; the sensual debauchees—their ignorance, want of thought and reflection. In the text, notorious drinkers, bold, impudent wager-layers, boasters, &c., and those who have got the victory over the usual drinks, and now make them stronger to meet the cravings of appetite and to keep up the excitement. Observe, this is the great peril of moderate drinking. It creates the appetite, it increases the appetite; last of all, it gives the appetite the control, and the man or woman becomes the slave and then the victim. II. THE —by 1. Giving false names to things (Isaiah 5:20). Call (1) evil good: drinks (poisons) are called beverages; evil things made by men are called God’s good creatures. And so they call (2) good evil; despise the really good and safe; pour contempt on water and safe fluids, and treat them as evil or worthless. How drinks have secured the most alluring titles—strong cordials, dew, &c., generous. Not only false names, but 2. False qualities (Isaiah 5:20), “Bitter for sweet.” Now intoxicating drinks are not sweet or palatable to the natural taste; they blister the mouth of children; do burn the delicate nerves of the stomach; the tongue and lips have to be trained, drilled, hardened. Observe, they call sweet bitter; things really so are treated as insipid. Ask the spirit-drinker to take milk or tea, or water, and see how his poisoned taste revolts, &c. Then there is presented to us— 3. Infatuated results. Put darkness for light; men plead and say these drinks— (1) Brighten the intellect. How false! See the bloated faces, the diseased eyes, the sensual expression, the stupid look, the stupor. The light is artificial, momentary, false—no better than the effects of certain gases or deadly stimulants, as opium, Indian hemp, &c. But they refer to men, to Burns, Pitt, Sheridan, and other drinking wits. But they were intellectually great in spite, &c. Look at Milton, Sir Isaac Newton; look at the inspired prophets—the seraphic Isaiah, the writer of the text. (2) They who drink say their drinks lighten the heart, give social joyousness. Right; but is it not sensual, spurious, evanescent, ends in darkness? So they put light for darkness. The calm, equable sobriety of soul they called dulness, darkness. But this is real, abiding, and rational. So, both in name and quality, and in effects, they call “evil good,” &c. III. THE WOES . 1. There is the woe of physical consequences. The seed and the harvest, the poisons and their effects, fire, deranged stomach, plague, diseased liver, excited heart, fevered brain, all tending to a host of maladies, shortened life, and an early grave. There is— 2. Woe of a distracted mind. Reason beclouded; reflection, perception, all marred. The guiding star eclipsed, the light obscured with darkness. There is the— 3. Woe of moral defects. The man is vitiated, made worse and worse; his affections, his desires, his conscience, his heart, the whole soul. There is— 4. The woe of perverted powers. Gifts, talents, &c., all poisoned; influence deadly; the man a curse—a curse to all. 5. The woe of God’s malediction. God’s woe, His displeasure, His threatening, His curse; this is written in both volumes of the Scriptures—in frightful representation, in declared eternal condemnation. .—Learn— 1. The horrors associated with strong drink; 2. The advantages of absolute temperance; 3. The value of these associations; 4. The encouragement for labours—staying curses, bringing down blessings; The necessity of immediate decision; The solemn importance of earnest prayer for the Divine benediction; 7. Let us avoid exaggerated conclusions. This is not the only evil; temperance not the only good. To all we say, “One thing is needful;” “Except ye be converted,” &c.—Jabez Burns, D.D., L.L.D., Sketches of Temperance Sermons. THE DOOM OF ISRAELIsa_5:24-30. Therefore as the fire devoureth, &c.In this threatening, fulfilled in the utter destruction of Israel by Assyria, we find illustrations of the following facts:—I. That the Lord is a God of judgment as well as of mercy [682] The mercy of God had been exemplified in His long forbearance with sinful Israel: His justice was manifested in the utter destruction that came upon Israel when it was seen that that forbearance had been shown in vain. God is still as He revealed Himself in His Word and in His actual dealings with His people. It is utterly vain for us to frame for ourselves an ideal God in whose character the sternest justice has no place. II. That we can sustain no relation to God which will render it safe for us to break His commandments, or exempt us from the consequences of wrong-doing (Isaiah 5:25. Compare Isaiah 5:5; Amos 3:2). III. That all the forces of the universe are at God’s disposal for the execution of His purposes. Appalling is the variety of the scourges and swords that lie ready to His hand for the chastisement of the rebellious [685] and for the destruction of the incorrigible! IV. That in addressing Himself to the work of judgment, God is moved by the highest moral considerations. “Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel: therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people.” In His wrath, as well as in His love, He is holy: in neither is there any caprice. V. That consequently God will not pause in His work of judgment out of any weak regard to the mere sufferings of wrong-doers. It is against sin that His anger burns, and while sin endures the fires of His wrath will continue to flame. Eternal punishment! For impenitent transgressors there is woe upon woe, and no severity of suffering that they may endure abates the anger of the Lord against them. There is no such thing as salvation by personal suffering. See how all this is expressed in our text, from beginning to end. [682] See my Homiletic Encyclopædia of Illustrations in Theology and Morals, Nos. 2288–2301. [685] As for example, conscience, the awakening of which Henry Smith has thus depicted:—“There is a warning conscience and a gnawing conscience. The warning comes before sin; the gnawing conscience follows after sin. The warning conscience is often lulled asleep, but the gnawing conscience wakes her again. If there be any hell in this world, they who feel the worm of conscience gnawing on their hearts may truly say that they have felt the torments of hell. Who can express that man’s horror but himself? Nay, what horrors are those which he cannot express himself! Sorrows are met in his soul as at a feast; and fear, thought, and anguish divide the soul between them. All the furies of hell leap upon his heart like a stage. Thought calls to Fear; Fear whistles to Horror; Horror beckons to Despair, and says, Come, and help me to torment this sinner. One says that she comes from this sin, and another says that she comes from that sin. So he goes through a thousand deaths, and cannot die. Irons are laid upon his body like a prisoner. All his lights are put out at once. He has no soul fit to be comforted. Thus he lives as it were upon the rack, and says that he hears the world upon his shoulders, and that no man suffers that which he suffers. So let him lie, says God, without ease, until he confess and repent and call for mercy.” GENERAL .—“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The history of the Jews since Israel’s day is a terrible comment on this declaration. .— 1. As sinners, let us bestir ourselves to avert the consequences of our transgressions by a timely and genuine repentance (Isaiah 55:6-7; Hosea 14:1-4, &c.) 2. Having obtained mercy, let us be in the fear of the Lord all the daylong (John 5:14). 3. For our guidance in life, let us keep constantly before us the Biblical presentation of God, as a God of justice and of mercy;—of justice, that we may be restrained from transgression; of mercy, that there may grow up in our hearts that love for Him which will cause us to find our highest joy in doing His will. THE PROPHET’S CALLIsa_6:1-13. In the year that King Uzziah died, &c.We have here the history of Isaiah’s call to his great life-work. Perhaps in a modern biography this chapter would have been placed first. But there was wisdom in placing it where it stands; it was well to give us some insight into the real character of the men among whom Isaiah was called to labour, for thus we are enabled more easily to understand the nature of the mission on which he was sent [688] Studying this chapter as a history of the prophet’s call, I learn— [688] This vision evidently contains the designation of Isaiah to his work as a prophet. It does not follow that he may not himself have put his book together in the form, or nearly in the form, in which we have received it. The early chapters as they describe the state of the people, not at one particular moment but through a course of years, announcing the punishments which must follow from that state with the blessings which could come out of them, are a living index to the subsequent prophecies and history. The place which they occupy, supposing it was assigned by Isaiah, cannot hinder us from accepting his own express words as a proof, that the year in which King Uzziah died was the critical year of his life, that which explained to him why he was sent into the world and what task he had to perform in it.—F. D. Maurice. I. That a threefold spiritual preparation is needed for effective service of God [691] It is generally admitted that some kind of preparation is needed, e.g., for the ministry of the Gospel; but it is not generally recognised that a merely professional preparation is of no avail whatever. A man may pass through the whole routine of college life, both literary and theological, and yet not be a prophet of the Lord. Such preparation is not merely not enough, it is not even essential. “Schools of the prophets” may exist without sending forth a single prophet, and God calls many prophets who have never been inside a school door. This is true of every kind and form of God’s service, e.g., the Sunday-school, the home, Christian literature. In every case a threefold spiritual preparation is necessary. Without it we may pretend to be God’s servants; but the disguise will always be imperfect, and we shall always be betraying what we really are. Even the old blind Isaacs whom we deceive will not be sure about us: we may have on Esau’s garments, but we shall never perfectly imitate Esau’s voice. What, then, is this preparation? 1. A vision of God. Before we can serve God effectively, we must to some extent see Him as He is. In all departments of human activity, knowledge of the person served is essential to perfect service. Those who have never seen an earthly king cannot serve him as do those who are in daily intercourse with him; their loyalty is at the most a sentiment, not a constraining power. The biographies of God’s most eminent servants in all ages make it plain that the first and indispensable stage in preparation for His service is a vision of God Himself—a revelation of His majesty and holiness (Isaiah 6:1-4). 2. What a man needs before he can effectively serve God is a vision of himself. The great hindrance to such service is self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency. But when a man really sees God as He is, he straightway sees himself as he is (Isaiah 6:5). Job’s experience (Job 42:5-6). Peter’s experience (Luke 5:8). He sees himself to be utterly unfit and unable to serve God, and so attains to the second indispensable qualification for such service (Ephesians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 15:9, &c.) 3. The third thing which a man needs before he can effectively serve God is participation in God’s salvation. This is a rule that needs to be stated with wisdom. As a matter of fact, God has used the ministry of unconverted men. Such men may be guide-posts, though not guides. How much better to be a guide! How much more useful is a guide! But we cannot thus serve our generation unless we have been made a partaker of God’s salvation. By a sanctifying process,—a process involving in some cases terrible pain (Isaiah 6:6-7),—we must have been made “separate from sinners.” [691] Once for all must he who was to be a prophet have become absolutely certain of the true relation of the world and Jehovah,—must have beheld, as in a distinct form, the sublime and holy character of Jehovah, and felt that he was directed by Him alone; once for all must he have recognised the divine power of truth against the whole world, and himself as living and moving in it alone; once for all must he have entered, with the effectual energy and act of his whole inner being, into the counsels of God, and found himself for ever bound by them, and endowed by these bonds with true power and freedom:—this was the first condition and the true beginning of all the work of the prophet, the holy consecration and the inner call, without which none can become a true prophet.—Ewald. II. Those who have undergone this preparation will devote themselves unreservedly to God’s service. 1. There will spring up spontaneously within them a desire to serve God. They will not need to be pressed into this service; they will volunteer (Isaiah 6:8). 2. They will not be deterred by the difficulty or painfulness of the service to which they are called. It was a hard and distasteful service that was demanded of Isaiah—to prophesy to an unbelieving and scoffing generation (Isaiah 5:18-19); to enter upon a ministry that would leave men worse than it found them (Isaiah 6:9-10). Nor was this ministry to be brief; it was to be prolonged through many years (Isaiah 6:11-12). Note: in sending Isaiah on such a ministry there was nothing inconsistent with the Divine righteousness or goodness. God’s truth must be proclaimed, whether men will heed or reject it; and the inevitable effect of such proclamation of the truth is to render those who reject it more stupid and wicked than they were before (2 Corinthians 2:16; John 9:39). But, painful as it was, Isaiah did not shrink from it. Nor do any who have passed through such a preparation as his. They do not ask concerning a work or duty, “Is it easy?” “Is it pleasant?” but, “Does God call me to it?” Paul: (Acts 21:13). III. There is great encouragement for those who have unreservedly devoted themselves to the service of God. 1. What God demands from them is not success, but faithfulness. He did not require Isaiah to convert his fellow-countrymen, but to prophesy to them faithfully. There his responsibility began and ended. So is it with preachers, teachers, and priests to-day. Men measure by success, but God by faithfulness. What a difference is the result, e.g., in such a case as that of Carey, who laboured for years without making one convert! or in such a case as Isaiah’s! 2. No faithful servant of God will ever labour without some success. Isaiah was not to toil altogether in vain. There was to be a wide-spread apostacy of his countrymen, but not a universal apostacy; a small remnant would still cleave to the Lord (Isaiah 6:13); and doubtless Isaiah’s ministry did much to keep them in the paths of righteousness. So is it with us; much of our seed may be wasted, but not all of it (Psalms 126:6; 1 Corinthians 15:58). THE AND THEIR SONGIsa_6:2-4. And above it stood the seraphim, &c.I. THE .—The Scriptures disclose to us the fact that there is a spiritual world, vast and variously populated, superior to this world, yet connected with it and exerting upon it powerful influences. Little beyond the fact is made known to us; few details are granted us; yet glimpses into it have been vouchsafed, and among the most interesting and instructive of them is our text. Only here do we read of seraphim: elsewhere we read of cherubim (Genesis 3:24; Ezekiel 10:1-22, &c.); and of living ones (Revelation 4:6-8). From the fact that these “living ones” in some respects resemble both the “seraphim” of Isaiah and the “cherubim” of Ezekiel, some eminent scholars believe these are three names for one order of beings. Others, with whom we are disposed to sympathise, believe that the two names “cherubim” and “seraphim” really indicate two orders of spiritual intelligences, resembling each other, yet distinct. Whether the “living ones” of the Apocalypse are cherubim, or seraphim, or a third order of exalted ministers of the Most High, is a question concerning which we cannot speak confidently. Scholars also are divided as to the significance of the name “seraphim:” some derive the word from a root signifying to burn, others from a root signifying to be exalted. But there can be no question that the descriptions of the “seraphim,” the “cherubim,” and the “living ones” are symbolical; the terms employed are figures adapted to convey to our minds true descriptions of beings of whom a literal description would now be unintelligible by us [730] “Wings” are symbols of swiftness [733] here the symbol is triplicated to indicate the exceeded swiftness—the immense energy—of these messengers of God (Psalms 104:4). “With twain he covered his face,” in token of humility. “With twain he covered his feet,” in token of reverence. “With twain he did fly,” in token of readiness to do God’s will—three points in which we should strive evermore to resemble these exalted intelligences. [730] “Above the throne stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.” The sense of awe increasing with the clearness and purity of a spirit and with the nearness of its approach to God; the face being veiled which receives its light from Him, and most covets to behold Him; the absence of all wish to display their own perfection in spirits who are perfect; the freedom and willingness to go anywhere, to do any errands of mercy; these are some of the more obvious thoughts which the study of this vision suggests. There are others which lie hidden, which we may have a glimpse of from time to time, and which words might mar. For it is true of earthly symbols, still more of heavenly visions, that they are meant to carry us out of words and above words.—F. D. Maurice. [733] Among the ancients, Mercury, the messenger of Jupiter, was always represented with wings.—Barnes. To them is granted an immediate vision of God, and the effect upon them is expressed by their song: “Holy,” &c.II. Consider next THIS SONG OF THE . 1. They acknowledge God as “the Lord of hosts.” [736] This term in its first use in human language referred to the sun, moon, and stars (Genesis 2:1; Nehemiah 9:6, &c.). Thus considered, how wonderful are the conceptions which are opened out to us of the Divine power and glory! (Isaiah 11:10.) But it includes also those thousands of thousands of exalted intelligences who hearken to His word and do His pleasure. “A great King” is the Lord our God! 2. They teach us that the glory of God is co-extensive with His works. All that Isaiah saw was that God’s glory filled the temple: what they saw was that His glory filled the earth. “The whole earth,” &c. 1. This declaration is true, if we think of Him as the God of nature. Everything that He has made is “good.” Even a snowflake shows forth His glory. Science is a servant of God, and is teaching us to understand somewhat of the wondrousness and beneficence of His works. 2. It is true if we think of Him as the God of providence. Human history, comprehensively and thoughtfully considered, shows that, while men are free, they are yet under the control of One who rules over all in the interests of righteousness and truth (Psalms 76:10; Isaiah 10:5-7, &c.). To angelic intelligences how profoundly interesting must be the problems which God is working out in the government of this world! (Revelation 15:3.) 3. It is true even if we think of Him as the God of redemption. Possibly (though perhaps not probably) this earth is the only sphere in which His glory in this respect is manifested. But here it is manifested in the mission and work of His Son (Ephesians 3:10). Even where the Gospel has not yet been proclaimed there are senses in which His glory as the God of redemption is manifested: even there, for Christ’s sake, He is patient with sinners, He strives with them by His Spirit, He is preparing them for the future triumphs of the Cross. The history of our race, when it shall be seen as a whole, will all redound to His glory as the God of redemption [739] 3. In the holiness of God the seraphim find the supreme subject for adoration and song: Holy, &c. Other attributes of the Most High are the themes of their thought and worship, but it is His holiness that excites their most rapturous praise. Why? 1. They have never needed His mercy; it is reserved for us to sing the sweet song of redeeming grace. On account of our redemption they rejoice (Luke 15:10), but doubtless they rejoice in it most because the mercy shown us is a holy mercy; it was so shown as to solve some of the profoundest moral problems, and so as to leave untouched the principle of righteousness on which God’s throne eternally abides (Romans 3:26). Not having needed that mercy themselves, it is natural that they should rather magnify the holiness which has been shown in it and which is the need of all. 2. It is the holiness of God that gives value to all His other attributes. They are valuable only because they are directed by unswerving holiness. The holiness of God is the foundation of the peace, the joy, and the love of the moral universe. Were God not holy, even hell itself would be a more awful abode; for then to all its other woes would be added the possibility of suffering inflicted in mere vindictiveness. We also are called to join in the song of the seraphim (Psalms 30:4; Psalms 97:12): let us beseech Him so to sanctify us by His Spirit, that in our lips the song may not be a sacrilege! [736] This title of Jehovah, with some variations, is found upwards of 260 times in the Old Testament. The meaning of the word hosts is doubtless the same as that of army in Daniel 4:35, and includes all the myriads of holy angels who people the celestial spheres, as in 1 Kings 22:19 the Host of Heaven were seen by Micaiah standing round the throne of God. So in Psalms 103:21; Psalms 148:2, the Hosts of God are His angels. (Comp. Deuteronomy 33:2.) By a slight metonymy, or may be in a slightly different sense, the Host of Heaven designates the heavenly spheres themselves (Genesis 2:1; Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3; Isaiah 34:4, &c.). It is probably with reference to the idolatrous worship of the Host of Heaven that the title of the Lord of hosts was given to the true God, as asserting His universal supremacy. (See Nehemiah 9:6.) In the New Testament the phrase occurs only once, James 5:4, the Lord of Sabaoth. In Romans 9:29, it is a quotation from Isaiah.—Professor Rawlinson. [739] Sin has already served, as all things must, to bring into view more clearly the glory of God, for had there been no sin there could have been no mercy; and in its punishment, its overthrow, and its extirpation, His glory will be yet more signally displayed. Hercules could never have been deified, if there had been no monsters to overcome. True is the seraph’s song even now, but it shall be more manifestly and gloriously true in that day, so surely and swiftly drawing nigh, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies unto Him, and God shall be All in all.—R. A. B. The vision reaches its highest point in the cry, Holy, holy, holy! It is the holiness of God which the seraphim proclaim, that which cannot be represented to the eye, that of which descriptions and symbols furnish no image. It is that holiness which fills not the heaven of heavens only but the whole earth, seeing that was made very good, seeing that in its order and constitution it was still perfectly good, though men defiled it by their deeds, though the habitations of cruelty were set up in the midst of it—F. D. Maurice. III. THE EFFECTS OF THE Song of Solomon 1. “The posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried” [742] A symbol this of the constant effects of the proclamation of truth. At every new announcement of it earthly things that seem most solid shake, and many of them totter and fall and disappear (2 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews 12:26-28). 2. And the house was filled with smoke. In response to the worship of the seraphim the temple became so completely filled with the Divine glory that the radiance overpowered the prophet’s vision. What he calls “smoke” was excess of light (1 Kings 8:10-12; Revelation 15:8) [745] So would it be with us were our craving for a fuller manifestation of God in His works and word granted. We have as much light now as we can bear. A fuller revelation would only dazzle, confuse, and blind us. The time is to come when we shall see God “as He is,” but this will then be possible, because “we shall be like Him;” and that time is not yet! [742] The voice of the seraphim at this time was so loud and melodious, and the power of their heavenly music was so great, when extolling the holiness and glory of Jehovah, that the posts, with the lintel of the door of the temple, seemed to tremble, to be shaken in the place where they stood, or loosed from their place. This was a very surprising effect (though seen only in vision); for these posts were so large and strong, that they supported gates of brass which are said to have required twenty men to shut them, on account of their ponderous weight.—Macculloch. [745] Delitzsch thus gives the usual interpretation of this clause: The house was filled with smoke. Many compare this with the similar occurrence in connection with the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:10); but Drechsler is correct in stating that the two cases are not parallel, for there God simply attested His own presence by the cloud of smoke behind which He concealed Himself, whereas here there was no need of any such self-attestation. Moreover, in this instance God does not dwell in the cloud and thick darkness, whilst the smoke is represented as the effect of the songs of praise in which the seraphim have joined, and not of the presence of God. The smoke arose from the altar of incense mentioned in Isaiah 6:6. But when Drechsler says that it was the prayers of saints (as in Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4), which ascended to the Lord in the smoke, this is a thought which is quite out of place here. The smoke was the immediate consequence of the seraph’s song of praise. THE SERVICE OF THE Isa_6:1-2; Isaiah 6:5-7. I saw also the Lord, &c.In that perfect prayer which our Lord bequeathed to His disciples we are taught to ask that God’s will may be done in earth as it is done in heaven. Thus angelic service is set before us as a model and pattern. Not that the services we are called upon to render are the same with those assigned to angels. Their sphere is heaven, ours for the present is the earth; and each of these spheres has its distinct and peculiar duties, appropriate to the nature and faculties of its occupants. But the spirit in which the employments of angels and men should be prosecuted is the same. One common sentiment—the sentiment of adoration and devotedness—should animate and govern them all. Hence the passage before us, although containing a record of the transactions of another sphere, contains a lesson, if not respecting the nature of our duties, yet respecting the method in which we should seek to fulfil them. I. The twofold life of a servant of God, whether human or angelic, is here very beautifully exhibited to us. The seraphim are represented as veiling their faces and feet with their wings while they stand in adoration before the throne of God. But although engaged in ceaselessly adoring the Divine perfections, they do not lead a life of barren contemplation. The words, “with twain he did fly,” intimate to us that they are also engaged in the active execution of those errands with which God has charged them. The Christian’s life, like that of the seraphim, branches out into the two great divisions of contemplative devotion and active exertion. It is the life of Mary combined with that of Martha (P. D. 2417). 1. The devotional branch of the Christian’s life. In the exercises of the closet and of the sanctuary are to be found the springs of the Christian’s exertions in his Master’s cause. These exercises are not originating sources of grace, but they are channels and vehicles through which God’s Spirit conveys Himself to the soul—pitchers in which may be drawn up the waters of the River of Life to refresh and recruit the energies of him whom a painful resistance to evil within and without has rendered weary and faint in his mind (H. E. I. 3426, 4107, 4108, and 3438–3448). If devotion be essential to the perfection of a seraph’s service, how much more essential must it be to ours, our necessities being so immensely greater than those of the bright inhabitants of heaven! The exigencies of our time make devotion especially needful now. The present is emphatically a period of the world’s history in which “many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased.” Moreover, there is a revival of outward energy and activity in the cause of religion. This is a blessing. But remember, days of excitement are not days of deep devotion. There may be much of rapid movement abroad in the world without a corresponding adoration of God in the secret chamber of the heart—much of flying without veiling of the face [1303][1303] If this be the case with any of us, if, with the busy occupation of the hands in the furtherance of religious objects, we have allowed the inward life of communion with God to decline, how painfully do we resemble those virgins who took no heed to provide for their dying lamps a continual supply of oil! The profession which we have made before men, however bright its blaze, will one day be shown to have been delusive—to have been destitute of those animating principles of faith and love from which alone can flow an acceptable service.—Goulburn. 2. The outward manifestation of the Christian life discernible by the world. Care must be taken not only that the lamp shall be filled with oil, but that there shall be a light shining before men (Matthew 5:16; H. E. I. 1042, 1044, 3906). The seraphim are not so wrapt up in adoration of God that they are forgetful of active service. “With twain they did fly” for the execution of the errands on which they were commissioned. Here is a reproof of the monastic principle, that seclusion from the society of our fellow-men and from the active duties of life is necessary in order to secure an uninterrupted period of leisure for solitary spiritual exercises. Undue predominance is thus given to one branch of God’s service, to the prejudice and neglect of the other and no less important branch. Exercise as well as nourishment and repose is essential to the health of the body, and so toil in the vineyard—earnest endeavour to advance the kingdom of God in our own hearts and the hearts of others—is no less essential to the health of the soul. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;” but for what purpose? That they may walk in good works, and run with patience the race that is set before them (chap. Isaiah 40:31; H. E. I. 1736–1742). II. Some practical lessons concerning the maintenance and manifestation of the twofold Christian life. 1. A lesson as to the spirit which should pervade all devotion. These bright and glorious beings are without sin. Still, such is their sense of the infinite distance between themselves and their Creator, that they veil their faces and their feet before His throne in token of adoring reverence. The first and most essential element of devotion is a feeling of deep awe flowing from a sense of God’s transcendent excellences and leading to profound self-abasement (H. E. I. 3798, 3799, 5074). If reverence was befitting in the seraphim, how much more is it necessary in sinful men! (Luke 18:13; Ezra 9:6). The vision of God wrought in Isaiah a feeling almost akin to despair. It seemed to him as if the perfect holiness of God was engaged to banish for ever every creature possessing the slightest taint of moral evil (Isaiah 6:5). In Isaiah 6:6-7 we have the glorious remedy. What is the significance of the symbols? By the work of the Son of God a mighty Altar of Propitiation has been reared up, and thence there comes to the penitent sinner cleansing as well as pardon. The “live coal” is an emblem of that love and zeal in God’s service with which the Holy Spirit imbues the souls of those who flee to the Altar of Atonement as their only refuge from the wrath to come. A participation in that Spirit’s influence is absolutely essential to our true participation in the chorus of the angelic host (H. E. I. 2887). 2. A few words on that active service which is the outward manifestation of the principles nourished by devotion. (1.) We must prepare for it by the care and culture of our own heart [1306] (2.) There is also an outward work which God has made binding on all of us. He has assigned to each of us a certain position in life. Every such position involves its peculiar responsibilities, snares, and occupations. The responsibilities must be cheerfully and manfully met, the occupations diligently fulfilled, as a piece of taskwork allotted to us by the Lord of the vineyard (Ephesians 6:7). Besides, God has intrusted to us, in various measures, substance, time, abilities, influence, and these we are diligently to use for the promotion of the cause of God in the world. In our busy path through life, which brings us in contact with so many individuals, opportunities are ever and anon presented to us of being useful to our fellow-men; and to watch for, seize, and improve such opportunities is not the least important of these branches of active service (P. D. 40, 3567, 3569). [1306] God requires us to set a strict watch over its outgoings—a watch such as sentinels keep over the persons and goods which pass out of a city whose allegiance to the sovereign is suspected—to curb and quell at its earliest outbreak every rising of vanity, temper, bitterness, passion, and just—to drag forth from its dark recesses and to slay every cherished iniquity which has found there a harbour and a hiding-place. Our own heart is a vineyard over which God hath set every one of us to dress it and to keep it. We are to extirpate the soil’s poisonous produce, and to implore upon the soil of this vineyard the precious dews of the Divine Spirit, which may remedy its native barrenness and turn it from a desert into the garden of the Lord.—Goulburn. See also H. E. I. 1841, 1 42, 2695–2708. .— 1. It is not the intrinsic dignity of our duties, nor the large result of our fulfilment of them, which renders the diligent performance of them an acceptable work in God’s eyes. The great design of our being placed in this world is not that we may do some signal service, or large amount of service, to our Creator, but rather that we may execute the service (be it great or small) allotted to us in a spirit of fidelity, zeal, and love. The spirit which is thrown into and pervades the work is everything—the work itself (comparatively) nothing. Be the sphere what it may which Divine Providence has assigned us, let the duties of it be executed in a seraphic spirit (P. D. 1484). 2. We have overwhelming motives, if we did but rightly appreciate them, to devotedness of our every faculty to the service of our God. The redeemed sinner owes to God far more of allegiance than the angel who has retained his integrity. Angels no such Fall have known, “angels no such Love have known,” as we.—E. M. Goulburn, D.C.L.: Sermons, pp. 77–99, SERVICEIsa_6:8. Then said I, Here am I, send me. This is a chapter of autobiography. Here is disclosed the secret of the wonderful energy with which for more than half a century Isaiah prosecuted his ministry. He is the Paul of the Old Testament. Allowance being made for difference of phraseology, there is a striking resemblance between the call of Isaiah and of Paul (comp. chap. 6 with Acts 9). Both sought to serve the heavenly King; and both received a commission to work, spiritual and catholic beyond all conceptions of their time,—the one penning the Gospel of the suffering Messiah, the other vindicating the truth that the Gospel is God’s message to the world. The text reminds us— I. Of the Christian’s offer of service. The offer of service which the prophet madewas— 1. Free. He spoke spontaneously, and not as the result of pressure from without [751] 2. Truthful. Unlike one of the sons in the parable (Matthew 21:30), he meant what he said. 3. Bold. It was made concerning an unknown mission. The justification of the boldness of his offer is, that it was made to God, who always qualifies His servants for the tasks to which He calls them. 4. Personal. The prophet placed at God’s disposal, not some of his property merely, but himself. 5. It involved the most complete self-surrender. All thought of self control the prophet resigned. He placed himself as an instrument in God’s hands. He was ready to go where, when, and on what errand God might determine [754] Such are the offers of service in which God delights. [751] H. E. I., 3633–3639. [754] H. E. I., 3618–3626. II. Of the steps that lead up to this offer. The offer may take men by surprise, but there has always been preparation for it, as there has been long preparation for the lightning that leaps suddenly from the sky. Such offers as the prophet made are preceded— 1. by a vision of God, of the thrice Holy One, filling the soul with awe, and causing it to tremble (Isaiah 6:1-4). 2. By self-prostration of spirit, a conviction of utter sinfulness (Isaiah 6:5). This is the invariable result of a true vision of God (Exodus 3:2; Joshua 5:14; Judges 6:22; Judges 13:22; Luke 5:8; Revelation 1:17). This is also a prime condition of fitness for service. 3. By the touch of a mediator (Isaiah 6:6-7). “They that be struck down by visions of God’s glory shall soon be raised up again by visits of His grace.” Blessed is the man who has both visions. A sense of pardon is essential to large usefulness. Imperfect realisation of forgiveness is one of the most frequent causes of weakness in Christian service. 4. By a moral transformation. The offerer has become a new man from the centre outwards. Now he can hear God’s voice: “I heard,” &c. It is a voice to which now he feels he must respond: “Here am I,” &c. In some degree every Christian is thus prepared. These essentials of service are also essentials of Christian life. These experiences are at once your credentials and your powers. III. That God always accepts offers of service for which there has been this preparation, and that bear these marks. He never rejects true volunteers. Offers hastily made and half-meant He passes by (Joshua 24:18-19; John 2:23-25); but genuine, whole-hearted offers of service, He in variably accepts. In conclusion, let us lay up in our memories three facts in connection with service. 1. True service is not incompatible with failure. We are too apt to connect failure with incompetency in the servant. Many do fail through incompetency, but not all. The prophet divinely called and most royally endowed may fail, because of the moral obduracy and perverseness of those to whom he is sent (Isaiah 6:9-10). 2. True service is not incompatible with sorrow (Isaiah 6:11-12). That man is inhuman who without profound grief can behold the perversity of sinners, and the calamities with which in consequence they are visited. 3. True service will never be left without reward. Multitudes may reject the prophet’s message, yet there will be “a tenth” who will accept it and be saved.—J. R. Wood. WANTEDIsa_6:8. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, &c.I. God wants messengers unto sinful men. Tidings concerning sin and salvation, mercy and deliverance, God’s grace and man’s misery, must be published. Might send seraphim and the angel host. God elects to send men to their fellow-men. “Whom shall I send?” is not the inquiry of a divine perplexity, but the stimulative question of one who calls for willing workers. II. God especially qualifies His messengers. How does He in an especial manner fit men for His highest service? 1. By an awe-inspiring sight of Himself. 2. By distressing convictions of personal sin. 3. By sanctifying all the faculties to His use. III. God’s call should meet with a ready response. He desires volunteers, “Who will go for us?” The constraint of love is the omnipotent motive force. 1. The call is heard individually. “I heard the voice of the Lord.” 2. The call provokes self-surrender. “Here am I.” 3. The call demands entire self-abandonment. “Send me”—anywhere, on any errands, at any time, in any capacity. IV. How may we ascertain that we are required to become messengers of the living God? 1. By the separating voice of God. 2. By the discipline of preparation. 3. By the openings of beckoning opportunities. The “joy of the Lord” will be our strength when most we feel the pressure of “the burden of the Lord.”—Matthew Braithwaite. A STRANGE AND SAD ERRANDIsa_6:9-10. And He said, Go, and tell this people, &c.A sad and mysterious errand, the statement of which might well have quenched the enthusiasm inspired by his vision of the Divine glory. When he exclaimed, “Here am I, send me!” how little did he anticipate for what purpose he would be sent! It must have astounded and saddened him, and it is full of astonishment and mystery for us. How could God have sent His servant on an errand such as this? Much of the mystery will be relieved, though not altogether removed, if we recognise—what I believe to be the fact—that here we have a statement, not of the messages Isaiah was to deliver (for they were many, and were revealed to him at various times), but of what would be the result of them all. Those to whom he was sent, and whom he desired to bless, would not be made better, but worse, by his ministry. This is in accordance with a well-known and terrible fact, viz., that the proclamation of truth often leads men to cleave more desperately to error [757] Why, then, does God send His servants to proclaim it? [757] To a man living in the belief of what is erroneous or the practice of what is wrong you proclaim the truth, and what happens? (1) Either he amends his creed or his conduct; or (2) he disregards what you say, and goes on as before; or (3) he rejects what you say, and cleaves to his error more passionately than he would have done otherwise. The latter is a very frequent result. For example, slavery once prevailed throughout our colonies and the United States of America. Holy men held slaves; they had no suspicion of the wrongfulness of slavery. When its wrongfulness was proclaimed, many abandoned it; but others held to it,—some not caring whether it was wrong or right, looking only to the fact that it was profitable; but others reasoned themselves into a persuasion that it is right, that it is Scriptural, and maintained the system with a tenacity and passion they never felt before its wickedness was declared. In thousands of cases that was the result of the anti-slavery movement. God foresaw it, yet He raised up faithful men to proclaim the doctrines of human brotherhood and freedom, and sent them forth on their perilous errand, saying to them in effect, “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” He sent them forth, notwithstanding that He foresaw that one inevitable effect of their mission would be the confirmation of thousands in error, the hardening of thousands in iniquity. In like manner He raised up Isaiah and other prophets to denounce the sensuality of the Jews, to pronounce their political schemes—their alliances now with Egypt and now with Assyria—to be huge mistakes, and to exhort them to a life of holiness and of simple trust in God; He foresaw that the result of their efforts would not be the reformation of the nation, and yet He sent them forth! Not because He desires the depravity and destruction of men. Such a desire would be utterly inconsistent with His character and with His express declarations (Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 18:32, &c.). We need not imagine, then, that we have here a confirmation of those schemes of arbitrary election and reprobation which some theologians have attributed to Him. But 1. Because it is necessary for the preservation of His character as a God of righteousness and mercy that He should do what OUGHT to result in the salvation of men. Had He not sent His prophets forth on their sad mission, we should have been confronted by a greater difficulty: God permitting His chosen people to go on to ruin without one word of warning spoken, without one effort put forth to arrest them. But one of the supreme moral necessities of the universe is this, that His character as a God desiring the redemption of sinners should be maintained unimpaired; and therefore He sends forth His messengers to proclaim the truth, although He foresees that to many they will be the “savour of death unto death,”—as the frosty air of winter which cuts off the aged and feeble,—and not “the savour of life unto life,”—not as that same frosty air which “braces” and invigorates those who are already vigorous. As this quotation reminds you, this is the effect of the Gospel itself. Ought God, therefore, never to have sent its preachers forth? 2. That stubborn sinners may be left without excuse in the day of their doom. God will not merely take vengeance on the violators of His laws of righteousness; He will make it manifest that while in Him there is an awful severity, there is no vindictiveness; and He will so act that, even when that severity is most manifested, not only the onlookers, but even those who experience it shall be constrained to confess, “Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints!” He will not leave it possible for them to say, “Hadst Thou warned us, we should not have sinned.” They shall be speechless (Matthew 22:12; Jeremiah 44:2-5). 3. That the righteous may be saved. Did He not send His prophets forth to instruct and warn, even the men in whose hearts are the germs of righteousness and holiness of life would follow the multitude to do evil: they hear, and turn, and live: and this is ample justification of the prophet’s mission. Those who perish would have perished without it; but without it those who are saved would have perished also. And in this respect Isaiah’s ministry was not in vain: while to the vast majority of the nation it was “the savour of death unto death,” it was to a few—“the holy seed” of whom also this chapter speaks to us—“the savour of life unto life.” They learned to trust, not in Assyria nor in Egypt, but in the Holy One of Israel, and therefore were “kept in perfect peace” amid all the convulsions and catastrophes of their time. This passage seemed at the outset full of mystery; our tendency was to shun it as one that would not bear investigation, as one about which the least that could be said the better, as one which we could have wished had never been written. What do we see now? That here we have an illustration of the Psalmist’s saying, “Clouds and darkness are round about Him”—so to our purblind vision it seems, the brightness being so bright that it dazzles and blinds us; “but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” What should we learn from this? 1. Never to fear to investigate anything in God’s Word. There is nothing here which its friends need wish to hide out of sight; it is all worthy of Him from whom it came (Psalms 19:9). 2. Never to distrust God because of anything in either His Word or His Providence. Things that might cause distrust we shall meet with; some of them we shall never explain here, where we can know only “in part;” yet let us keep fast hold of the glorious and gladdening truth, that “in Him is no darkness at all.” God is light; God is love. THE OF DIVINE TRUTHIsa_6:9-10. And He said, Go, and tell this people, &c.The divine message—a message of melting pathos and of startling warning, of beseeching entreaty and of terrible threatening—must be delivered to men. “Go, and tell this people” is a command that shatters excuses and imposes an imperative obligation. God’s speakers have no option—speak they must (Jonah 3:2). The effects of God’s communications correspond to the willingness or the wilfulness of men. I. Divine truth elicits human disposition. In the spring season, the sun sits in judgment upon the trees of gardens and forests. Then the trees that have life have it more abundantly. Their latent powers and possibilities are developed and exhibited. The same sun-force smites the decaying trees and shrivels those having only goodliness without life. Is not the Sun of Righteousness “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”? When on earth, He who is “the Truth” evoked the hidden feelings, purposes, and qualities of men; and His manifold message repeats the process to the end of time (John 9:39). The ministry of Isaiah was a revealing ministry: the character of men and the character of the nation by it were made manifest. II. Divine truth repelled because of dislike. “Lest they see, hear, understand, be converted and healed.” A diseased eye winces under the scorching sunlight, as a disordered soul will flinch under the fierce light that streams upon it from above. The disquieted conscience repels the entrance of the truth, because of the revolutions in thought, disposition, purpose, character, and activity which its admission would necessitate. None are so blind, deaf, insensible as those who do not want to see, hear, or feel (John 3:19-20). Men dislike the purpose of God’s good but severe discipline: they want not to “be converted and healed,” and they recoil from the painful process [760] [760] “There is light enough for those whose sincere desire is to see; and darkness enough for those of a contrary disposition. There is brightness enough to illuminate the elect; and enough of obscurity to humble them. There is obscurity enough to blind the reprobate; and brightness enough to condemn them and to leave them without excuse.”—Blaise Pascal. III. Divine truth cannot be rejected without injury. Divine truth and grace will not be void of result, though the result may be most injurious (Romans 2:4-5). Consequences of lasting duration are involved in our action of opening or shutting the doors of the soul [763] Not to receive the “grace upon grace” of God is to put the spirit into an attitude of opposition: this attitude can easily become a confirmed habit; and the habit, in righteous retribution, may be ratified (Revelation 22:11). Antagonism to God’s revelation injures the soul’s highest life; its power of vision is dimmed or veiled; the understanding loses its alertness and fails to comprehend; the affections become gross and carnal. Inexorable is the spiritual law and appalling the spiritual doom (Ephesians 4:18). Isaiah unfolded God’s design of salvation; but the design was intercepted and frustrated by human perversity. Men “rejected the counsel of God against themselves,” and persistent resistance rendered them “past feeling.” “Take heed how ye hear.” “Hear, and your soul shall live” [766]Matthew Braithwaite. [763] “The smallest particle of light falling on the sensitive plate produces a chemical change that can never be undone again; and the light of Christ’s love, once brought to the knowledge and presented for the acceptance of a soul, stamps on it an ineffaceable sign of its having been there. Once heard, it is hence forward a perpetual element in the whole condition, character, and destiny of the hearer. Every man that ever rejects Christ, does these things thereby—wounds his own conscience, hardens his own heart, and makes himself a worse man, just because he has had a glimpse of holiness, and has willingly, and almost consciously, “loved darkness rather than light.” Unbelief is its own judgment, its own condemnation: unbelief, as sin, is punished like other sins, by the perpetuation of deeper and darker forms of itself. Every time that you stifle a conviction, fight down a conviction, or din away a conviction, you have harmed your soul, made yourself a worse man, lowered the tone of your conscience, enfeebled your will, made your heart harder against love; you have drawn another horny scale over the eye that will prevent you seeing the light that is yonder. You have, as much as in you is, approximated to the other pole of the universe (if I may say that), to the dark and deadly antagonist of mercy, and goodness, and truth, and grace.”—Alexander Maclaren. [766] “The great iniquity is, or then is the Gospel hid in a sinful sense, when men have it among them, or may have it, and will not hear it; or do hear it, and never understand it,—that is, never apply or set themselves to understand it; or receive no conviction from it; or receive no suitable impression on their hearts from it. Thus, all the while, is the Gospel hid to them by their own iniquity, that they do voluntarily make resisting efforts against it, as everything of sin must have somewhat of voluntarium in it. It supposeth that otherwise a brute agent might be as capable of sin as a rational one, and that cannot be. But here lies the iniquity, that men might understand and they will not; and there is a natural faculty that should turn them, even in their very hearts; but there is a sinful disinclination, and they will not turn. For it is the will that is not turned: “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” And so, when the Gospel is hid, it is hid, not because men cannot see, but because they will not. They do (as it were) pretend the veil; stretch forth the veil before their eyes or bind it close over their own eyes, hoodwink themselves that they will not see. Being thus sinfully hidden, it comes also to be penalty hidden by a nemesis, hidden by a just vindicta. Ye will not understand, then ye shall not understand; ye will harden your hearts against light, against grace, against the design of the Gospel, and they shall be hardened. Since ye will have it so, so let it be.”—John Howe. D. P. Q., 2938, 3391. THE OF THE PROPHET’S MISSIONIsa_6:11-13. Then said I, Lord, how long? &c.For an exposition of this passage see note [769][769] He inquired how long this service of hardening and this state of hardness were to continue,—a question forced from him by his sympathy with the nation to which he himself belonged (cf. Exodus 32:9-14), and one which was warranted by the certainty that God, who is ever true to His promises, could not cast off Israel as a people for ever. The answer follows in Isaiah 6:11 b–13: “Until towns are wasted without inhabitant, and houses are without man, and the ground shall be laid waste, a wilderness, and Jehovah shall put men far away, and there shall be many forsaken places within the land. And is there still a tenth therein, this also again is given up to destruction, like the terebinth and the oak, of which, when they are felled, only a root-stump remains: such a root-stump is the holy seed.” The hardening judgment would come to an end only when the land of Israel had been made utterly desolate. Up to the words “given up to destruction,” the announcement is a threatening one; but from this point to “remains” a consolatory prospect begins to dawn; and in the last three words this brighter prospect, like a distant streak of light, bounds the horizon of the gloomy prophecy. It shall happen as with the terebinth and the oak. These trees were selected as illustrations, not only because they were so near akin to evergreens, and produced a similar impression, or because there were so many associations connected with them in the olden times of Israel’s history; but also because they formed such fitting symbols of Israel, on account of their peculiar facility for springing up again from the root (like the beech and nut, for example), even when they had been completely felled.… The root-stump was the remnant that had survived the judgment, and this remnant would become a seed, out of which a new Israel would spring up after the old had been destroyed. Thus in a few words is the way sketched out which God would henceforth take with His people. The passage contains an outline of the history of Israel to the end of time. Israel as a nation was indestructible, by virtue of the promise of God; but the mass of the people were doomed to destruction through the judicial sentence of God, and only a remnant, which would be converted, would perpetuate the nationality of Israel, and inherit the glorious future. This law of a blessing sunk in the depths of the curse actually inflicted still prevails in the history of the Jews. The way of salvation is open to all. Individuals find it, and give us a presentiment of what might be and is to be; but the great mass are hopelessly lost, and only when they have been swept away will a holy seed, saved by the covenant-keeping God, grow up into a new and holy Israel, which, according to chap. Isaiah 27:6, will fill the earth with its fruits, or, as the Apostle expresses it in Romans 11:12, become “the riches of the Gentiles.”—Delitzsch. Let us look steadily at the facts before us, and then, perchance, we may discern the lessons associated with them. Isaiah desires to know how long his strange and sad mission is to continue; and the answer is, until its utter failure to save his fellow-countrymen from their sins and their impending doom has been demonstrated, until nothing but the mere life-germ of the nation is left. Here really are three facts, full of instruction for us to-day. I. Isaiah’s mission and the calamities he desired to avert by it were to work together. There was thus a twofold appeal to the men of that generation; and at its close God might have repeated the challenge, “What could I have done more?” (chap. Isaiah 5:4). Both by offers of mercy and manifestations of righteous anger He sought to deliver them from the doom towards which they madly hastened. Thus God deals with the world to-day: His preachers of righteousness and His judgments because of unrighteousness work side by side; this fact is a conclusive proof that God is not willing that the sinner should die. This is true of nations, and it is true of individuals. II. Isaiah was to prosecute his mission to the end, notwithstanding the proofs that his efforts to deliver his fellow-countrymen were vain. This is always the duty of God’s messengers: they are to deliver their message, and reiterate it, whether men accept or reject it. Whether it is popular or unpopular is a thing of which they are not even to think! the one thing they have to consider and remember is, that it is true. III. In the midst of all the calamities of his time, Isaiah was sustained by the assurance that the nation he loved should not utterly perish. Nothing could hurt “the holy seed” that constituted its true life. The Church of to-day is full of imperfections; the forces of unbelief are marshalling themselves against her; it may be that she will again be tried by fierce persecutions: but the Lord’s true prophet can survey all these possible calamities with calmness; he knows that “the holy seed” which constitutes her true life cannot be injured by them. Here, then, is instruction and encouragement for the Lord’s prophet to-day. He is to preach the preaching which God has bidden him, regardless of everything but the fact that God had sent it forth. He is not to modify his message, to make it more palatable to his hearers. He must not cease to deliver it, although he sees that his hearers are hardening themselves against it, and so are bringing upon themselves a heavier doom. Comfort he will need, but he must find it in the fact that there is a “holy seed” to whom his ministry will be a blessing, and in whose salvation, if he be faithful to the end, he shall share. In this passage there are also some supplementary lessons of general interest. 1. We have here an illustration of the persistence and success of the divine purposes. God selected the descendants of Abraham as the instruments through whom He would bless the world (Exodus 19:5-6). Their history has been one long struggle against this purpose; but it has not been a frustration of it: their very waywardness and wickedness have afforded occasions for the manifestation of His character, and the consequent revelations both of His goodness and of His severity have been blessings to the world. In spite even of their rejection of His Son they are still His people, and He will at length make them a holy people (Romans 11:25-29). 2. God does not hesitate to use any means that will help to conform His chosen ones to His own ideal. It is a solemn thing to be chosen of God: that choice may involve possibilities from which flesh and blood shrinks [772] The way to avoid those possibilities is to find out what God’s purpose concerning us is, and endeavour to conform ourselves thereto: then we shall find His choice of us a well-spring of constant blessing. 3. God does not despise the merest germs of goodness. Insignificant, comparatively, as was “the holy seed” in Israel, He watched over it with ceaseless care. Comfort there is here for those who lament that there is in them so little of which God can approve. That little He will not despise (1 Kings 14:13; Isaiah 42:3); He sees what possibilities of excellence there are in His chosen ones [775] and those little germs of excellence He will nourish until they have developed into that which will satisfy even Himself. [772] Homiletic Encyclopædia of Illustrations, 86–90, 99–115. [775] As the eye of the cunning lapidary detects in the rugged pebble, just digged from the mine, the polished diadem that shall sparkle in the diadem of a king; or as the sculptor in the rough block of marble, newly hewn from the quarry, beholds the statue of perfect grace and beauty which is latent there, and waiting but the touch of his hand,—so He who sees all, and the end from the beginning, sees oftentimes greater wonders than these. He sees the saint in the sinner, the saint that shall be in the sinner that is; the wheat in the tare; the shepherd feeding the sheep in the wolf tearing the sheep; Paul in the preacher of the faith in Saul the persecutor of the faith; Israel a prince with God in Jacob the trickster and the supplanter; Matthew the Apostle in Levi the publican; a woman that should love much in a woman sinning much; and in some vine of the earth bringing forth wild grapes and grapes of gall a tree which shall yet bring forth good fruit, and wine to make glad the heart; so that when some, like those over-zealous servants in the parable, would have Him pluck it up, and to cast it without more ado into the wine-press of the wrath of Almighty God, He exclaims rather, “Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it,” and is well content to await the end.—Trench. See also Homiletic Encyclopædia, &c., 2454 and 3056. FEARS AND Isa_7:1-9. And it came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, &c.The historical statements [778] in these verses afford illustrations of spiritual truths. [778] For a statement of these circumstances see following paper: THE VIRGIN’S SON. I. The powers of evil are confederate against the Lord’s people (Isaiah 7:1-2; Isaiah 7:6). By the combined forces of evil, God’s chosen ones have always been assailed. The conflict began in Eden, and has continued ever since. These combined forces attacked our Lord, and appeared for a time, outwardly at least, to conquer. We must expect similar assaults (John 16:33). The ultimate object of these foes is to destroy our spiritual life. II. The Lord’s people are often terrified by the action of their foes. Two things may contribute to this. 1. A sense of personal guilt. Conscience often slumbers in prosperity, but awakens and alarms us when danger threatens. No doubt Ahaz remembered his sin, when he saw his foes were coming. 2. Distrust of the Lord. It does not appear that Ahaz told the Lord about his trouble, or sought His help. His idolatry had led him into unbelief—a frequent cause of the Christian’s terrors. He looks at his troubles, and sinks, because he does not lay hold on Christ (Matthew 14:30). III. God seeks to allay the fears of His people in the hour of their trouble. This is done in three ways. 1. By exhorting them to keep their minds calm. “Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted.” Picture Ahaz restless, excited, his breast fainting, hope and courage failing. How timely was the prophet’s exhortation! how helpful it might have been to Ahaz! Who of us does not know the blessedness of such an appeal? We have been excited, trembling, fainting, because of temporal dangers or spiritual foes, and in our agitation have been likely to do something foolish. But a voice has said, “Fear not; be calm!” Who says, “Fear not”? The loving, omnipotent Saviour, who is able to deliver us. 2. By showing His people the weakness of their foes. They are only the “two tails of smoking fire-brands.” You think them powerful, but they are really weak (1 John 4:4). 3. By predicting the failure of the plans of their foes (Isaiah 7:7-9)—a prediction which was fulfilled sixty-five years afterwards, when Esarhaddon desolated the country, and filled it with foreigners. So God shows to us the weakness of our foes, and predicts their failure. IV. God shows His people that faith is necessary for the establishment of their peace (Isaiah 7:9. See also 2 Chronicles 20:20; Isaiah 26:3).—H. F. Walker. FAITH’S CITADELIsa_7:1-9. And it came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, &c.I. There are many things calculated to fill us with fear—sufferings, losses, temptations, death, &c. Especially alarming are combinations of evil: when they threaten, we are apt to feel as did Ahaz and his people (Isaiah 7:2). Afflictions seldom come singly: sickness brings poverty in its train, &c.; and the heart is apt to fail before such accumulations of misfortune. II. But God guarantees the safety of those who trust in Him. 1. He controls all events (Isaiah 7:7). The Prince of Orange, when he took the field against France and the Emperor, said he had made an alliance with Heaven, and feared not for the result. Much more may the believer be confident in the warfare of life (H. E. I. 200–203, 2372, 2373, 4049, 4055–4058). 2. It is only while we trust in Him that we are thus in alliance with Him. Only by trusting in Him are we kept from trusting in that which cannot deliver us—ourselves or our fellow-men, to the exclusion of God and the rejection of His proffered help. Only by trusting in Him are our hearts kept in peace (chap. Isaiah 26:3. H. E. I. 1893, 1894, 1911–1919, 1923–1926). Only by trusting in Him do we give Him the glory which is His due, and which He will not give to another (H. E. I. 4054). III. The guarantee of safety which God offers to all who trust Him extends to the soul as well as the body. Because of our sins, and the enemies they bring against us, we might well fear; but in the Gospel help is offered, or perfect safety is guaranteed to them that believe. IV. The inevitable result of refusal to accept the help which God mercifully offers us is ruin. Ahaz, refusing the sign offered him, and trusting in Assyria, was overthrown by his ally. There is deadly peril in any other alliance than that which God offers to form with us. Said our Lord to all who are tempted to apostacy, “Remember Lot’s wife,” and in like manner we may say to all who are tempted to disregard and reject God’s offers of help, Remember Ahaz!—John Johnston. ISAIAH’S WITH AHAZIsa_7:3-25. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, &c.In this interview of Isaiah with Ahaz we have an instance— I. Of God’s efforts to turn men from ruinous courses. God is the great Lawgiver, and the Judge before whose bar all impenitent transgressors of His law will have to stand. Absolute inflexibility is necessarily His characteristic in both these capacities. But these are not the only capacities He seeks to sustain to us. It is His ambition to be the Saviour of men from sin and ruin. Consequently, He does not merely lay down His law and stand coldly by, to see whether men will keep it or not. He plies them with inducements to keep it. When He sees them bent on transgression, He endeavours to arrest them in their foolish and fatal purpose. Short of that destruction of the freedom of their will, which would be the destruction also of their responsibility and of their possibilities of virtue, He leaves nothing undone to turn them from the broad road that leads to death [784] By adverse providences, by the strivings of His Holy Spirit, by awakening conscience to an active exercise of its functions, He works upon and in them to will and to do His good pleasure. No sinner has ever gone down to perdition unheeded, unpitied, without attempts to rescue him. Your own experience attests the truth of these statements: you know you had to fight your way through to those transgressions of which you are now ashamed. God’s “preventing grace” is a great fact of which we should take reverent heed, and for which we should give fervent thanks [787] [784] Augustine, in his Confessions, makes thankful note of the manner in which, in the years of his ungodliness, God had raised up obstacles in his path of sin. When sinful desires raged within him, he says, the means for gratifying them were absent; or when the desires and the means of gratifying them came together, some witness was present to deter him; and when the means were present, and no witnesses stood by to hinder him, the desire to transgress was wanting. He rightly judged that these were no mere accidents or coincidences. [787] The preventing methods of grace may deservedly pass for some of the prime instances of the divine mercy to men in this world. For though it ought to be owned for an eminent act of grace to restore one actually fallen, yet there are not wanting arguments to persuade, that it is a greater to keep one from falling. Not to break a limb is more desirable than to have it set and healed, though never so skilfully and well. Preservation in this, as in many other cases, being better a great deal than restoration; since after all is done, it is odds but the scar will remain when the wound is cured and the danger over.—South. II. Of the manner in which sinners, by insincere pretences, resist God’s saving purposes. The stubbornness and insincerity of Ahaz are obvious [790] But in neither of these is he singular. Sinners who are bent on their sins not seldom go on to them under pretexts of righteousness, with which they endeavour to deceive themselves and others. The greatest crime ever committed was done under a pretext of righteousness (Matthew 26:65). So has it been with countless crimes since. Let us be on our guard against our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9; Proverbs 14:12). Let us not act upon any reason which we do not really believe will bear the scrutiny of God. [790] Ahaz listened in sullen and incredulous silence; and the prophet resumes—“Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.” But Ahaz, who looked on Jehovah not as his God, but only (like any of his heathen neighbours) as the god of Judæa, and as such inferior to the god of Assyria; and who had determined to apply to the king of Assyria, or perhaps had already applied to him, as a more trustworthy helper than Jehovah, in the present strait; declines to ask a sign, excusing himself by a contrary use of the words of Moses, “Thou shalt not tempt Jehovah.” He refused the sign, because he knew it would confirm the still struggling voice of his conscience; and that voice he had resolved not to obey, since it bid him give up the Assyrian, and trust in Jehovah henceforth.—Strachey. III. Of the twofold result which always follows such resistance to the divine purposes. 1. The sinner is, ere long, compelled to confess that the counsels he set aside were counsels of truth and wisdom. In less than three years, Ahaz had cause to acknowledge the soundness of the advice to which on this memorable day he refused to listen [793] A typical case. 2. The obstinate sinner is left to the ruin from which he would not permit God to deliver him. There is no salvation by force. God acts upon our will, but He will not save us against our will. Neither shall those who refused to be saved from sin be saved from its consequences. If we choose evil, no act of omnipotence will render the choice harmless (chap. Isaiah 3:11). Ahaz chose the help of Assyria rather than the help of Jehovah, and with the help of that great and unscrupulous power he had to take its domination and destructiveness (2 Chronicles 28:16; 2 Chronicles 28:20). Again a typical case. The retributive justice of God is a fact of which it behoves us to be heedful. [793] Within the space of time figuratively indicated by the time necessary for the child of the prophet to become capable of discerning between good and evil,—i.e., in about three years,—Rezin and Pekah were slain, and the fact that they were but “two tails of smoking firebrands” demonstrated. (See 2 Kings 15:27-30; 2 Kings 16:1-9.) A COUNSELIsa_7:4. Take heed, and be quiet; fear not. I. “Take heed.” This is just what Ahaz fancied he was doing. He was taking heed to the alliance which had been formed for his overthrow, and he was at that very moment doing his best to frustrate it—by strengthening the fortifications of Jerusalem, and by summoning the king of Assyria to his help. This seemed to him and his court supremely wise: it was eminently foolish. He was taking heed exclusively to the danger, and had no attention left for the divinely-provided defence against it. That defence lay in God’s promise made to David (2 Samuel 7:12-16). From one point of view, it may be said that in allying themselves for the destruction of the royal house of David, Rezin, Pekah, and the son of Tabeal embarked on an enterprise foredoomed to failure; they might as well have conspired to prevent the sun from rising any more in the east. That the descendants of David should reign in Jerusalem and that the sun should rise in the east, were both guaranteed by the same thing—the will and appointment of God. Resistance was as vain in the one case as in the other—that is, while the conditions attached to the promise made to David were observed. For there were conditions attached to it (1 Chronicles 28:9; 2 Chronicles 15:2). It was to this great promise and to its essential conditions that God would have Ahaz “take heed.” “Take heed” is good counsel to give to every man standing in covenant relations with God. Many of us stand in such relations to Him, both as the result of the relations in which our parents stood to Him (Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 7:9, &c.), and as the result of our personal acts; “the seed of the righteous,” we have ourselves voluntarily taken the Lord to be our God, and have solemnly sworn to walk before Him in righteousness all the days of our life. Let us then evermore “take heed” to this covenant which God has condescended to make with us. It lays upon us great responsibilities, but it secures to us glorious privileges. Conspicuous among them is this, that we need not fear the might of any of our adversaries, whether they be those of the body or of the soul (Isaiah 54:17). II. “Be quiet.” Or better, “And be quiet.” Quietness would follow naturally from right heed-taking. What was Ahaz doing? He was straining every nerve to do for himself what God had promised to do for him. God had promised to defend Zion and her king, and if Ahaz had had faith in God’s promise, the appeal to Assyria for succour would never have been made. Alas! how often have better men than Ahaz failed in this very respect. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the founders of the Hebrew nation, all fell into grievous sin through that want of faith in God’s promises which led them to try to do for themselves what God had promised to do for them (cf. Genesis 15:1; Genesis 20:11-13; Genesis 26:3; Genesis 26:7; Genesis 25:23; Genesis 27:24). To what a shameful state of degradation was David brought by the same cause (cf. 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Samuel 21:12-13). How many imitators they have had! God has promised that His people shall be safe and prosperous; but not taking heed to His promises, to how many tricks and devices have they had recourse to secure for themselves the blessing God would surely have sent to them if they had been obedient and believing, and into what shame, misery, and ruin have they plunged themselves [796] Let their sins be to us as beacons; let us “take heed” to God’s covenant on both its sides, and be quiet (Psalms 37:3-9). [796] See Homiletic Encyclopœdia of Illustrations, Nos. 173–175, 2017. III. “Fear not.” Yet there seemed good reason for fear. It was really a powerful confederacy that threatened Ahaz with destruction. Looked at on its human side, it was no groundless panic that had smitten him and his people. Yet the pain of mind and heart which they endured (Isaiah 7:2), they endured needlessly. They were really in no danger from their enemies. Their danger lay only in the unbelief and stubbornness of their own hearts. They had but to return to the Lord and they would find Him a refuge and strong tower, as their fathers had done aforetime. “Fear not” is the counsel which I give to God’s people to-day. Some of you are fearing greatly; some concerning temporal things, some lest the spiritual conflict you are waging should issue in defeat and eternal ruin. “Take heed” to the promises God has made to you in both these respects; “be quiet,” and fret not yourselves in any wise to do evil; with calm and courageous hope wait for the fulfilment of those promises; instead of yielding to distressing, utterly unnecessary, and God-dishonouring fears, say with David (Psalms 27:1; Psalms 34:22). Isa_7:4. Take heed. The Hebrew word signifies, to prevent or keep off any evil with which we are threatened. The direction ought to extend to all that we do; for not one duty can be rightly performed without diligent attention, and it is no less incumbent upon us than upon the king and people of Judah (H. E. I. 4880–4890). It is a necessary and useful caution, which ought to be reduced to practice at all times, especially in seasons of perplexity and distress, such as that wherein Ahaz and his subjects received this admonition. 1. Take heed to your senses, particularly what you see and hear; for these are the avenues by which sin and vanity, or wisdom and instruction, enter into the heart (H. E. I. 4895). 2. Take heed to your actions, what you do, and how you act, and for what purpose you are employed, that you may happily avoid the many sins and dangers to which you are exposed, and attain the great ends which you ought uniformly to pursue. 3. Take heed to your tongue, that you sin not with your mouth; consider wisely what you say, to whom you speak, and to what purpose, especially when your minds are fretted, and when you feel yourselves under the influence of timidity and disappointment (P. D. 3558, 3559). 4. Take heed to your hearts, and keep them with all diligence, for out of them are the issues of life; attend to the secret operations of your minds, and the objects on which your affections terminate, that you may perceive whether they are properly moderated and directed (H. E. I. 2695–2705, 4887; P. D. 1735).—Robert Macculloch: Lectures on Isaiah vol. i. p. 395. FAITH, THE OF Isa_7:9. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. “Established” is what every man wishes to be—fixed in fact and in feeling; established like a great oak which, because its roots take fast hold of the soil, is able to grow broader and higher and more luxuriant year by year. Such growth is impossible to a tree that is frequently transplanted. Notwithstanding—nay, in perfect harmony with the desire for progress that is in us all, we all desire to be “established.” But no man can be “established” unless he believes. It is a universal law: No faith, no firmness. There are two tilings essential to “establishment,” to blessedness and peace in life: First, that we should find a good foundation, and then that we should rest upon it calmly and immovably. These are the conditions of social, commercial, political, and scientific blessedness and prosperity. In every realm of human activity, if we would be strong in fact and in feeling, it is essential that we should find something trustworthy, and then that we should trust (H. E. I. 1882–1888). We are only stating this general truth in its highest form, when we say that if men do not believe in God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, they cannot be “established.” 1. God has revealed Himself in His Word as the righteous Ruler of nations, who will exalt the nations that seek after righteousness, and bring swift vengeance upon those who follow courses of evil. What will happen if a statesman, like Ahaz, does not really believe this? He will become a mere politician; he will do what seems to him “expedient.” This will often be iniquitous, and this at no distant period will inevitably lead to disaster and ruin (P. D. 2544). 2. God has revealed Himself as the supporter and rewarder of individual men who are resolved always and simply to do what is right. Confidence in God as thus revealed to them was the secret of the courage and endurance of the martyrs (Daniel 3:16-18), and of countless sacrifices for truth and righteousness known only to God, but which He will never forget. But if a man does not really believe this truth, how easily is he swept away by temptation, whether it presents itself threateningly or seductively! 3. God has revealed Himself as, for Christ’s sake, pardoning absolutely all who repent and believe. Into the hearts of those who accept this revelation there come peace and joy, but into their hearts only. Want of faith in this revelation is the secret of all painful efforts to merit the Divine mercy. 4. God reveals Himself as the Saviour of His people from sin, as their Sanctifier from all the stains of iniquity. Want of faith in this revelation is the secret of the trouble that fills and oppresses many devout souls. They will never travel towards Zion with steadfast feet and rejoicing hearts until they do indeed believe it (Jude 1:24-25). 5. God reveals Himself in Christ as the Good Shepherd who is with His people always. How troubled, because of the possibilities of life and the mystery of death, are those who do not with any vital faith accept this revelation which He has been pleased to give us! But the twenty-third Psalm is the song of those who do believe it (P. D. 1156–1160). The practical application of all this is very simple, but supremely important. First, let us inquire whether God is worthy of our trust; and then, if the inquiry should lead us to an affirmative conclusion, let us trust Him. This trust will transform our whole life. No terrors shall have power to dismay us. The misery of Ahaz and his people (Isaiah 7:2) we shall never know (H. E. I. 1911–1919); but ours shall be the rejoicing confidence of the spiritual hero of whom Ahaz was such an unworthy descendant (Psalms 27:1-6; P. D. 1177). THROUGH FAITHIsa_7:9. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Thus closes the address of Isaiah to Ahaz and his people on a very memorable and trying occasion.… Its meaning is, Take God at His word; place entire reliance upon Him, and not upon an arm of flesh. If ye will not do this as a country, the state cannot be safe; and if you will not do this as individuals, your minds cannot be composed and established. Now, let us pass from the house of David naturally to the house of David spiritually, and pursue the train of thought set in motion. Let us consider the stability of faith, and the peace it induces. In the Christian’s life there are three kinds of stability. I. There is a stability of judgment. This regards the truths of religion. It is of great importance to have a judgment clear and fixed, as it respects the great concerns of the soul and eternity, and the great doctrines of the Gospel of Christ; for as we think we feel, as we feel we desire, as we desire we act, and as we act our characters are formed and our conditions determined. Instability concerning these great truths is both perilous and painful; but whence is stability to come? Not through human authority; for what one patronises, another denies. Not through human reason (H. E. I. 537, 1087, 2022–2024; P. D. 2926, 2929, 2931, 2934). There must be a revelation received by faith; divine declarations, believed because God has made them. This leads to an experience which tends still further to establish the Christian in the faith (H. E. I. 1087, 1142–1148). II. There is a stability of practice. This regards the duties of religion (1 Peter 1:5). In order to see the strength and beauty of the sentiment contained in the text, let us place the believer in three positions. 1. In a place of secrecy. To many this is a place of temptation. Not so to the believer. Faith brings God and places him before us (Genesis 16:13; Genesis 39:9). 2. In prosperity and indulgence (Proverbs 1:32). But faith brings to the Christian the earnests of a better country, the firstfruits and foretastes of it, and thus gives him a victory which others can never achieve (1 John 5:4). 3. In a condition of suffering and danger (Hebrews 11:24-27; Daniel 6:10; H. E. I. 1911–1919). III. There is a stability of hope. This regards the comforts of religion (Romans 15:13; 1 Peter 1:8; Psalms 23:1; Psalms 23:4; Psalms 23:6). 1. Beware of unbelief. It is a grievous offence against God; it is hurtful and perilous to man. Every sin renders our salvation impossible by the law, but only one sin renders it impossible by the Gospel, and that is unbelief; not by any decree or threatening of God, but by its natural tendency and result. For there is only one remedy that can restore a perishing sinner, and if this be rejected, destruction is inevitable (H. E. I. 443). 2. Labour and pray for an increase of faith (Mark 9:23 : 2 Chronicles 20:20).—William Jay: Sunday Morning Sermons, pp. 101–109). MAN’S OF GODIsa_7:12. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. We are commanded to ask for all we need and desire (Matthew 7:7; Philippians 4:6). But many say, “I will not ask.” I. Men are apt to act thus when possessed of earthly resources. How hard is it for a man of wealth to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread!” He has much goods laid up for many years. How natural for a man in health and prosperity thus to forget his dependence on God (H. E. I. 4000, 4001). Even in trouble a man is apt to look elsewhere for aid: e.g., in sickness to the physician; even when convinced of sin, to his own efforts, or to a human priest. II. Men often act thus on the pretence of not tempting God. On the ground that their affairs are beneath His notice (H. E. I. 4015–4025, 2245–2248, 2325, 3226, 3403). On the ground that God has already established the laws by which all things are regulated (H. E. I. 3179–3182, 3751, 3752, 3757). III. But the real reasons why men act thus are because they trust in themselves, and have no real faith in God. The real reason why Ahaz did not ask was because he was bent on forming an alliance with Assyria. Let it be ours gratefully to accept the privilege so graciously offered, seeing that God has given us far more than was given to Ahaz: we have all the great and precious promises contained in the Scriptures, the knowledge of the unspeakable gift of God’s dear Son, the accumulated experience of all generations of His faithfulness as the hearer of prayer. We may have our own experience of it; if we will but ask, we shall receive. How much greater our sin than that of Ahaz, if in these circumstances we say, “I will not ask!”—John Johnston. Isa_7:12. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, &c.In studying what the commentators have to say about this chapter, I met with a sentence that set me thinking. It was this: “In that very hour, in which Isaiah was standing before Ahaz, the fate of Jerusalem was decided for more than two thousand years” (Delitzsch). I. How true is this declaration! Ahaz was called upon to choose between the alliance with Assyria and alliance with God. His choice was announced in these four words, “I will not ask;” then he decided against God, and all the disasters which have come upon Jerusalem since that day have been in a very real sense the result of that fatal decision. II. How typical is this incident! How often men, like Ahaz, arrive at decisions which are irrevocable and unspeakably momentous! 1. To have to make decisions that may be solemn in both these senses is one of the things that make the position of a ruler or statesman so serious. Not to be coveted are the positions in which a man’s resolves and utterances become fateful for whole peoples. But Pharaoh was in such a position, and like Ahaz he made a fatal mistake (Exodus 10:28). 2. Few are called to fill positions of such responsibility, but every man is at some juncture called to make a decision the results of which to him individually will be of unspeakable importance. The Young Ruler arrived at such a juncture, and made such a decision. Every one of you will at some moment be called upon to decide for or against Christ, and the decision will be final and irreversible. The fact that it is so will probably not be suspected by you; you will decide against Christ, in the expectation of reversing the decision on some other occasion, which will never come to you. This decision you may make now; it is the undeniable possibility which makes the preaching and hearing of the Gospel so solemn a thing. This supreme decision may be made by you in another manner. The test may come to you in another form—in the shape of a temptation appealing to some passion of the mind or lust of the flesh, and your eternal destiny may be determined by the manner in which you deal with that one temptation (H. E. I. 4737, 4738, 4636). 3. Like a railway train, we are continually arriving at “points,” and the manner in which we “take” them affects our whole after career. This is true in regard to many things, unspeakably inferior in importance to the questions of surrender or non-surrender to Christ, or of loyalty or disloyalty to Him, but yet of marvellous influence in determining whether our after life is to be happy or miserable: business, social and domestic relations. In view of these facts—that so much may depend upon any decision we make, and that it is absolutely concealed from us which decisions are final and irrevocable—what is it that, as wise men, it becomes us to do? 1. Let us settle each question that is put before us in the spirit of righteousness. Always let us ask only, What is right? (1.) This is the only path of safety. (2.) By this path heroism is reached, and world-wide influence may be reached. We think of Moses (Hebrews 11:24-27), of the Apostles (Acts 4:19-20), and of Luther before the Diet of Worms, as heroes; but they had no such thought—their only thought was that of fidelity to duty; and it is thus only that true heroism can be reached (P. D. 1189). 2. Let us day by day commit ourselves to the guidance of God, praying Him to strengthen our understanding, to quicken our conscience, to sanctify our desires, and so to “work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” PIETYIsa_7:12. “But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” Ahaz here poses as a better man than the prophet. He refuses to follow the direction which Isaiah has given him, and refuses, because, he alleges, to do so would be wrong. His disregard of what he knows to be a Divine direction, he covers by an appeal to a general principle which God has been pleased to give for our guidance (Deuteronomy 6:16). Thus he sought to silence the reproaches of conscience within, and of good men without. We may take him as the representative of that large class of persons who for their actions assign reasons that really are not their governing motives, and cover wrong actions by what appear to be cloaks of righteousness, but really are cloaks of hypocrisy. How numerous these people are! We find them in all ranks of life; there is this skilful use of pretexts in all realms of human activity. 1. Social life,—e.g., A man rejects a suitor for his daughter’s hand, the suitor being forty-five years of age and the daughter twenty-two, professedly for the excellent reason that too great a disparity in age between man and wife is not desirable, but really because the suitor is not sufficiently wealthy. 2. Business,—e.g., A man refuses to become security for another, because, he says, he has entered into an undertaking with his partners not to incur any such responsibility, and because it is important that deeds of partnership should be honourably observed; really because he has no wish to oblige the man who asks his aid. 3. Politics.—Why, this is a form of activity which has to a large extent ceased to be care for the welfare of the city or of the community, and has to the same extent become a game of pretexts, in which broad and great principles are used to cover petty and personal ends. 4. Religion.—Alas! into this realm also men carry the same spirit and practices. Let us look at some of the prevalent forms of irreligious piety. (1.) There is the man who will not make any confession of Christ, because “religion is a thing between a man’s own soul and God.” (2.) There is the man who will not join the church, because the members of the church are so inconsistent, and inconsistent Christians are among the greatest of all hindrances to the progress of Christianity. (3.) There is the man who never attends a week-evening service, because “there is no real religion in neglecting one’s daily duties, and we are expressly told that we are to be diligent in business.” The same man, however, finds it neither impossible nor inconsistent with his duties to attend political meetings and popular concerts. (4.) There is the man who never subscribes to any foreign missionary society, because “religion, like charity, should begin at home, and even in this so-called Christian land there are millions of practical heathen who need to have the Gospel preached to them.” How much does this man contribute towards home missions? (5.) There is the man who will not contribute to any church-building fund, because he does not “believe in bricks and mortar,” and because “true religion before God and the Father is—not to build costly sanctuaries—but to help the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (cf. John 12:4-6). (6.) There is the man who has no hesitation in joining in a Sunday excursion, because “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” and because—the two pleas almost always go together—“it is possible to worship God as truly in the great temple of nature as in any temple built by man.” Picture the man as he actually “worships God in the great temple of nature;” and inquire how he feels on Monday after what he calls “a little relaxation on the Sunday.” (7.) There is the man who indulges freely in what many people consider worldly amusements, because “it is not well to be too strait-laced; Solomon, indeed, warns us against being righteous overmuch; and there is nothing so likely as Pharisaism to disgust young people with religion” (H. E. I. 5038–5043). So we might go on with this miserable catalogue. Satan, we are told, appears sometimes in the guise of an angel of light, and in this respect his children are wonderfully like him; they are marvellously ingenious in using holy principles to cover unholy purposes. But what does all this ingenuity amount to? Whom do they succeed in deceiving? Not men for any length of time. The wolf never succeeds in long completely covering itself with the sheep’s clothing. The mask of the hypocrite will slip aside. And when it does so, men despise him for wearing it. Did he show himself as he is, men might, would, condemn him; but they would not despise him so much. And God—He is never deceived. He loathes the false pretenders to righteousness; and ere long He will strip them bare, and expose them to the execration of the universe (H. E. I., 3017–3032; P. D., 1923, 1924, 1930). What is the practical lesson to be learned from the whole? To pray that God will help us in all things to be sincere; to live “as seeing Him who is invisible,” remembering that He sees what is invisible—the motives underlying the actions that are seen of men. Nothing else can win for us from Christ the priceless commendation, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” THE VIRGIN’S SONIsa_7:13-16. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David, &c.On this supremely difficult passage Dr. Kennicott preached a remarkable sermon before the University of Oxford, on the 19th of May 1765. As this sermon is not readily accessible, I here give some extracts from it. Concerning these words there have been the four following opinions:—I. That the whole passage relates only to a son of Isaiah.II. That the whole passage relates only to CHRIST.III. That the whole passage relates both to Isaiah’s son and to CHRIST; to the former in a primary and literal sense, and in a secondary sense to the latter.IV. That there are here two prophecies, each literal, and each to be understood in one sense only: the first relating to CHRIST, the second to Isaiah’s son.The first of these opinions is strenuously contended for by Jews and Deists, who, by confining this passage wholly to Isaiah’s son, have attempted to derogate from the authority of St. Matthew, who applies it as a prophecy to CHRIST. But the word here translated virgin signifies, in every other part of the Old Testament, a woman who hath not known man. And the consequence from hence is, that the words “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,” cannot be applied properly to Isaiah’s wife. As it is here affirmed that the original word signifies a virgin in every other text, it should be just observed that the text in the book of Proverbs (Isaiah 30:18-19), which has been often brought to prove the contrary, is not here forgotten; and that even that text might (if the nature of this discourse would permit) be explained fairly and to satisfaction, in a manner perfectly consistent with the preceding assertion.If it should be objected, that the original words are not future, and therefore not likely to point out an event so very distant as the birth of CHRIST, it may be answered that the words are, strictly translated, “Behold! a virgin is conceiving and bearing a son,” &c. This mode of speech is the animated but customary style of prophetic Scripture, which, in order to express the greatest certainty, describes future events as past, or paints future scenes as present to the eye. Thus the same prophet, in his most magnificent predictions of the Messiah’s birth, exultingly cries, “Unto us a child is BORN, unto us a son IS GIVEN:” and afterwards, in his pathetic description of the Messiah’s sufferings, “He is despised and rejected of men.… Surely He HATH BORNE our griefs,” &c. But though no argument can be drawn against the Christian sense of these prophetic words from their expressing the then present time, yet an argument of great weight may, and must be, formed upon this very circumstance, in proof of what is here contended for. And certainly, if the words mean “a virgin is conceiving,” a woman conceiving and yet a virgin! this wonderful circumstance was true as to the Virgin Mary, but it was true as to no other woman.To these remarks upon the original language must be added one arising from the circumstances of the text, for we learn from thence likewise that Isaiah’s wife and the birth of a child in the common way cannot have been here intended. And an appeal may safely be made to persons of sense, though wholly unacquainted with the Hebrew language, whether it is at all probable that the prophet should address himself to the house of David so solemnly, on so interesting an occasion; should awaken their attention; should raise their wonder; should promise them in the name of GOD a sign or miracle; should mention the future son, not of a man (as usual) but of a woman, and call that woman a virgin; and should foretell the Birth of , i.e., GOD WITH US—and yet that no more was meant by all this than that a son should be born of a young married woman, which is evidently no wonder, no miracle, at all.If then, from the constant signification of the noun for virgin, from the expression of the words in the present tense, and from the nature of the context, a son of Isaiah by his wife cannot have been here meant; and if the first opinion be consequently proved indefensible, we may now proceed to consider the second, which is that the whole passage of the text relates only to CHRIST.But these words cannot be wholly applied to an event distant by more than seven hundred years, because the concluding clause speaks of a child either then born, or to be born soon; and before the child so spoken of should be old enough to distinguish natural good from evil, the two kings then advancing against Jerusalem were to be themselves destroyed.The third is the opinion of those who contend for a double completion of some prophecies, and insist that this whole passage relates both to Isaiah’s son and to CHRIST; to the former in a primary and literal sense, and in a secondary sense to the latter. But—not to enter into that extensive question, whether though some prophecies relate solely to the Messiah, others may, or may not, be doubly fulfilled—I shall only observe, that no such double completion can possibly take place here.Wherever a secondary sense is insisted on, there we must have a primary sense also which is at least true. But the present case renders that impossible. Because, if the principal noun does everywhere else signify a virgin; and if it be here meant of the Virgin Mary, and was afterwards properly applied to her, it cannot with any truth be applied to the wife of Isaiah. And further, if it were possible for every other prophecy to admit of a double completion, yet will not this—because a child’s being conceived and born of a virgin happened in the world only once; and therefore, as this prophecy derives its force from specifying a case singular and without example, it can be fulfilled in one sense only.There remains then the fourth opinion, which is, that the text contains two distinct prophecies, each literal, and each to be understood in one sense only; the first relating to CHRIST, the second to Isaiah’s son. This, which is the opinion of some eminent defenders of Christianity, will (I presume) appear true and satisfactory, when the end of the first prophecy, and the beginning of the second, shall have been properly considered; and when some proofs which seem absolutely necessary, but perhaps were never yet produced, shall have been added to former observations.The genuine sense of this passage depending greatly on the circumstances of those to whom it was delivered, it is here necessary to state the history.Ahaz became king of Judah when the people were greatly corrupted, and he himself was strongly inclined to idolatry. To correct, therefore, both king and people, God permitted a powerful confederacy to take place between Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel; who, growing jealous of their formidable neighbour, invaded Judæa in the first year of Ahaz; and so successfully, that above 100,000 of the men of Ahaz were slain in one battle, and above 200,000 of his people were carried captives into the land of Israel.Flushed with these successes, the two kings thought that Jerusalem itself would soon become an easy prey to their power; and in the second year of Ahaz marched towards it, with a resolution totally to abolish the royal succession, which had been for twelve generations in the house of David, and to establish, in the holy city, a heathen king, a Syrian, “the son of Tabeal.”At the approach of these confederates, “the heart of Ahaz was moved, and the hearts of all his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.” The consternation was universal, and no wonder. For the young king and the corrupt part of his people would easily be led, from the sufferings they had felt, to fear greater. And the religious part of the nation would entertain fears still more alarming, fears of the extinction of the house of David; for were that house to fail, then farewell to all their glorious hopes of a Messiah, a son of David, who was to reign for ever. These men, therefore, no doubt, “cried unto the Lord in their distresses,” and expostulated with Him concerning “the sure mercies of David:” “Lord, where are Thy old lovingkindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?”Amidst these distresses, we find Ahaz “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,” probably surveying that chief source of their water, and contriving how to secure that water to the city, and defend it against the enemy. At this place, constantly frequented by the people, and then visited by the king, attended probably by the chiefs of his family, Isaiah is commanded to meet him, taking with him Shear-jashub, and to declare in the name of Jehovah, that the evil counsel against Jerusalem should not come to pass.The counsel of these kings was evil, because, in opposition to God’s appointment of the royal house of David, and His promises thereto (particularly of Messiah, the Prince, to spring from thence), their compact was, probably, like Eastern conquerors, to destroy the house of David; certainly, to remove the house of David from the throne, and to fix in the holy city a heathen king.The prophet, having declared to Ahaz that the scheme of the confederates should be frustrated, bids him, at the command of God, ask some sign or miracle, either in heaven or on earth. “But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah.”The king’s disobedience, however coloured over with a specious piety in his allusion to a text of Scripture, appears from the next words of the prophet to have been highly censurable. And it probably proceeded from his distrust either of the power or the favour of Jehovah, after Judæa had suffered so much from these same enemies who worshipped other gods.Thus repulsed by the king, the prophet addresses himself at large to “the house of David;” and probably there were then present other persons of the royal family. “Hear ye now, O house of David,” &c.The word “Therefore” (Isaiah 7:14) may, upon good authority, be translated “nevertheless,” a sense very applicable to this place. A sign or miracle hath been now offered at the command of God, but is refused; and can you think it of little moment to treat with such contempt both the prophet and his God? “Nevertheless, the Lord Himself will give to you the sign following: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and call His name . Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.”Here, I presume, ends this first prophecy, and the meaning may be stated thus: “Fear not, O house of David, the fate threatened you. God is mindful of His promise to your father, and will fulfil it in a very wonderful manner. Behold, a virgin (rather, THE virgin, the only one thus circumstanced) shall conceive, and bear a son; which son shall therefore be what no other has been or shall be, the seed of the woman, here styled THE VIRGIN; and this son ‘shall be called’ (i.e., in Scripture language, He shall be) , God with us. But this great Person, this GOD visible amongst men, introduced into the world thus, in a manner that is without example, shall yet be truly Man: He shall be born an infant, and as an infant shall He be brought up; for ‘butter and honey’ (rather, milk and honey) shall He eat,—He shall be fed with the common food of infants, which in the East was milk mixed with honey, till He shall know (not that He may know, as if such food were to be the cause of such knowledge, but till He shall grow up to know) how to refuse the evil and choose the good.”Here, then, we find a comprehensive description of the Messiah, of the “Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us.” His Divinity is marked by His being GOD; His residence upon earth, by His being GOD WITH US; and His Humanity, by His being born of a woman, and fed with the usual food of infants during His infant state. How perfect is the harmony between the parts of this description and the marks of the true Messiah in other sacred passages; and also between the first prophecy in the very beginning of the Old Testament and the completion of it, first mentioned in the very beginning of the New!For the first promise of a Messiah was, that He should be (not the seed of Adam, as He would have been called, if to descend from a human father, but) “the seed of the woman,” because He was to be born of a virgin. Therefore, the Apostle says, “When the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” And that it was GOD, not man, who was to “prepare a body” for the Messiah, appears from the fortieth Psalm, according to the Apostle’s very remarkable quotation of it, where the Messiah is prophetically represented as saying unto God: “A body didst Thou prepare for Me; then said I, Lo, I come; as in the volume of the Book it is written concerning Me.”Having thus endeavoured to illustrate the first prophecy contained in the text, and to defend the application of it to the Virgin Mary’s conception and birth of Jesus Christ, I shall now briefly state the second prophecy, which is thus expressed in our present translation, “For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.”Now, that this verse contains a distinct prophecy may be proved thus—1. The words preceding have been proved to be confined to the Messiah, whose birth was then distant above seven hundred years; whereas, the words here are confined to some child who was not to arrive at years of discretion before the two kings, then advancing against Jerusalem, should be themselves cut off.2. Some end was undoubtedly to be answered by the presence of Isaiah’s son, whom God commanded to take with him on this visit to Ahaz: and yet no use at all appears to have been made of this son, unless he be referred to here.3. These prophecies are manifestly distinguished by their being addressed to different persons: the first being plural, and addressed to the house of David; but the second is singular, and therefore is addressed to Ahaz.We see, then, that the prophet addressed himself at large to the “house of David,” when he foretold the birth of the Messiah; which, though the event might be very distant, would give present consolation, as it assured them of the preservation of the house of David; but that he addressed himself in particular to the king, when he foretold the speedy destruction of the two kings, his enemies. Note also, that King Ahaz is the person addressed in the very words which immediately follow, “The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days.” &c.This transition will be the more evident if we render the first word But, as the same word is rendered just before in this same passage: “Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?” It is so rendered in this very place in our old English Bibles, printed in 1535, 1537, 1539, 1549, 1550.The word also now rendered “the child,” should be here rendered “THIS child;” and the sense of the verse may be then clearly ascertained.The necessity for this last rendering has been observed by more than one expositor, but perhaps no one has quoted any parallel instance, or produced proper authority for this necessary change of our translation. But, that we may not be charged with offering violence to an expression, in order to defend the Evangelists or to confute their adversaries, some authority should be produced in a point on which so much depends, and I shall mention several passages similar to the case now before us.When Jacob blessed Joseph’s two sons, he laid his hands upon their heads, and used the very same word in the plural number which Isaiah here uses in the singular; and as that word is rendered “these children” by the authors of the Greek and other very ancient versions, we have their joint authorities for rendering the word here “this child.”The authors of our own translation have not indeed rendered the word in the text “this child,” but they have shown that it may be so rendered, because they have themselves, in several other places, expressed the emphatic article by this and that in the singular number, and by these in the plural. Thus in Jeremiah 23:21, “I have not sent these prophets;” in Numbers 11:6, “There is nothing before our eyes, but this manna;” in 1 Samuel 29:4, “Make this fellow to return;” and, to omit other instances, we read in Jeremiah 28:16 (what it is impossible to translate otherwise), “This year thou shalt die.”But besides these instances, in which similar words may and must be so rendered, agreeably to our present translation, in this same verse of Isaiah there is the authority of our old English translation for both the alterations here proposed; for the very first printed edition, and at least two others, render these words, “But or ever that child,” &c. And, to obviate any prejudice against the other alteration before proposed, it should be observed that, so far from their being now first thought of to favour any new opinions, almost all of them are the very readings in our former English Bibles, from which our present has varied in this and other instances very improperly.The translation of the principal word here by this child being thus vindicated, it may perhaps be asked who this child was, and the answer is, A son of Isaiah, called Shear-jashub, whom God had commanded the prophet to take with him upon this occasion, but of whom no use was made, unless in the application of these words;—whom Isaiah might now hold in his arm, and to whom therefore he might point with his hand when he addressed himself to Ahaz, and said, “But before this child shall grow up to discern good from evil, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.” There is an absolute necessity of attending to this action in several other sacred passages, as in John 2:18-19. “What sign showest Thou?… Destroy this temple;” our Lord there pointing to His own body.The child’s name is evidently prophetical, for it signifies a remnant, or the remainder, shall return. And probably he was so called because born the year before, when such multitudes were carried captives into the land of Israel; and this by way of prediction to the Jews that, though they had lost 100,000 men by the sword in one day, and double that number by captivity, yet those who remained alive—the remnant—certainly should return to their own country.This prophecy was soon after fulfilled. And therefore this son, whose name had been so consolatory the year before, was with the utmost propriety brought forth now, and made the subject of a second prophecy—namely, that before that child, then in the second year of his age, should be able to distinguish natural good from evil—before he should be about four or five years old—the lands of Syria and Israel, spoken of here as one kingdom, on account of their present union and confederacy, should be “forsaken of both her kings:” which, though at the time highly improbable, came to pass about two years afterwards, when those two kings, who had in vain attempted to conquer Jerusalem, were themselves destroyed, each in his own country.“If the miraculous birth of Christ were true, yet how could an event so very distant be properly a sign, at the time when the prophecy was delivered?”To this natural and important question, Dr. Kennicott answers:—The original word for a sign means also a miracle. And as God had offered Ahaz a miracle to be then performed, which had been refused, God Himself promises to the house of David a miracle which should be performed, not then, but afterwards. But the word signifies, not only something done at present, to induce a belief of something future, but also something to be done afterwards, declared beforehand in confirmation of something foretold.Thus, when God commanded Moses to go from the wilderness into Egypt, to demand the dismission of his brethren, God assures him of success, and tells him: “This shall be a sign unto thee; when thou hast brought forth the people, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”And thus, when the Assyrians were marching against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, Isaiah is again commanded to declare that the city shall not be taken; and after saying, “This shall be a sign unto you,” he specifies several particulars which were all future [817][817] Compare also our Lord’s treatment of the demand for a sign, Matthew 12:38-40. In this case also, to unbelievers, was given a “sign” which they could not possibly have understood when it was given. If then a thing, at all future, may be declared as a sign, it makes no difference whether the thing be future by three years or three hundred, provided that one circumstance he observed—which is, that the man, or body of men, to whom the fact is declared to be a sign shall exist to see the thing accomplished. This was manifestly the case here. For not only Ahaz, to whom the second prophecy was delivered, saw that fulfilled as to the two kings his enemies, but also the house of David, to whom the first prophecy was addressed, saw that fulfilled in JESUS CHRIST. Isa_7:14. And shall call His name Immanuel. His being “called so,” according to the usual dialect of the Hebrew, does not signify so much that this should be His usual name, as that this should be His real character. I. Explain the meaning of this great and extraordinary title, (cf. Isaiah 8:8 and Matthew 1:23). This title may be considered under a double reference, either, 1. To the constitution of His person; or, 2. To His office and actings as mediator. 1. It is one of the great mysteries of the Christian revelation that “God was manifest in the flesh.” The eternal Son of God became man, and was both God and man in His own person. In a matter of pure revelation, and of so sublime a nature, it is certainly the wisest and safest course to keep close to the revelation, and make it the standard and measure of all our conceptions about it. 2. As mediator, He is Immanuel in this sense, that in Him the presence and favour of God with His people are most eminent and conspicuous. This has always been true, is true now, and always will be true. (1.) As a distant friend is said to be “with us” whose heart and thoughts are with us (1 Corinthians 5:3), so Christ was Immanuel from all eternity as to His purpose and design of mercy, and as His heart was towards us with thoughts of pleasure (Proverbs 29:17). (2.) All the appearances of God to His people under the Old Dispensation were appearances of Christ (John 1:18; John 5:37; 2 Corinthians 4:6). 3. As He took our nature and became man. This is the essential and highest meaning of our text. He took upon Him our nature, with all its parts and powers, all its natural affections and infirmities, sin only excepted. 4. As He conversed with men, and revealed the will of God to them. 5. As He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, and reconciled God and man together. This is mentioned by the Evangelist in the same context (Matthew 1:21). This was the great end of His taking our nature, and coming into the world (Hebrews 5:9). 6. As He gives His Spirit to every true believer, and is powerfully present with them to the end of the world. He is present in them, on the principle of Divine life in their souls (John 14:16; Ephesians 3:17). He is present with them whensoever they assemble to hear His Word or observe His ordinances (Matthew 18:20; John 20:19). He is always present with His Church to preserve and succour it. 7. As He will be the visible Judge of the world at last; He will be Judge in our nature who was Saviour of our nature (John 5:22; Acts 17:13). 8. He will be the glorious and triumphant Head of the redeemed world for ever. Their happiness will lie very much in being with Him and beholding His glory; and their employment in adoring love and triumphant praise. II. Consider why this declaration fills the hearts of God’s people with joy. 1. God is here presented to us as we need Him. God absolutely considered is an awful name; the Divine majesty is bright and glorious, apt to strike an awe upon our minds, to awaken a sense of guilt, and keep us at a distance from Him (Genesis 3:10; Deuteronomy 28:58; Job 13:21). But now He is God with us, God in our nature, conversing with sinful men, and concerned for their good; this abates the natural dread of our minds, and is a ground of holy freedom towards Him (Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12). 2. The union in Christ of all Divine and human perfections— (1) Is the reason of our worship and adoration of Him; (2) Is the proper ground of confidence and trust in Him. We may safely depend upon Him for the accomplishment of His promises and the salvation of our souls, for He is an all-sufficient Saviour. 3. By this great doctrine the solemnity of our future life is relieved. The consideration of Immanuel, or God, in our nature, has been found by pious and devout persons a great relief to their thoughts of the final blessedness; we can conceive with greater ease, and with a more sensible pleasure, of being with Christ than of being with the absolute Deity. III. Consider some of the duties which arise out of this wonderful and glorious fact. 1. Let us adore the amazing condescension of our blessed Redeemer, who stooped from heaven to earth, consented to become a man, and submitted to die a sacrifice (Philippians 2:7-8). 2. Let us maintain constantly and boldly before all men the doctrine of His Deity. If He were only a man, or only a creature, of how a rank soever and however dignified, He could not be God with us; He could not restore the fallen world, or obtain by His sacrifice the pardon of sin, or give eternal life. 3. Be always ready to approach Him. Wait upon Him in all the ways of acceptable worship, for the manifestation of His favour and communication of His grace, for further discoveries of His will, and fresh supplies of His Spirit. Particularly attend upon Him at His table; here He is with us in a more familiar and sensible manner in the brightest displays of His mercy and the largest communications of His grace. 4. Regard His presence with you in all your use of the means of grace. ’Tis reckoned a rude affront among men, and a token of great disrespect, to take no notice of a great personage or overlook a superior. Regard His presence with you as a mark of condescending favour, and as the life and soul of all the ordinances you attend upon. This will hallow your thoughts in the use of them, and make them to you “means of grace” indeed.—W. Harris: Practical Discourses on the Principal Representations of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament, pp. 275–304. THE GREAT OBJECT OF CHILD-(A Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon.) Isaiah 7:15. The child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. These words, taken above, form a complete sentence; yet they occur in the clause of a sentence which is intended to denote a space of time. Before the child which Isaiah held in his arms [820] should know the difference between right and wrong certain events would take place: in other words, before a space of four or five years at the most would elapse, certain things would occur. But it is not our intention to discuss the prophecy itself; we shall find it more in harmony with the present occasion, and perhaps more profitable, to consider what may be suggested to us by these words thus taken apart from their context. [820] See the paper entitled THE VIRGIN’S SON. “The child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” There is nothing else so important for any child to know as this (H. E. I. 1751). Seldom made the object of education; consequently the majority of lives are failures. No child knows this without training: the child’s natural tendencies are precisely the reverse of this. But, if this training is urgently needed, how immense and difficult is the task of those who undertake to give it! How difficult it often is to discern between what is good and what is evil—in all the realms of thought and activity; especially in the moral realm. The difficulty of the task is not to cause us to decline it. We have wonderful helps in it. 1. GOD’S WORD. What a wonderful help that is! What a proof that in the Bible we have God’s word is this, that for helpfulness in this task no other book can be compared with it (H. E. I., 506, 508, 509). Our text reminds us of what should be our object in the Scriptural teaching we give our children. What value is there in any so-called Scriptural instruction that does not tend to cultivate spiritual discernment—hate of what is evil, and love of what is good? 2. THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST, “the law drawn out in living characters.” Let us not overlook or neglect to use this marvellous instrumentality and help. 3. THE HOLY SPIRIT. Always ready to co-operate with us. Christian parents, let the remembrance of these helps encourage you to resume this supremely important task with fresh vigour. Keep it ever in view, aim at the whole of it. The training which consists merely in fighting against evil is foredoomed to fail. The child must be taught, not merely to refuse the evil, but to choose the good. Do not be content in the field of your child’s heart merely to plough up the weeds; sow there the corn which, when it is full grown, shall overshadow and kill the weeds which, in spite of all your efforts, will struggle for a place there. In those who undertake to give this training, there is imperative need of seriousness, humility, hopefulness, and a wise comprehensiveness. Consider what will be the results of success in child-training such as this. 1. Our children will be spared from indescribable misery. 2. They will grow continually in all that is noble and love-worthy. 3. Learning to choose what is good, they will necessarily choose God as He has been thus revealed to us in Jesus Christ. 4. Beholding them thus allied in heart and will to the supreme source of all goodness, and daily becoming more like Him, we shall feel that all our labours and sacrifices for them are overpaid. A OF DOOMIsa_7:17-25. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, &c.I. God is sovereign in the whole earth. He is the great controller of all nations. All governments are but instruments which He uses when and as He pleases (Isaiah 7:17-21). A thought full of comfort for the righteous, of terror for the unrighteous. II. The consequent insecurity of all prosperity that is not based upon, and promotive of, righteousness (Isaiah 7:23). True of nations: Britain will be “Great Britain” only so long as God pleases. True of individuals: (H. E. I. 3991, 4403–4406). III. Whatever chastisements God may have inflicted, He has always a more terrible one behind (Isaiah 7:17). IV. Seeing that all these things were threatened against and inflicted upon God’s chosen people, learn that no mercy that God has shown us will furnish any immunity for us, if, notwithstanding that mercy, we sin against Him. There is a tendency in our evil hearts to think, that because God has been specially good to us, we may sin with less risk than others; but the teaching of the Bible is, that those who “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness” shall be visited with a sorer doom than others (H. E. I. 4564, 4568, 4570). MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZIsa_8:1-4. Moreover, the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, &c. [823][823] In the first chapter of Hosea occurs a like instance of symbolic names given by a prophet to his children, and in Habakkuk 2:2, we have mention of the practice of writing a prophecy on a tablet in easily legible characters, and hanging it up in the Temple, market-place, or other public resort. And most modern commentators prefer to think that Isaiah now merely inscribed “HASTE PLUNDER, SPEED SPOIL,” in large letters on a metal or waxed tablet, the ìִ which the Authorised Version translates “concerning,” being the Lamed inscription is, as in Jeremiah 49:1; Jeremiah 49:7; Jeremiah 49:23; Jeremiah 49:28; Ezekiel 37:16; though it may be observed that the direction to “tie up and seal the testimony,” in Isaiah 8:16, is in favour of the older version, which understands him to have made a record of his expectation of the birth of the child, and of the significance of that birth, at some length. He wrote “with a man’s pen,” or “style,”—a phrase not unlike our “common hand” or “popular style;” and he took as credible witnesses that the record had preceded the event, Uriah the high priest at the time (2 Kings 16:10), and Zechariah, who was not improbably the father-in-law of Ahaz and a Levite (2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chronicles 29:1; 2 Chronicles 29:13). He calls his wife “the prophetess,” as the wife of a king is called a queen (says Vitringa), though she does not reign, and in some old ecclesiastical canons the wife of a bishop “episcopa,” and of a presbyter “presbytera;” and he thus claims for her a place with her husband and children (see Isaiah 8:18) in the holy and symbolic family, who are for “a sign in Israel.” She gave birth to a child, and his name was called, in accordance with the writing, “Haste-plunder, Speed-spoil,” that the people might understand that before he was old enough to utter the words “father” and “mother,”—that is, within a short but somewhat indefinite period such as we should express by “in a year or two from his birth,”—the spoils of the plundered cities of Samaria and Damascus, the capitals of the nations now invading Judah, shall have been carried before the Assyrian conqueror in triumph. In order to realise the practical impressiveness of such symbolic acts and names upon Isaiah’s contemporaries, we must remember that Jerusalem was a very small town for size and population compared with the notion we insensibly get of a capital from our own vast London; and also that there was as little in the ways of thinking and living of that age and country as in the extent of the city to effect such a separation between a public man’s political and private life as exists in England. We respect the domestic reserve of our neighbours, and we fortify ourselves in the like reserve, by our habit of learning what they are doing that concerns us through the newspaper which we read by our own fireside. With no newspapers, and a climate which encouraged an out-of-door life, the people of Jerusalem would become as familiar with that personal demeanour of Isaiah in the market-place or elsewhere which he made a part of his public ministry, as we are with the mental habits and political conduct of Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Disraeli, though the greater part of us would recognise neither of them by sight, and still fewer know anything of their personal and private life.—Strachey. This singular record reminds us, I. How marvellously varied are the means which God employs to bring men to the knowledge and belief of saving truth. That which God’s ancient people needed to save them from their mistakes and miseries was real faith in the elementary truth that God is the only safe counsellor, for this simple reason, that He alone sees the end from the beginning. All their circumstances, interpreted by merely human wisdom, seemed to point to the desirableness of an alliance with Assyria, the very thing which God by His prophets emphatically forbade. That it might be easier for them to believe what seemed so incredible, namely, that the Assyrian alliance would be a calamity and not a blessing to them, God gave, in addition to the testimonies of His prophets to this effect, a prophecy of an event seemingly as incredible, namely, that the great power of the two nations, Israel and Syria, from which they had suffered so much, and which seemed so likely to be permanent, and on account of which they sought Assyrian help, should be utterly broken, and that speedily. God predicted this in words (chap. Isaiah 7:4-9), and He condescended to a symbolic act that He might impress this truth more vividly on their minds. It is of that symbolic act that we have the record here. Now that God took so much trouble for such a purpose is a fact worth thinking about. As a matter of fact, it is but one instance of His constant method of dealing with men. He is so bent on bringing them to a knowledge and belief of truth that to them would be saving, that He shrinks from no trouble at all likely to secure this result (Jeremiah 7:13; Jeremiah 7:25; Hebrews 1:1; Luke 20:10-13). Illustrate, e.g., how various are the methods by which He endeavours to awaken a careless soul to anxiety, and to effect its conversion! What is the explanation of this versatility and ingenuity of methods in dealing with us? It is the tenderness of His love for us; it is His yearning solicitude for our welfare. II. How mercifully clear are the warnings by which God seeks to turn men from ruinous courses. The tablet [826] on which Isaiah was to write was to be large, and he was to write upon it “with a man’s pen,” an obscure expression, but yet at least meaning this, that the writing upon it was to be easily legible (Habakkuk 2:2). It is true that though the words on the tablet were easily legible, their meaning was obscure. But that very obscurity was of a kind to excite inquiry (Daniel 5:5-7), and that inquiry earnestly and honestly conducted would have led God’s ancient people to a saving knowledge of truth. Thus it is with all the warnings contained in God’s Word (H. E. I. 602–606). [826] A great roll. Rather, a large tablet: of wood or metal, covered with a smooth surface of wax; which, when written upon, was hung up in public for all to read (cf. Jeremiah 32:11; Jeremiah 32:14).—Kay. III. How important it is that God’s servants should be prudent as well as zealous. After the prophecy was fulfilled, unbelief might have questioned whether it had ever been given, and therefore Isaiah, acting under divine direction, selected two witnesses whose testimony could not be gainsaid [829] Probably that which they were required to testify was, that the prophecy, and its interpretation, was delivered to them on a certain day; the interpretation embracing both the facts, that to the prophet another son would be born, and that while still in his infancy the two nations of which Judah stood in dread should themselves be conquered. Isaiah was thus acting on the general principle given by our Lord for the guidance of His people (Matthew 10:16). Now, as then, His prophets, while loyally obedient to His directions, should maintain a constant wariness and prudence, in order that the testimony they bear for Him should be placed beyond cavil and dispute. [829] Faithful witnesses. Or, sure witnesses; whose testimony none would be able to gainsay: partly, because of their rank, but still more, it would seem, from their being adherents of Ahaz. For “Uriah the priest” can scarcely be any other than the one who made the Syrian altar after the description sent him from Damascus by Ahaz (2 Kings 16:10-16); thereby (as Mr. Birks notices) furnishing incontrovertible evidence of the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prediction. Zechariah may have been Ahaz’s own father-in-law (2 Chronicles 29:1).—Kay. IV. How certain of accomplishment are the prophecies involved in God-given names. The prophecy contained in the name bestowed on this child of Isaiah’s was fulfilled [832] So already had that implied in the name bestowed on the child previously born to him, Shear-jashub, “a remnant shall return” [835] As it was with the sons of Isaiah, so is it with the Son of God. The names bestowed on Him are not merely glorious but empty titles. He is in very truth JESUS and (Matthew 1:21-23). He is JESUS because . On the promises involved in these great names we may lay hold with joyful confidence, for they also shall be fulfilled. [832] Isaiah’s interview with Ahaz (chap. 7), the preparation of the tablet, the birth of Isaiah’s child, and the conquest of Syria and Israel by the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser all took place within the year 743–739 B.C. [835] See Dr. Kennicott’s remarks on Shear-jashub in preceding paper: THE VIRGIN’S SON. Alexander remarks on Isaiah 8:4 :—“Samaria is here put for the kingdom, and not for the capital city. But even if the name be strictly understood, there is no reason to doubt that Samaria was plundered by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29), although not destroyed.… The carrying away of its wealth does not necessarily imply anything more than such a spoiling of the capital as might be expected in the course of a brief but successful invasion.” THE STREAM FOR THE RIVERIsa_8:5-8. Forasmuch as this people refuseth, &c.For “rejoice in Rezim and Remaliah’s son,” read “rejoice concerning Rezim and Remaliah’s son,” i.e., rejoice in the disaster which had befallen the allied powers who had inflicted such disasters upon Judah, and had threatened it with utter destruction. We have here a prophecy given in symbols. One of them is explained by the prophet himself. He explains that by “the river” he means the King of Assyria. Commentators are generally of opinion that by “the waters of Shiloah” is meant the Davidic dynasty, which God, on certain conditions, had pledged Himself to maintain. But this put them to hard shifts to explain the rejoicing of the people. It is better to regard “the waters of Shiloah” as symbolical of the help which God offered His people. The contrast then becomes intelligible. Because that help was unseen—apprehensible only by faith—it seemed to the multitudes, when compared with that which the King of Assyria was visibly rendering them, in the overthrow of Syria and Israel, to be as little worthy of consideration as is the little stream of Shiloah [838] in comparison with that mighty river, the Euphrates [841] We have, then, here the case of men who are rejoicing in a success that is godless, that has been obtained by the rejection of God; and we are here told what the end of that success must be. Thus we find a theme that bears upon our life to-day. [838] All accounts combine in asserting that the waters of the two pools of Siloam, as well as that of the many fountains of the “Mosque of Omar,” proceed from a spring or reservoir of water beneath the Temple vaults. There was no period of its history when such a provision would not have been important to the Temple for the ablutions of the Jewish, no less than of the Mussulman, worship; or to the city, which else was dry even to a proverb. It was the treasure of Jerusalem, its support through all its numerous sieges, the “fons perennis aquæ” of Tacitus, the source of Milton’s [841] The Euphrates, i.e., the good and abounding river. The Euphrates is the largest, the longest, and by far the most important of the rivers of Western Asia. It rises from two chief sources in the Armenian mountains … they meet at Kebben-Maden, nearly in the long. 39° E. from Greenwich, having run respectively 400 and 270 miles. Here the stream formed by their combined waters Isaiah 120 yards wide, rapid, and very deep.… The entire course is calculated at 1780 miles, nearly 650 more than that of the Tigris, and only 200 short of that of the Indus; and of this distance more than two-thirds (1200 miles) is navigable for boats, and even, as the expedition of Colonel Chesney proved, for small steamers. The width of the river is greatest at the distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth, that is to say, from its junction with the Khabour to the village of Werai It there averages 400 yards.… The annual inundation of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snows in the Armenian highlands. It occurs in the month of May.… The Tigris scarcely ever overflows, but the Euphrates inundates large tracts on both sides its course from Hit downwards.—Rawlinson. Considered in a commercial respect, as well as with regard to its uses in agriculture, the Euphrates manifestly stood in the same relation to Babylon and the surrounding region that the Nile did to Egypt; it was the source, to a large extent, of its prosperity, and the most important element of its greatness. It is in this relation that the symbolical use of the Euphrates in Scripture proceeds, and by keeping it in view the several passages will be found to admit of an easy explanation. Contributing so materially to the resources and wealth of Babylon, the river was naturally taken for an emblem or representative of the city itself, and of the empire of which it was the capital. In this respect a striking application is made of it by the prophet Isaiah (chap. Isaiah 8:5-8), where the little kingdom of Judah, with its circumscribed territory and its few earthly resources, on the one hand, is seen imaged in the tiny brooklet of Shiloah; while, on the other, the rising power of Babylon is spoken of under the emblem of “the waters of the river, strong and many, even the King of Assyria and all his glory.” And he goes on to expose the folly of Israel’s[Judah’s] trusting in this foreign power on account of its material greatness, by declaring that in consequence of this mistaken trust, and in chastisement of it, the mighty stream would, as it were, desert its proper channel, and turn its waters in a sweeping and desolating flood over the Holy Land.—Fairbairn. “Brook that flowed Hard by the oracle of God.” But, more than this, it was the image which entered into the very heart of the prophetical idea of Jerusalem (Psalms 46:4; Psalms 87:7; Isaiah 12:3). It is the source of all the freshness and verdure of the vale of Hinnom. In Ezekiel’s vision the thought is expanded into a vast cataract flowing out through the Temple rock eastward and westward into the ravines of Hinnom and Kedron, till they swell into a mighty river, fertilising the desert of the Dead Sea. And with still greater distinctness the thought appears again, and for the last time, in the discourse, when in the courts of the Temple, “in the last day, that great day of the feast”[of Tabernacles], “Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me … out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”—Stanley. The expression in Isaiah, “waters of Shiloah that go softly,” seems to point to the slender rivulet, flowing gently, though once very profusely, out of Siloam into the lower breadth of level, where the king’s gardens, or “royal paradise,” stood, and which is still the greenest spot about the Holy City, reclaimed from sterility into a fair oasis of olive groves, fig-trees, pomegranates, &c., by the tiny rill that flows out of Siloam. A winter-torrent, like the Kedron, or a swelling river like the Euphrates, carries havoc with it by sweeping off soil, trees, and terraces; but this Siloam-fed rill flows softly, fertilising and beautifying the region through which it passes.—Bonar. 1. Whatever be our life-work, there are two ways of seeking success in it—with God, or without God. 2. If we take God to be our ally, we must do our work on His terms and plans. But these are frequently contrary to our natural expectations, and opposed to what the world calls “common sense.” As helps to a speedy and great success, they seem to most men as despicable as the little stream of Shiloah in comparison with the broad river Euphrates. 3. Consequently the vast majority of men reject them, and seek for success without God, and contrary to His methods (H. E. I. 4198). 4. In this way, they frequently speedily attain to a success which appears to be a complete justification of the wisdom of their policy. When the prophecy contained in our text was uttered, the forces of Syria and Israel were being swept away by the triumphant Assyrian host, and no doubt Ahaz and His court felt they could afford to laugh at Isaiah, who had steadily opposed the alliance which appeared to have been so advantageous. 5. But the triumph of the wicked is short. The unholy success in which bad men rejoice contains within itself the seeds of peril and pain, of retribution and ruin (H. E. I. 4609, 4612). The ally in whom Ahaz had trusted presently became his oppressor; it was a verification in actual life of the fable of the horse that took a man for its ally. So is it to-day with all who prosper without God and against God. Their prosperity is, strictly speaking, unnatural, and everything that is unnatural speedily brings on disorder. For example, a family has been enriched by godless plans; to those who have no fear of God in their hearts, there is nothing so perilous as wealth; it is used for the gratification of the baser passions; by this gratification health is broken down; when the physical frame is shattered, conscience, that has been suppressed, breaks forth into freedom and activity, and remorse turns the gilded palace into a hell. The illustrations of the working of this great law are endless. .— 1. In the conduct of daily life, as well as in our spiritual concerns, let us walk by faith, not by sight. God’s help, though it may seem inconsiderable as Shiloah’s stream, is yet, like that stream, constant. Our reliance upon it will never issue in disappointment. By means of it we shall certainly attain to all the prosperity that would be for our real welfare (H. E. I. 3984–3986, 5059, 5060). 2. Let us not envy the prosperity of the wicked (H. E. I. 4943–4948, 4961–4966). It is short-lived, like the mighty flood of Euphrates itself. Out of that very prosperity heart-aches innumerable will spring. The rejoicing that is so exultant and scornful to-day, to-morrow will be turned into lamentation and woe. Then those who triumphed without God will find that in defeat they are without Him: this will be their description, “Without God, and without hope in the world.” 3. When Jesus of Nazareth was called to choose between the stream and the river, His decision was prompt and unhesitating (Matthew 4:8-10). Up to the very end of His life His choice seemed to have been a foolish one (Matthew 8:20); on Calvary it seemed to have been madness: but all history since has been a vindication of its wisdom (Philippians 2:9-10). THE WATERS OF SHILOAHIsa_8:6-8. Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, &c.Reminded, I. That the peaceful blessings of the people of God appear in lovely contrast to the false and tumultuous pursuits and pleasures of the world (H. E. I. 1080–1084, 4163–4168). II. That those who despise and neglect God’s promised blessings expose themselves to His severe displeasure.—Samuel Thodey. I. The state of mind referred to: A disposition to reject God’s promises of salvation, and rest on the hopes, promises, and resources of the world. We see it manifested, 1. In the systems of religion men prefer. 2. In the schemes of worldly aggrandisement they pursue. 3. In the sources of consolation to which they betake themselves (H. E. I. 174). II. The consequence of continuance in this state of mind. 1. Mental darkness and sorrow of heart. 2. Providential chastisements.—Samuel Thodey. , BUT SAFEIsa_8:9-10. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces, &c.This is a shout of triumphant defiance which Ahaz and his people might have raised, had they listened to Isaiah’s counsels, and turned to the Lord with full purpose of heart. Then they might have been threatened by foes numerous, powerful, determined, and confederated, but they would have been safe. Its doctrine clearly is, that it matters not who may be against us, if God be with us. This has been the faith of God’s people in all generations. I. On what ground does it rest? 1. On what may be regarded as a settled conviction of the human mind, that this world, disordered as it is, is really governed by a righteous Ruler, omnipotent and all-wise, and that it must be well with those who have Him on their side. 2. On the declarations of God’s Word (Genesis 15:1; Psalms 34:7; Isaiah 54:17, &c.) 3. On the experience of His people as recorded in His Word. The promise to Abraham was kept; David (1 Samuel 17:37); Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:32-35); Daniel and his companions (Daniel 6:22; Daniel 3:28); Peter (Acts 12:7). On these accounts His people have felt and expressed the utmost contempt for, and defiance of, their foes (Psalms 27:1-6; Micah 7:8-10). Old as these utterances are, they express the confidence of countless thousands to-day. But, II. Let us look at the grounds that might cause us to hesitate to receive it. 1. There is the undoubted fact that we are living in a world in which many things happen that are contrary to what we would have expected; and it would be only one more contradiction of our à priori expectations if a good man, or a number of good men, were utterly destroyed by a number of bad men. 2. As a matter of fact, this has often happened. Who were “the noble army of martyrs,” but good men who suffered intolerable wrongs, and were put to cruel deaths? If Peter was delivered, James, his fellow-apostle, was left to his fate (Acts 12:2); yea, Peter himself at last died by the hands of the executioner, as did nearly all the Apostles. See what a terrible record of the sufferings of righteous men we have in Hebrews 11:35-37. III. How are these two sets of facts to be harmonised? How account for it that, notwithstanding the latter set, which are obvious and not denied, it is still the settled conviction of pious and otherwise sensible men, that it shall be well with the righteous? 1. This is undoubtedly true, on the whole. We see what is the teaching of experience, taken on any considerable scale, in the familiar proverb, “Honesty is the best policy.” Deadly as is the conflict between the powers of good and of evil, on the whole, the victory is on the side of goodness, of righteousness, of truth. The world grows better, not worse (H. E. I. 1161, 1162). And it is manifest that “godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well of that which is to come.” 2. The exceptions to which our attention is directed are necessary. Without them the difficulties in the way of the existence and growth of virtue would be immensely increased. If those who served God ran no risk in doing so, it would be as difficult for them to show that they loved Him for His own sake, as it would be for soldiers to prove their bravery, if it were possible to send them forth to battle in absolutely impregnable armour. If the safety assured to God’s people were absolute and without exceptions, there would be no room for the exercise of faith and loyalty. 3. This life is not all. It is but the prelude to our real existence; and for whatever we suffer in God’s cause here, we shall be abundantly compensated hereafter. So that, with Sir Thomas More, we may say, “They may take off my head, but hurt me they cannot.” This is a plain and sober statement of the facts of this great problem. What are the practical inferences to be drawn from it? 1. Let us dismiss from our minds all fears for the cause of truth and rightcousness. That is safe (2 Corinthians 13:8). God’s Church and God’s Word will survive all the assaults that are made upon them (H. E. I. 642–645, 1246–1251, 2449). 2. Let us not be greatly concerned as to what may happen to ourselves. If God pleases, He can deliver us from any danger that may threaten us. If He is not pleased to do so, He knows how to make our sufferings promote the cause we have at heart. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” (P. D. 2421, 2422, 2426). 3. If we are called to suffer, let us rejoice (Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 2:9; P. D. 2419). Isa_8:11-15. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, &c. [844][844] There was a general panic among the people: “their heart was moved as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind,” when they heard that Syria was confederate with Ephraim; their cry was everywhere, “A confederacy has been made against us, and we must meet it by a counter-alliance with Assyria;” and the prophet says that he too should have fallen under the influence of this panic, if Jehovah had not laid hold of him with a strong hand, to keep him in the way of dependence on Himself, and if He had not taught him to escape the fear which possessed his fellow-countrymen, by making the Lord of hosts his fear and his dread, by sanctifying Him himself, as he now in His Name calls on them to do. To sanctify Jehovah is in mind and practice to recognise Him as the holy God, the Lord who is absolute (absolutus), free from the limitations which hinder all other beings from carrying their wills into full operation, and to believe with the whole heart that God does and can govern all things according to the counsel of His own will, and that what He determines does certainly come to pass, however probabilities and appearances may be against the belief (Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 32:51; Isaiah 29:23). To the nation which thus sanctifies Jehovah, He (says Isaiah) will be their sanctuary—their protection against all their enemies. Such was His original covenant with both the houses of Israel, and it still holds good. If, therefore, they will break and renounce it, it becomes a stumbling-block to them. When their statesmen endeavour to remedy present mischief and secure future prosperity, by craftily playing off against one another the nations whom they cannot hope to match by force, they are attempting to go counter to the whole plan of Jehovah’s government, and they will do it only to their own confusion.—Strachey. God’s people are to be “a peculiar people.” Their whole life is to be governed by divine principles. 1. By these principles they will be saved from the grievous practical heresy of abstention from public life [847] Civilised life, especially in a free community, is a partnership, and no man has a right to take all the advantages of a partnership and evade all its labours and obligations. “Owe no man anything.” We are bound to labour as well as pray, that God’s will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The result of abstention on the part of Christian men from public life is the domination of bad men, and the employment of the resources of the community for evil purposes (Psalms 12:8). If we need example in this matter, we have the example of the prophets, who were much more than preachers of a monastic piety: they were active politicians, and yet politicians of an utterly unworldly type. 2. By these principles they will be guided and kept amid all the duties and difficulties of public life. They will be uplifted above party spirit in all its narrow and debasing forms. Theirs will be that true patriotism which consists in a steady loyalty to truth, and righteousness, and mercy. [847] H. E. I. 4137–4139. If we are to be Biblical politicians, and this is the duty of every man among us, I. We shall not necessarily be found on the side of the majority (Isaiah 8:11). How often God’s people have been called to stand in what is called “a miserable minority!” (Exodus 23:2.) II. We shall not necessarily adopt as our own the popular cries (Isaiah 8:12, [850]). Vox populi is often far other than Vox Dei. [850] The prophet, and such as were on his side, were not to call that kesher which the great mass of the people called kesher (cf. 2 Chronicles 23:13, “She said, Treason, treason! Kesher, kesher!); … the reference is to the conspiracy, as it was called, of the prophet and his disciples. The same thing happened to Isaiah as to Amos (Amos 7:10) and to Jeremiah. Whenever the prophets were at all zealous in their opposition to the appeal for foreign aid, they were accused and branded as standing in the service of the enemy, and conspiring for the overthrow of the kingdom.—Delitzsch.III. We shall not necessarily share in the prevalent feelings of our time, whether they be those of fear or of hope (Isaiah 8:13). We shall know that no permanent hurt can be done to our nation while it is in pursuit of righteousness, and that no real advantage can be gained by methods that will not bear the divine scrutiny. IV. Our supreme desire will be, not to conciliate men, but to please God (Isaiah 8:13). We shall consider all public questions, and vote for, or withhold our vote from, all public men, as in His sight (Hebrews 11:27). This may cause us often to cut ourselves off from our “party,” but this will not trouble us. Hostility may thus be excited against us—will be excited against us, for such “impracticable men” are the abhorrence of mere politicians; but then God Himself will be to us “for a sanctuary” [851] [851] Mikdash generally means the sanctified place or sanctuary, with which the idea of an asylum would easily associate itself, since even among the Israelites the Temple was regarded and respected as an asylum (1 Kings 1:50; 1 Kings 2:28).… Mikdash is really to be taken in this sense, although it cannot be exactly rendered “asylum,” since this would improperly limit the meaning of the word. The Temple was not only a place of shelter, but also of grace, blessing, and peace. All who sanctified the Lord of lords He surrounded like temple walls; hid them in Himself, whilst death and tribulation reigned without, and comforted, fed, and blessed them in His own gracious fellowship (chap. Isaiah 4:5-6; Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:20).—Delitzsch. V. We shall never lose sight of the fact that the penalty of ungodliness in public life is ruin (Isaiah 8:14-15). The real Ruler of the world is God, who governs it according to a plan of truth, righteousness, and mercy; and every human “policy” which is not consistent therewith, though it may win for its authors a short-lived triumph, will inevitably plunge those who accept it into disaster. From those who fight against God, utter defeat cannot be far off. When these facts are inwrought into the understandings and consciences of God’s people, and have become influential in their public and political life, much will have been done to usher in the millennium for which we daily pray, and of which Isaiah himself has given us such glowing pictures (chaps. Isaiah 2:4, Isaiah 32:16-17; Isaiah 60:17). “ BE THY NAME!”Isaiah 8:13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, &c.I. What is it to “sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself”? It is, 1. To fill our minds with right thoughts concerning Him [854] 2. To fill our hearts with right feelings towards Him (P. D. 1492–1526). [854] See note (á) to preceding outline: .II. How is this to be done? By frequent, devout, prayerful, intense meditation on the revelations of Himself which He has been pleased to give (H. E. I. 3507–3514). III. What will be the effect of doing it? 1. All other fear and dread will vanish from our minds (1 Samuel 14:6; 1 Samuel 17:37; Jeremiah 32:17; 1 Peter 3:14-15). 2. Thus we shall unconsciously and inevitably attain to that heroism of which some of us dream (Psalms 16:8; Daniel 3:16-18; Acts 4:19-20). 3. Thus we shall be qualified for the noblest service of God and man (Hebrews 11:24-27; 1 Corinthians 4:3-4). 4. Thus a divine peace and joy will fill our whole being, as a mighty tide fills every nook and cranny of a wide-stretching bay (Psalms 104:34). We shall rejoice in God as a soldier rejoices in a mighty fortress in which he feels secure from all assaults (2 Samuel 22:2-3). IN GODIsa_8:14. And He shall be for a sanctuary. Not a few mourn, in the midst of a busy, bustling age, a loss of sacredness in life. Not the false “sacred”—that which is merely ascetic separation from life and duty; nor that which is merely solemn “sacred”—the dull heavy monotony of gloominess. We naturally say that if this is God’s world, if civil and civic duties, social responsibilities, are God-ordained, it is likely, at least, that here we may be able to secure a heavenly citizenship amid earthly cares and customs. This is exactly what God reveals in the text. Sanctuary, He says, is not in mere place; not in separation from manly duty: I open up my very nature to you. How often this idea recurs in the Scriptures! God is our refuge and rest, our hiding-place, our dwelling-place. I. THE THAT A . Something within us asserts its dignity when society is frivolous and gay, and when the routine of life brings us into association with lives where the light even of conscience burns low, when the reverent wonder that filled even Pagan hearts has given place to scientific explanations of every spiritual function. When we are brought into contact with all this, then it is that we find how the high tides of the world cover the little green knolls of devotion, and sweep away alike the altar of prayer and the harp of praise. In all earnest natures there comes, at times, resentment at all this. We believe the divinity within us. We believe the high call of seer and prophet to nobler ends; we believe, above all, that Lord of life and light who tells us that the life is more than meat, and who fed His own life by the mountain prayer and the garden solitude. We should seek to secure the sacredness we feel we need, not in morbid methods, but in ways that are human, and ways that are Divine because they are human. Christ lived and worked amongst men. We, too, may secure sacredness for our lives; we may carry in our mien and breathe in our converse the springs of hope and faith and love which flow still from Zion’s sacred hill. II. THE THAT MAKES IN GOD HIMSELF. “He shall be for a sanctuary.” He whom wicked men dread and flee from; for, as of old, darkness cannot dwell with light, nor irreverence with reverence, nor mammon-worship with devotion to God. We may carry very bad hearts into very beautiful places. Place is easily made unsacred, but into fellowship with God there can enter nothing that is false, or worldly, or vile. “Sanctuary in a person?” Yes; for even here, in this dim sphere of earthly friendship, our best sanctuaries, apart from Christ, have been men and women,—those who bear His likeness, and who do His will. “Sanctuaries?” Yes; for with them we are ashamed of unworthy motive, of impure thought, of unsacred aim. Take Christ with you, and every place is sacred. This is our living sanctuary; we abide in Him who says, “I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.” And if by His own Divine nature He is a sanctuary, He is also by experience too. How much the human sanctuary of friendship is beautified when there is oneness of feeling about the battle and burden of life! Is it nothing, then, that when we speak of sanctuary in Christ we should mean “sympathy,” all that belongs to a brother born for adversity—to Him who, as a “Man of Sorrows,” was “acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 63:9)? We know indeed but little of the realities of religion unless we have found such a living sanctuary in Christ Jesus the Lord (H. E. I. 968–975). III. THE OF ALL THE FUTURE DAYS. “He shall be.” Names vary in interpreting what God is to suit need and experience. We translate the want, and then God’s name is translated to meet it. I am hungry—He is Bread; thirsty—He is water, &c. The word “sanctuary” meets special wants. Life is not always a seeking for a refuge, but it is so especially at certain times and in strange and desolate experiences. We are alone in a strange city. The child must leave home to teach, to toil, to live; the weakness will come which presages decline and death; the soul does feel that some lights are lost to faith and that others are growing dim. He shall be for a sanctuary. Let the hours come: He will come too. Who can make retreat into his own heart and find perfect sanctuary there? Christ alone could do that. We cannot. Nature cannot afford us the sanctuary we need; she has healthy anodynes of atmosphere that afford us deep and quiet retreats, but sanctuary, in the highest sense, she has not. Christ, and He alone, will be now and for ever a sanctuary (H. E. I. 2378–2387). IV. THE OF LIFE IN GOD. We can have no safety or rest in Churches as such. They are helpful; they are houses of fellowship and centres of usefulness. But we cannot say, as Mediævalism said, “Enter the Church and be saved.” The soul’s relation to God is personal and individual. Whether the relation of faith is real, vital, each soul can attest for itself; and that living relationship is all that can ever make life sacred to any man. When the life is hid with Christ in God, all is well, for all is sacred; and nothing that He has created us to do or to enjoy is common or unclean. So may God help us to keep a sacred life which finds sanctuary in the Saviour, until we find it where there is no temple, but where there is sanctuary in God (Revelation 21:22-23).—W. M. Statham: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. pp. 131–133. THE DUTY OF OF TRUTH IN TIMES OF Isa_8:16-18 In Hebrews 2:13 the commencement of Isa 8:18 is quoted as an utterance of the Messiah. This opens up questions concerning the New Testament quotations from the Old which cannot be fully discussed in this commentary. It may suffice to remark that the Spirit inspiring Isaiah was the Spirit of Christ, and that therefore Isaiah’s utterances generally may be regarded as the utterances of Christ; and further, this is especially true in those cases in which there is a close similarity in the position occupied by the great prophet of the Messiah and the Messiah Himself. At times Isaiah appears to be merely the spokesman of the Messiah; but in others, while his words had their ultimate and highest fulfilment in Christ, they were primarily true of himself, and this appears to be the case here. There are times when a nation goes utterly wrong, politically, socially, and, as the root of all the evil, religiously. God is forgotten, and the people give themselves over to purposes of ambition or of sensual pleasure. It is a time of formalism and pharisaism, of infidelity and blasphemy, of luxury and vice. So strong is this current of evil that it seems a hopeless and foolish thing for any man or body of men to resist it. What, then, is the prophet or faithful preacher to do? Prudence counsels compliance with the prevailing temper (2 Chronicles 18:12), or at least a temporary silence. Shall he listen to prudence, and bid principle wait for a more fitting season? Nay, but— I. Let him betake himself in prayer to God (Isaiah 8:16). Let him pray especially that Divine truth may be kept in the hearts of the few who have been led to receive it [863] [863] I agree with Vitringa, Drechsler, and others in regarding Isaiah 8:16 as the prophet’s own prayer to Jehovah. We “bind”—tie together—what we wish to keep from getting separated and lost; we “seal” what is to be kept secret, and only opened by a person duly qualified. And so the prophet here prayed that Jehovah would take his testimony with regard to the future, and his intimation, which was designed to prepare for the future that testimony and thorah which the great mass, in their hardness, did not understand, and in their self-hardening despised, and lay them up well secured and well preserved, as if by bond and seal, in the hearts of those who received the prophet’s words with loving obedience. For it would be all over with Israel unless a community of believers should be preserved, and all over with the community if the word of God, which was the ground of their life, should be allowed to slip out of their hearts.—Delitzsch. II. Let him wait upon God with immovable confidence that His truth shall yet prevail in the earth (Isaiah 8:17). Thus did the Primitive Christians, the Puritans, and the Covenanters in the evil days in which they lived. III. Let him recognise and glory in the position he occupies (Isaiah 8:18). He and his spiritual children are God’s witnesses (Isaiah 44:8); what position could be more honourable? Let them not shrink from its conspicuousness (Philippians 2:15); let them not be disheartened by the singularity it involves (H. E. I. 1042–1045, 3906, 3914; P. D. 1188). Amid all that is depressing and threatening in the position to which they have been Divinely called, let them remember their Lord’s declarations (Matthew 10:32; Revelation 3:5). WAITING ON THE LORD IN AND GLOOMIsa_8:17. And I will wait upon the Lord, &c.I. The characteristic appellation of Jehovah. “The God who hideth Himself” [866] [866] For details and suggestions under this division, see outline: THE HIDDEN THINGS OF GOD, chap. Isaiah 45:15. [867] For details and suggestions under this division, see outline: THE HIDDEN THINGS OF GOD, chap. Isaiah 45:15. [868] For details and suggestions under this division, see outline: THE HIDDEN THINGS OF GOD, chap. Isaiah 45:15.II. The implied mysteriousness of His dealings with His people. It is not merely from Babylon or Egypt, from Tyre or Nineveh, that He hides His face, but from “the house of Jacob.” 1. The persons referred to may be regarded as typical of the Church. Though descended from Abraham, they were called “the house of Jacob,” to denote that they were a chosen people—a praying people (this at least was true of the best men among them)—a people in whom God delighted. 2. With these persons He dealt in a manner contrary to what we should have expected. Looking only at the relation in which He stood to them, we should have expected that the light of His countenance would have gladdened them continually. Yet He hid Himself; and He frequently hides himself not only from the world, but from the Church; not only from the wicked man, but from the believer. Yet here is a difference: in the one case it is total and constant, in the other it is but partial and temporary. In the one case it is in anger, in the other it is in love (Revelation 3:19). 3. The modes in which He hides Himself. (1) In the cloud of providential darkness—affliction, bereavement, &c. (Isaiah 1:10). (2) In the withholding of the conscious enjoyment of religion (Job 15:11; Job 22:2) [869] [869] For various suggestions and illustrations, see H. E. I. 200, 1644–1659, and P. D. 815. III. The resolve of the believer under this visitation. In nothing does the grace of God shine more unmistakably than in the way in which the Christian bears trouble. “Behold, this evil is of the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” said a wicked man of old; but “I will look unto the Lord, and will wait for Him,” is the prophet’s resolve. 1. As to looking for Him. (1.) For whom do we look? For our God—our Father—our Friend—our Deliverer. (2.) Where shall we look for Him? He is near, though concealed. Then look for Him in Christ, in whom He is reconciling the world unto Himself, in whom He is well pleased even with us. Look for Him in His promises—in His ordinances—in your closet. (3.) How shall we look for Him? With faith—zeal—energy—determination (Job 35:10; Jeremiah 29:13). 2. As to waiting for Him. This is a state of mind frequently enjoined and commended in the Bible. Waiting implies faith—desire—patience (P. D. 2643). When you have found Him, fall at His feet and confess your unworthiness. Resolve to follow Him fully. Cleave to Him with purpose of heart Pray, “Abide with me!”—George Smith, D.D. WAITING ON GODIsa_8:17. And I will wait upon the Lord, &c.Believers are in the Scriptures abundantly encouraged to wait upon God (Psalms 37:14; Isaiah 25:9). In Psalms 62:5, it is suggested that this waiting upon God is connected with hopeful expectation of receiving a blessing. The same truth is taught us by our Lord in His parable on prayer (Luke 18:1-8). However long God delays, we must wait expectantly. In our text, however, we have the idea of waiting upon God while He is hiding His face from His people. The very possibility that He should assume this attitude towards us is depressing, and not unfrequently in our religious exercises we are haunted by the fear that this is the attitude He has assumed towards us. Through fears and doubts that intercept our vision of Him, we look up to see the face of our Father, and behold only a cloud! In such a case our faith needs quickening, that our hopes may be raised and our courage renewed. The following thoughts may conduce to this end. I. God does not hide His face from us because His blessings have diminished (Isaiah 40:26-31; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13). II. God does not hide His face from us on account of any weariness in His love (John 13:1; Isaiah 49:15). III. God does not hide His face from us because of any caprice in His nature (James 1:16-17). IV. If God does hide His face from us, it is only on account of our sinfulness. This is the dark atmosphere in which God becomes lost to us (chap. Isaiah 49:1-2). V. Consequently, if God’s face is hidden from us, it is at once our only hope and our positive duty to wait upon Him (James 4:8). Let us wait for Him and look for Him. 1. Penitently. 2. Believingly. 3. Patiently. Then will the Lord turn us again; He will cause His face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.—William Manning. Isa_8:19-22. Seek unto them, &c.As bearing upon the doctrine of necromancy, an exhaustive discussion of these verses would involve the following points: 1. Under the instigation of a prurient curiosity, or under the pressure of affliction, godless men are wont to seek knowledge and help from the spirits of the dead. 2. Hence, in every age of the world and in every nation of universal history, there have been necromancers, wizards, &c., known by various names, practising various arts of divination and legerdemain; playing with the credulity of men and women, and claiming access to supernatural knowledge and power. The spirits of modern times are the latest species of this genus of necromancers. 3. This passage implies irresistibly that God frowns upon and condemns necromancy in whatever form. 4. The expostulations, rebukes, and threatenings of the Lord, through His prophet in this passage, assumes it to be impossible for man to get knowledge or help for the living from the dead. The power of God to send back to earth the spirits of the dead is quite another thing; yet as to this the practical question is—Does He see fit to use it? 5. Hence, to discard the light of God’s revealed Word and to seek light and help from the dead, is to hurl oneself against the impermeable and impassable wall with which God has shut in the living of our world, and involves both positive conflict against God and contemptuous rejection of His Divine Word. 6. As Satan has a natural sympathy with everything abhorrent to God and ruinous to man, we ought to look for his hand in these agencies of necromancy, to whatever extent God may give him scope and range for action. What these limits may be, who can tell? It is man’s wisdom to keep himself utterly aloof from the sphere of Satan’s agencies and temptations. 7. Necromancers and spirits practically league themselves with Satan against God, and should be aware that his lot must be theirs, and their end be as their works, no dawn of day ever breaking forth on the midnight of their gloom.—Henry Cowles, D.D. Commentary on Isaiah, pp. 68, 69. THE LAW AND THE Isa_8:20. To the law and to the testimony, &c.This was one of the watchwords of the Reformation, and since then it has been a favourite text with Protestants. The noble Sixth Article of the Church of England [872] is but an expansion of it. It assumes that there is one standard of truth, one infallible oracle, to which in all their moral perplexities and spiritual difficulties, it is the wisdom, if not the duty, of all men to appeal. And we are persuaded that we have this standard, this oracle, in the Bible (H. E. I. 543). If men neglect it,—if they strive to construct a creed or direct their conduct without it, two things are certain: 1. They lack the knowledge and wisdom essential to success in life. Their neglect of it shows that they have no light in them [875] 2. There await them disappointment, disaster, and despair. This is the teaching of the other beautiful translation which many eminent scholars have adopted: “To the teaching of God, and to the testimony! If they do not according to this word, they are a people for whom no morning dawns” (H. E. I. 641). [872] “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.” [875] Just as it would be conclusive proof of ignorance of geology if a prospecting party of miners left unexplored the very spot concerning which the character of the rocks and soil cried loudly, Gold! Or if some professional man, perplexed by a serious and embarrassing case, should leave unconsulted the standard works containing the solution of the problem. Here also may be quoted the declaration of the Westminster Assembly of divines:— “VI. The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word; and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are so ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded or offered in some scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.… X. The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”—The Confession of Faith. Here also may be quoted the declaration of the Westminster Assembly of divines:— “VI. The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word; and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are so ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded or offered in some scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.… X. The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”—The Confession of Faith. Here also may be quoted the declaration of the Westminster Assembly of divines:— “VI. The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word; and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are so ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded or offered in some scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.… X. The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”—The Confession of Faith.“But all who consult the Bible do not obtain from it sure guidance: the proof of this is the differences among those who consult it, both as to belief and practice. In support of the most absurd doctrines and the most pernicious practices, the authority of Scripture is claimed.” True, but the error lies not in “the law,” but in the men who refer to it [878] If the Bible is to be really helpful to us, we must consult it honestly (H. E. I. 573, 574, 4854). Humbly (H. E. I. 387–389, 562–567, 587, 599). With a constant recognition of our help of the Holy Spirit (H. E. I. 622, 623, 2877–2882). Prayerfully (H. E. I. 570, 571, 598, 4856). Diligently (H. E. I. 576–580; P.D. 315). Intelligently (1) In regard to the subjects concerning which we seek instruction (H. E. I. 540–542, 558–560). (2.) In regard to our interpretation [881] and application of its utterances (H. E. I. 544–550, 568, 569). The man who thus uses the Bible [884] will be cheered as he advances in life by a dawn that will brighten and broaden into perfect day. He will be led by it to Christ, “The Light of the world,” and following Him in loving obedience and unswerving loyalty, he will find the declaration for ever true, “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” [878] Lawyers and doctors, professedly consulting the standard works of their profession, have misled their clients and killed their patients; but the fault has not been in those standard works, but in the men who failed to use them aright. Bradshaw’s Railway Guide is not a safe guide in the hands of every traveller. [881] The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.—The Confession of Faith. [884] The Holy Scriptures are to be read with an high and reverent esteem of them; with a firm persuasion that they are the very Word of God, and that He only can enable us to understand them; with desire to know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed in them; with diligence and atention to the matter and scope of them; with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer.—The Larger Catechism. Isa_8:21, and Isaiah 9:13. And they shall pass through it, &c.I. Sin leads to suffering. 1. This is true of individuals (H. E. I. 4603–4612). But because there is another life and a future retribution, the full results of sin are frequently not seen in this life. Nay, the sinner often appears prosperous even to the end (Psalms 73:3-5). 2. But in the case of nations, which as such have no immortality, it is otherwise (P. D. 2544); it is more prompt; it is often exceedingly terrible. This fact should make those who have any love for their children hostile to any national policy that is unrighteous, however politically “expedient” it may seem. II. There is in suffering no sanctifying power. God may use it as a means of arresting the careless, or of making good men better, but there is in it no certain reformative energy. On the contrary, it may harden men in iniquity [887] [887] See outline: MORAL , p. 16.III. Suffering does nothing in itself to abate God’s anger against sinners. We, when we are wronged, often yield to a passion of vindictiveness, which is sated when we have succeeded in inflicting a certain amount of pain on the wrong-doer. But God’s anger is not vindictive, but righteous (H. E. I. 2288–2294); hence its terribleness. As it does not thirst for suffering, it is not satisfied by suffering. As long as the sinner holds to his sin, God’s anger will burn against him, irrespective altogether of the suffering he may have endured. Nothing will turn away that anger but a genuine repentance (Isaiah 9:13). 1. In the hour of temptation, let us think of sin not as it then presents itself to us, but as it will certainly appear to us when its results are manifested (H. E. I. 4673–4676). 2. When suffering has come upon us, let us regard it as God’s summons to repentance (H. E. I. 56–59); and let us obey it with thankfulness that God is willing to deal with us in the way of mercy. THE REMEDY OF THE WORLD’S MISERY(Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 9:2-7. The people that walked in darkness, &c.The prophecies contained in this text are of a mixed kind; they are partly fulfilled and partly unfulfilled. We have the authority of the Evangelists to apply the passage to Gospel times, and to prevent it from being restricted to the Jews (Matthew 4:14-16; Luke 1:79; Luke 2:32). Let us consider— I. The view taken by the Prophet of the moral state of the world previous to the glorious change which makes the subject of his prophecy. 1. The people are represented as walking in darkness. Darkness is an emblem of ignorance and error; and an emblem the most striking [890] 2. But darkness alone appears to the mind of the Prophet only a faint emblem of the state of the heathen: he adds, therefore, “the shadow of death.” In Scripture this expression is used for the darkness of that subterranean mansion into which the Jews supposed the souls of men went after death. Figuratively, the expression is used for great distress; a state of danger and terror. It is an amplification, therefore, of the Prophet’s thought. The predominant idea is that of a sense of insecurity, accompanied by fear. Darkness increases danger and fear at the same time. Such is the state of the heathen. The religion of the heathen has ever been gloomy and horrible. 3. The Prophet adds another note of the state of the heathen: Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy [893] He beholdeth them increasing in number only to multiply their misery [896] Universal experience proves that misery is multiplied when God and truth are unknown. In this case there is no redeeming principle; the remedy is lost; despair completes the wretchedness of the people, and were it not for the prospects opened by the Gospel, that despair would be final and absolute. Here, however, the text breaks upon us with a glorious and cheering view. The Prophet beholds a light rising in obscurity; a great light dispels the heavy gloom; comfort, joy, and salvation dawn upon the earth (Isaiah 8:2). [890] As the pall of darkness is drawn over the world, the fair face of nature fades from the sight; every object becomes indistinct, or is wholly obscured, and all that can cheer the sight or direct the steps of man vanishes. So the gradual accumulation of religious errors, thickening with every age, banished the knowledge of God and His truth from the understandings of men, till all that was sublime in speculation, cheering to the heart, supporting to the hopes, or directive to the actions of men, passed away from the soul, and left the intellectual world like that of nature when deprived of light. The heaven of the soul was hung with blackness, and “their foolish heart was darkened.”—Watson. [893] Alexander and several other modern scholars read: “Thou hast enlarged the nation, Thou hast increased its joy,” understanding the Prophet to mean that the true Israel had been increased by the calling of the Gentiles, and that this increase had been a cause of great gladness. [896] If the Prophet speaks of the Jewish people, he declares a fact remarkably striking. One of the blessings promised to their founder, Abraham, was, that his seed should be multiplied as the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea-shore. But that which was designed as a blessing, and is described as such in the promise, was made a curse by the wickedness of the Jews. For what end, in the former periods of their history, did they multiply, but to furnish food for captives, slaughter, and oppression? In later times, they have multiplied, and spread themselves over the world; but their joy has not been increased. Degraded in character, and despised by the nations where they sojourn, without a country, a temple, or a sacrifice, they bear, like Cain, the marks of God’s curse, are vagabonds in the earth, preserved to warn us of the just severity of God. There is nothing, however, in the connection to induce us to suppose that the Prophet particularly contemplated the Jewish nation. The same thing must be affirmed of every nation that abandons itself to wickedness. When nations are multiplied, their political strength is increased; and happiness would be multiplied too, were it not for sin. But in wicked nations the “joy is not increased.” This negative expression signifies the misery is increased. God has not added His blessing; and there is no joy.—Watson. II. On this blessed visitation we would now fix your attention. 1. As darkness is an emblem of the religious sorrow which had overcast the world, so light is an emblem of the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel is “light.” (1.) This marks its origin from heaven. (2.) This notes its truth. It is fitting that what is truth, without mixture of error, should be compared to what is the most simple substance in nature. (3.) It is called “light” because of its penetrating and subtle nature. (4.) Because of the discoveries which it makes. (5.) Because it is life and health to the world. 2. As in the vision light succeeds to darkness, so also joy succeeds to fear and misery (Isaiah 8:3). The joy here described is no common feeling; it is the joy of harvest, the joy of victory. The effect of the diffusion of the Gospel in producing joy is a constant theme of prophecy (chap. Isaiah 24:16; Psalms 98:8; Luke 2:10). True joy, as yet, there is none upon a large scale; of sorrow and sighing the world has ever been full; and as long as it remains in this state, even sighs might fail rather than cause to sigh. Even that which is called joy is mockery and unreal, an effort to divert a pained and wounded mind; it gleams like a transient light, only to make men more sensible of the darkness. As long as the world is wicked it must be miserable. All attempts to increase happiness, except by diminishing wickedness and strengthening the moral principle, are vain. The Gospel is the grand cure of human woe. When it has spread to the extent seen by the Prophet, a sorrowing world shall dry up its tears, and complaint give place to praise (Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 32:17). They shall joy as in victory, for the rod of the grand oppressor shall be broken; Satan shall fall, his reign be terminated; and one universal, transporting “Hallelujah” ascend from every land, to the honour of Him by whom the victory is achieved. III. So vast a change must be produced by causes proportionably powerful; and to the means by which this astonishing revolution is effected, the Prophet next directs our attention (Isaiah 8:4-5). These words speak of resistance and a struggle. He that expects the conversion of the world without the most zealous application and perseverance among God’s agents, and opposition from His enemies, has not counted the cost. In the conduct of this battle two things distinguish it from every other contest: The absolute weakness and insufficiency of the assailants [899] and their miraculous success. A remembrance of these things encourages us in our missionary operations. If our plans had been applauded by the wisdom of this world, there would have been too much of man in them, and we might have doubted the result (Judges 7:2). The victory shall be eminently of God. For the battle shall be, not “with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but with burning and fuel of fire.” The demonstration of the Spirit, the power of God, is here compared to fire. The Spirit, in His saving operations, is always in Scripture compared to the most powerful principles in nature—to the rain and dew, to wind, to thunder, to fire. All these images denote His efficiency and the suddenness of the success; and the extent of the benefit shall proclaim the victory to be the Lord’s. We have seen the effect of this vital influence at home; and we may, in some degree, conjecture what will be done abroad. Yet perhaps something very remarkable may take place, as is intimated in the text; some peculiar exertion of the Divine power upon the mind of the world. [899] The weakness and insignificance of the instruments used in breaking the rod and yoke of the oppressor is sufficiently marked by the allusion to the destruction of the host of Midian by Gideon and his three hundred men. The family of Gideon was poor in Manasseh, and he was the least of his father’s house; the number of men assigned him was contemptible; their weapons were no better than an earthen pitcher, a torch, and a trumpet; the men who dreamed of Gideon dreamed of him under the image of a barley-cake. All this meanness was adopted that the deliverance of Israel might appear to be the work of God; and this is the manner in which He has ever wrought in the revival and spread of godliness in the world. Who were the instruments of spreading true religion in the Apostolic age, we know; they were the despised fishermen of Galilee. Feeble and unpromising instruments have also been employed in subsequent revivals; and from the conformity of the present missionary system of this model we augur well of future success.—Watson. IV. But it may be said, “Is not all this a splendid vision? You speak of weak instruments effecting a miraculous success; of the display and operation of a supernatural power touching the hearts of men and changing the moral state of the world, but what is the ground of this expectation? This natural and very proper question our text answers (Isaiah 8:6-7). In these verses we have the grounds of that expectation of success which we form as to missionary efforts. The plan of Christianising the world is not ours; it was laid in the mind of God before the world was. The principal arrangements of the scheme are not left to us, but are already fixed by the infinite wisdom of God. The part we fill is very subordinate; and we expect success, not for the wisdom or the fitness of the means themselves, but because they are connected with mightier motives, whose success is rapid, and whose direction is divine; because God has formed a scheme of universal redemption, to be gradually but fully developed; because He has given gifts to the world, the value of which is in every age to be more fully demonstrated; and because He has established offices in the person of Christ, which He is qualified to fill to the full height of the Divine idea (text). Our text has set before us the moral misery of the human race; the purpose of God to remove it by the diffusion of His truth and grace; the means chosen for this purpose; and the ground of that certain success which must attend the application of the prescribed means under the Divine blessing. It now only remains for me to invite you to such a co-operation in this great work as your own ability and the importance of the enterprise demand.—Richard Watson, “Works,” vol. iv. pp. 206–224. THE JOY OF HARVEST(Harvest Thanksgiving Sermon.) Isaiah 9:3. They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, &c.I. The joy of the natural harvest. Harvest was peculiarly interesting to the Jews. [902][903].[904] Two things render “the joy of harvest” peculiar and impressive: 1. It is the completion and reward of the anxiety and labours of the year it closes. 2. It furnishes the supply for our needs in the year to come.—We call upon you to rejoice before the Lord to-day (P. D. 1710–1712), and to associate your thanksgiving with the name of Christ (Hebrews 13:15). Let all outward gifts remind you of that unseen Mediator through whom they flow. Our gratitude should be deep and fervent; it should bear some proportion to the regret we should have felt if God had withheld the blessings in which we now rejoice, and had blighted the promise of the year. Yet now, when those temporal gifts abound, let us remember their inability to satisfy the needs of the soul. The satisfaction for these needs is to be found only in Christ. He who had more corn than his barns could hold, now wants a drop of water to cool his tongue. [902] They had scarcely any foreign trade—none till Solomon’s time. Every family lived upon its own inheritance and upon the produce of its own land. Consequently if harvest failed, all failed. They expressed their joy by solemn offerings to the Lord. Not a field was reaped before the wave-sheaf was placed upon the altar; and when it had been waved there, amidst the loud thanksgiving of the people, before the Lord of the whole land, the messengers from the Temple carried the proclamation to the husbandmen in the field, “Put ye in the sickle and reap!”—Thodey. II. The joy of the spiritual harvest. The vicissitudes of the religious life are often compared to those of the seasons (Psalms 126:5-6). The Christian husbandman has his anxieties, arising from the badness of the soil, the unfavourableness of the seasons, the delay of harvest, the fear of final loss. Yet he has his reaping seasons of joy even in this world— 1. When a consciousness of sin which has long oppressed the soul is exchanged for a sense of pardoning mercy, through the application of the blood of sprinkling. 2. When, after a long period of depression, hope revisits the mind (H. E. I. 313, 314, 1658, 1659, 3041). 3. When there come to us the answers to our prayers that were long delayed (H. E. I. 3895, 3896). “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” 4. When the spiritual triumphs of the gospel are made manifest: to parents in their families; to ministers in their congregations; to missionaries abroad. Just in proportion to the toil and the prolonged anxiety is the rapture of success. The harvest sometimes comes to us after long delay, after many anxieties, after many fears (James 5:7-8). God sees fit to exercise His people with the discipline of suspense, but this is for their good (Lamentations 3:26). III. The joy of the eternal harvest. When all Christ’s people are gathered into His immediate presence (Matthew 13:39); then will the declaration of our text be fulfilled in the highest sense of which it is capable. The ransomed will rejoice when they think, 1. Of the grace that reigns in their salvation. By that grace they were transformed from being tares, the end of which is burning, into wheat meet for the garner. 2. Of the great cost and care bestowed upon their culture, that they might be ripened for the heavenly kingdom. 3. How often they despaired of their own safety. 4. Of their deliverance from the fearful fate of the tares and chaff, whose end is to be burned. —Samuel Thodey. THE TITLES AND OF CHRISTIsa_9:6. For unto us a Child is born, &c.I. The Incarnation and Government of Jesus Christ. Let us contemplate Him, 1. As the Incarnate One. “Unto us a child is born” (H. E. I. 846–853). 2. As a gift of Heaven to a fallen world. “Unto us a Son is given.” 3. As advanced to supreme rule and authority. “The government shall be upon His shoulder. II. The names and characters by which He is distinguished. “His name,” &c. III. The adaptation of these Qualities to the purposes of His spiritual reign. 1. We need wisdom, and He is the “Counsellor.” 2. We need reconciliation to God, and He is our “Peace.” 3. We need support under the calamities of life, and this He gives us, for He is the “Mighty God.” 4. We need comfort under the fears of death, and this He gives as “The Father of the Everlasting Age.”—George Smith, D.D.THE OF CHRISTIsa_9:6. The government shall be on His shoulder, &c.Let me caution you against mistaking this government for that essential dominion which belongeth to our blessed Lord as God. To suppose that this had been given to our Lord would be to deny His essential Godhead. The government here spoken of is one that He receives: a delegated government as the Mediator of the covenant: that which we are told (1 Corinthians 15:24-28) He will hereafter deliver up to the Father. Three particulars we may point out, in which He exercises this dominion. I. He rules for His Church, as “The Lamb in the midst of the throne.” II. He rules in His Church, being its alone King and Lawgiver. The Church is never for one moment to assume the power of legislation; it belongs not to her, but to Him: she has the executive—nothing more—to obey His laws, to carry them out according to the mind of Him who framed them. III. There is a third power—that which He exercises in the souls of His true subjects, ruling in and over them by the power of His own blessed Spirit.—J. H. Evans, M.A.: Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii. p. 337. In this verse we have a constellation of titles, all of which illustrate the essential dignity and mediatorial claims of Jesus, and tend to awaken the confidence of the Church. The very first declaration, His “name shall be called Wonderful,” fitly prepares us for all that is to follow, teaching us to expect something beyond the ordinary works of God. He is “wonderful” in His incarnation, in His government, in the counsels He originates, in the divinity of His nature, in the eternity of His existence, in the results of His mediatorial rule, for He is “the Prince of Peace,” swaying the sceptre of mercy over an apostate and disordered world. There is a beautiful consistency in all this; for if the government of earth and heaven, the sovereignty of the Church and of the world, is to be exercised by the Redeemer, it is necessary that He should be possessed of attributes equal to its immense responsibilities. But these attributes are His, and hence the command, “Rejoice, for the Lord reigneth!” I. It is a cause of peculiar rejoicing to all good men that the government of the world is in the hands of Christ. Their interest and joy in this fact arise— 1. From the near and sacred relation in which Jesus stands to them. 2. From the glorious perfectness of His character, which guarantees the wisdom and blessedness of His sway. 3. From the changelessness, perpetuity, and destined universality of His rule. II. The sovereignty of Christ affords great relief in contemplating the abject condition of the heathen world. The heathen have been given to Him for His inheritance, and He will certainly deliver them from the superstitions and miseries by which they are oppressed. III. This fact gives us a deep interest in beholding the vast extent of the universe of God. Every part of it is but a province in Christ’s boundless empire.—Samuel Thodey. HIS NAME … Isa_9:6. His name shall be called Wonderful, &c.I. Christ is wonderful in His nature. He is wonderful, 1. in respect of His essential Godhead. 2. In respect of His perfect manhood. All excellences were combined in him as a man, unlike even His most eminent servants, who are distinguished for the possession of special graces, which too often are clouded by some opposite defect. 3. In respect of the union in Him of Deity and humanity (1 Timothy 3:16). II. Christ is wonderful in His offices, at once Prophet, Priest, and King. 1. As a Prophet, what wonderful disclosures He has made to us of the Divine nature and will, and of human duty and destiny; with what wonderful authority He spoke; with what wonderful completeness and beauty He fulfilled all His own commandments! 2. As a Priest, how wonderfully He was at once sacrifice and offerer: how wonderfully He still carries on the work of reconciliation (Romans 8:34). 3. As a King, how wonderfully He rules, with omnipotent power, yet with lamblike gentleness. III. Christ is wonderful in His relation to His people. 1. In the care He exercises over them (Ezekiel 34:11-16). 2. In the abundance of the grace which He ministers to them (2 Corinthians 12:9; John 1:16; H. E. I. 936). 3. In His condescending thoughtfulness for each one of them (John 10:3; John 10:14-15) [905] 4. In the perfectness of His sympathy with them. He identifies Himself so entirely with His people, that they have not a single care, trial, or temptation of any sort, but it is as much His as it is theirs (H. E. I. 952–961).—J. H. Evans, M.A.: Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii. pp. 336–348. [905] Oh, how “wonderful” must He be, that suits Himself to the cares of all, as if He had but one! cares for each as much as He cares for all, and cares for each as if he were all! We are lost in this deep. I sometimes get some light from this thought:—Why, the sun can shine into the attic as well as into the Queen’s palace; it occasions no difficulty to the sun. Blessed Jesus! there is no difficulty for Thee to supply all our minutest wants; in Thee there is the abundance of power, and quite as great an abundance of love.—J. H. Evans, M.A. We are continually struck with one marked contrast between the greatness that is human and the greatness that is Divine: human greatness the more it is examined the less wonderful it appears, but Divine productions, the more closely they are investigated the more brightly they shine. We shall see that Christ is wonderful, if we consider—I. The excellences that compose His mediatorial character. God and man! Nor is this a wonder to men only (1 Peter 1:12). II. The stupendous blessings He bestows on His friends. III. The reserves of glory which He waits to exhibit in now unseen and future worlds. Behold Him, and 1. Never hesitate to acknowledge Him as your Saviour and Lord. 2. Yield a ready obedience to His authority. 3. Anticipate His coming in glory.—Samuel Thodey. CHRIST OUR Isa_9:6. His name shall be called … Counsellor, &c.I. How Christ may be our Counsellor. Immediate, close, and confidential intercourse is involved in our idea of taking counsel. When we are in perplexity, we lay the whole matter before a friend in whose wisdom we trust. So we may spread our difficulties before Christ in prayer. Thus far, all is clear. But how can we receive from Christ the answer and guidance we seek? How does an earthly friend help us in such a case? By producing a certain impression on our mind. He may do it by spoken words, by letter, or even by a gesture. The manner is unimportant. So Christ guides us by producing impression on our mind; how, we know not, nor does it matter greatly. The well-instructed Christian seeks counsel from Christ in all things. He prays for daily guidance. Special difficulties he makes matter of special prayer. Then, upon the mind previously made calm and willing, there comes a sense of rectitude, and a feeling of resolution. One course, generally that which involves most self-denial and manifests least self-dependence, comes prominently forth in strong relief, as most to be preferred. Its advantages each moment look clearer and brighter; its consistency with his religious profession, conformity to the will of God, and true wisdom, are more and more strongly impressed upon his mind. He doubts no more. He has arrived at a decision. Christ’s counsel has prevailed. It is our privilege thus to be directed at every stage and in every vicissitude of life. II. Why we should take Christ for our Counsellor. Because in Him are all the qualities that would cause us to value and seek the counsel of an earthly friend—tenderness, wisdom, and power. He can help us to carry out His counsels. III. What will be the effects of making Christ the Man of our counsel?” 1. A general consistency of Christian conduct. Inconsistency arises from listening to contradictory advisers; sometimes going to Christ, and sometimes taking counsel with flesh and blood. 2. A conformity and likeness to Christ. You will learn to love what He loves, and to desire what He promises. In the man who constantly makes Christ his counsellor, there is begotten a spirituality of mind, a deadness to the world, a fixedness of purpose, a cheerfulness of temper, a self-possession and patience, which are scarcely conceivable and quite invaluable. A man is powerfully influenced by the company he keeps—whether it be refined and moral, or coarse and profligate. What, then, must be the effect of habitual intercourse with the Lord of light and grace and glory? 3. A preparedness for Christ’s presence in heaven? What is the bliss of heaven? It is the vision of the Almighty; unclouded and uninterrupted intercourse with the Saviour and Lord of all. The more we have cultivated this here, the more fitted we shall be for it hereafter.—Josiah Bateman, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 1–18. THE MIGHTY GODIsa_9:6. His name shall be called … The Mighty God. Various devices to escape from the force of this declaration have been tried [908] But after a discussion prolonged through centuries, it is now conceded by the foremost Hebrew scholars of our time, that, whether we accept or reject it, Isaiah’s declaration is that the Person concerning whom he wrote should be called “The mighty God;” which is merely the Scriptural way of asserting that He should be “The mighty God,” for names divinely given represent realities. That the Person concerning whom this declaration was made is our Lord Jesus Christ is the conviction of the whole Christian Church. He is the “Child,” the “Son,” the “Mighty God,” concerning whom Isaiah wrote. Let us do more than give our assent to this statement: let us think about it. [908] The following translations have been given by sceptical scholars, but have all been conclusively rejected by sound scholarship:— “Mighty Hero.”—Gesenius. “Counsellor of the Mighty God.”—Grotius. “Counseller of God, Mighty.”—Carpenter. “And He who is Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, calls His name the Prince of peace.”—Jarchi and Kimchi. I. It is essential to soundness of creed, and to any full realisation of the Christian life, to hold firmly to the doctrine of the perfect humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man in the same sense that this is true of any man here; whatever was essential to perfectness of manhood existed in Him. Unless we grasp this great truth intelligently and firmly, 1. His example can be of no considerable help to us (H. E. I. 898). The example of an angel, though it might excite our admiration, would also smite us with despair. 2. His sympathy with men, because of His identity with them in their experience, can never be to us, what it has been to millions, one of the most comforting and strengthening of all thoughts (Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 4:15; H. E. I. 872, 954). II. It is equally necessary that we should hold firmly the doctrine of His Deity. That He is “the mighty God” is the testimony, 1. Of His works (Matthew 14:32-33, &c.). 2. Of His words (John 6:48; John 7:37; John 8:12, &c.; H. E. I. 836, 840–842). This doctrine pervades the New Testament (H. E. I. 835, 838.) The sum of its teaching concerning Him is, that in Him God was manifest, that He is the true God (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 John 5:20). It is not only one of the profoundest of all doctrines, it is the most practical. Let me doubt it, and how can Christ be to me a Saviour? How can He be more to me than any other eminently holy and wise man who died centuries ago, or yesterday? 1. What comfort can I derive from the declaration that He died for me? Could a man atone for the sins of the whole world, for my sins? 2. What comfort can I derive from the declaration that He now lives and is in heaven? If so, as a man, doubtless, He will sympathise with me, but how can I be assured that He hears the cries for help which in times of distress and danger I raise? or that, if He hears me, He is able to help? 1. This complex Christian life of ours can be sustained only by the complex and unfathomably mysterious doctrine of the Divine-human nature of Christ, just as our physical life can be sustained only by the compound yet simple atmosphere we breathe. To simplify the atmosphere by taking away, if it were possible, either of its main constituents would transform the earth into a sepulchre; and to “simplify” Christian doctrine by taking away the doctrine either of our Lord’s humanity or of His Deity is the destruction of spiritual life. 2. Let us, then, accept in all their fulness the declarations of Scripture concerning the Person of our Lord. Those declarations transcend our reason, but they do not contradict it (H. E. I. 851, 4809–4814), and they should be joyfully accepted by our faith. 3. Let us think much of Christ as the Son of man, that by His example we may be incited to strive after a noble manhood, and that by the assurance of His sympathy we may be sustained amid all the struggles and sorrows of life. 4. Let us think much of Him as “the mighty God,” that our faith may rejoice in His ability to accomplish for us a complete redemption; that our reason and conscience may be led to bow to the authority which must therefore belong to all His utterances; that our love for Him, while it is tender and ardent, may be also reverent; and that our soul may feel itself free to give expression to the feelings of adoration that rise up within us when we contemplate His perfections, His purposes, and the work which it is declared He has accomplished on our behalf. THE FATHERIsa_9:6. The Everlasting Father. We usually associate the name of father with the first “Person” of the adorable Godhead. But there is no manner of doubt that the title here belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ—to the very same Person who, in human nature, was a Child born, and a Son given up for the salvation of men. But there is this difference: the title given to the Son born is not merely “the Father,” but “the everlasting Father. The title is not “Father,” but the entire phrase. Read more exactly in accordance with the original words, the phrase is this: “the father of perpetuity, the father of eternity, the father of the for ever.” “Father” means here simply possessor or author. To be the father of eternity” is to have eternity, and to rule in eternity—to be the Lord of eternity. Christ Jesus, who hath the government upon His shoulders, hath it on His shoulders for ever; He is King of kings and Lord of lords throughout eternity. The eternity here spoken of is not the eternity that is bygone—if we may so speak of eternity; it is the ongoing and unending duration that lies before us, and Christ Jesus is Lord and Ruler of it all. No doubt He who can hold the future eternity in His hand, and who can rule all its affairs, must have been Himself the Unbeginning and Eternal One; and the Scriptures leave no doubts about that being the attribute of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 8:58; Colossians 1:17; John 1:3). But it is that for ever which lies before us which Christ is here said to be the Father of. He is so as its Possessor—He has it; as its Originator—He makes it what it is; as its Controller—He rules in it. I. Jesus Christ is the father of the eternity that lies before us, the father of the for ever, because He Himself lives for ever. He has it. Observe, this is true of the Second Person of the Godhead in human nature. The connection of the text will not permit us to forget that. It is the Child born and the Son given who is said to live for ever. That is a great thought; the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ in humanity is to live for ever is a stupendous expectation and belief. Sometimes it has seemed to me as it were more wonderful even than the Incarnation. It seems as if it would have been less strange for the Son of God, for some great purpose, to have clothed Himself with a creature’s nature, and then, having accomplished that purpose, to have laid down that nature as a thing too far down from the Infinite to be worn for ever. But now the wonder is, that having made Himself our kinsman, He is to be our Head for ever, and is never to cease to wear the human nature in which He died on Calvary. That this is an important thought appears from two considerations. 1. It is part of the Divine promise of the Father to our Lord, and it is a thing for which our Lord prayed as part of His Father’s promise (compare Isaiah 53:10, Psalms 72:15; Psalms 21:4). 2. It implies that His work was finished to His Father’s satisfaction. It is clearly spoken of as a reward for work well done. Hence this title “Father of eternity”—hath in germ within it the great facts of Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and session in glory (comp. Revelation 1:18). From this fact two inferences can be drawn, both of a most consolatory and joyful character. 1. To God’s people. What a Saviour they have! They need never fear that they will be without His care. They could not find a world in all the universe where He is not with them, and they cannot live on to any age when He shall cease to be their light and King 2. The same thing brings comfort to every sinner (Hebrews 7:25). Do not lose yourselves in a great general thought of Christ living for ever; rather narrow the broad and grand conception, and fasten it down upon the present fleeting moment. Christ lives now, and lives here—lives here and now to save the sinner and bless the saint. Apply to Him, and rejoice in Him that liveth now and for ever and ever. II. He originated this age that is spoken of. As by His death He secured His own immortality on the basis of the faithful covenant, and received life for ever because He had done the Father’s will; so by the same completion of His mediatorial work on earth He purchased this immortality for His people. All that is valuable in the prospect of unending existence to any human being he owes to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the father of the eternal age; it could not have been without Him. III. As Jesus Christ, personally and in humanity, lives through this eternal age, and as He introduced it and gave it its grand characteristics, so the administration of its whole affairs is in His hands. The Author of our Faith is the ruler of its progress, and that not on earth alone, but in heaven (Matthew 28:18). What follows from that? 1. What a terrible and what a hopeless thing it must be to resist Christ! To resist Him effectually, we would require to be able to do one or other of two things: We should need either to go beyond infinite distance and get away from Him that way, or live longer than for ever, which is equally impossible. The only question is this, “Am I in Christ’s hands to be slain by Him, or to be saved by Him?” and that turns on my submission to His will. “Am I to sit on the throne beside Him? or take the other alternative and be made His footstool?” 2. What a good thought it is for the Christian, that he can never go away from Christ’s care, that He can never be for a moment without his Friend watching over him, and never in any place in which he does not hear the music of those precious words, “Lo, I am with you alway!”—J. Edmond, D.D.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix. pp. 145–148. THE PRINCE OF PEACEIsa_9:6. The Prince of Peace. How peaceful was the scene when the first Sabbath shone upon this world! How reversed was the scene when sin entered to revolutionise it! Think of the widespread and woful war which sin has entailed on this world, and see the need of such a Prince as our text reveals to restore the primitive peace. See, too, the magnitude of the work to which the Redeemer stands appointed when He is presented in the character of a pacificator who is to bring this strife to a happy conclusion for man. I. THE OF CHRIST FOR ACTING AS “THE PRINCE OF PEACE.” We find these, 1. In His original personal excellence as the only begotten of the Father. 2. In His Father’s ordination of Him to the office. 3. In the meritoriousness of the work He accomplished as the substitute for sinners. 4. In the station to which He has been exalted, and the executive power which has been lodged in His hands. First of all, He has been appointed Intercessor, to plead the cause of His people on the foundation of the work He has done for them; and, secondly, He has been anointed a King with all the influence and energy of the Almighty Spirit placed at His disposal to carry into execution all the favourable purposes of the Divine government on behalf of those whose cause He has won by His intercession. 5. In the fervency with which His heart is dedicated to the attainment of His object. II. THE OF THAT PEACE OF WHICH CHRIST IS, OR SHALL YET BE, THE PRINCE TO ALL WHO BELIEVE ON HIM. 1. He hath effected reconciliation between God and man. 2. In Christ we cease to war against ourselves. 3. Our Prince hath reconciled us to the angels. 4. Reconciliation is effected between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14-16). 5. The general reconciliation of man to man, the destruction of selfishness, and the diffusion of benevolence. Christ came, by His dying for all, to teach that all were as brethren, and ought to regard one another with fraternal affection. How much the world required this lesson! How imperfectly it has been learned! H. E. I., 884).—William Anderson, L.L.D.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. x. pp. 392–394. I. The character of Christ: “the Prince of Peace.” How wonderful and glorious is this character when viewed in connection with this title! Infinite wisdom and almighty power employed not for purposes of war, but of peace! (Isaiah 55:8-9). 1. He procures peace. 2. He proclaims peace. 3. He imparts peace. 4. He maintains peace. 5. He perfects peace. II. The character of His religion. It is a religion of peace. True, at its first introduction, it leads to conflicts (Matthew 10:34); but in the end it secures a permanent peace (James 3:17). It will give peace, but only on its terms. III. Character of the followers of Christ. They are the sons of peace. 1. They seek peace with God through the mediation of Christ. 2. They exemplify a spirit like His own, and thus help to heal the wounds of a bleeding world. 3. They extend through the world the gospel of peace. 4. They anticipate in heaven the reign of unbroken peace.—Samuel Thodey. THE EMPIRE OF CHRISTIsa_9:7. Of the increase of His government, &c.If any man asks, “Concerning whom does the Prophet write these things?” the answer is, “Concerning Christ.” “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” [911] The world has seen many great empires, that bade fair to be everlasting, crumble away; and in view of the history of the past, it is unreasonable to believe that any modern empire, except so far as it is obedient to Christ, will be more durable. This is a world of change, and it is vain to hope that political revelations are altogether things of the past. Two thousand years hence, should the present era so long continue, the map of the world will be very different from what it is to-day. But the empire of Christ is to continue for ever. Unlike all other empires, it is to be continually progressing in extent and cohesion. [911] Upon the throne of David. This was in accordance with the promise made to David (1 Kings 8:25; 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Psalms 132:11). This promise was understood as referring to the Messiah. The primary idea is, that He should be descended in the line of David, and accordingly the New Testament writers are often at pains to show that the Lord Jesus was of that family (Luke 2:4). When it is said that He would sit upon the throne of David, it is not to be taken literally. The peculiarity of the reign of David was, that he reigned over the people of God.… To sit upon the throne of David, therefore, means to reign over the people of God; and in this sense the Messiah sits on his throne.—Barnes. The angel who came to Mary affirmed these very things of the Son then to be born (Luke 1:32-33).—Cowles. What are our grounds for believing this? I. The distinct promises of Scripture (Psalms 2:8; Psalms 22:27; Psalms 72:8-11; Daniel 7:13-14). For a Christian this is sufficient. But even to those whose reverence for God’s Word is most profound and unquestioning, it is interesting to see— II. That the nature of things [914] is all in favour of the fulfilment of this prediction. Under this division of our subject, look at some of the differences between all human empires and the empire of Christ. 1. As to their origin. They have usually been created by the genius and energy of some great man. But even such men as David, Alexander, and Cæsar are mortal, and because it is impossible to secure a constant succession of men of genius, the empires they found crumble away. To David and Solomon succeeds a Rehoboam. and Rehoboam means ruin. But Christ wields the enormous “power of an endless life” [917] 2. As to their progress. (1.) Vast empires fall to pieces by reason of their very vastness. Time brings many changes even to great empires, and among them at least a temporary weakening of the central power; the heart is enfeebled, and the whole body is enfeebled and begins to decay. (2.) Great empires afford multiplied opportunities for great corruption, and this ultimately kills a state. (3.) Great empires include many conflicting interests; there is a perpetual struggle to maintain the balance of power; mutinies and rebellions are inevitable, and in the end some of these are successful, and the empire is broken. But none of these things can happen in the empire of Christ; none of these causes will tend to check the increase of His government. 3. As to their aims. This is a consideration even more important and vital than the others. All empires have really had for their aim the aggrandisement of some ambitious man or nation. The inspiring motive has been supremely selfish. Hence fraud and force have been unhesitatingly employed for their advancement, and, because God really rules on earth as well as in heaven, these things, though they secure a temporary triumph, ultimately lead to inevitable ruin (H. E. I. 4612, P. D. 2544, 2995). By similar means the great empire has to be maintained, and in every part of it there are millions watching for an opportunity to subvert it by the same means; because its aims are selfish, it is hated, not loved, by those over whom it triumphs. But the inspiring aims of Christ’s empire are righteousness and peace it is to extend these blessings that His limitless resources are employed; the manner in which these resources is employed is in accordance with the ends sought; and hence (1) all the laws of God’s universe are on His side, and (2) He is loved most intensely precisely by those over whom His authority is most completely established [920] III. If any further confirmation of our faith in Christ’s ultimate triumph is needed, we have it in the history of the world since His crucifixion. When He was crucified they nailed over His head the inscription, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” It was intended to be an act of mockery; it was the declaration of a great truth. And since then He has become the King of the Gentiles also. The mighty empire that tried to stop the progress of His kingdom was ground to powder in the conflict. And now by all the most powerful kingdoms of the earth He is, nominally at least, acknowledged as the supreme Authority. That which is nominal shall become real (Revelation 11:15). [914] According to my view of the Unity of the Divine nature, God is one, as we meet Him in the Old Testament and the Oldest; in the New and the Newest. There are four Testaments: an Oldest and an Old, a New and a Newest. The Oldest Testament is the Nature of Things. The newest is Christ’s continued life in the present influences of the Holy Spirit. The oldest and the newest are unwritten; the old and new are written; but the voices of the four are one.—Joseph Cook. [917] See Bushnell’s sermon on “The Power of an Endless Life,” in “The New Life,” pp. 287–307. [920] The remarkably emphatic repetition of the idea of His ruling in righteousness, justice, and real benevolence, suggests how fearfully the world has been misgoverned, and how little the great body of human government in even civilised nations have sought and practically secured the welfare of the millions.—Cowles. Concerning the complete fulfilment of the prediction of our text, we need therefore have no fear. And hence,— 1. We can look without dismay at the mighty forces arrayed against Christ and His truth,—heathenism abroad and infidelity at home (H. E. I. 642). 2. We can look forward to the future of the world with hope. A golden age is yet to dawn (H. E. I. 3421–3423). 3. We can labour for the extension of Christ’s kingdom with all the hopeful energy of those who know that the end of all their efforts is not failure, but a glorious success (H. E. I. 979, 1161, 1162, 1166–1168). THE FOR THE OF GOD’S Isa_9:7. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. It may be affirmed with equal truth, that from what zeal is in man we may know what it is in God; and that from what zeal is in man we cannot tell what it is in God (H. E. I. 2229–2240). We can tell what its nature is, but we cannot tell its power. 1. Zeal is in man an intense passionateness of desire for the accomplishment of some purpose; this leads to an energy and continuity of action that in many cases triumphs over obstacles, and accomplishes what seemed impossible. True zeal in man is intelligent, calm, persistent, and unweariable; and all this we know it must be in God. 2. But what its power is in God we cannot tell. Water in the mass, and fire in the mass, is an utterly different thing from water or fire on a small scale [923] “The zeal of the Lord of hosts” is a tremendous conception which the mind cannot grasp. [923] The nature of water in a little pool left on the sea-shore by the receding tide is the same as in the great sea itself; but from the little pool we cannot form any conjecture as to the power of water when moving in mighty waves. So with fire,—its nature is the same in a lighted match and in a great conflagration such as reduced Chicago to ashes; but how different its power in the two cases! Scientific observers have left it on record, that while watching that conflagration it was revealed to them for the first time what power there is latent in fire, when massed in a great body; when at its height, solid granite buildings were consumed and passed away as if they had been made of thin pasteboard. This declaration is the consummation and crown of a great promise concerning the Messiah. It is the guarantee that, great as that promise is, it shall not remain unfulfilled; the heart of God is set upon its accomplishment, and He is “the Lord of hosts.” We have here a general and blessed principle, applicable to all God’s promises. For two reasons many human purposes remain unfulfilled: those who entertain them are not in earnest about them, or they lack power to carry them into effect. But both these essential requisites meet in God—earnestness and power. He makes no promise lightly; He attaches importance to every pledge He has ever entered into; and He will never lack resources to enable Him to fulfil His promises, according to the largest interpretation that can be put upon them (Ephesians 3:20). Let us use this declaration for the comforting and strengthening of our hearts. There are many great and precious promises, I. Concerning the extension of Christ’s kingdom, e.g., in the words preceding our text. It is declared that the influence and authority of Christ shall be unceasingly exerted with constantly augmenting effect, until all the disorder and misery of the world shall be brought to an end. So glowing is the picture given by the prophets of the world’s future, that we are tempted to fear that it will never be realised. But “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this”; and those who by their prayers, efforts, and sacrifices are trying to contribute to the extension of Christ’s kingdom, may rejoice in the assurance that they are not labouring in vain, nor spending their strength for nought (H. E. I. 979, 1161, 1162, 1166–1168; P. D. 475, 517, 2465, 2466). II. Concerning the temporal well-being of Christ’s people. (1.) Deliverance in time of danger (Isaiah 54:17). Illustrate by the account of the deliverance of Hezekiah (Isaiah 37), noting especially that the promise then given was enforced by the very same declaration: “the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this” ( v. 32; H. E. I. 4058). (2.) Supply for all temporal necessities (Matthew 6:25-34; H. E. I. 4507). III. Concerning the spiritual necessities and ultimate perfection of Christ’s people. After each of them Faith sees written, though not with ink, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (H. E. I. 1063–1071, 1106, 1112–1119). By and by there is to be a great gathering of Christ’s ransomed ones in the heavenly world, and this will then be their grateful acknowledgment (Joshua 23:14). Meanwhile, whensoever in our search of the Scriptures we find a promise specially adapted to our needs, let us lay hold of it, saying with joyful confidence, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this!” THE HAND OF GODIsa_9:8 to Isaiah 10:4. But His hand is stretched out still. Much is said in the Bible concerning the hand of God [926] Consider what the hand is to man: it is the chief instrument by which he executes his purposes,—farmer, builder, artist, author, &c.; and by the hand of God is meant His executive force in all its varied forms. God has the means of doing all His will, and He is not an unconcerned spectator of human affairs—these truths inspire God’s people with hope, courage, and joy; and they ought to inspire with terror all who are in rebellion against Him. His hand is outstretched, not for, but against them; His irresistible executive forces are certain to be put forth for their overthrow. Alike for the warning of those whose lives are not governed according to the Divine will, and for the exciting of holy watchfulness in those who are trying to obey that will in all things, let us study this prophecy for the purpose of discovering. [926] It is so vast that the mighty ocean lies in the hollow of it (Isaiah 40:12). It is a hand of power and skill, for by it the foundations of the earth were laid; and all the wondrous hosts of heaven fashioned (Isaiah 48:13; Isaiah 66:2). In it our life is (Daniel 5:23). When He opens it, His creatures are filled with good, and all their desires are satisfied (Psalms 104:28; Psalms 145:16). By it the Good Shepherd feeds, guides, and protects His sheep (Psalms 95:7). It is a good hand, helping all who are trying to serve God (Ezra 8:22; Nehemiah 2:18). It is a mighty hand, delivering His people (Exodus 13:3). It is a hand that controls those who control others (Proverbs 21:1). Even the shadow of it is sufficient protection (Isaiah 51:16). It is a heavy hand when it rests upon His people in chastisement (Job 19:21), and still more so when it rests upon the wicked in punishment (1 Samuel 5:11). It is outstretched to fight against His enemies (Jeremiah 21:5).I. The reasons why God’s hand is outstretched in anger. Reminding you that this is not an exhaustive statement of those reasons, and that no man is necessarily safe merely because his conduct is not here specifically described, I point out that among the things that put men in the most extreme peril of destruction by their Creator are— 1. Oppression (Isaiah 10:1-2.). 2. Hypocrisy (Isaiah 9:17.). 3. Stubbornness under Divine chastisements (Isaiah 9:9-10.). II. The effects of the outstretching of God’s hand in anger. These are terrible, increasing, continuous. III. The mode of escape for those against whom God’s hand is stretched out in anger. Not defiance, but submission and repentance (Isaiah 9:13). IV. Let us note with reverent and thankful wonder, that against the wicked God’s hand is long stretched out; that it does not, as it so easily might, come down upon them instantly with destructive force. What a proof we have here that, while He is inflexibly righteous, He is tenderly pitiful! And what an encouragement we have here to return to Him with penitence of heart! [932][932] H. E. I. 2286. THE DUTY OF THE Isa_9:9-14. And all the people shall know, &c.God here complains of what Israel did when grievous and prolonged afflictions, sent by God, fell upon them [935] then they left undone what they ought to have done, and did what they ought not to have done; and this opens up the great subject of the duty of the afflicted. [935] The Ten Tribes had already suffered many an infliction; their political organisation had often been broken up by civil wars and foreign invasions, as the house of unburnt brick dissolves into mud before the rain, and the flower of the people had been cut down as lavishly as men cut down the cheap sycamores; but with that stoutness of heart, that obstinate toughness which in all ages to the present has marked this race, the men of Ephraim and Samaria seem to rise superior to every calamity; like Solomon, they will change the sycamores for cedars, and they will replace the brick with hewn stones. The conversion of Damascus from an ancient enemy into an ally encouraged them in their hopes; but Jehovah will confound their policy by bringing the conquerors of Damascus upon them.—Strachey. An entirely different interpretation has to be put upon affliction in the case of men whose sincere desire is to govern their lives according to the will of God, and in the case of men who are living wholly unto themselves. It is exclusively of afflictions that befall men of the latter order that we intend now to speak, though many things that will be said apply to all the afflicted. I. In the case of the ungodly, the DESIGN of affliction is in the first instance corrective, and then, in the event of its not accomplishing this end, punitive. II. Their DUTY is— 1. To recognise that their afflictions come from God. This is a fact that wicked men are very slow to recognise; they prefer to attribute their troubles to “bad luck,” miscalculations on their part, superior ingenuity or force on the part of their human adversaries, &c. They prefer anything to a recognition of the awful fact that it is God who is dealing with them (H. E. I. 143). 2. Submission to the will of God. This is frequently the result of recognition that the affliction comes from Him; men cease to use such language as is attributed to the Israelites (Isaiah 9:10). Were it not that sin dethrones the reason, this would always be the case; but it is not so,—men can be found so hardened in iniquity that they resolve to fight against God. Stoutheartedness in affliction is an admirable thing; there is a place for it; but it is utterly misplaced when it leads men to struggle against the Almighty. The only and inevitable result is heavier affliction and ultimate ruin (Isaiah 9:11-14. [938]. H. E. I. 146, 147). 3. Repentance toward God. (1.) Repentance is more than submission (H. E. I. 4206–4209). (2.) God will be satisfied with nothing less than change of heart towards Him. (3.) Here we reach one of the most terrible results of iniquity; by it men are incapacitated for naturally doing that which is indispensable to their salvation. Did not God pity sinful men, they could never attain to that state of heart and mind without which it would be impossible for God to forgive them. But Christ has been “exalted … for to give repentance and forgiveness of sins.” With the outward stroke of affliction there comes to the heart the inward grace of Christ: let transgressors be prompt to submit to the one, and to avail themselves of the other (H. E. I. 145, 4210). [938] A man under God’s affliction is like a bird in a net; the more he strives, the more he is entangled.—Bishop Hall.These, then, are the duties of sinful men upon whom affliction has come. Let your compliance with them be— 1. Prompt. Not to comply with them is to perish. Not to comply with them promptly is an aggravation of all your former iniquity (H. E. I. 4247, 4248). By delay you may exhaust the Divine patience (Proverbs 29:1). 2. Thankful. Adore the benignity of God, in that He is willing to receive you on your mere repentance; a repentance which He Himself enables you to exercise. Remember that where God sees it, He does not merely turn away His chastisements from the penitent transgressor; He receives him into His favour, and blesses him as a son in whom He delights (Luke 15:22-23). Men do not act so. When their foes submit, they require from them an indemnity for the wrong that has been done; often an indemnity that is intended to be crushing, e.g., Germany and France. But God in all His dealings with penitent sinners shows Himself to be a God of grace (Micah 7:18-19). 3. Intelligent. Do not imagine that there is anything meritorious in your repentance (H. E. I. 4225–4228). Remember that God thus deals with you solely for Christ’s sake, through whose atonement it has become possible for Him to show mercy to penitent transgressors. Here is an additional argument for the exercise of repentance, that God Himself, at so great a cost, has laid the foundation on which He can deal with you otherwise than in the way of justice. If you persist in your iniquity, and by your stubbornness leave Him no alternative but to destroy you, He will be able with absolute truth to say to each of you, “Thou hast destroyed thyself!” Even in pronouncing judgment upon you, He will clear Himself; as did our Lord when He left Jerusalem to its fate (Matthew 23:37-38). [939][939] When the monster-taming Hercules overcame all in the Olympics, Jupiter at last, in an unknown shape, wrestled with him: the victory was uncertain, till at length Jupiter descried himself, and Hercules yielded. No striving with supreme powers: we must submit ourselves unto the mighty hand of God, acknowledge our offences, call to Him for mercy. If He strike, as it is with them that are wounded with the spear of Achilles, Ho alone must help.—Burton. WISE LESSONS FROM WICKED LIPSIsa_9:10. The bricks are fallen down, &c.Jesus said, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light,” meaning that they excel them in shrewdness and tact. Men of the world do not readily submit to defeat and failure, but strive to convert defeat into victory, and failure into success. In this respect, therefore, the children of this world are worthy of imitation. Within the spiritual, Christian sphere we might well emulate them in the determined, hopeful, persevering, progressive, patient spirit with which they prosecute their affairs. Of this the text affords illustration. The children of this world, of whom it speaks to us, are worthy of our imitation in the following respects:— I. They proceed with a defined purpose. The bricks mentioned as having fallen down were not a heap of burned clay, which somehow had got piled up, no one could tell how. They had been built by human hands, and the builders had heads as well as hands. But now that the bricks had fallen, in making up their minds as to what should be done, they proceed with a defined purpose. The architect precedes the builder; the head leads the hand. They build not at 2G random. They first say what they will build, and how. They also resolve once more to beautify their surroundings with trees, and they make their choice. This time they will not have sycamores, but cedars. The same principle should underlie the building up of all Christian character and work. Knowledge and zeal should ever be in partnership. The hand should be under control of the head. Everything should be done well, because done wisely. One purpose should run through and be supreme in each life. Striving, and toiling, and fighting, we should have it first settled what we are to strive, and toil, and fight for. And as to this we are left in no difficulty. A plan is made for us, and our wisdom is to work it out. A number of young men were one day practising archery, when the arrows of one invariably stuck in the ground. Seeing this, one of his companions cried out, “Do aim higher.” That is what we have to do. We substitute our own low, faltering purpose for the high, glorious purpose of God (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 2:21). So, also, in connection with our work, a high purpose should be our aim. We should not make up our minds to do as little as possible, neither should our only object be to do as much as possible. Our question should be, What is my Master’s will? Obedience is better than sacrifice. They who would work for their Lord with acceptance must wait on Him, and He will give “to every man his work.” Further, with our plan fixed, we must set our whole heart upon the working of it out. Here Israel teaches us. When her first effort failed, she tried again. The spirit of enthusiasm must inspire us. This it is which makes labour rest, and turns the yoke into a crown. II. They were inspired with hopefulness. Their bricks fell down, but their spirits fell not into the pit of despair. Their sycamores were cut down, but their ambition was not. They viewed the desolation not without sadness, but in the midst of it all “Nil Desperandum” was the song which they sang. And that is the spirit of the world to-day. So the Christian ought to be hopeful. You have fallen! Say, “I will rise again.” Your schemes have failed! Say, “I will try again.” You are afraid you have laboured in vain! Say, “In labours I will be more abundant.” You went into what you thought the paradise of God, but lo! it turned out to be a dreary wilderness. What then? Still hope in God. Seek on, O seeker, and thou shalt find. Knock on, louder and louder; the door will be opened. Night must give way to day. Mystery after mystery will unfold itself. Light will appear to every man having eyes and using them. The children of this world hope; greater reason have they to hope who are children of God. III. They show a spirit of industrious perseverance. Their hands responded to the impulse of their hearts. What they were ready to say they were ready to do. They were prepared by hard, persevering toil to make good their hope. These men of Israel were at this time without God, but they were not without common sense. They dreamed not that by mere wishing their ruined walls would rise again. If they wanted new temples and goodly cedars, they must build and plant them. The moral here is plain (Matthew 7:21). Hoping will not do everything. It must be backed by earnest effort. The way to heaven is not reached by flying, but by toiling. I am a son of God; let me then subscribe myself “Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Beautiful city of God! we hope some day to reach thy gate of pearl and enter in, but till then— “Many a sorrow, many a labour,Many a tear.”To your hope add diligence. Watch and wait, but forget not to work. IV. They improve matters. These tumble-down buildings were, after all, but brick; but now they would build, not with bricks, but with hewn stones. Around them had flourished sycamores, but now that these were cut down they would plant cedars. Such is the spirit of the world. To-day is to be an improvement upon yesterday. “Excelsior” is added to “Nil Desperandum.” Is not this the spirit which ought to animate us? There is no temper but may be improved. You never did a thing for Jesus, let it be ever so trifling, but you may do better next time you try. The text speaks to us of failure and ruin; and it shows us that out of these greater and better efforts arose. So should it be with us. Has your faith given way under the severe strain put upon it? Then for the future you must not only have faith, but stronger faith. In the pride and stoutness of their hearts Israel said, “In the future we will do better than we did before;” and we must say, not in the pride of our hearts, but in humble dependence upon God, strengthened with His might, “We count not ourselves to have attained, neither are we already perfect; but this one thing we do,” &c. (Philippians 3:13-14). .—Looking at what Israel proposed to do, three words are suggested, which would be good motto words for us to adopt. They are strength, beauty, growth. 1. “We will build with stones.” They would now erect a strong building, one not easily to be overthrown. This should be our first concern. We are building not for time, but for eternity. What is to last must be strong. 2. They said, moreover, “We will build with hewn stones;” we shall go in for beauty as well as for strength. Some of us are strong, but we are lacking in beauty. We are robust characters, but we are also rough. There is a more excellent way. Perfection of character is reached only in so far as strength and beauty are blended together. 3. There must also be growth. Israel resolved to plant cedars, trees which should live and grow on for centuries. So we, rooted and grounded in faith, and love, and hope, should grow up in strength and beauty. So, on and on—changing bricks for hewn stones, and sycamores for cedars.—Adam Scott: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. pp. 230–232. Isa_8:21, and Isaiah 9:13. And they shall pass through it, &c.I. Sin leads to suffering. 1. This is true of individuals (H. E. I. 4603–4612). But because there is another life and a future retribution, the full results of sin are frequently not seen in this life. Nay, the sinner often appears prosperous even to the end (Psalms 73:3-5). 2. But in the case of nations, which as such have no immortality, it is otherwise (P. D. 2544); it is more prompt; it is often exceedingly terrible. This fact should make those who have any love for their children hostile to any national policy that is unrighteous, however politically “expedient” it may seem. II. There is in suffering no sanctifying power. God may use it as a means of arresting the careless, or of making good men better, but there is in it no certain reformative energy. On the contrary, it may harden men in iniquity [887] [887] See outline: MORAL , p. 16.III. Suffering does nothing in itself to abate God’s anger against sinners. We, when we are wronged, often yield to a passion of vindictiveness, which is sated when we have succeeded in inflicting a certain amount of pain on the wrong-doer. But God’s anger is not vindictive, but righteous (H. E. I. 2288–2294); hence its terribleness. As it does not thirst for suffering, it is not satisfied by suffering. As long as the sinner holds to his sin, God’s anger will burn against him, irrespective altogether of the suffering he may have endured. Nothing will turn away that anger but a genuine repentance (Isaiah 9:13). 1. In the hour of temptation, let us think of sin not as it then presents itself to us, but as it will certainly appear to us when its results are manifested (H. E. I. 4673–4676). 2. When suffering has come upon us, let us regard it as God’s summons to repentance (H. E. I. 56–59); and let us obey it with thankfulness that God is willing to deal with us in the way of mercy. THE REMEDY OF THE WORLD’S MISERY(Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 9:2-7. The people that walked in darkness, &c.The prophecies contained in this text are of a mixed kind; they are partly fulfilled and partly unfulfilled. We have the authority of the Evangelists to apply the passage to Gospel times, and to prevent it from being restricted to the Jews (Matthew 4:14-16; Luke 1:79; Luke 2:32). Let us consider— I. The view taken by the Prophet of the moral state of the world previous to the glorious change which makes the subject of his prophecy. 1. The people are represented as walking in darkness. Darkness is an emblem of ignorance and error; and an emblem the most striking [890] 2. But darkness alone appears to the mind of the Prophet only a faint emblem of the state of the heathen: he adds, therefore, “the shadow of death.” In Scripture this expression is used for the darkness of that subterranean mansion into which the Jews supposed the souls of men went after death. Figuratively, the expression is used for great distress; a state of danger and terror. It is an amplification, therefore, of the Prophet’s thought. The predominant idea is that of a sense of insecurity, accompanied by fear. Darkness increases danger and fear at the same time. Such is the state of the heathen. The religion of the heathen has ever been gloomy and horrible. 3. The Prophet adds another note of the state of the heathen: Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy [893] He beholdeth them increasing in number only to multiply their misery [896] Universal experience proves that misery is multiplied when God and truth are unknown. In this case there is no redeeming principle; the remedy is lost; despair completes the wretchedness of the people, and were it not for the prospects opened by the Gospel, that despair would be final and absolute. Here, however, the text breaks upon us with a glorious and cheering view. The Prophet beholds a light rising in obscurity; a great light dispels the heavy gloom; comfort, joy, and salvation dawn upon the earth (Isaiah 8:2). [890] As the pall of darkness is drawn over the world, the fair face of nature fades from the sight; every object becomes indistinct, or is wholly obscured, and all that can cheer the sight or direct the steps of man vanishes. So the gradual accumulation of religious errors, thickening with every age, banished the knowledge of God and His truth from the understandings of men, till all that was sublime in speculation, cheering to the heart, supporting to the hopes, or directive to the actions of men, passed away from the soul, and left the intellectual world like that of nature when deprived of light. The heaven of the soul was hung with blackness, and “their foolish heart was darkened.”—Watson. [893] Alexander and several other modern scholars read: “Thou hast enlarged the nation, Thou hast increased its joy,” understanding the Prophet to mean that the true Israel had been increased by the calling of the Gentiles, and that this increase had been a cause of great gladness. [896] If the Prophet speaks of the Jewish people, he declares a fact remarkably striking. One of the blessings promised to their founder, Abraham, was, that his seed should be multiplied as the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea-shore. But that which was designed as a blessing, and is described as such in the promise, was made a curse by the wickedness of the Jews. For what end, in the former periods of their history, did they multiply, but to furnish food for captives, slaughter, and oppression? In later times, they have multiplied, and spread themselves over the world; but their joy has not been increased. Degraded in character, and despised by the nations where they sojourn, without a country, a temple, or a sacrifice, they bear, like Cain, the marks of God’s curse, are vagabonds in the earth, preserved to warn us of the just severity of God. There is nothing, however, in the connection to induce us to suppose that the Prophet particularly contemplated the Jewish nation. The same thing must be affirmed of every nation that abandons itself to wickedness. When nations are multiplied, their political strength is increased; and happiness would be multiplied too, were it not for sin. But in wicked nations the “joy is not increased.” This negative expression signifies the misery is increased. God has not added His blessing; and there is no joy.—Watson. II. On this blessed visitation we would now fix your attention. 1. As darkness is an emblem of the religious sorrow which had overcast the world, so light is an emblem of the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel is “light.” (1.) This marks its origin from heaven. (2.) This notes its truth. It is fitting that what is truth, without mixture of error, should be compared to what is the most simple substance in nature. (3.) It is called “light” because of its penetrating and subtle nature. (4.) Because of the discoveries which it makes. (5.) Because it is life and health to the world. 2. As in the vision light succeeds to darkness, so also joy succeeds to fear and misery (Isaiah 8:3). The joy here described is no common feeling; it is the joy of harvest, the joy of victory. The effect of the diffusion of the Gospel in producing joy is a constant theme of prophecy (chap. Isaiah 24:16; Psalms 98:8; Luke 2:10). True joy, as yet, there is none upon a large scale; of sorrow and sighing the world has ever been full; and as long as it remains in this state, even sighs might fail rather than cause to sigh. Even that which is called joy is mockery and unreal, an effort to divert a pained and wounded mind; it gleams like a transient light, only to make men more sensible of the darkness. As long as the world is wicked it must be miserable. All attempts to increase happiness, except by diminishing wickedness and strengthening the moral principle, are vain. The Gospel is the grand cure of human woe. When it has spread to the extent seen by the Prophet, a sorrowing world shall dry up its tears, and complaint give place to praise (Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 32:17). They shall joy as in victory, for the rod of the grand oppressor shall be broken; Satan shall fall, his reign be terminated; and one universal, transporting “Hallelujah” ascend from every land, to the honour of Him by whom the victory is achieved. III. So vast a change must be produced by causes proportionably powerful; and to the means by which this astonishing revolution is effected, the Prophet next directs our attention (Isaiah 8:4-5). These words speak of resistance and a struggle. He that expects the conversion of the world without the most zealous application and perseverance among God’s agents, and opposition from His enemies, has not counted the cost. In the conduct of this battle two things distinguish it from every other contest: The absolute weakness and insufficiency of the assailants [899] and their miraculous success. A remembrance of these things encourages us in our missionary operations. If our plans had been applauded by the wisdom of this world, there would have been too much of man in them, and we might have doubted the result (Judges 7:2). The victory shall be eminently of God. For the battle shall be, not “with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but with burning and fuel of fire.” The demonstration of the Spirit, the power of God, is here compared to fire. The Spirit, in His saving operations, is always in Scripture compared to the most powerful principles in nature—to the rain and dew, to wind, to thunder, to fire. All these images denote His efficiency and the suddenness of the success; and the extent of the benefit shall proclaim the victory to be the Lord’s. We have seen the effect of this vital influence at home; and we may, in some degree, conjecture what will be done abroad. Yet perhaps something very remarkable may take place, as is intimated in the text; some peculiar exertion of the Divine power upon the mind of the world. [899] The weakness and insignificance of the instruments used in breaking the rod and yoke of the oppressor is sufficiently marked by the allusion to the destruction of the host of Midian by Gideon and his three hundred men. The family of Gideon was poor in Manasseh, and he was the least of his father’s house; the number of men assigned him was contemptible; their weapons were no better than an earthen pitcher, a torch, and a trumpet; the men who dreamed of Gideon dreamed of him under the image of a barley-cake. All this meanness was adopted that the deliverance of Israel might appear to be the work of God; and this is the manner in which He has ever wrought in the revival and spread of godliness in the world. Who were the instruments of spreading true religion in the Apostolic age, we know; they were the despised fishermen of Galilee. Feeble and unpromising instruments have also been employed in subsequent revivals; and from the conformity of the present missionary system of this model we augur well of future success.—Watson. IV. But it may be said, “Is not all this a splendid vision? You speak of weak instruments effecting a miraculous success; of the display and operation of a supernatural power touching the hearts of men and changing the moral state of the world, but what is the ground of this expectation? This natural and very proper question our text answers (Isaiah 8:6-7). In these verses we have the grounds of that expectation of success which we form as to missionary efforts. The plan of Christianising the world is not ours; it was laid in the mind of God before the world was. The principal arrangements of the scheme are not left to us, but are already fixed by the infinite wisdom of God. The part we fill is very subordinate; and we expect success, not for the wisdom or the fitness of the means themselves, but because they are connected with mightier motives, whose success is rapid, and whose direction is divine; because God has formed a scheme of universal redemption, to be gradually but fully developed; because He has given gifts to the world, the value of which is in every age to be more fully demonstrated; and because He has established offices in the person of Christ, which He is qualified to fill to the full height of the Divine idea (text). Our text has set before us the moral misery of the human race; the purpose of God to remove it by the diffusion of His truth and grace; the means chosen for this purpose; and the ground of that certain success which must attend the application of the prescribed means under the Divine blessing. It now only remains for me to invite you to such a co-operation in this great work as your own ability and the importance of the enterprise demand.—Richard Watson, “Works,” vol. iv. pp. 206–224. TRUE Isa_19:1-3; Isaiah 19:14. The burden of Egypt, &c.The prophecies of Isaiah take a wide range, embrace the fortunes of almost every nation, however remote, with whom the Israelites were brought into common relation, whether of policy or commerce—Moab, Damascus, Tyre, Babylon, Ethiopia, Egypt. The prophet records the political and social phenomena of his day, not with the eye of a mere statesman or diplomatist, but as reviewing the moral as well as the political aspects of things, the eternal governing laws as well as the fitful moods and changes of a nation’s life, the spiritual as well as the material forces of the world. Israel, in their dread of the great Assyrian monarchy, often cast wistful eyes towards Egypt, where they hoped to find a sure and powerful ally. The Egyptians accepted their subsidies, but thought they consulted their own interests best by observing what has been called amongst ourselves a “masterly inactivity.” Their strength was to sit still. They had a large standing army; but, as Rabshakeh showed, on a memorable occasion, that he knew (chap. Isaiah 36:6) the nation, with all its outward semblance of prosperity, was being eaten up with a thousand moral and social cankers, which corrupted the very source of all national life. This chapter lays bare those wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. 1. There was a day when Egypt had been famous for its wisdom. This wisdom had become a thing of the past (Isaiah 19:11-12). 2. There was no unity of purpose, no coherence of action in the body politic. The true ideas of the family, of the municipality, of the nation, were lost. Every man was fighting against his brother (Isaiah 19:2). It is history eternally repeating itself; it is the lament of Thucydides over Greece; of Horace, Livy, and Tacitus over the corruption of guilty imperialism, and over the absence of the masculine, simple, republican virtues of ancient Rome. 3. With the decay of public virtue comes the decay of public spirit, and then soon follows the decay of national strength. Then comes what these old Hebrew seers called the “judgment;” God coming out of His place to visit the earth; anarchy, internal dissolution, collapse, conquest by the foreigner; the giving over of the nation into the hand of a cruel lord; the establishment of a military despotism. It were easy to point these remarks elsewhere, but let us look at home. Many feel that during the last decade of years or more England has been parting with many of her old traditions. Some of those principles which were merely corrupt remnants of a social and political system which has passed away—feudalism—we have undoubtedly gained by losing. But there are others which we have lost, or are fast losing, to the great detriment of the commonwealth. The high sense of duty to the State overruling the sense of interest in the individual citizen; the true measure of a nation’s wealth and greatness, not by its revenue in pounds sterling, but by its revenue in the healthy bodies, and honest hearts, and pure, healthy homes of the people; the noble, self-sacrificing spirit of devotion to the call of duty; the principle of right recognised as a higher principle than that of expediency; a temper of loyalty in the strict sense of the word, of willing obedience to the law and those who represent the law; strict commercial integrity, and not the tricks of trade which have been generated by an unwholesome competition—these are maxims of ancient wisdom which made England great, and the loss of which will make England small. Our greatness, whatever it has been, has not rested so much upon material forces, but, like Israel’s of old, upon moral. We can only hope that our position among the peoples will be maintained as long as we hold fast the principles by which it was won. These privileges are not things of chance, but the direct result of moral laws as immutable and irreversible as the laws which govern the physical world. God send us statesmen who will turn the nation’s mind away from delusive and partisan aims, and direct them seriously to efforts which may unite us all in one great crusade against evil; in which every soldier might certainly feel that he was fighting under the banner of Christ, in a righteous war, for objects which surely have a place in the redemption which Christ accomplished for the world.—Bishop Fraser: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. pp. 177, 178. [940][940] See outline: “BLIND LEADERS,” p. 92. (An Ordination Sermon.) Isaiah 9:15-16. The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail, &c.I. The world is so constituted that leaders of the people are at present a necessity. It is no disparagement of oak trees to say that few of them are sixty feet high; and it is no disparagement of our fellow-men to say that few of them are qualified to lead others. In both cases we have to do with an ordinance of God. We are all included in it. We all need, in some respect or other, to be led. This arises from the disparity between human needs and human powers. Our faculties and time are too limited to allow any man to dispense with guidance. Even the accomplished statesman needs to be guided in the matter of health by the physician; the skilled physician needs to be guided in building by an architect, and so on through all the grades of human life. Men need guidance in commerce, politics, literature, art, philosophy, and in religion. There is to be a time when in this last respect guidance will not be needed (Jeremiah 31:33-34), but that time is not yet. The people still need guidance in religion, because, 1. While in some of its aspects it is so simple that a child is capable of it, in others it is so profound that they need the most thoughtful instruction concerning it. 2. There are many false forms of religion seeking to win acceptance (Matthew 24:24; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1). 3. The natural tendency of the human heart inclines it to the acceptance of those forms of faith which are most unscriptural. This is the real secret of the power of Romanism. To-day, therefore, the people still need religious leaders, and leaders of the highest order. Even with the Bible in their hands, most men need guidance (Acts 9:30-31). Woe to them, if they take as their guides men who have not themselves been taught of the Holy Ghost! II. Leadership involves for the leaders the highest honour or the deepest shame. Many aspire to lead: few think of the difficulties and responsibilities of leadership. 1. The man who leads his fellow-men well is entitled to the highest honour. He cannot do it without noble qualities of mind and heart. Those who are well led are, as a rule, not slow to acknowledge and reward the service that has been rendered them. 2. But leadership does not necessarily involve any honour at all. The post of prominence may only bring out into view the leader’s incompetency, mental and moral. “The fierce light that beats upon a throne,” and upon a pulpit, reveals every speck and flaw in its occupant. It is a perilous thing to exchange the pew for the pulpit. 3. Through leadership a man may reach the most utter degradation and shame. He may do this (1.) through his incompetency. Admiral Byng might have lived and died a respectable English gentleman, if he had not been made an admiral. Many envied him when he was so gazetted: none envied him when he was shot. Many a “stickit minister” would have made a highly respectable and useful church-member. (2.) Through his dishonesty. Many a leader, claiming to be the head of a community, has really been its “tail,” carried by it, not carrying it on in paths of truth and honesty. His aim has been, not the welfare of his followers, but his own aggrandisement and popularity; his concern has been, not to speak the truth, but to say what would be pleasant. This was the sin of many who claimed to be prophets in Israel (Isaiah 3:12; Isaiah 5:20; Jeremiah 5:31). It is a common sin to-day, both in the political and religious world. Let those who claim to be ministers of God shun it. Self-seeking, everywhere despicable, is in the pulpit most hateful and criminal (P. D. 2482). Let every preacher regard as warnings those base prophets of Israel; let him endeavour to realise that wonderful picture of a true leader drawn by Christ’s enemies (Matthew 22:16). III. Leadership involves for the led salvation or destruction. It is not a trivial matter to be well or ill led. How true this is politically, commercially, legally; it is not less true religiously. That community shows little wisdom that chooses its leaders carelessly. That community is insane which demands that its prophets shall prophesy unto it only smooth things (Isaiah 30:10). The following of righteous leaders who are themselves led by the Spirit of God will result in temporal and eternal well-being; but trust in “religious” demagogues, whose aim is not to speak the truth, but to flatter those who listen to them, results inevitably in social and spiritual ruin. In self-defence, then, demand of your minister that he speak to you, not what is pleasant, but what is true; and count him not your enemy, but your best friend, when he utters what, just because it is the truth of God, shall smite and wound as if it were a sharp two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). TWO IN THE MIND OF GODIsa_9:17. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows. From one point of view, this is a terrible text! it shows us that a people may arrive at such a condition of desperate and incorrigible wickedness, that God may feel constrained, as the upholder of truth and righteousness in the world, to destroy them. But, on the other hand, how worthy of thought and thanksgiving is this revelation of God’s constant feelings towards two very opposite classes of persons—those who are most joyful, and those who are most sorrowful. I. God’s feelings toward young men. He has “joy” in them, a fact of which young men seldom think. Doubtless He has joy in them, 1, because of what they are; and 2, because of what they may become. He has this joy in them as their Creator. The great Artist has a delight in all His works (Genesis 1:31; Proverbs 8:31). Young men are a realisation, more or less perfect, of a thought, an ideal in the Divine mind. Strength and comeliness of body, courage and vivacity of mind, modesty and generosity of heart, are the ideal characteristics of a young man, and precisely as they are actually found in any young man, God has “joy” in him, just as He has joy in the strength of the horse, the beauty of the swan, or the melody that is poured forth by the lark or the nightingale. We frequently see a young man who is obviously a glorious work of God; and had not sin so terribly cursed and marred our race, all young men would have been such as the British youths whose beauty called forth the old pleasant jest, “Not Angles but angels.” All this is, of course, equally true of young women. For the Bible is in this respect to be interpreted like our English laws, concerning which it is decreed that the word “man” shall mean “woman” also in all cases in which nature herself does not forbid such an interpretation. A young woman is more than a pleasing mass of flesh and blood; she is a realisation of a thought of God, a work of the unseen Artist, to whom all that is beautiful in the universe owes its existence [943] Many a young woman is so beautiful that the human artist counts himself happy indeed if he can make on the canvas any fair transcript of her loveliness; and, what is better still, the beautiful body is but a casket in which a more beautiful body is enshrined. [943] The world is God’s journal, wherein He writes His thoughts and traces His tastes. The world overflows with beauty. Beauty should no more be called trivial, since it is the thought of God.—Beecher. Young men and women, think of this—God delights in you! What effects will a realisation of this thought have upon you? 1. It will check that vanity by which the strength of the young man and the beauty of the young woman are often so pitifully marred (1 Corinthians 4:7). 2. It will cause you to reverence yourselves. Those who think that no one cares for them, are apt not to care for themselves; but consciousness that we are observed leads us to circumspection and self-control. If the observation be friendly and approving, it is a stimulus to endeavour to merit it. Respect kindles self-respect. Remembering how God looks upon you, you will shrink from doing anything that will lessen His “joy” in you; you will not voluntarily permit faults or vices to mar the nobleness and beauty that call it forth, any more than the roses, if they had power of self-defence, would give a lodgment to those insects which blight the beauty that causes beholders to joy in them. 3. Kindly, loving feelings towards God will spring up in you. Friendliness and love tend to call forth friendship and love; just as the sunshine and rain that in early summer descend from the natural heavens cause flowers to spring forth from the earth. Consider what joy God must have had in the young man Jesus of Nazareth, and why He had it, and resolve that the same causes for this Divine joy shall exist in you. II. God’s feelings toward orphans and widows. “Mercy on their fatherless and widows.” A more familiar thought, but let us not therefore overlook its preciousness. How frequent and how emphatic are the declarations of God’s pity for orphans and widows (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalms 10:14; Psalms 10:18; Psalms 68:5; Psalms 82:3; Psalms 146:9; Jeremiah 49:11, &c.) Yea, we are taught that at least one-half of religion consists in being like God in this respect (James 1:27). God’s pity is practical; let those to whom it is promised trust in it confidently [946] And let God’s people make it their business—put themselves to pain and trouble—to be like Him in this respect: this is the way to secure His favour for themselves. [946] There are no such promises to those who are free from sorrow and trial as are full and abundant to the afflicted. A good country physician in New England went to a neighbour’s house to tell a wife and mother of the sudden death of her absent husband. She was more than ordinarily frail and dependent. She had a large family. Her husband had acquired no property. The fresh blow was indeed terrible to her. When the first wild burst of sorrow was over, she looked up through her tears to her sympathising friend, and said in agony, “But, Doctor, what shall I do?” “My dear woman, I don’t know,” said the kind-hearted physician. “All I can say is, I only wish I had as many promises of God to take right home to myself as you have just now. The Bible is full of promises to those who are in your case.” And the stricken woman lived to realise the truth and preciousness of the richest of those promises.—Trumbull. DIVINE ANGERIsa_9:17. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. I. Anger in God is a calm and just sense of displeasure against sin [949] II. Has its expression in the judgments executed upon men in this life. III. These under an administration of mercy are designed to be corrective. IV. Cannot in the case of failure satisfy the purposes of the Divine anger. V. Hence in all cases of impenitence God’s anger is not turned away, &c.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury. Part I. p. 15. [949] The anger which God feels and displays is always anger against sin. It is never against sinners as offenders against Himself personally, but as violators of the eternal laws of righteousness and love. It is not possible for the most daring transgressor to injure God in the slightest degree, and therefore He can never feel anything approaching to that personal vindictiveness which we feel against those who have wronged us. There are some passages which at first sight convey a different impression, as when it is said, “Know therefore that the Lord thy God … repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slack to him that hateth Him; He will repay him to his face” (Deuteronomy 7:10); and again, “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance upon His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies” (Nahum 1:2). But terrible as such passages are, they admit of a ready explanation. In them God manifestly speaks as “the Judge of all the earth,” as the Representative and Administrator of righteousness. Some years ago, proclamations denouncing the severest penalties against Fenianism were issued in the name of our beloved Queen; but no one imagined that she cherished any personal hostility against those offenders against her authority. Every month it is her melancholy duty to sign documents that consign convicted murderers to the scaffold, but no one regards these death-warrants as any proof that she delights in the sufferings of those whose sentence she confirms. Nor will any thoughtful person interpret such passages as setting forth anything else than God’s resolve to be faithful to His duties as the supreme administrator of justice, notwithstanding that in being so He must perform many things that are revolting to His infinite tenderness and compassion. His expostulations with sinners to repent and turn from their transgressions are a sufficient confirmation of this interpretation (Ezekiel 18:31-32, &c.) His anger against sin and sinners is no passion of personal vindictiveness, but is the natural revulsion of purity from impurity, of honesty from fraud, of truthfulness for falsehood; the instinctive abhorrence of generosity for meanness, of benevolence for malice, of kindness for cruelty. If God did not feel and manifest this anger against sin, it would be impossible to respect and love Him. If He could look down on the mean and dastardly things that are done every day, and yet remain cold and emotionless as an iceberg, as indifferent to the sufferings of His creatures as some Oriental despots have been to the miseries of their wretched subjects, our whole soul would rise up in righteous condemnation of Him.—R. A. B. See outlines: GOD , pp. 28–32; A RESOLVE, pp. 61, 62; THE PURPOSE OF , pp. 63, 64. THE OF SINIsa_9:18-19. For wickedness burneth as the fire, &c.One of the grandest and most fearful scenes in nature is a forest on fire. This is the figure Isaiah employs to describe the destruction that was coming upon sinful and stubborn Israel [952] That destruction would be all-comprehending and irresistible. Even the poorest would not be spared, and the wealthiest could not escape. And all this woe, at which it behoved the people to tremble, is attributed to the wickedness in which they delighted. “Wickedness burneth as the fire”—a comprehensive statement eternally true. [952] Civil war and foreign invasion shall rage through this reprobate people like the fire with which the husbandman clears the ground of briers and thorns. The wickedness of the land becomes its own punishment, and burns with a fury which is indeed the wrath of God, while its fuel is the people themselves.—Strachey. Wickedness, i.e., the constant thirst of evil is a fire which a man kindles in himself. And when the grace of God which damps and restrains this fire is all over, it is sure to burst forth.… The fire, into which this wickedness bursts forth, seizes individuals first of all; and then, like a forest fire, it seizes upon the nation at large in all its ranks and members, who roll up in the form of ascending smoke.… In its historical manifestation, this judgment consisted in the most inhuman self-destruction during an anarchial civil war.—Delitzsch. The picture of guilt grows darker still. It is like destroying fire in the jungle of a forest. The confusion and misery thus caused are like the volumes of smoke that mount up in whirling eddies from such a conflagration.—Birks.I. Consider how true it is in regard to individuals. The forest-fire—what a trivial thing it may seem in its commencement! It was but a little heap of dried leaves and sticks which a thoughtless traveller kindled, that by means of the little fire thus produced he might cook his evening meal. He had no conception how that fire would spread. So the wickedness that ultimately consumes and utterly destroys, often commences in what seems a little transgression, e.g., the few glasses of wine taken at a wedding-breakfast by one who has been a total abstainer; the little act of dishonesty that is undetected, &c. (James 3:5). Many of the passions by which millions are consumed—avarice, lust, intemperance, &c.—seem little things in their commencement (H. E. I. 4497, 4498, 4513–4518). 2. It makes progress according to its own laws, utterly regardless of the desires of the onlookers. It will not stop at any line which they may prescribe. No man can accomplish a desire to burn down just one acre of a forest. If he kindles a fire in the forest at all, it will advance as far and as long as there is fuel for it. So no man can determine beforehand the measure of the power which permitted wickedness shall acquire over him; the fire which a man kindles in the forest of his own passions will go burning on long after he may wish it to stop. 3. Its power grows continually. It acquires a marvellous intensity and fervour as it proceeds (H. E. I. 409, 4500, 4501, 4534–4537). 4. Consequently it proceeds with ever-accelerating rapidity. Here again the moral analogy is frightfully accurate. 5. Consequently, too, its range continually widens. That which began as a little point becomes a vast circle constantly expanding. Things that seemed so far off as to be absolutely safe are speedily included in the ring of flame. So the fire of ungodliness which was kindled in one passion hastens through the whole nature, and destroys every vestige of virtue and nobility; it seizes every faculty of mind and heart [955] 6. It is remorselessly undistinguishing in its effects. The fair flowers and the poisonous weeds, the stately cedars and the misshapen brambles, it consumes alike. So again with the sinner: the wickedness that consumes him spares nothing. In workhouses, lunatic asylums, prisons, how many most terrible proofs there are of the truth of this declaration! Once the owners of many choice possessions, and with prospects as fair as those of any of us, they are now like the forest region after the fire—blackened and desolate. [955] Oftentimes a ruling sin will have power little by little to colour the whole life with its own tints; to assimilate everything there to itself, as in ever-widening circles to absorb all into its own vortex, being as it were a gulf, a maelstrom, into which all that was better and nobler in the man is irresistibly attracted and drawn, and is there swallowed up, and for ever disappears.—Trench. See also the Outline: THE TOW AND THE SPARK, pp. 69–71.II. Consider how true this is of nations. Wickedness consumes the nation’s prosperity, happiness, strength, and ultimately its existence [958][958] See Outline: A BURDEN, p. 13. From all this there are many lessons to be learned. 1. He is a fool who makes a sport of sin (Proverbs 10:23). He is infinitely more foolish than the child who plays with fire. 2. He is a fool who does not stamp out the fires of unholy passion the instant that he perceives them beginning to kindle upon him. In dealing with sin, or in dealing with fire, our only safety lies in the promptest and most energetic action [961] H. E. I. 4733, 4734). 3. Those nations are guilty of suicidal folly who legalise vice in any form. 4. Those who pander to a nation’s vices are traitors of the worst kind [964]R. A. B. [961] When the heart begins once to be kindled, it is easy to smother the smoke of passion, which else will fume up into the head and gather into so thick a cloud that we shall lose the very sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done.—Sibbes. [964] See Outline: A BURDEN, p. 13. When a fire is first broken out in a chimney, it may with much less labour be quenched than when it has seized the timber of the house. What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered stately palaces, and turned famous cities into ruinous heaps!—Suinnock. In this message the prophet affirms that there are resemblances between a fire and sin. It is not a common fire to which he refers, such as is employed for domestic or public purposes. It is a great conflagration which burns the humble shrubbery, the gigantic forest, extends over the land, and sends a mighty column of smoke and flame up to heaven. By attending to this comparison some of the characteristics of sin will vividly appear. I. The origin of a great fire. Recently we read an account of a great fire, and the paragraph closed with these words: “The origin of the fire is unknown.” Suppositions were made, conjectures were offered, still a deep mystery which may never be unravelled. The same with the origin of sin. We know it had a beginning, for God only is from everlasting. We know it had a beginning before Eve and Adam felt its power, since they were tempted. We know it began with him who is called Satan and the father of lies. Still, there are three questions about it which we cannot answer. (1) Where did it begin? (2) When did it begin? (3) How did it begin. These questions might have been answered; they have not, because such information is not required by us in this stage of our unending history. II. The progress of a great fire. Place one spark amid combustible material in London. Let it alone. What will be the result? It will leap from point to point, house to house, street to street, until the whole city is in flames. Sin has spread in an exactly similar way. One sin, to the individual; one wrong action, to the family; one immoral look, to thousands; one crime, to a kingdom. The sin of one woman away in the East, some sixty centuries ago, has spread itself amongst the whole race; and there is not one who has not felt, to some extent, its scorching power. III. The transforming power of a great fire. Wood, coal, &c., it transforms into its own essence, because it makes fire of these. It is even so with sin. It turns everything, over which it gains the slightest control, into its own nature—that is, into a curse. The desire to possess, sin has turned it in a different direction, and made it an autocratic passion. Take the principle of ambition in the same way. Take commerce in the same way. Thus the richest blessings, yea, all the blessings which God has given to us, sin can so transform that they shall become curses. IV. The destructive energy of a great fire. Who can calculate the amount of property in London alone which has been destroyed by fire? But the destruction which sin has caused in London is infinitely greater and more momentous. Some have bodies, once beautiful, now bloated and withered by sin. Some have feelings, once tender, now petrified by sin. Some whose intellectual powers were once strong, now feeble by sin. Some, who were once full of hope, now hopeless by sin. The destruction which sin has caused is awful. And this it must ever do to all who touch it. Avoid it, therefore, more than anything else. Herein only is safety. V. The termination of a great fire. It terminates when all the material is consumed and reduced to ashes. Can the fire of sin ever be put out in this way? The body in the grave is scorched by it no more; but what of the soul? Look at the rich man. He is tormented, in pain, not by a literal flame, but by the fire of sin. He will be so for ever, because the soul is immortal. A great fire has been terminated by a superior quenching power. There is also an element which can completely remove sin from the soul. What is it? Nothing can be more important than the true answer to this question. Health must depart, trade must be left, money not required. Our souls must live for ever. With sin, no heaven, but hell. How delivered? Ask those in heaven, and those on earth, who have been saved. They all say that the fires of unholy passion have been quenched in them, and their guilt removed, by the blood of the Lamb. Apply at once to the same source.—A. M‘Auslane, D.D. Isa_10:1-4. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, &c.I. An indictment against wicked magistrates. II. A challenge. III. A sentence. I. Magistrates and rulers are answerable to God. II. Their decisions will be revised. III. Will in many instances be reversed. IV. The consequences of their injustice will return back upon themselves [967]J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletic Treasury, Part I. p. 16. [967] See Outlines: OF THE POOR, pp. 94, 95; and THE PLEADER AND THE JUDGE, pp. 95–97. THE DAY OF Isa_10:3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation, &c.These questions were addressed to men who were living lives of ungodliness, and who were rich and strong in the results of their iniquity. To such men I put the same questions. Do not resent them; answer them, at least to yourselves. All the warnings of the Bible are warnings of true and intelligent friendship, all its threatenings “are but the hoarse voice of God’s love, crying, Do thyself no harm!” (H. E. I., 604, 605). Let self-love, which has been your governing motive all through life, move you to consider, before it is too late, what you will do in “the day of visitation.” It will not always be with you as it is to-day. 1. There will probably come to you a “day of visitation” in the shape of . You have known little of it, but, if life be prolonged, it will certainly come to you (Job 5:7; H. E. I., 47). In how many forms it may come upon you! Broken health—blasted reputation—poverty—bereavement: these things may come upon you singly, or in various combinations, or all together. Men quite as strong as you have been overtaken and overthrown by them (H. E. I., 3991, 4403–4406, 4975–4989). What will you do in the day of visitation and desolation? To whom will you flee for help? To man? You will then find what worldly friendship is worth (H. E. I., 2106–2112, 2131–2137). To God? But will He then hear you? He does not necessarily listen to men merely because they are in trouble (Judges 10:14; Jeremiah 7:16; Proverbs 1:26-31). It is the penitent’s suppliant only that God will hear and answer, and your very pain and terror may incapacitate you for the exercise of genuine repentance; that consists, not in dread of the consequences of sin, but in disgust of sin itself. As your friend I counsel you (Job 22:21-28). It is a mean and miserable thing to have recourse to God only when in trouble (H. E. I., 3877–3879). II. But if your lot be different from that of all other men, and no day of sorrow ever dawns upon you, there will come to you a “day of visitation” in the shape of DEATH. That is certain! What will you do then? To whom and to what will you flee for help? Friends, wealth—what will be their power or value then? And “to whom will you leave your glory?” For you will have to leave it (Psalms 49:16-17; Ecclesiastes 5:15; 1 Timothy 6:7). And when you have left it, what will become of you! Prepare for that which is at once so inevitable and so momentous (H. E. I., 1562–1566). III. But that is not all. Beyond, there is a supreme “day of visitation,” the DAY OF (H. E. I. 3054, 3055, 3061; P. D. 2100, 2103, 2106, 2107). You will be in that countless multitude which will stand before the “great white throne.” And you will not be overlooked or forgotten then; you will be judged according to the records in “the books” that will then be opened (Romans 14:12). Help—who can then render it to you? Your “glory”—it will have disappeared, or it may reappear as your shame. None of the things which secure for your consideration now will have a shadow of importance then. Do I speak to you as a foe or as a friend when I urge you to prepare for this inevitable meeting with God? (H. E. I., 3062–3066). The time to prepare is now. The way to prepare, you know; put into practice that which you have been taught. Then all these days of visitation will be transformed and stripped of their terrors. In the day of sorrow you will have a Friend who will know how to comfort you; in the day of death that Friend will be with you, upholding you in all that may be involved in that profound mystery; in the day of judgment that Friend will be the occupant of the throne, and He will speak to you, not words that will blast you for ever, but words that will fill you with eternal joy. THE OF JUDAHIsa_10:5-34. O Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger, &c.This prophecy may be used to illustrate the following truths of abiding interest. I. The power of empires and the policy of statesmen are all under the control of God. Free-will is one great fact of the universe; an all-controlling providence is another; and God knows how to harmonise both. In investing man with free-will, God did not abdicate the throne of the universe; He still rules, and whether they do it voluntarily or involuntarily, all men further His purposes. 1. This is a truth to be ever remembered by those who rule. Their desire should be to work along with God, and not merely in subordination to Him. This is the one secret of true prosperity and abiding power. 2. It is full of consolation for good men when rulers are yielding to a mad and wicked ambition (Psalms 76:10). II. God exercises His control of empires and statesmen for the pro motion of the welfare of His people. Every great empire has some under lying policy that guides and controls all its actions; e.g., the underlying policy of Russia is said to be the ultimate acquisition of Constantinople. God’s “great policy” is the promotion of the welfare of His people. In raising up or casting down kingdoms He has this object always in view. This again is a profoundly practical truth. 1. The ruler who remembers it will at least abstain from every form of assault on the Church of God. He who undertakes to persecute the Church, undertakes to make war upon Him from whom he received his power, and who can instantly resume it (Acts 9:4 and Matthew 28:18). 2. Remembering it, God’s people will not be dismayed in times of calamity. They will look with assured confidence, not for the destruction of the Church, but of her persecutors; and they will not look in vain. When the “whole work” that God has in view shall be accomplished, the ungodly instrument by which it was effected shall be utterly broken (Isaiah 10:12-20). [All this belongs to a realm of truth, the importance and preciousness of which is not likely to be appreciated in these times of freedom from persecution, but by the martyrs in all ages it has been well understood]. III. In the view of God the welfare of His people is promoted precisely in pro portion as their holiness is promoted. We see from Isaiah 10:20-21, that while God intended by the Assyrian invasion to punish iniquity (Isaiah 10:6), His ultimate design was to bring His people back to Himself in penitence and faith. Here we have, 1. A correction of our views. We are apt to suppose that by the welfare of the Church is meant peace and outward prosperity. We are satisfied if her revenues and social influence are increasing. God often thinks it better to take these things away. The day of true welfare for Judah begins when the fierce armies of Assyria come up against her (H. E. I., 3666). 2. Light is cast upon God’s estimate of holiness. So precious is it in His sight, that He overrules even the policies of great empires for the promotion of it among His people. It is distinctly revealed that this is His aim in all the discipline of our personal life (Hebrews 12:10; H. E. I., 85–90, 2842, 2843). This should be to us, then, 3. An instruction. We should estimate holiness as God does. We should constantly “follow” it (Hebrews 12:14; H. E. I., 2845–2848). And besides humbly submitting to His chastisements (Lamentations 3:22), we should thankfully acquiesce in whatever calamities He is pleased to send upon His Church or on ourselves, even though they be relatively as terrible as an invasion by the Assyrians, remembering that His purpose therein is to bring us back to Himself, to make us like Himself, and so render us capable of a happiness that shall be perfect and eternal. THE Isa_10:5-34. O Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger, &c.The Assyrian. I. His commission—subordinate, a mere rod in God’s hands—defined. II. His pride—he boasts of his schemes—his achievements—his strength and wisdom—of what he will do against God. III. His rebuke—just—keen—humiliating. IV. His punishment—irresistible—sudden—signal—effected by Divine power. I. The mightiest nations are but instruments of the Divine will. II. Are employed to execute wrath upon the guilty. III. God appoints their special work. IV. Defines its limits. V. Controls their ambitious purposes. VI. Rewards them accordingly.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, p. 16. We know what the Assyrians were in the history of the world. They do not stand alone; they belong to a class of men who have appeared again and again, and are numerously represented in the world to-day—men of enormous force, of abounding energy, of vast ambition, of unscrupulous determination. Such men as Ghengis-Khan, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Cæsar, and Napoleon, are their conspicuous representatives, but their representatives only. They are to be found elsewhere than on thrones and at the head of armies. They have been represented in the Church by ambitious and unscrupulous popes, cardinals, and bishops not a few. They are represented among our nobles by domineering landlords; in commerce by great capitalists, who brook no competition, but will crush a rival at any cost. This chapter concerns men who live in England to-day, and it has for us more than an historic interest. I. The ambition of powerful men. Having power, they naturally and lawfully wish to use it. The astonishing and lamentable thing is the manner in which they delight to use it. God intends all the power that He gives to be used for the same purposes as He uses His own—for the upholding of weakness, the relief of the needy, the dispensing of blessing. But almost always those to whom God intrusts much power use it for self-aggrandisement. Their delight is to crush others (Isaiah 10:13-14; H. E. I. 243; P. D. 244). Instead of doing their best to resemble God, they do their utmost to resemble the devil. What a pitiable mistake! How much the ambitious man thus loses! What a horrible per version of means of blessing! II. The godlessness of powerful men. 1. Mistaking the use to which their strength should be put, they also forget its source. They are so besotted as to think that it is theirs, something which they have originated; as if the jets of a fountain should boast of the water that leaps up through them, forgetful of the reservoir whence it comes (1 Corinthians 4:7). We see how foolish this is; let us not forget how common it is; let us be on our guard against an error so common and so absurd (Deuteronomy 8:10-18; Daniel 4:29-31. P. D. 2861). 2. Their godlessness appears, too, in their imagination that there is no limit to their power (Isaiah 10:8-11; chap. Isaiah 37:24). In their projects there is no dependence on Divine guidance and support, no submission to the Divine will (James 4:13-15). III. The real position of powerful men. They imagine that they are autocrats: they really are merely instruments in the hand of God. God will be served by us, voluntarily or involuntarily. He knows how, without impairing the freedom of the will, to use powerful men for the accomplishment of His purposes; in much the same way as the miller deals with the stream that rushes past his mill—he does not try to destroy it, or to stop it, he merely turns it in among his wheels, and then unconsciously it uses its mighty force in doing his work (Isaiah 10:5-6; P. D., 2899). So it was with Pharaoh: though resolved not to serve Jehovah (Exodus 5:2), he did serve Him most effectually (Exodus 9:16). So, though we may not be able in all cases to trace it, we may be sure it is with all wicked men (Psalms 76:10). God absolutely controls the vast universe over which He rules: if we will not serve Him as sons, we must do it as slaves or as tools. IV. The end of men who forget the source of their power, and use it in a godless spirit. They are but rods in God’s hand, and when He has accomplished by them what He intended to do, He breaks them, and casts them aside. In their folly they imagine that they can never be broken (Psalms 10:6); yet how easy is it for Him utterly to destroy them! Far-stretching and mighty they seem as a forest, yet how easily is a forest destroyed by fire (Isaiah 10:16-19). God’s judgments are as axes, by which even the monarchs of the forest are brought low (Isaiah 10:33-34). By Isaiah we are reminded of three historic instances in which all this has been verified: the Egyptians (Isaiah 10:24; Isaiah 10:26); the Midianites (Isaiah 10:26); the Assyrians (Isaiah 10:17-18; Isaiah 10:32-34; Isaiah 37:36). If we needed any proof that God and His government of the world are still the same, surely we have it in the history of Napoleon I. Let the mighty nations of the earth lay these lessons to heart (P. D., 2787). Let all who are disposed to vaunt their wealth or power be mindful of them: the ruler or the merchant-prince of to-day may be a beggar to-morrow (1 Samuel 2:3-4; 1 Samuel 2:7-10; H. E. I., 4404, 4976; P. D., 149, 1617). MAN , GOD Isa_10:7-15. Howbeit He meaneth not so, &c.“Man appoints, but God disappoints,” “Man proposes, but God disposes,” are proverbs which sum up a good deal of human experience. We are often reminded of their truth even when we are striving to be on the side of God, and to be co-workers with Him. There will be great differences between what we “mean” and “think,” and what He has determined in reference to the same actions [970] But more frequently we see this in the case of men who, like the Assyrians, are constructing their plans in direct opposition to God, fully bent on carrying out ambitious and rapacious schemes. All the while they are only agents in effecting Divine purposes; they do what they never “meant” to do. [970] P., D., 2899, 2906. See the whole article in the H. E. I., and the other references given under this heading in the “Index of Arrangement.” I. Man’s purposes are often godless. In the sense, 1. Of being formed independently of God (Isaiah 10:11; Isaiah 10:13-14). Men forget that God is inseparably connected with us and all our movements (Psalms 139:1-12; they never ask whether God will approve of their plans, nor what will happen should He frown upon them; they assume that they have only to plan and execute, forgetting the lessons of experience. Their conduct is as foolish as it is irreligious; irrational because it is atheistic (James 4:13-15). 2. Of being formed in defiance of God. Men harden themselves against the appeals and warnings of conscience and Scripture, and deliberately engage in enterprises upon which they know they cannot ask God’s blessing, upon which they know must rest God’s curse. Amid all their dark designs there is the torturing thought, which they would fain banish, but which clings to them still, that there is a Sovereign Lord whose counsel shall stand. II. God knows how to use man’s godless purposes for the furtherance of His glorious designs. This is done, 1. Sometimes by making an evil purpose the very means of continuing and spreading His good work. How often is this seen in the history of persecutions! (See Acts 18:1-2. The Pilgrim Fathers. Tyndale’s Bible. Martyrdoms, &c.). The means which men take for putting out the light are used by God for spreading it. 2. Sometimes by allowing the evil purpose to work on up to the point when its success appears certain, and then bringing about a totally different result. The device of Joseph’s brethren only needed time to effect God’s purpose. Haman; enemies of Daniel. There is no stage of a wicked design safe from the chance of utter confusion, and even its last act that was intended to be a triumph may turn out a tragedy. 3. Sometimes the evil purpose is allowed to do all that was intended, and yet God effects through it His highest designs, even when human wisdom would declare that the case was hopeless. The crowning example of this is to be found in the suffering and death of our Lord Himself. Every step of that malignant crime, which was thought to be a step towards the utter destruction of the Saviour’s mission, was but helping on the triumph intended in the counsels of Eternal Love (John 12:32). Learn, 1. The folly of leaving God out of our plans. To plan without Him is presumptuous arrogance (Isaiah 10:15). It is to invite defeat, our knowledge being so limited and so certain to leave out some disturbing influence that will frustrate all our anticipations. A godless plan always means defeat in proportion to its apparent successes. The choice that really lies before us is to work with God as His children, or for Him as His slaves, His tools, His instruments. Our choice will be left perfectly free; but if we choose to reject His paternal guidance, we shall find that all that we have secured for ourselves is merely the contemptible honour of figuring in our small way as reprobates (Exodus 9:16). 2. The dignity of human life generally, as being comprehended in the supreme plans of God (Genesis 45:8) [973] 3. How to regard the disappointments of life. When things turn out differently than we “meant” or “thought,” it is useless to fret and fume against them. Instructed by God’s Word, let us humbly and reverently acquiesce in our disappointments as forming part of a plan of God, conceived in paternal love, which is unfolding moment by moment: each event, whether bright or dark, having its mission from Him, and clothed with the grandeur of an unerring counsel. If our purpose has been a righteous or beneficent one, though it may seem for a time to have been utterly set aside, yet in the end we shall find that God has used it to further results more important and glorious than it entered into our mind to ask or think [976]William Manning. [973] See Outline: EVERY MAN’S LIFE A PLAN OF GOD, chap. Isaiah 45:5. [976] P. D., 863, 865, 867, 868, 2101, 3239. “God’s help is always sure, His methods seldom guessed; Delay will make our pleasure pure, Surprise will give it zest; His wisdom is sublime, His heart profoundly kind; God never is before His time, And never is behind.” —Lynch. THE OF SOCIETYIsa_10:20-23. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, &c.We can hardly understand such language as this, because in our national life and personal history we have never been subject to those strange mutations which befell the kingdom of Israel. We can hardly understand what it means where a whole nation is torn up by the roots, and carried away into a foreign land; and where, by and by, in the capricious mood of some despot, a portion of them are allowed to go back again,—a mere fragment. For in the carrying away of a million people, how many perish! And when a few are gathered together, and they turn to go back, how much is this remnant to be pitied! Wandering from place to place in the promised land, crossing the Jordan, finding a heap where once there was a flourishing city, drawing near to the home of their ancestry and finding it in the hands of foreigners, themselves regarded as intruders and outcasts, what a harrowing experience theirs must be! It was under such circumstances as these that the prophets did their chief work. It was one of their principal functions to encourage a nation plunged into profound despondency. In this chapter, the prophet, with words of cheer, and with an inexpressible richness of imagery, comforts the poor, despoiled band of people, and makes them feel that the hand of power shall not for ever be so strong against them. Looked at in its interior spirit, as God meant that it should be viewed, is it not calculated to encourage and comfort people who are in desolateness and distress? Think what is meant by “a remnant.” It does not mean simply a few; neither does it mean merely the last things; though it includes both these ideas. There are “remnants” in the tailor’s shop, in the carpenter’s shop, in the household after a meal, in the harvest field—the waste and refuse that is left after the main and best parts have been taken away and used. So, in all the phases of society there is a remnant constantly coming up; it is the portion which is left after the better or more favoured have been culled out and used; the unsuccessful men, and the men who have broken down; and it is in respect to the remnants of society that I am going to speak this morning. Consider God’s great tenderness towards the remnant of His people.… Did you ever think of the remnants of society—how numerous they are, and how much they are to be pitied? We are observant of the prosperous and successful, but who cares for the remnants of society? God does! Let us look at some of these remnants. I. Those who are broken in health, and are utterly turned away by that reason from all that they sought. How many they are! How full of sorrow is their lot! By accident or disease suddenly rendered useless! Like a ship cast upon the land, where the sun beats upon it, and the heat shrinks and cracks it, and opens the seams wider and wider, till by and by it drops to pieces. So it is their pitiful lot to be able to do nothing but wait for the end. II. Those who have misapplied their powers, and consequently have failed. How many give themselves to professions for which they are utterly unfit! Every day men are ruined because they do not know what they are, nor what they are set to do, and are not willing to do the things which they could do, but are aspiring to do the things which they are not fitted for. III. Men who were adapted to their work, but who were overtaxed, and who had not the en durance which their circumstances required. Hundreds of men, under the intense strain of modern society, break down; and then all is gone so far as they are concerned. IV. A great many more break down from a secret mismanagement of themselves. They live in neglect or violation of the simplest and most fundamental laws of health, or they indulge in vices that are destructive. V. Those who have violated the laws of society, and have been detected, convicted, and branded with shame. It is scarcely possible for such men, however earnestly and honestly they may desire it, to be anything else than mere “remnants” in society. 1. In regard to all those who are in this great struggling mass—the remnants of society—I have to say: Take pity on them; have compassion on them; do something to rescue, to strengthen, to cheer some of them. 2. To all who are cast down and suffering, I say, There is a God who is sorry for you. If men disown you, God thinks of you, and will succour you. Beware, then, of desperation. Do not throw yourselves away. Though all else should be against you, God is for you. There is immortality—seek for that. There is a bright and blessed manhood just beyond. If you have failed for this life, do not fail for the other too. There is very much that may yet be done, even in the afternoon and twilight of men’s lives, if they are hopeful and active. Do not give yourselves over to complaining and mourning Be patient. However low you may have got, you have not got as low as Christ was when He died a death of shame and contumely for us. Shall the servant be greater than his Lord? Be patient. It cannot be long before God’s angel shall come, and then your troubles shall be over. Pluck up your courage. Wait. And if need be, suffer, and suffer patiently to the end. Let everything go but this: “God loves me; heaven waits for me;” and in that hope stand. Though the world perish around you, stand, comforted and cheered by the confidence that God cares for you as the remnants of His Israel (H. E. I., 958–961, 2310, 2311, 4015–4018).—Henry Ward Beecher: Christian World Pulpit (vol. iii. p. 43). ISAIAH’S VISION OF THE KING AND OF HIS 11 AND 12 This is one of the visions that Isaiah saw (chap. Isaiah 1:1, Isaiah 2:1, &c.). He was a dreamer of dreams. With a keen perception, not surpassed, of the men and things actually surrounding him, much of his life was passed in an ideal and future world. There he found comfort and strength to endure the sorrows that otherwise would have crushed him. At the outset of his ministry, when the great king who had done so much to restore the prosperity of the nation was about to be removed, there was vouchsafed to him a vision of the King immortal, eternal, invisible, throned in the temple, and surrounded by the exalted intelligences who do His will (chap. Isaiah 6:1-4); and now, at the close of the wicked and disastrous reign of Ahaz, when his hopes concerning his race would naturally have failed, there was granted him a vision of a King of righteousness and peace, who on earth would rule over a kingdom such as the world had never seen. His soul had been stirred and appalled by a vision of disaster and woe. He saw the king of Assyria, then the terror of the earth, utterly broken, his vast armies hewn down as forests fall before the axes of the woodmen (chap. Isaiah 10:33-34); a vision of blood and terror which may well have filled him with trembling. But just as sometimes the sweetest day break follows a night of storm, this vision of terror fades away, and he sees— I. A KING (chap. Isaiah 11:1-5). 1. Royally descended, “a rod out of the stem of Jesse,” A simple farmer on the hills of Bethlehem, and yet a father of kings. Not an accident. We are here confronted with the mystery of blood, of race. No common man was he from whom sprang David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and a long line of kings. In his ordinary hours, Isaiah may well have derived assurance that the vision that gladdened him was given him from above, from the fact that it was in harmony with God’s promise (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Without dismay he could view the royal house lapsing into the obscurity from which it sprang—becoming merely a house of Jesse once more—assured that in His own time God would again raise it up to glory [979] It is always well when our hopes rest upon the Word of God. 2. Royally endowed; a King by truest “right divine,” because possessed of royal qualities of heart and mind (chap. Isaiah 11:2-3). Of the thousands who have sat on thrones, how few have possessed them! How many have ruled over the miserable wretches subject to their sway merely by the craft of the serpent or the cruelty of the tiger! Of those who have been popular, how many have owed their popularity to mere physical prowess and politic good-nature (Richard I., Charles II.)! How few have endeavoured to approach the Biblical conception of what a ruler ought to be (Deuteronomy 17:14-20; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalms 72:4; Proverbs 20:28)! In the marvellous superiority of that conception to anything that has prevailed among men, have we not another proof that the sacred writers were indeed inspired by the Spirit of God? 3. Ruling in righteousness; using His marvellous endowments for the welfare of those subjected to His authority (chap. Isaiah 11:3-5); not judging of things or men by their mere appearance, nor by common report; caring for the poor, befriending the shrinking and helpless, fearless in His dispensation of justice; His very words being swords that smote and overthrew the arrogant oppressor; made strong by the very righteousness which merely politic men would have feared to display in view of the might of iniquity in this disordered world; a Hero of the truest and divinest kind, in actual life setting forth the ideal to which the noblest knights in the purest days of chivalry strove to conform. Such was the King whom the prophet “saw” in an age when “ruler” was merely another word for tyrant and oppressor. Surely the vision so fair and wondrous was given him from above! [979] The image is now transferred to the state and king of Israel, which is also to be cut down to the stump, like the tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But out of that stump, and from its living roots, shall grow up a scion—one of those slender shoots which we see springing up from, and immediately around, the stock of a truncated tree. A king of the race of Jesse shall sit on the throne of his fathers, in accordance with the covenant made with David (Psalms 89:3-4).—Strachey. When the axe is laid to the imperial power of the world, it falls without hope (chap. Isaiah 10:33-34). But in Israel spring is returning (chap. Isaiah 11:1). The world-power resembles the cedar-forest of Lebanon; the house of David, on the other hand, because of its apostasy, is like the stump of a felled tree, like a root without stem, branches, or crown. The world-kingdom, at the height of its power, presents the most striking contrast to Israel and the house of David in the uttermost depth announced in chapter 6, fin., mutilated and reduced to the lowliness of its Bethlehemitish origin. But whereas the Lebanon of the imperial power is thrown down, to remain prostrate, the house of David renews its youth.… Out of the stump of Jesse—i.e., out of the remnant of the chosen royal family, which has sunk down to the insignificance of the house from which it sprang—there comes forth a twig (choter), which promises to supply the place of the trunk and crown; and down below, in the roots covered with earth, and only rising a little above it, there shows itself a nçtzer, i.e., a fresh, green shoot. In the historical account of the fulfilment, even the ring of the words of the prophecy is noticed: the nçtzer, at first so humble and insignificant, was a poor despised Nazarene (Matthew 2:23).—Delitzsch. II. He saw also THE KINGDOM. 1. A kingdom of righteousness (chap. Isaiah 11:9). The kingdom necessarily resembles the king. Appalling is the influence of a court upon a nation. Correspondingly great is the responsibility of those who sit in high places. 2. A kingdom of peace. Set forth by the most beautiful symbolism (chap. Isaiah 11:6-10; Isaiah 11:13). 3. A kingdom of prosperity. Those included in it are no longer miserable exiles and bond slaves; rather they rule over those by whom they were spoiled and oppressed (chap. Isaiah 11:14). This is the true interpretation of a symbol that is in itself harsh and repulsive. The coarseness of the symbol is due to the coarseness of the minds it was first intended to touch. 4. A kingdom of gladness and joy. There pervades it the gladness of exiles who have been restored to their own land (chap. Isaiah 11:15-16); the true and religious joy of men who recognise that the deliverances which inspire their songs have been wrought for them by God (chap. Isaiah 12:1-5); the joy of men who are absolutely assured of continual safety (chap. Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 12:6). Was all this merely a bright vision? 1. It has been already fulfilled in part. 2. In our own day it is being fulfilled more completely than ever before. 3. It shall yet be fulfilled triumphantly [982] Let us then, 1. Recognise and rejoice in the fact that we are living under the rule of this righteous King. This is at least the dawning of the “day” which Isaiah saw (Matthew 13:16). 2. Exult in view of the certain future of our race. The kingdom of God shall come generation after generation with mightier power (H. E. I., 3421–3423). 3. Labour as well as pray that future may be hastened. [982] For additional suggestions on this part of the subject, see outlines on pages 71–73, 101, 182, 186, 191–194. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORDIsa_11:2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. This is declared concerning the Messiah. Short as this declaration is, some of the profoundest of all truths are involved in it. It is implied that God is a person, that from Him there goes forth an influence by which the character of other persons is affected, and that all that qualified Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah came from God. Let us think of these things. Do not be deterred from doing so by the idea that they are transcendental, far away from our daily life. They need not be so; we shall be very blameworthy if we make them so. I. God is a person. There are those who would have us put away this faith. In their view, God is merely the great controlling Force behind all other forces, the life of the universe, diffused through it, manifesting itself in innumerable forms. As it is the same life in the tree that manifests itself in root, trunk, branch, spray, twig, leaf, blossom, fruit, so all things that exist are not the creations of a personal will, but the manifestations of an impersonal and all-pervading life; all forces, convertible the one into the other, are but varying forms of the one underlying force. Every individual life is but a wave that seems for a moment to be separated from the one universal ocean of life; it leaps up from it, falls back into it, is absorbed by it. True, these waves are often strangely diverse—Nero and St. Paul, John Howard and Napoleon, the Virgin Mary and Lucrezia Borgia; but in that great Unity of which they are all manifestations, there is an all-comprehensive reconciliation, though it may elude our grasp. For Pantheism, many would have us put away the doctrine of a personal God. But this exchange, if it could be forced upon us by some logical necessity (which it is not), would not be a gain, but a tremendous loss. For, 1. There would be a tremendous loss to the heart. A force may be feared, but not loved. To gravitation we owe much, but no one ever professed to love it. A force cannot be loved, because it does not love. Strike out of our life all that comes to us from the confidence that God loves us, and from the responsive love that springs up in our hearts towards Him, and how much is lost! Then there is no longer any assurance amid the mysteries of life, nor consolation in its sorrows. In a word, we are orphaned: we can no longer say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” There is no longer a Father, knowing us, loving us, causing all things to work together for our good; there is only a Force, to which it is useless to appeal, against which it is impossible to contend. 2. We should also lose one of the greatest of all helps to a noble life. Not to dwell on the fact that to speak of virtue or vice would then be absurd,—then we should no longer sin, we should merely make mistakes,—consider how much the world owes to the aspiration to be like God which has stirred so many noble souls. Through them the average morality of the world has been marvellously raised; but this would have been impossible but for the stimulus these inspiring souls found in the character of God. That is the first fact of which this text reminds us, that God is a person from whom a spirit—an influence—can go forth affecting the character of other persons. II. From God such an influence does go forth. The possibility is a glorious fact. That from God a “spirit” should go forth, and that it should do so invisibly, is in accordance with all that we know of the universe which God has made, and which is in some sort a revelation of Him. 1. Nothing in the universe is unrelated. From orb to orb influences go forth by which they are mutually affected. 2. The mightiest influences are invisible. In all this, the material is a counterfact and revelation of the spiritual. It would be altogether abnormal, if from God there did not go forth an influence operating upon and affecting other persons. It is invisible, but its effects are recognisable. One of them is the activity of conscience, rightly understood. Another is the moral growth and refinement which those in whom it is most conspicuous, most invariably and distinctly attribute to influences exerted upon them by God. Even Socrates did so. This also is a doctrine full of hope and comfort. If we need moral transformation, there streams from God an influence capable of effecting it: to that influence let us submit ourselves, and the transformation shall come to pass; the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon us, and we shall become like Him. III. To the influence exerted upon Him by the Spirit of the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth owed all that qualified Him to be the Messiah (Isaiah 11:2-5). That which was born of the Virgin Mary was a true human child. A sinless child, yet sinless not as the result of the sinlessness of the mother (as Rome teaches), but of the influence of the Spirit of the Lord resting upon Him from the beginning of His earthly life. His was a real humanity—our humanity sanctified. All that was pure, noble, Godlike in Him was “born not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” How full of comfort and hope is this truth also! To us also is offered the same Spirit. Nothing can be more express than the declarations that we may have it if we will, and that, if we have it, the ultimate result will be that we shall be found partakers of the holiness of God. Let us not be unwisely cast down by the frailty and pollution of our nature; if the Spirit of the Lord rest upon us, the purity and the strength of God will become ours, and at length the Father will say of each of us, as He did of Jesus of Nazareth, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” THE JUDGEIsa_11:3. And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears. A glorious difference between our Lord and ourselves. “He knew what was in man,” and needed not the evidence of external signs, which often mislead us. He could deal with the motives of the heart (H. E. I., 3332, 4147). Not by human sight, but by Divine insight, He judged the conduct and character of men. 1. Our judgment is enfeebled by ignorance. We do not see and hear all, and from our imperfect knowledge of facts we draw wrong and often disastrous conclusions (H. E. I., 2997–3005). But our Lord could go behind the visible works, and detect what often deceived men—e.g., His treatment of pharisaism. 2. Our judgment is enfeebled by prejudice. This is often the result of ignorance. Seeing only certain sides of men, we dislike them, and frame our judgments accordingly—e.g., Nathanael (John 1:6). With no better reason than Nathanael had, we regard many a man as an enemy, or otherwise place him in a false light. But our Lord dealt with none in this way. Seeing men as they really were, no preconceived opinions led Him to unworthy conclusions. 3. Partiality enfeebles and perverts our judgment. Judging by sight and hearing, we approve of one man more than another, because he has certain artful or pleasing methods for winning our favour; flattery, offers of gain, &c. (P. D., 1275, 1281, 1283). But our Lord could not be won in this way (Mark 12:14; John 6:15). He was infinitely compassionate, tender, forgiving, but no feeble partiality interfered to prevent most righteous judgment. 4. Our judgment is often perverted by passion. In the pursuit of some unlawful and all-absorbing aim, we become too disturbed to weigh calmly even the evidences we can see and hear. We look at everything in the light of our false affection, and are thereby rendered absolutely incapable of beholding others in their true light, especially if they stand in our way and oppose our progress (P. D., 2060). But the one absorbing and unremittent purpose of Jesus of Nazareth was to do the will of His Heavenly Father, and to finish the work He had given Him to do. Hence He dwelt always on a pure altitude, in whose clear atmosphere He saw men and things as they are. 5. Our natural depravity is also a serious hindrance to our right judging. Our very organs of knowledge, our affections, our conscience, have been perverted. Let a man be ever so disposed to take correct views of men and things, there will be some flaw in his vision, some defect in his hearing. Hence there are times when we cannot accept as final the judgment of the best and holiest of men. But Christ had no secret evil to lead Him wrong. In view of all this, how fitting it is that Christ should be our judge! How well, too, He is qualified to be the merciful High Priest whom we need (Hebrews 4:15-16). He who tenderly sympathises with us is He who perfectly knows us (H. E. I., 956; P. D., 462).—William Manning. THE AND POWER OF THE OF GOD(Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 11:9. They shall not hurt nor destroy, &c.We have here a picture of the golden age. I. The whole earth shall be as Mount Zion. II. Shall be freed from injustice and violence. III. Shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. 1. Wherein this knowledge consists. 2. To what extent it shall prevail—universal, deep. 3. By what means it is to be diffused.—J. Lyth. D.D.: Homiletical Treasury (p. 18). “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” It seems clear that in these words the prophet intended to be understood as speaking of the whole earth. He would scarcely, in the same sentence, have used the expressions in question—the holy mountain in the first clause, and the earth in the other—if by these expressions he had not meant the same thing, namely, the whole globe of the earth, when the dwellers thereon should come to be true worshippers, like those who first worshipped at Mount Zion, and who were a type of the greater assembly of worshippers, the holy and universal Church, which in the fulness of time would be established. I. The prophet grounds the hope of that reformed and purified state of the moral world, described in the beautiful words of the text, upon the increase of religious knowledge which he saw to be coming. “They shall not hurt … for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” II. These words may be taken as descriptive of the legitimate effect of Christian knowledge. The general scope, aim, and tendency of gospel principles is such as would produce the change described, were it not counteracted by the tendency within us to what is wrong. III. They are more than this: they are prophetic of the actual results of Christian knowledge. The gospel will render war impossible. True, so-called “Christian” nations have not yet ceased to wage war with one another, nor so-called “Christian” men to rob and circumvent and ruin each other. Nevertheless, this prophecy shall yet be fulfilled. We see it in the process of fulfilment. The condition of the moral world has been meliorated by Christianity. Wars have not ceased, but their conduct has been mitigated. In their private dealings with each other, men have become more just and trustworthy. Already there are millions of men who would shrink from doing harm of any kind to their fellow-men. Compare Christendom with heathendom, and you will see what mighty changes the gospel has already wrought. The practice even of Christian men falls short of their knowledge. Nevertheless, the practice and the morals of men are, generally speaking, the best where their knowledge is the most. The prophet’s words are justified by fact, and men forbear one another most, and hurt and destroy least, where knowledge is the greatest. It is a fact that life and property are more safe and secure in the Christian portion of the earth, than in any other portions. And the knowledge of the Lord grows year by year; partly through the labours of missionaries in many places; still more by the rapid growth of the nations that are Christian. The violent and lawless races of the earth are dwindling away. The only races that are increasing are those that fear God, and are willing to respect the rights, the properties, and the lives of their neighbours. Through the medium of this natural increase of peace-loving races, and through the conversion of many among the benighted nations, this prophecy is receiving a gradual, but very appreciable, fulfilment. The world is advancing, with ever-accelerating speed, towards knowledge and peace, and this declaration shall yet be literally fulfilled (H. E. I., 979, 1161–1168; P. D., 2465, 2466). Application.— 1. We are permitted to rejoice in the hope of a period when justice and benevolence shall prevail in the world. 2. We are required to contribute towards the realisation of this hope. This we are to do (1) by the purification of our own hearts; by the conquest of every passion and desire that would make us hurtful to our neighbours. (2) By prayer (Matthew 6:9-10). (3) By helping to diffuse that “knowledge of the Lord” which is the great peace-maker in the earth.—A. Gibson, M.A.: Sermons on Various Subjects; Second Series (pp. 246–265). In this and the preceding verses we have a beautiful picture of a state of human society entirely different from anything that has been witnessed since the Fall. The prophet beholds changes in human character so great that he feels he can only symbolise them by transformations in the members of the animal kingdom of the most astonishing kind. Isaiah 11:6-8 are symbolical, and are intended to excite within us the liveliest anticipations of the glorious effects that would follow the universal proclamation and acceptation of the gospel. Thus we are led to speak of the nature, the diffusion, and the effect of the knowledge of the Lord. I. ITS EXALTED NATURE. By “the knowledge of the Lord” may be meant that of which He is the revealer (2 Chronicles 30:22), or that of which He is the theme (2 Peter 2:20). God can only be revealed by Himself; and He has given us a threefold revelation of Himself—in nature, in providence, and in Holy Scripture. In the latter we have the record of the fullest revelation which He has vouchsafed, that given us in His Son. God is never truly known by man until He is known in Christ. “The knowledge of the Lord” and “the gospel” are terms of the same meaning. II. ITS . The figure employed by the prophet brings before us impressively the universality of its diffusion. The imagination is called in to instruct our faith [985] The world-wide diffusion of the gospel is a matter— 1. Of prophetic certainty. Nothing could be more plain than the prophetic declarations concerning this matter. But if any man asks when the promise will be fulfilled, only one answer can be given him (Acts 1:7). 2. Involving Divine agency. Utterly false is the notion that, after creating the universe, God withdrew from it, and left it to go on by its own momentum (John 5:17); and utterly false is the notion that, after giving the gospel to the world, God has left it to make its own way therein. By Divine agency men are raised up to proclaim it (Ephesians 4:11). While they are so engaged Christ Himself is with them (Matthew 28:20); and while they preach, the Holy Spirit strives in the hearts of men to prepare and dispose them to receive the glad tidings (1 Thessalonians 1:5). When, therefore, we look at the glorious promise of our text, we must not forget that God Himself is working for its accomplishment. This will save us from unbelief and despair concerning it. 3. Involving human instrumentality. Not that this is absolutely necessary. Without human husbandry God could have caused the earth to bring forth food for man and beast, and without human instrumentality He could have saved the world. But it has pleased Him to commit to us the Word of reconciliation. The consequent duty of preaching it must be taken in connection with, and regarded as the condition of, the promise; just as the promise that there shall be a harvest till the end of the world is conditioned by man’s sowing the seed in the appointed season. The promise must not be used as an excuse for indolence, but as a stimulus to industry. [985] “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The expression is remarkable for its force. In looking over the face of the ocean, no differences are to be perceived: one part is not fuller than the other; one part is not covered, and another left dry; but all is one unbroken stream, filling and covering the whole. So shall it be with the Word of God among men. It shall not be known to some, and hidden from others. It shall not be fully declared in one place, and only partially set forth in another. Whatever knowledge it pleases Him to give at all, shall be given to all men equally and without distinction. Such is clearly the purpose of God in His own appointed time.—W. H. Sulivan. “As the waters cover the sea.” The idea of universality could scarcely have been better expressed than by this magnificent simile. You have looked forth on the illimitable expanse of waters with wonder and awe. Your imagination has followed the depths far beyond the lowest tide-line to the unfathomed valleys and caverns that form the ocean bed; and you have endeavoured to take fully into your mind the thought that the lowest depths and the most distant shores were filled and covered by the all-diffusive and all-searching element.—Rawlinson. III. ITS BLESSED EFFECT. The gospel is a harmonising power. It has a transforming efficacy equal to any that would be needed to bring about a literal fulfilment of Isa 11:6-8. Where-ever it comes in its saving power, it new creates human hearts, and thus dries up the causes of hatred and discord at their fountain. For it is a principle, 1, of righteousness, and, 2, of love. Hence it brings peace. For all discord is due to injustice that is prompted by selfishness (James 4:1). Where righteousness and love combine and rule, there must be peace and security; for the very desire to injure is taken away. The universal prevalence of the gospel necessarily means universal peace (H. E. I., 1126, 1127, 1129). 1. This suggests the answer to the questions, Why Christian nations make war against each other, and why even in Christian churches there are fierce contentions? The answer is, either that those nations or churches are Christian only in name, or that they have only very partially attained to “the knowledge of the Lord.” They are only in the infant-class in Christ’s great school; as they learn of Him, their rivalries and hatreds will pass away. 2. The gospel being so blessed in its effects, it is plain that it is the duty of all good men to extend the knowledge of it.—John Rawlinson. A remarkable declaration this, especially if the Hebrew prophets were, as some learned sceptics tell us, men of narrow mind, worshipping a merely local god, and hating all men not descended from Jacob. By the noble simile employed by Isaiah two ideas are suggested— 1. Universality. Mankind is the area to be covered. 2. Ease. All the creeks, bays, channels, and broad highways of the vast ocean are filled in their appointed time. The mighty tide rises, sweeps onward, and the work is done. There was one great flood-tide of gospel-truth in the days of the apostles, and there is a greater still to come. Meanwhile, many difficulties attend the efforts of God’s people to extend the knowledge of His truth; but, in the world’s fulness, great ease will characterise the progress and triumphs of the gospel (Psalms 110:3; Hebrews 8:11). This declaration suggests two great subjects:— I. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. Shut the Bible, and our outlook on the world and its future is dark and sad. Open it, and let its light shine into our minds, and with the light will come encouragement and hope. 1. If it is true that “the earth … the sea,” then God takes an interest in the affairs of the world, and takes an interest in them now. This mighty world is not left to drift into an unknown and perilous future without a steersman to guide it. 2. If God makes such abundant provision for the instruction of men in the knowledge of Himself, then He will be accessible to them when, by that knowledge, they are led to approach Him; and He is accessible to us. 3. Himself opening for men a way of access to Him, we may be sure that when they avail themselves of it He will deal with them in the way of mercy and love; and so He will deal with us. Who can doubt this who looks on the face of Christ, through whom God has given us the truest knowledge of Himself (2 Corinthians 4:6)? 4. He means to be known to the world, and therefore His gracious offers extend to all, to us. II. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. In view of this declaration, 1. Take enlarged views of your work. Think how much remains to be done. Even if you could suppose that your family, your street, your town, your country were filled with the blessed tide of the knowledge of the Lord, yet think of the earth, and all its myriad claims resting upon the servants of God. 2. Spare no efforts in promoting the cause of Christian missions. In advancing these, you are working in harmony with the great purposes of God, and for an object which is dear to Him—that object for which He has already given His Son! Will you withhold from it the money with which He has entrusted you, and for which you will have to give account at the last day? 3. There are many present difficulties in the prosecution of mission-work, but meanwhile take comfort from the large purposes of God. “Have faith in God.” His plans are vast, but His glorious promises are great as His counsels, and His resources as glorious as His promises. The process of filling the earth with “the knowledge of the Lord” may seem to us to be tedious, the obstacles may be many, the time may be long; if the work were left to us, it would be hopeless; but GOD will hasten it all in His time.—William Manning. It is here declared that there is yet to dawn upon the world an era of perfect light, and that that shall be also and therefore an era of perfect love. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, FOR the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” It is a mystery, but it is a fact, that knowledge is not necessarily a blessing. The devils believe—and therefore know—yet remain devils still (James 3:15). Many men of unholy life have been men of eminent knowledge (Romans 1:21). But this is a moral monstrosity, a result of the unnatural condition into which we have been brought by sin; just as in certain forms of disease food becomes poison. Knowledge is one of those forces which naturally tend to elevate and sanctify (H. E. I., 3106); to know God truly is eternal life (John 17:3); and the declaration is, that knowledge shall be world-wide, and that by it the world shall be morally revolutionised. Remembrance of two facts will give intelligence and strength to our faith in these glorious predictions. 1. As man’s knowledge of God has grown, the human race has risen. Except in those abnormal cases already referred to, it may be declared that men cannot learn to know God and remain as they were—e.g., wherever the knowledge of the unity of God is restored to man, idolatry becomes impossible; as soon as the knowledge of the spirituality of God really enters the mind, formalism in worship becomes an impossibility. So every truth concerning God, as soon as it is really known, becomes a correcting and converting force. The tendency of this knowledge, as of light, is to quicken and beautify. The way to grow in grace is to grow in the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18). 2. The knowledge of God is a thing that grows, and grows slowly, in the human soul. This is true of all knowledge [988] But in proportion as it grows, sanctification takes place in the individual life, reformation in the national life [991] It is the most radical and successful of all revolutionists. It is impossible for us to dream of the changes it will accomplish upon the earth. But this we know, that by it war and every form of violence shall be abolished (text; Isaiah 2:4, &c.) [988] The knowledge of God comes into the soul as a king is born into a country over which he is ultimately to rule; at the beginning it is but a babe; for a long time it is weak, and needs to be defended and nurtured; many years elapse before it rules; rarely in this life does it exercise full power and undisputed sway. [991] Many evils continue to exist and flourish even in Christian lands, because their contrariety to the character of God has not yet been apprehended and felt. Many godly men were slave-holders and slave-dealers, because they did not fully know God. But now the knowledge of God has so grown among men, that it is no longer possible in a Christian land for a godly man to be a slave-holder. So with polygamy, which was once practised without scruple by some of the noblest and most devout men who ever lived. This practice has been killed, not by any express prohibition, but by growth among men of the knowledge of God. That knowledge is predestined still further to grow, and to kill many things more. In this subject there is, 1. A complete justification of all missionary enterprises. They are not visionary schemes foredoomed to failure; they are intensely practical, and shall be triumphantly successful. The time may be far off, but it is advancing, when every man shall know God (ä). The effect of that knowledge will be the destruction of the desire to destroy or injure. 2. An argument for patience. In view of the wrongs that prevail upon the earth, many noble souls find it difficult to exercise it. Of finer taste, of clearer vision, of truer sympathy with God than is common amongst men, the wickedness that triumphs in the world fills them with continual agony. It drives them almost into atheism. They ask, “Can God see these things, and not use His power to bring them to an end? If there were a God, would He not instantly smite the oppressors with destruction?” Let them be patient. God does see; God does feel; God is hastening on the better day by the only means by which it can really be brought in. Another deluge would not cleanse the world from crime; if but eight souls were spared, sin would once more begin to prevail. The era of purity and peace can be ushered in only by the revelation of God to man, and thus it is advancing towards us; thus it is already begun; between Christian and heathen lands there is a real contrast; and ere long there shall be as great a contrast between Christian lands uplifted by a fuller knowledge of God and these lands as they now are. The millennium is not merely a prophetic dream, it shall be a glorious fact. Patience! (H. E. I., 1134, 1135, 1166–1168, 3421–3423; P. D., 2465, 2466). 3. An argument for hopeful Christian effort. We must not merely dream of the millennium, we must labour to hasten its dawn. Work is needful: Sunday-school work, &c. Every one who prays, “Thy kingdom come,” thereby, unless he means to mock God, pledges Himself to work to hasten its coming, and thus to be a “fellow-labourer with God.” There is need for individual effort, and for united effort. Such effort should always be hopeful. We are not attempting what is impossible; we are working in the line of God’s promises, and with God! Remembering that the sense of our own weakness will not unduly depress us. It does not require a giant’s strength to row with the tide; and a mightier force than that of ocean is bearing us on to a victory that shall fill earth with blessing and heaven with gladness. THE ENSIGN OF THE NATIONSIsa_11:10. And in that day there shall be, &c.I. In the two parts of this verse we have a twofold metaphorical representation of the Redeemer: one expressed, one implied. 1. An ensign of the people= banner or standard, such as is set up as a rallying-point around which, (1) the subjects of a king assemble to do him homage; and (2) the soldiers of an army gather to receive the commands and exhortations of their general. 2. This second use of a standard leads to the second metaphorical representation of the Redeemer, that of a victorious general: “His rest shall be glorious.” We are thus directed to the final result of the uplifting of Christ as an ensign: the great campaign brought to a successful conclusion, the Victor in it rests gloriously, surrounded by the soldiers whom He has led on to triumph, and the people to whom He has given liberty and peace. II. Consider how these predictions have been fulfilled. 1. By the preaching of the gospel Christ has been lifted up, and as the result men of all nations have sought unto Him, and will seek Him more and more. 2. Having done and suffered all that was necessary ultimately to secure the final victory, He has taken His place at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and rests there gloriously; the glory of His rest arising from the number of the subjects who do Him homage, and of the soldiers who delight to fight His battles, from the triumphs which He has already enabled them to achieve, and from the prosperity and peace of all His people. We shall make a great mistake if we end by thus admiringly noting how this ancient prophecy has been, and is being, fulfilled in the history of the world. We are among the Gentiles of whom our text speaks: have we sought unto the glorious Person of whom it speaks? You desire to do so. Do so, then, 1. For right purposes; not merely that you may be delivered from suffering, but that you may be delivered from sin; not merely that you may ultimately gain admission to heaven, but that you may here and now render to Him the homage and the service to which He is entitled. 2. In a right spirit; not vainly dreaming that you have, or can win, any claim upon His regard, but recognising that you can appeal only to His mercy, and that without it you are lost; and making this appeal penitently and believingly. So coming to Him, He will be found of you. He will cause you to share in His rest, by causing you to share in His triumphs; inspired and upheld by Him, you shall trample under foot the world, the flesh, the devil, and the fear of death. Your whole being will be at rest; your understanding no longer harassed by perplexing doubts; your conscience stilled and gladdened by a righteous peace; your affections centred at last around Him who alone is worthy of their supreme love; and this threefold rest, so sweet and blessed now, shall be perfected and perpetuated in heaven.—George Smith, D.D.The prophet here foresees that the Saviour’s mission and work will so exalt Him in the eyes of the nations, that they will turn to Him as the one object and desire of their souls. (Compare John 12:32.) The prediction declares that Christ would be a banner to attract men, that He would be the object of universal search, and that men in finding Him would attain to true rest and glory. I. THE BANNER. 1. A banner is naturally “lifted up;” only thus can its purpose be accomplished (chap. Isaiah 13:2; Isaiah 18:3). Apt image this of Christ. Not merely in His death on Calvary. That exaltation was followed by His being lifted higher still by the preaching of the gospel, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 16:14), by the devout lives of all His true followers. 2. A banner has usually some emblem or device representative of some great cause, or expressive of some great truth. (Give instances.) So when “Christ and Him crucified” are uplifted clearly in the view of men, they see God’s hatred of sin, His love of man, and His provision for man’s future happiness and glory. II. THE OBJECT OF SEARCH. “To it shall the Gentiles seek.” Search for Christ characterises all races of men (Haggai 2:7) and all periods of time (Luke 10:24). The search is often prosecuted in ignorance. Men know not for what and for whom their souls yearn; but it is Christ of whom unconsciously they are in quest; and it is towards Him, that by the else insatiable desires of their spiritual nature, they are being led. III. THE FINDING OF TRUE REST. “His rest shall be glorious.” 1. The rest we find in Christ is connected with a vital change effected in the heart and life. He does not simply do something for us; He also does a work within us. Every intelligent seeker knows that there can be no rest until the evil that is lodged within us is resisted and cast out (H. E. I., 1324). It is as we enter into the spirit of Christ and share His life, that we enter into rest (Matthew 11:28-30). 2. Our new relations to God, entered into by faith in Christ Jesus, makes our rest very glorious. God is then known to us by the most precious and endearing names; He is our rock, our shield, &c. Each of these names represents to us some tender aspects of His love, some sweet ministry of His grace. Are you in search of the highest peace, joy, holiness, rest? Here you may end your quest (1 Corinthians 1:30; P. D., 481).—William Manning. THE OF MENIsa_11:10-16. And in that day there shall be, &c.Several eminent commentators are of opinion that this prophecy will not be fulfilled until the Jews are restored as a nation to their own land. Others believe that the prophet used (it may be unconsciously) transient geographical phrases as symbols of eternal truths. Without entering upon this controversy, which can be settled only by the actual unfolding and accomplishment of God’s plans as to the history of this world, let us think of the fundamental fact of the vision, that in it “the Root of David” was revealed to the prophet as the reconciler of men. His appearing in the world would be the setting up of a standard unto which all men, Gentiles (Isaiah 11:10) and Jews (Isaiah 11:11-12), would seek; and before the influence then exerted upon them by Him rivalries and enmities, even though they were as inveterate and malignant as those of Judah and Ephraim (Isaiah 11:13), would disappear. No obstacles, even though they should be as immense as the geographical ones which are specified, would hinder their coming together and forming one united and triumphant people under His benignant sway. This is only saying what the prophet has said already (chap. Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 9:7), that the kingdom of Christ would be a kingdom of peace. Consider— I. How marvellously and gloriously this prediction has been fulfilled. To appreciate this, we must recall the condition of the world at the time when “the day” of which our text speaks dawned upon it. Nations were everywhere divided from each other by jealousies and hatreds as virulent as those that divided Ephraim from Judah; there was peace only because they were restrained from active hostility by the strong hand of Roman power. Hatred of other nations was regarded, not as a crime, but as a duty [994] But Christ inaugurated the empire of universal brotherhood and love. Wars have not yet ceased even among nations professing Christianity, but they are no longer openly gloried in by those who wage them; they are apologised for as sad necessities. The apology is often insincere, but the fact that it is made at all is a marvellous tribute to the influence and authority of Christ. Wherever His true followers meet, national distinctions are forgotten, and they feel drawn to each other by a mightier and sweeter bond. As the centuries pass away, the love of Christ becomes more and more the uniting power of the world. [994] Ancient morality was essentially national and exclusive. Its creed was that a man is born not for himself, but for his parents, his family, and the state. The state was surrounded by others with which, unless some treaty had been concluded, it was at war. To do as much good as possible to one’s own state, and as much harm as possible to all other states, was therefore the whole duty of a man.”—Ecce Homo, p. 125, small edition. (The student will do well to read the whole chapter in which these sentences occur.)II. How sadly imperfect the fulfilment of this prediction still is! The era of universal peace has not yet dawned. The world is still cursed by wars and rumours of wars. Millions of men are maintained in constant readiness for war. There are bitter contentions among the sections of the Christian Church, these tribes of the modern Israel. Class is divided from class. So-called Christian families are saddened by bitter feuds. III. The blessedness of the era that shall yet dawn upon this world. The Christian often dreams of it; his dreams are sweet as those which hungry men have of banquets, and shipwrecked sailors drifting helplessly on rafts in the wide ocean have of their native village and of meeting with their loved ones there; and in their waking hours they, too, are apt to be saddened by the fear that their dreams too are as utterly incapable of realisation. But it is not so. They shall all be realised, for the authority of Christ shall yet be universal, real, absolute; and all the listening angels shall not be able to detect one sound of discord rising from the round world, for the whole world shall be full of the peace of Christ (P. D., 2465, 2466, 2676). IV. Our duty in regard to this prediction. We are not merely to dream dreams of the blessedness of the era that shall yet be ushered in. We are to do something to hasten its dawning. 1. We are to pray for it with yearning hearts. 2. We are to do our utmost, in every possible way, to extend the knowledge of the gospel throughout the world. The gospel, not commerce, is the true civiliser and uniter of nations: commerce will prosper on the gospel triumphs. True, many converts are only nominally Christians, but in many cases that is the first step towards their becoming real Christians, i.e., men who will pray and labour for universal peace. 3. Minor and contributory duties. (1.) The diffusion of knowledge that will tend to bring home to the understandings and hearts of men the hurtfulness of war, and of preparation for war. (2.) The discouragement and overthrow of those statesmen, to whichever party they may belong, whose policy tends to foster national animosities. (3.) The discouragement of all pursuits and things that tend to familiarise men with war and keep alive in them a passion for it, e.g., the volunteer movement; pictures, poems, and newspapers that glorify successful soldiers, as if in them the noblest ideal of manhood were realised. (4.) Careful education of our children in Christ-like sentiments concerning foreign nations and war. By constant heedfulness of these duties, we shall do something to hasten the dawning of the era of universal peace and blessedness, and we shall not have lived in vain. THE OF THE OF GOD(For Whit-Sunday.) Isaiah 11:9. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. It was promised that “the waters should no more become a flood to destroy all flesh;” and yet a flood there was to be, all-compassing, all-absorbing, in God’s good time and in His merciful foreknowledge when He spake the former word; but not to destroy all flesh, but to save it; and in its season the rain of grace descended (Isaiah 45:8; Matthew 7:25; Psalms 98:8). How different a fulfilment was this from that for which the apostles had been waiting! No doubt they imagined that such as Christ had been would be the Paraclete who was to come—One whose individuality and intelligence they could not doubt, and need not take on faith. When they were waiting for this Angelic Messenger, Prophet, and Lawgiver, One higher than all created strength and wisdom suddenly came down upon them; yet not as a Lord and Governor, but as an agency or power (Acts 2:2-4). Such was the coming of the Comforter, He who is infinitely personal, who is the One God, absolutely, fully, perfectly, simply; He it was who vouchsafed to descend upon the apostles, and that as if not a Person, but as an influence or quality, by His attribute of ubiquity diffusing Himself over their hearts, filling all the house, poured over the world, as wholly here as if He were not there, and hence vouchsafing to be compared to the inanimate and natural creation, to water and wind, which are of so subtle a nature, of so penetrating a virtue, and of so extended a range. And most exactly have these figures, which He condescended to apply to Himself, been fulfilled— I. IN THE COURSE OF THE OF THE SPIRIT. His operation has been calm, equable, gradual, far-spreading, overtaking, intimate, irresistible. What is so awfully silent, so mighty, so inevitable, so encompassing as a flood of water? Fire alarms from the first: we see it and we scent it; there is crashing and downfall, smoke and flame; it makes an inroad here and there; it is uncertain and wayward;—but a flood is the reverse of all this. It gives no tokens of its coming; it lets men sleep through the night, and they wake and find themselves hopelessly besieged; prompt, secret, successful, and equable, it preserves one level; it is everywhere; there is no refuge. And it makes its way to the foundations; towers and palaces rear themselves as usual; they have lost nothing of their perfection, and give no sign of danger, till at length suddenly they totter and fall. And here and there it is the same, as if by some secret understanding; for by one and the same agency the mighty movement goes on here and there and everywhere, and all things seem to act in concert with it, and to conspire together for their own ruin. And in the end they are utterly removed, and perish from off the face of the earth. Fire, which threatens more fiercely, leaves behind it relics and monuments of its agency; but water buries as well as destroys; it wipes off the memorial of its victims from the earth. Such was the power of the Spirit in the beginning, when He vouchsafed to descend as an invisible wind, as an outpoured flood. Thus He changed the whole face of the world. For a while men went on as usual, and dreamed not what was coming: and when they were roused from their fast sleep, the work was done; it was too late for aught else but impotent anger and a hopeless struggle. The kingdom was taken away from them and given to another people. The ark of God moved upon the face of the waters. It was borne aloft by the power, greater than human, which had overspread the earth, and it triumphed, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” II. IN EVERY HUMAN HEART TO WHICH HE COMES. By attending to the figure we shall understand (what concerns us most intimately) whether we are personally under His influence, or are deceiving ourselves. (1.) Any spirit which professes to come to us alone and not to others, which makes no claim of having moved the body of the Church at all times and places, is not of God, but a private spirit of error (Psalms 65:10-12). (2.) Vehemence, tumult, confusion, are no attributes of that benignant flood with which God has replenished the earth. That flood of grace is sedate, majestic, gentle in its operations. If at any time it seems to be violent, that violence is occasioned by some accident or imperfection of the earthen vessels into which it vouchsafed to pour itself, and is no token of the coming of Divine Power. Ecstasies and transports often proceed from false spirits, who are but imitating heavenly influences as best they may, and seducing souls to their ruin. (3.) The Divine baptism wherewith God visits us penetrates through the whole soul and body. It leaves no part of us uncleansed, unsanctified. It claims the whole man for God. It is everywhere, in every faculty, every affection, every design, every work (2 Corinthians 10:5). Thus— III. THE HEART OF EVERY OUGHT TO IN THE WHOLE CHURCH. One Spirit makes the whole Church and every member of it to be His temple. As He gives peace to the multitude of nations, who are naturally in discord one with another, so does He give an orderly government to the soul, and set reason and conscience as sovereigns over the inferior parts of our nature. As He leavens each rank and pursuit of the community with the principles of the doctrine of Christ, so does that same Divine leaven spread through every thought of the mind, every member of the body, till the whole is sanctified. And let us be quite sure that these two operations of the Spirit depend upon each other. We cannot hope for peace at home while we are at war abroad. We cannot hope for unity of the faith if we at our own private will make a faith for ourselves. Break unity in one point, and the fault runs through the whole body. The flood of God’s grace keeps its level, and if it is low in one place it is low in another. .—As we would forward that blessed time when the knowledge of the Lord will in its fulness cover the earth, as the waters cover their bed, let us look at home, and wait on God for the cleansing and purifying of ourselves. Till we look at home, no good shall we be able to perform for the Church at large; we shall but do mischief when we intend to do good, and to us will apply that proverb, “Physician, heal thyself.” And let us not doubt that if we do thus proceed we shall advance the cause of Christ in the world. Let us but raise the level of religion in our hearts, and it will rise in the world. And, meantime, we shall have our true reward, which is personal, consisting in no mere external privileges, however great, but in the “water of life,” of which we are allowed to take freely (Psalms 36:7-9; Psalms 1:3; Isaiah 32:18; Psalms 23:6).—John Henry Newman: Subjects of the Day, pp. 126–136. ISAIAH’S VISION OF THE KING AND OF HIS 11 AND 12 This is one of the visions that Isaiah saw (chap. Isaiah 1:1, Isaiah 2:1, &c.). He was a dreamer of dreams. With a keen perception, not surpassed, of the men and things actually surrounding him, much of his life was passed in an ideal and future world. There he found comfort and strength to endure the sorrows that otherwise would have crushed him. At the outset of his ministry, when the great king who had done so much to restore the prosperity of the nation was about to be removed, there was vouchsafed to him a vision of the King immortal, eternal, invisible, throned in the temple, and surrounded by the exalted intelligences who do His will (chap. Isaiah 6:1-4); and now, at the close of the wicked and disastrous reign of Ahaz, when his hopes concerning his race would naturally have failed, there was granted him a vision of a King of righteousness and peace, who on earth would rule over a kingdom such as the world had never seen. His soul had been stirred and appalled by a vision of disaster and woe. He saw the king of Assyria, then the terror of the earth, utterly broken, his vast armies hewn down as forests fall before the axes of the woodmen (chap. Isaiah 10:33-34); a vision of blood and terror which may well have filled him with trembling. But just as sometimes the sweetest day break follows a night of storm, this vision of terror fades away, and he sees— I. A KING (chap. Isaiah 11:1-5). 1. Royally descended, “a rod out of the stem of Jesse,” A simple farmer on the hills of Bethlehem, and yet a father of kings. Not an accident. We are here confronted with the mystery of blood, of race. No common man was he from whom sprang David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and a long line of kings. In his ordinary hours, Isaiah may well have derived assurance that the vision that gladdened him was given him from above, from the fact that it was in harmony with God’s promise (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Without dismay he could view the royal house lapsing into the obscurity from which it sprang—becoming merely a house of Jesse once more—assured that in His own time God would again raise it up to glory [979] It is always well when our hopes rest upon the Word of God. 2. Royally endowed; a King by truest “right divine,” because possessed of royal qualities of heart and mind (chap. Isaiah 11:2-3). Of the thousands who have sat on thrones, how few have possessed them! How many have ruled over the miserable wretches subject to their sway merely by the craft of the serpent or the cruelty of the tiger! Of those who have been popular, how many have owed their popularity to mere physical prowess and politic good-nature (Richard I., Charles II.)! How few have endeavoured to approach the Biblical conception of what a ruler ought to be (Deuteronomy 17:14-20; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalms 72:4; Proverbs 20:28)! In the marvellous superiority of that conception to anything that has prevailed among men, have we not another proof that the sacred writers were indeed inspired by the Spirit of God? 3. Ruling in righteousness; using His marvellous endowments for the welfare of those subjected to His authority (chap. Isaiah 11:3-5); not judging of things or men by their mere appearance, nor by common report; caring for the poor, befriending the shrinking and helpless, fearless in His dispensation of justice; His very words being swords that smote and overthrew the arrogant oppressor; made strong by the very righteousness which merely politic men would have feared to display in view of the might of iniquity in this disordered world; a Hero of the truest and divinest kind, in actual life setting forth the ideal to which the noblest knights in the purest days of chivalry strove to conform. Such was the King whom the prophet “saw” in an age when “ruler” was merely another word for tyrant and oppressor. Surely the vision so fair and wondrous was given him from above! [979] The image is now transferred to the state and king of Israel, which is also to be cut down to the stump, like the tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But out of that stump, and from its living roots, shall grow up a scion—one of those slender shoots which we see springing up from, and immediately around, the stock of a truncated tree. A king of the race of Jesse shall sit on the throne of his fathers, in accordance with the covenant made with David (Psalms 89:3-4).—Strachey. When the axe is laid to the imperial power of the world, it falls without hope (chap. Isaiah 10:33-34). But in Israel spring is returning (chap. Isaiah 11:1). The world-power resembles the cedar-forest of Lebanon; the house of David, on the other hand, because of its apostasy, is like the stump of a felled tree, like a root without stem, branches, or crown. The world-kingdom, at the height of its power, presents the most striking contrast to Israel and the house of David in the uttermost depth announced in chapter 6, fin., mutilated and reduced to the lowliness of its Bethlehemitish origin. But whereas the Lebanon of the imperial power is thrown down, to remain prostrate, the house of David renews its youth.… Out of the stump of Jesse—i.e., out of the remnant of the chosen royal family, which has sunk down to the insignificance of the house from which it sprang—there comes forth a twig (choter), which promises to supply the place of the trunk and crown; and down below, in the roots covered with earth, and only rising a little above it, there shows itself a nçtzer, i.e., a fresh, green shoot. In the historical account of the fulfilment, even the ring of the words of the prophecy is noticed: the nçtzer, at first so humble and insignificant, was a poor despised Nazarene (Matthew 2:23).—Delitzsch. II. He saw also THE KINGDOM. 1. A kingdom of righteousness (chap. Isaiah 11:9). The kingdom necessarily resembles the king. Appalling is the influence of a court upon a nation. Correspondingly great is the responsibility of those who sit in high places. 2. A kingdom of peace. Set forth by the most beautiful symbolism (chap. Isaiah 11:6-10; Isaiah 11:13). 3. A kingdom of prosperity. Those included in it are no longer miserable exiles and bond slaves; rather they rule over those by whom they were spoiled and oppressed (chap. Isaiah 11:14). This is the true interpretation of a symbol that is in itself harsh and repulsive. The coarseness of the symbol is due to the coarseness of the minds it was first intended to touch. 4. A kingdom of gladness and joy. There pervades it the gladness of exiles who have been restored to their own land (chap. Isaiah 11:15-16); the true and religious joy of men who recognise that the deliverances which inspire their songs have been wrought for them by God (chap. Isaiah 12:1-5); the joy of men who are absolutely assured of continual safety (chap. Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 12:6). Was all this merely a bright vision? 1. It has been already fulfilled in part. 2. In our own day it is being fulfilled more completely than ever before. 3. It shall yet be fulfilled triumphantly [982] Let us then, 1. Recognise and rejoice in the fact that we are living under the rule of this righteous King. This is at least the dawning of the “day” which Isaiah saw (Matthew 13:16). 2. Exult in view of the certain future of our race. The kingdom of God shall come generation after generation with mightier power (H. E. I., 3421–3423). 3. Labour as well as pray that future may be hastened. [982] For additional suggestions on this part of the subject, see outlines on pages 71–73, 101, 182, 186, 191–194. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORDIsa_11:2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. This is declared concerning the Messiah. Short as this declaration is, some of the profoundest of all truths are involved in it. It is implied that God is a person, that from Him there goes forth an influence by which the character of other persons is affected, and that all that qualified Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah came from God. Let us think of these things. Do not be deterred from doing so by the idea that they are transcendental, far away from our daily life. They need not be so; we shall be very blameworthy if we make them so. I. God is a person. There are those who would have us put away this faith. In their view, God is merely the great controlling Force behind all other forces, the life of the universe, diffused through it, manifesting itself in innumerable forms. As it is the same life in the tree that manifests itself in root, trunk, branch, spray, twig, leaf, blossom, fruit, so all things that exist are not the creations of a personal will, but the manifestations of an impersonal and all-pervading life; all forces, convertible the one into the other, are but varying forms of the one underlying force. Every individual life is but a wave that seems for a moment to be separated from the one universal ocean of life; it leaps up from it, falls back into it, is absorbed by it. True, these waves are often strangely diverse—Nero and St. Paul, John Howard and Napoleon, the Virgin Mary and Lucrezia Borgia; but in that great Unity of which they are all manifestations, there is an all-comprehensive reconciliation, though it may elude our grasp. For Pantheism, many would have us put away the doctrine of a personal God. But this exchange, if it could be forced upon us by some logical necessity (which it is not), would not be a gain, but a tremendous loss. For, 1. There would be a tremendous loss to the heart. A force may be feared, but not loved. To gravitation we owe much, but no one ever professed to love it. A force cannot be loved, because it does not love. Strike out of our life all that comes to us from the confidence that God loves us, and from the responsive love that springs up in our hearts towards Him, and how much is lost! Then there is no longer any assurance amid the mysteries of life, nor consolation in its sorrows. In a word, we are orphaned: we can no longer say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” There is no longer a Father, knowing us, loving us, causing all things to work together for our good; there is only a Force, to which it is useless to appeal, against which it is impossible to contend. 2. We should also lose one of the greatest of all helps to a noble life. Not to dwell on the fact that to speak of virtue or vice would then be absurd,—then we should no longer sin, we should merely make mistakes,—consider how much the world owes to the aspiration to be like God which has stirred so many noble souls. Through them the average morality of the world has been marvellously raised; but this would have been impossible but for the stimulus these inspiring souls found in the character of God. That is the first fact of which this text reminds us, that God is a person from whom a spirit—an influence—can go forth affecting the character of other persons. II. From God such an influence does go forth. The possibility is a glorious fact. That from God a “spirit” should go forth, and that it should do so invisibly, is in accordance with all that we know of the universe which God has made, and which is in some sort a revelation of Him. 1. Nothing in the universe is unrelated. From orb to orb influences go forth by which they are mutually affected. 2. The mightiest influences are invisible. In all this, the material is a counterfact and revelation of the spiritual. It would be altogether abnormal, if from God there did not go forth an influence operating upon and affecting other persons. It is invisible, but its effects are recognisable. One of them is the activity of conscience, rightly understood. Another is the moral growth and refinement which those in whom it is most conspicuous, most invariably and distinctly attribute to influences exerted upon them by God. Even Socrates did so. This also is a doctrine full of hope and comfort. If we need moral transformation, there streams from God an influence capable of effecting it: to that influence let us submit ourselves, and the transformation shall come to pass; the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon us, and we shall become like Him. III. To the influence exerted upon Him by the Spirit of the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth owed all that qualified Him to be the Messiah (Isaiah 11:2-5). That which was born of the Virgin Mary was a true human child. A sinless child, yet sinless not as the result of the sinlessness of the mother (as Rome teaches), but of the influence of the Spirit of the Lord resting upon Him from the beginning of His earthly life. His was a real humanity—our humanity sanctified. All that was pure, noble, Godlike in Him was “born not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” How full of comfort and hope is this truth also! To us also is offered the same Spirit. Nothing can be more express than the declarations that we may have it if we will, and that, if we have it, the ultimate result will be that we shall be found partakers of the holiness of God. Let us not be unwisely cast down by the frailty and pollution of our nature; if the Spirit of the Lord rest upon us, the purity and the strength of God will become ours, and at length the Father will say of each of us, as He did of Jesus of Nazareth, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” THE JUDGEIsa_11:3. And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears. A glorious difference between our Lord and ourselves. “He knew what was in man,” and needed not the evidence of external signs, which often mislead us. He could deal with the motives of the heart (H. E. I., 3332, 4147). Not by human sight, but by Divine insight, He judged the conduct and character of men. 1. Our judgment is enfeebled by ignorance. We do not see and hear all, and from our imperfect knowledge of facts we draw wrong and often disastrous conclusions (H. E. I., 2997–3005). But our Lord could go behind the visible works, and detect what often deceived men—e.g., His treatment of pharisaism. 2. Our judgment is enfeebled by prejudice. This is often the result of ignorance. Seeing only certain sides of men, we dislike them, and frame our judgments accordingly—e.g., Nathanael (John 1:6). With no better reason than Nathanael had, we regard many a man as an enemy, or otherwise place him in a false light. But our Lord dealt with none in this way. Seeing men as they really were, no preconceived opinions led Him to unworthy conclusions. 3. Partiality enfeebles and perverts our judgment. Judging by sight and hearing, we approve of one man more than another, because he has certain artful or pleasing methods for winning our favour; flattery, offers of gain, &c. (P. D., 1275, 1281, 1283). But our Lord could not be won in this way (Mark 12:14; John 6:15). He was infinitely compassionate, tender, forgiving, but no feeble partiality interfered to prevent most righteous judgment. 4. Our judgment is often perverted by passion. In the pursuit of some unlawful and all-absorbing aim, we become too disturbed to weigh calmly even the evidences we can see and hear. We look at everything in the light of our false affection, and are thereby rendered absolutely incapable of beholding others in their true light, especially if they stand in our way and oppose our progress (P. D., 2060). But the one absorbing and unremittent purpose of Jesus of Nazareth was to do the will of His Heavenly Father, and to finish the work He had given Him to do. Hence He dwelt always on a pure altitude, in whose clear atmosphere He saw men and things as they are. 5. Our natural depravity is also a serious hindrance to our right judging. Our very organs of knowledge, our affections, our conscience, have been perverted. Let a man be ever so disposed to take correct views of men and things, there will be some flaw in his vision, some defect in his hearing. Hence there are times when we cannot accept as final the judgment of the best and holiest of men. But Christ had no secret evil to lead Him wrong. In view of all this, how fitting it is that Christ should be our judge! How well, too, He is qualified to be the merciful High Priest whom we need (Hebrews 4:15-16). He who tenderly sympathises with us is He who perfectly knows us (H. E. I., 956; P. D., 462).—William Manning. THE AND POWER OF THE OF GOD(Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 11:9. They shall not hurt nor destroy, &c.We have here a picture of the golden age. I. The whole earth shall be as Mount Zion. II. Shall be freed from injustice and violence. III. Shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. 1. Wherein this knowledge consists. 2. To what extent it shall prevail—universal, deep. 3. By what means it is to be diffused.—J. Lyth. D.D.: Homiletical Treasury (p. 18). “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” It seems clear that in these words the prophet intended to be understood as speaking of the whole earth. He would scarcely, in the same sentence, have used the expressions in question—the holy mountain in the first clause, and the earth in the other—if by these expressions he had not meant the same thing, namely, the whole globe of the earth, when the dwellers thereon should come to be true worshippers, like those who first worshipped at Mount Zion, and who were a type of the greater assembly of worshippers, the holy and universal Church, which in the fulness of time would be established. I. The prophet grounds the hope of that reformed and purified state of the moral world, described in the beautiful words of the text, upon the increase of religious knowledge which he saw to be coming. “They shall not hurt … for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” II. These words may be taken as descriptive of the legitimate effect of Christian knowledge. The general scope, aim, and tendency of gospel principles is such as would produce the change described, were it not counteracted by the tendency within us to what is wrong. III. They are more than this: they are prophetic of the actual results of Christian knowledge. The gospel will render war impossible. True, so-called “Christian” nations have not yet ceased to wage war with one another, nor so-called “Christian” men to rob and circumvent and ruin each other. Nevertheless, this prophecy shall yet be fulfilled. We see it in the process of fulfilment. The condition of the moral world has been meliorated by Christianity. Wars have not ceased, but their conduct has been mitigated. In their private dealings with each other, men have become more just and trustworthy. Already there are millions of men who would shrink from doing harm of any kind to their fellow-men. Compare Christendom with heathendom, and you will see what mighty changes the gospel has already wrought. The practice even of Christian men falls short of their knowledge. Nevertheless, the practice and the morals of men are, generally speaking, the best where their knowledge is the most. The prophet’s words are justified by fact, and men forbear one another most, and hurt and destroy least, where knowledge is the greatest. It is a fact that life and property are more safe and secure in the Christian portion of the earth, than in any other portions. And the knowledge of the Lord grows year by year; partly through the labours of missionaries in many places; still more by the rapid growth of the nations that are Christian. The violent and lawless races of the earth are dwindling away. The only races that are increasing are those that fear God, and are willing to respect the rights, the properties, and the lives of their neighbours. Through the medium of this natural increase of peace-loving races, and through the conversion of many among the benighted nations, this prophecy is receiving a gradual, but very appreciable, fulfilment. The world is advancing, with ever-accelerating speed, towards knowledge and peace, and this declaration shall yet be literally fulfilled (H. E. I., 979, 1161–1168; P. D., 2465, 2466). Application.— 1. We are permitted to rejoice in the hope of a period when justice and benevolence shall prevail in the world. 2. We are required to contribute towards the realisation of this hope. This we are to do (1) by the purification of our own hearts; by the conquest of every passion and desire that would make us hurtful to our neighbours. (2) By prayer (Matthew 6:9-10). (3) By helping to diffuse that “knowledge of the Lord” which is the great peace-maker in the earth.—A. Gibson, M.A.: Sermons on Various Subjects; Second Series (pp. 246–265). In this and the preceding verses we have a beautiful picture of a state of human society entirely different from anything that has been witnessed since the Fall. The prophet beholds changes in human character so great that he feels he can only symbolise them by transformations in the members of the animal kingdom of the most astonishing kind. Isaiah 11:6-8 are symbolical, and are intended to excite within us the liveliest anticipations of the glorious effects that would follow the universal proclamation and acceptation of the gospel. Thus we are led to speak of the nature, the diffusion, and the effect of the knowledge of the Lord. I. ITS EXALTED NATURE. By “the knowledge of the Lord” may be meant that of which He is the revealer (2 Chronicles 30:22), or that of which He is the theme (2 Peter 2:20). God can only be revealed by Himself; and He has given us a threefold revelation of Himself—in nature, in providence, and in Holy Scripture. In the latter we have the record of the fullest revelation which He has vouchsafed, that given us in His Son. God is never truly known by man until He is known in Christ. “The knowledge of the Lord” and “the gospel” are terms of the same meaning. II. ITS . The figure employed by the prophet brings before us impressively the universality of its diffusion. The imagination is called in to instruct our faith [985] The world-wide diffusion of the gospel is a matter— 1. Of prophetic certainty. Nothing could be more plain than the prophetic declarations concerning this matter. But if any man asks when the promise will be fulfilled, only one answer can be given him (Acts 1:7). 2. Involving Divine agency. Utterly false is the notion that, after creating the universe, God withdrew from it, and left it to go on by its own momentum (John 5:17); and utterly false is the notion that, after giving the gospel to the world, God has left it to make its own way therein. By Divine agency men are raised up to proclaim it (Ephesians 4:11). While they are so engaged Christ Himself is with them (Matthew 28:20); and while they preach, the Holy Spirit strives in the hearts of men to prepare and dispose them to receive the glad tidings (1 Thessalonians 1:5). When, therefore, we look at the glorious promise of our text, we must not forget that God Himself is working for its accomplishment. This will save us from unbelief and despair concerning it. 3. Involving human instrumentality. Not that this is absolutely necessary. Without human husbandry God could have caused the earth to bring forth food for man and beast, and without human instrumentality He could have saved the world. But it has pleased Him to commit to us the Word of reconciliation. The consequent duty of preaching it must be taken in connection with, and regarded as the condition of, the promise; just as the promise that there shall be a harvest till the end of the world is conditioned by man’s sowing the seed in the appointed season. The promise must not be used as an excuse for indolence, but as a stimulus to industry. [985] “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The expression is remarkable for its force. In looking over the face of the ocean, no differences are to be perceived: one part is not fuller than the other; one part is not covered, and another left dry; but all is one unbroken stream, filling and covering the whole. So shall it be with the Word of God among men. It shall not be known to some, and hidden from others. It shall not be fully declared in one place, and only partially set forth in another. Whatever knowledge it pleases Him to give at all, shall be given to all men equally and without distinction. Such is clearly the purpose of God in His own appointed time.—W. H. Sulivan. “As the waters cover the sea.” The idea of universality could scarcely have been better expressed than by this magnificent simile. You have looked forth on the illimitable expanse of waters with wonder and awe. Your imagination has followed the depths far beyond the lowest tide-line to the unfathomed valleys and caverns that form the ocean bed; and you have endeavoured to take fully into your mind the thought that the lowest depths and the most distant shores were filled and covered by the all-diffusive and all-searching element.—Rawlinson. III. ITS BLESSED EFFECT. The gospel is a harmonising power. It has a transforming efficacy equal to any that would be needed to bring about a literal fulfilment of Isa 11:6-8. Where-ever it comes in its saving power, it new creates human hearts, and thus dries up the causes of hatred and discord at their fountain. For it is a principle, 1, of righteousness, and, 2, of love. Hence it brings peace. For all discord is due to injustice that is prompted by selfishness (James 4:1). Where righteousness and love combine and rule, there must be peace and security; for the very desire to injure is taken away. The universal prevalence of the gospel necessarily means universal peace (H. E. I., 1126, 1127, 1129). 1. This suggests the answer to the questions, Why Christian nations make war against each other, and why even in Christian churches there are fierce contentions? The answer is, either that those nations or churches are Christian only in name, or that they have only very partially attained to “the knowledge of the Lord.” They are only in the infant-class in Christ’s great school; as they learn of Him, their rivalries and hatreds will pass away. 2. The gospel being so blessed in its effects, it is plain that it is the duty of all good men to extend the knowledge of it.—John Rawlinson. A remarkable declaration this, especially if the Hebrew prophets were, as some learned sceptics tell us, men of narrow mind, worshipping a merely local god, and hating all men not descended from Jacob. By the noble simile employed by Isaiah two ideas are suggested— 1. Universality. Mankind is the area to be covered. 2. Ease. All the creeks, bays, channels, and broad highways of the vast ocean are filled in their appointed time. The mighty tide rises, sweeps onward, and the work is done. There was one great flood-tide of gospel-truth in the days of the apostles, and there is a greater still to come. Meanwhile, many difficulties attend the efforts of God’s people to extend the knowledge of His truth; but, in the world’s fulness, great ease will characterise the progress and triumphs of the gospel (Psalms 110:3; Hebrews 8:11). This declaration suggests two great subjects:— I. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. Shut the Bible, and our outlook on the world and its future is dark and sad. Open it, and let its light shine into our minds, and with the light will come encouragement and hope. 1. If it is true that “the earth … the sea,” then God takes an interest in the affairs of the world, and takes an interest in them now. This mighty world is not left to drift into an unknown and perilous future without a steersman to guide it. 2. If God makes such abundant provision for the instruction of men in the knowledge of Himself, then He will be accessible to them when, by that knowledge, they are led to approach Him; and He is accessible to us. 3. Himself opening for men a way of access to Him, we may be sure that when they avail themselves of it He will deal with them in the way of mercy and love; and so He will deal with us. Who can doubt this who looks on the face of Christ, through whom God has given us the truest knowledge of Himself (2 Corinthians 4:6)? 4. He means to be known to the world, and therefore His gracious offers extend to all, to us. II. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. In view of this declaration, 1. Take enlarged views of your work. Think how much remains to be done. Even if you could suppose that your family, your street, your town, your country were filled with the blessed tide of the knowledge of the Lord, yet think of the earth, and all its myriad claims resting upon the servants of God. 2. Spare no efforts in promoting the cause of Christian missions. In advancing these, you are working in harmony with the great purposes of God, and for an object which is dear to Him—that object for which He has already given His Son! Will you withhold from it the money with which He has entrusted you, and for which you will have to give account at the last day? 3. There are many present difficulties in the prosecution of mission-work, but meanwhile take comfort from the large purposes of God. “Have faith in God.” His plans are vast, but His glorious promises are great as His counsels, and His resources as glorious as His promises. The process of filling the earth with “the knowledge of the Lord” may seem to us to be tedious, the obstacles may be many, the time may be long; if the work were left to us, it would be hopeless; but GOD will hasten it all in His time.—William Manning. It is here declared that there is yet to dawn upon the world an era of perfect light, and that that shall be also and therefore an era of perfect love. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, FOR the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” It is a mystery, but it is a fact, that knowledge is not necessarily a blessing. The devils believe—and therefore know—yet remain devils still (James 3:15). Many men of unholy life have been men of eminent knowledge (Romans 1:21). But this is a moral monstrosity, a result of the unnatural condition into which we have been brought by sin; just as in certain forms of disease food becomes poison. Knowledge is one of those forces which naturally tend to elevate and sanctify (H. E. I., 3106); to know God truly is eternal life (John 17:3); and the declaration is, that knowledge shall be world-wide, and that by it the world shall be morally revolutionised. Remembrance of two facts will give intelligence and strength to our faith in these glorious predictions. 1. As man’s knowledge of God has grown, the human race has risen. Except in those abnormal cases already referred to, it may be declared that men cannot learn to know God and remain as they were—e.g., wherever the knowledge of the unity of God is restored to man, idolatry becomes impossible; as soon as the knowledge of the spirituality of God really enters the mind, formalism in worship becomes an impossibility. So every truth concerning God, as soon as it is really known, becomes a correcting and converting force. The tendency of this knowledge, as of light, is to quicken and beautify. The way to grow in grace is to grow in the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18). 2. The knowledge of God is a thing that grows, and grows slowly, in the human soul. This is true of all knowledge [988] But in proportion as it grows, sanctification takes place in the individual life, reformation in the national life [991] It is the most radical and successful of all revolutionists. It is impossible for us to dream of the changes it will accomplish upon the earth. But this we know, that by it war and every form of violence shall be abolished (text; Isaiah 2:4, &c.) [988] The knowledge of God comes into the soul as a king is born into a country over which he is ultimately to rule; at the beginning it is but a babe; for a long time it is weak, and needs to be defended and nurtured; many years elapse before it rules; rarely in this life does it exercise full power and undisputed sway. [991] Many evils continue to exist and flourish even in Christian lands, because their contrariety to the character of God has not yet been apprehended and felt. Many godly men were slave-holders and slave-dealers, because they did not fully know God. But now the knowledge of God has so grown among men, that it is no longer possible in a Christian land for a godly man to be a slave-holder. So with polygamy, which was once practised without scruple by some of the noblest and most devout men who ever lived. This practice has been killed, not by any express prohibition, but by growth among men of the knowledge of God. That knowledge is predestined still further to grow, and to kill many things more. In this subject there is, 1. A complete justification of all missionary enterprises. They are not visionary schemes foredoomed to failure; they are intensely practical, and shall be triumphantly successful. The time may be far off, but it is advancing, when every man shall know God (ä). The effect of that knowledge will be the destruction of the desire to destroy or injure. 2. An argument for patience. In view of the wrongs that prevail upon the earth, many noble souls find it difficult to exercise it. Of finer taste, of clearer vision, of truer sympathy with God than is common amongst men, the wickedness that triumphs in the world fills them with continual agony. It drives them almost into atheism. They ask, “Can God see these things, and not use His power to bring them to an end? If there were a God, would He not instantly smite the oppressors with destruction?” Let them be patient. God does see; God does feel; God is hastening on the better day by the only means by which it can really be brought in. Another deluge would not cleanse the world from crime; if but eight souls were spared, sin would once more begin to prevail. The era of purity and peace can be ushered in only by the revelation of God to man, and thus it is advancing towards us; thus it is already begun; between Christian and heathen lands there is a real contrast; and ere long there shall be as great a contrast between Christian lands uplifted by a fuller knowledge of God and these lands as they now are. The millennium is not merely a prophetic dream, it shall be a glorious fact. Patience! (H. E. I., 1134, 1135, 1166–1168, 3421–3423; P. D., 2465, 2466). 3. An argument for hopeful Christian effort. We must not merely dream of the millennium, we must labour to hasten its dawn. Work is needful: Sunday-school work, &c. Every one who prays, “Thy kingdom come,” thereby, unless he means to mock God, pledges Himself to work to hasten its coming, and thus to be a “fellow-labourer with God.” There is need for individual effort, and for united effort. Such effort should always be hopeful. We are not attempting what is impossible; we are working in the line of God’s promises, and with God! Remembering that the sense of our own weakness will not unduly depress us. It does not require a giant’s strength to row with the tide; and a mightier force than that of ocean is bearing us on to a victory that shall fill earth with blessing and heaven with gladness. THE ENSIGN OF THE NATIONSIsa_11:10. And in that day there shall be, &c.I. In the two parts of this verse we have a twofold metaphorical representation of the Redeemer: one expressed, one implied. 1. An ensign of the people= banner or standard, such as is set up as a rallying-point around which, (1) the subjects of a king assemble to do him homage; and (2) the soldiers of an army gather to receive the commands and exhortations of their general. 2. This second use of a standard leads to the second metaphorical representation of the Redeemer, that of a victorious general: “His rest shall be glorious.” We are thus directed to the final result of the uplifting of Christ as an ensign: the great campaign brought to a successful conclusion, the Victor in it rests gloriously, surrounded by the soldiers whom He has led on to triumph, and the people to whom He has given liberty and peace. II. Consider how these predictions have been fulfilled. 1. By the preaching of the gospel Christ has been lifted up, and as the result men of all nations have sought unto Him, and will seek Him more and more. 2. Having done and suffered all that was necessary ultimately to secure the final victory, He has taken His place at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and rests there gloriously; the glory of His rest arising from the number of the subjects who do Him homage, and of the soldiers who delight to fight His battles, from the triumphs which He has already enabled them to achieve, and from the prosperity and peace of all His people. We shall make a great mistake if we end by thus admiringly noting how this ancient prophecy has been, and is being, fulfilled in the history of the world. We are among the Gentiles of whom our text speaks: have we sought unto the glorious Person of whom it speaks? You desire to do so. Do so, then, 1. For right purposes; not merely that you may be delivered from suffering, but that you may be delivered from sin; not merely that you may ultimately gain admission to heaven, but that you may here and now render to Him the homage and the service to which He is entitled. 2. In a right spirit; not vainly dreaming that you have, or can win, any claim upon His regard, but recognising that you can appeal only to His mercy, and that without it you are lost; and making this appeal penitently and believingly. So coming to Him, He will be found of you. He will cause you to share in His rest, by causing you to share in His triumphs; inspired and upheld by Him, you shall trample under foot the world, the flesh, the devil, and the fear of death. Your whole being will be at rest; your understanding no longer harassed by perplexing doubts; your conscience stilled and gladdened by a righteous peace; your affections centred at last around Him who alone is worthy of their supreme love; and this threefold rest, so sweet and blessed now, shall be perfected and perpetuated in heaven.—George Smith, D.D.The prophet here foresees that the Saviour’s mission and work will so exalt Him in the eyes of the nations, that they will turn to Him as the one object and desire of their souls. (Compare John 12:32.) The prediction declares that Christ would be a banner to attract men, that He would be the object of universal search, and that men in finding Him would attain to true rest and glory. I. THE BANNER. 1. A banner is naturally “lifted up;” only thus can its purpose be accomplished (chap. Isaiah 13:2; Isaiah 18:3). Apt image this of Christ. Not merely in His death on Calvary. That exaltation was followed by His being lifted higher still by the preaching of the gospel, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 16:14), by the devout lives of all His true followers. 2. A banner has usually some emblem or device representative of some great cause, or expressive of some great truth. (Give instances.) So when “Christ and Him crucified” are uplifted clearly in the view of men, they see God’s hatred of sin, His love of man, and His provision for man’s future happiness and glory. II. THE OBJECT OF SEARCH. “To it shall the Gentiles seek.” Search for Christ characterises all races of men (Haggai 2:7) and all periods of time (Luke 10:24). The search is often prosecuted in ignorance. Men know not for what and for whom their souls yearn; but it is Christ of whom unconsciously they are in quest; and it is towards Him, that by the else insatiable desires of their spiritual nature, they are being led. III. THE FINDING OF TRUE REST. “His rest shall be glorious.” 1. The rest we find in Christ is connected with a vital change effected in the heart and life. He does not simply do something for us; He also does a work within us. Every intelligent seeker knows that there can be no rest until the evil that is lodged within us is resisted and cast out (H. E. I., 1324). It is as we enter into the spirit of Christ and share His life, that we enter into rest (Matthew 11:28-30). 2. Our new relations to God, entered into by faith in Christ Jesus, makes our rest very glorious. God is then known to us by the most precious and endearing names; He is our rock, our shield, &c. Each of these names represents to us some tender aspects of His love, some sweet ministry of His grace. Are you in search of the highest peace, joy, holiness, rest? Here you may end your quest (1 Corinthians 1:30; P. D., 481).—William Manning. THE OF MENIsa_11:10-16. And in that day there shall be, &c.Several eminent commentators are of opinion that this prophecy will not be fulfilled until the Jews are restored as a nation to their own land. Others believe that the prophet used (it may be unconsciously) transient geographical phrases as symbols of eternal truths. Without entering upon this controversy, which can be settled only by the actual unfolding and accomplishment of God’s plans as to the history of this world, let us think of the fundamental fact of the vision, that in it “the Root of David” was revealed to the prophet as the reconciler of men. His appearing in the world would be the setting up of a standard unto which all men, Gentiles (Isaiah 11:10) and Jews (Isaiah 11:11-12), would seek; and before the influence then exerted upon them by Him rivalries and enmities, even though they were as inveterate and malignant as those of Judah and Ephraim (Isaiah 11:13), would disappear. No obstacles, even though they should be as immense as the geographical ones which are specified, would hinder their coming together and forming one united and triumphant people under His benignant sway. This is only saying what the prophet has said already (chap. Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 9:7), that the kingdom of Christ would be a kingdom of peace. Consider— I. How marvellously and gloriously this prediction has been fulfilled. To appreciate this, we must recall the condition of the world at the time when “the day” of which our text speaks dawned upon it. Nations were everywhere divided from each other by jealousies and hatreds as virulent as those that divided Ephraim from Judah; there was peace only because they were restrained from active hostility by the strong hand of Roman power. Hatred of other nations was regarded, not as a crime, but as a duty [994] But Christ inaugurated the empire of universal brotherhood and love. Wars have not yet ceased even among nations professing Christianity, but they are no longer openly gloried in by those who wage them; they are apologised for as sad necessities. The apology is often insincere, but the fact that it is made at all is a marvellous tribute to the influence and authority of Christ. Wherever His true followers meet, national distinctions are forgotten, and they feel drawn to each other by a mightier and sweeter bond. As the centuries pass away, the love of Christ becomes more and more the uniting power of the world. [994] Ancient morality was essentially national and exclusive. Its creed was that a man is born not for himself, but for his parents, his family, and the state. The state was surrounded by others with which, unless some treaty had been concluded, it was at war. To do as much good as possible to one’s own state, and as much harm as possible to all other states, was therefore the whole duty of a man.”—Ecce Homo, p. 125, small edition. (The student will do well to read the whole chapter in which these sentences occur.)II. How sadly imperfect the fulfilment of this prediction still is! The era of universal peace has not yet dawned. The world is still cursed by wars and rumours of wars. Millions of men are maintained in constant readiness for war. There are bitter contentions among the sections of the Christian Church, these tribes of the modern Israel. Class is divided from class. So-called Christian families are saddened by bitter feuds. III. The blessedness of the era that shall yet dawn upon this world. The Christian often dreams of it; his dreams are sweet as those which hungry men have of banquets, and shipwrecked sailors drifting helplessly on rafts in the wide ocean have of their native village and of meeting with their loved ones there; and in their waking hours they, too, are apt to be saddened by the fear that their dreams too are as utterly incapable of realisation. But it is not so. They shall all be realised, for the authority of Christ shall yet be universal, real, absolute; and all the listening angels shall not be able to detect one sound of discord rising from the round world, for the whole world shall be full of the peace of Christ (P. D., 2465, 2466, 2676). IV. Our duty in regard to this prediction. We are not merely to dream dreams of the blessedness of the era that shall yet be ushered in. We are to do something to hasten its dawning. 1. We are to pray for it with yearning hearts. 2. We are to do our utmost, in every possible way, to extend the knowledge of the gospel throughout the world. The gospel, not commerce, is the true civiliser and uniter of nations: commerce will prosper on the gospel triumphs. True, many converts are only nominally Christians, but in many cases that is the first step towards their becoming real Christians, i.e., men who will pray and labour for universal peace. 3. Minor and contributory duties. (1.) The diffusion of knowledge that will tend to bring home to the understandings and hearts of men the hurtfulness of war, and of preparation for war. (2.) The discouragement and overthrow of those statesmen, to whichever party they may belong, whose policy tends to foster national animosities. (3.) The discouragement of all pursuits and things that tend to familiarise men with war and keep alive in them a passion for it, e.g., the volunteer movement; pictures, poems, and newspapers that glorify successful soldiers, as if in them the noblest ideal of manhood were realised. (4.) Careful education of our children in Christ-like sentiments concerning foreign nations and war. By constant heedfulness of these duties, we shall do something to hasten the dawning of the era of universal peace and blessedness, and we shall not have lived in vain. WELLS OF Isa_12:3. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Salvation is the great theme of the Bible, and thus it meets man’s great need. Think, I. of THE WELLS, the sources of salvation. Clearly these are not found in man himself. Salvation originated in the eternal love of God for man; it flows to sinners through the work of Jesus; it is by the influences of the Holy Spirit that the sinner is made willing to partake of it. These truly are wells of salvation; not rills that may dry up; not even rivers, which may fail because the streams from the mountains have failed; but wells, fountains over-flowing, inexhaustible as the nature of God. II. OF THE WATER. A beautiful symbol of a great reality. Excepting the air we breathe, there is no element so widely diffused, nor so essential to life, as water. Imagine a great city, a whole district, a ship’s crew without water [997] 1. Water revives. How the traveller dying from thirst begins to revive the instant water touches his lips; so the salvation of the gospel imparts new life to the soul; an invigoration, moreover, that shall not pass away (John 4:14). 2. Water cleanses. So does the salvation of the gospel (Revelation 1:5; Hebrews 9:14; Ezekiel 36:25; Zechariah 13:1). 3. Water fertilises. The water of salvation enriches and fertilises the spiritual soil, so that the blossoms of hope in the early spring-time of piety, and the matured fruits of holiness in the autumn of life, adorn the garden of the Lord (Isaiah 58:11; Jeremiah 31:12; Psalms 1:3; Numbers 24:9). III. Of THE JOY. 1. This can only be experienced by such as draw water out of the wells of salvation. Necessarily it is a matter of experience. There are many things that must be felt to be known, and this is one of them. 2. This joy may be expected in the very act of drawing the water of salvation. If you were to overtake a traveller in a sandy desert dying from thirst, he would begin to enjoy the very moment he became conscious of the touch of the precious fluid. So with the Christian (Romans 15:13). And as he may and ought to be constantly drawing from the wells of salvation, his life should always be a happy life (H. E. I., 3037–3051; P. D., 2085). [997] Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, ’Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody sun at noon Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the moon. Day after day, day after day We stuck, nor breath, nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. —Coleridge: “Ancient Mariner.”Our text may be regarded— 1. As giving full permission to do that of which it speaks. However unworthy we may be, we may come to the wells of salvation, and draw as much as we need (Revelation 22:17; H. E. I., 2331, 2361, 2362, 4086). 2. Nay, as a command. When a sovereign prepares a banquet, and issues his invitations, those invitations have the force of commands. God has graciously provided salvation for your souls in Christ: will you turn away, and despise His love?—John Rawlinson. Salvation—let us not think of it meanly. It has past, present, future aspects. Too often we content ourselves with the past view of it, and that in a selfish way. Twenty or thirty years ago, we “believed” and were “saved,” i.e., got out of harm’s way. What is God’s grace doing for us? Is it making us purer, nobler? And what are our aspirations and prospects? Are we imitators of the great Apostle (Philippians 3:13-14). This comprehensive and glorious salvation, what is its source? Whence is it to be drawn? From GOD. “Behold, God is my salvation.… Therefore,” &c. The third verse must never be separated in thought from the second, “With Thee is the fountain of life”—with God as revealed to us in Christ. This is the claim of Christ Himself (John 8:37-38) [1000] He stands over against all the ignorance, the guilt, the pollution, and the deathfulness of man, as the infinite Fulness (1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 1:19; John 1:16; H. E. I., 934–941). All the wells of salvation are in Him; and from Him His people draw the priceless “water” with joy. This is a duty, but it is performed by them as freely and spontaneously as on a summer morning the birds fill the air with music. They do so— 1. Because the wells of salvation are free to all, and easily accessible by all. Were it not so, we might fear that we or our friends were excluded therefrom. But God’s salvation, like all His best gifts—air, light, water—is free to all alike (H. E. I., 942, 943, 2331, 2361, 2362). And it is easily accessible; no harder terms are imposed upon us than it is possible and right for us to comply with. (All this is summed up in chap. Isaiah 55:1.) 2. Because “the wells of salvation” are inexhaustible. Picture the fainting and despairing condition of a traveller who, in a time of scorching heat, comes to a well, and finds it empty. No such fate awaits the true seeker after God. Other sources of help will deceive and fail us (Jeremiah 2:13). 3. Because of the deep satisfaction which is derived therefrom (John 4:14; H. E. I., 968–971, 1658, 1659, 2738–2837, 4627–4630, 4970). 4. Because the fulness that thus becomes ours is a source of blessing to others (Genesis 12:2; Genesis 39:5; Proverbs 18:4; Isaiah 58:11; Ezekiel 47:12; Zechariah 14:8; H. E. I., 1740–1743) [1003][1000] The Talmudists refer the words, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation,” to the custom of making an oblation of water on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, when a priest fetched water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Siloah, and poured it mixed with wine on the morning sacrifice as it lay on the altar; while at the evening offering the same was done amidst shouts of joy from the assembled people. It was in obvious allusion to this rite that, “in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink;” but as it is not prescribed in the law of Moses, it has been doubted whether it dates back earlier than the times of the Maccabees. It is, however, at least as probable that the Asmonean princes should have restored an ancient as ordained a new rite: such a rite, to acknowledge God’s gift of water without which harvest and vintage must have failed, would always have been a likely accompaniment of the feast in which these were celebrated; and the like acts of Samuel and Elijah, though for different purposes, perhaps go in confirmation of the ancient existence of such a practice (1 Samuel 7:6; 1 Kings 18:33-35). Be this as it may, the idea conveyed by the image of the living water will be the same:—“Such as is the refreshment of water from the spring, and from the clouds of heaven, to the parched lips and the thirsty land, in this our sultry climate, such shall be the refreshment to your spirit in that day from the salvation of Jehovah. He shall dwell among you, and His Spirit shall be a well of life to the whole nation.”—Strachey. [1003] John 7:38, “In the Book Sohar we find the same metaphor, fol. 40, Colossians 4, ‘When a man turns to God, he becomes like a spring of fresh living water, and streams flow out from him to all men.’ ”—Geikie. The last day of the feast, known as “the Hosanna Rabba” and the “Great Day,” found Him, as each day before, doubtless, had done, in the Temple arcades. He had gone thither early, to meet the crowds assembled for morning prayer. It was a day of special rejoicing. A great procession of pilgrims marched seven times round the city, with their lulats[branches of palm woven round with willow and myrtle], music, and loud-voiced choirs preceding, and the air was rent with shouts of Hosanna, in commemoration of the taking of Jericho, the first city in the Holy Land that fell into the hands of their fathers. Other multitudes streamed to the brooks of Shiloah, after the priests and Levites, bearing the golden vessels, with which to draw some of the water. As many as could get near the stream drank of it, amidst loud chanting of the words of Isaiah—“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” “With joy shall we draw water from the wells of salvation,”—rising in jubilant chants on every side. The water drawn by the priests was meanwhile borne up to the Temple, amid the boundless excitement of a vast throng. Such a crowd was, apparently, passing at this moment. Rising, as the throng went by, His Spirit was moved at such honest enthusiasm, yet saddened at the moral decay which mistook a mere ceremony for religion. It was burning autumn weather, when the sun had for months shone in a cloudless sky, and the early rains were longed for as the monsoons in India after the summer heat. Water at all times is a magic word in a sultry climate like Palestine, but at this moment it had a double power. Standing, therefore, to give His words more solemnity, His voice now sounded far and near over the throng, with soft clearness, which arrested all— “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, for I will give him the living waters of God’s heavenly grace, of which the water you have now drawn from Shiloah is only, as your Rabbis tell you, a type. He that believes in Me drinks into his soul of My fulness, as from a fountain, the riches of divine grace and truth. Nor do they bring life to him alone who thus drinks. They become in his own heart, as the whole burden of Scripture tells, a living spring, which shall flow from his lips and life in holy words and deeds, quickening the thirsty around him.”—Geikie. Come to the Well-spring of life. It is open to you all. Whosoever will may come. Jesus stands ready to satisfy your deepest longings.—William Manning. This chapter should be read in connection with the preceding, which determines its application to the times of Messiah. The peaceful state of the Church in Hezekiah’s time is made the emblem of the peaceful era of the Gospel; as the Israelites who had been carried away in various invasions thus returned to their own country, so the nations should be gathered to the standard of Christ (Isaiah 11:10-16). I. The sources of consolation which God has opened up to the Church in the revelation of His Son. In a dry and thirsty land like this—in a world where there are so many sorrows arising from sin, and so many difficulties in our way to heaven—we need sources of supply, fountains of consolation. And in the Word of God we have them; “wells of salvation,” not running streams, not brooks, full in spring and dry in summer, but wells! 1. Christ is the great fountain (John 7:37-38). When He was lifted up upon the cross, the fountain of grace that is in Him was opened, and healing streams shall never cease to flow from it, till the last weary pilgrim has reached the abodes of blessedness. Do we thirst for the pardon of sin? (Matthew 12:31). For the favour and friendship of God? (Matthew 5:6). For solid and spiritual happiness? (Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 22:17). 2. The religion of Christ is a system of consolation and joy; it is the only one that deserves the name; all others work as with unmeaning ceremonies or unfounded expectations. All the parts of Christ’s religion, properly understood and personally enjoyed, promote solid comfort and true joy. Its doctrine (Romans 5:11). Its promises (Psalms 97:11). Its precepts (Psalms 119:54). Its prospects (Romans 5:2; H. E. I., 4161–4163). 3. God is “the God of comfort.” Christ is “the consolation of Israel.” The Holy Spirit is “the Comforter.” How ample are the sources of comfort and joy mentioned in this chapter! (1.) The removal of a sense of divine displeasure (Isaiah 12:1). (2.) Hope of interest in God’s special favour as our covenant God (Isaiah 12:2). II. What is necessary to our personal appropriation of these comforts and joys [1006] Many persons, who appear to be disciples of Christ, are without the satisfaction which the text promises. They may be safe, but they are not happy (H. E. I., 306–314). The fault is not in the Gospel: the promise is express, the provision is free, the invitation is open. If the Christian would know the joy of which the text speaks, 1. He must learn to set a higher value upon spiritual blessings. It is the order of divine procedure to awaken a high sense of the value of His gifts before He communicates them. Many seem indifferent whether they enjoy the higher blessings of religion or no. The saints in former times were more earnest (Psalms 42:1). 2. He must cultivate those graces of religion which are immediately connected with its enjoyments: humility of mind, a teachable spirit, a more spiritual order of affections (Psalms 25:9; Psalms 25:14; Colossians 3:2; Philippians 4:5-7). 3. Especially he must cultivate a prayerful spirit and expectant dependence upon divine illumination. Prayer is the key that opens the treasury of heaven (Psalms 34:5; Psalms 119:18). Neglect of the Spirit’s influences is a frequent cause of degeneracy and distress. 4. He must avoid whatever would hinder the life and power of religion; the secret love of sin, undue attachment to the world, prevalence of unholy tempers. It is a matter of perfect impossibility that the comforts of religion can be enjoyed where sin and inconsistency prevail. Is there no sin indulged, no self-dependence, no conformity to the world, no neglect of private duties? (Jeremiah 2:17-18). Heaven is the realm of perfect happiness, because it is the realm of perfect holiness. 5. He must diligently use all the appointed means of grace. [1006] See H. E. I., 315–352, 1252–1285. III. Particular seasons when the prophetic promise is fulfilled. Private meditation, public ordinances, trouble, death, entrance into heaven.—Samuel Thodey. By “the wells of salvation” we may understand “the means of grace” [1009][1009] See H. E. I. 3309–3311, 3424–3465, 5075–5081. I. These wells of salvation have been opened for the supply of human needs; not for God’s benefit, but for ours. What wells are to travellers through a desert, these are to us in our pilgrimage to Zion. II. Men should come to these wells for the purpose of having their needs supplied; not from habit, not that we may set a good example, &c., but that we ourselves may be refreshed and strengthened. III. No frequency in coming to these wells can be in any sense meritorious. Expose the mistake of the Pharisee and the Ritualist. The oftener we avail ourselves of them, the more we increase, not our claims upon God, but our obligation to Him; and the more should increase, not our pride and self-righteousness, but our thankfulness to God for His goodness in providing them. IV. The wells are nothing: the water in them is everything. A dry well, however deep it may be, or whatever historic associations may cluster around it, is worthless; and so are all religious ordinances apart from the Spirit of God. We must ever remember that they are means of grace—channels through which the God of all grace will satisfy the soul’s thirst of those who seek Him in sincerity and truth. V. Nevertheless we are not to stay away from the wells, nor despise them. That is a false spirituality that disparages divine ordinances. We are not to trust in the wells, yet neither are we to refuse to draw water out of them:— (1.) Because GOD opened them, and to neglect them is to charge Him with foolishly providing what we do not need. (2.) Because it pleases Him to give us water through them; and we are to accept the blessing in whatever way He chooses to impart it to us. Naaman (2 Kings 5:11-13); the blind man (John 9:6-7). (3.) Because we need refreshment and reinvigoration day by day (Isaiah 40:31; Psalms 84:7; H. E. I., 555, 556, 3866–3876). (4.) Because our Master in the days of His flesh used the means of grace; no true Christian will seek in this respect to be above his Lord. VI. God has opened WELLS of salvation; not one, but many; none needlessly. We must use them all. Their benefit lies in their conjunction. For the production of a harvest, the sun and the rain are both needed; the sun alone would make a desert, the rain alone a swamp. No bird can fly with one wing, &c. We must read as well as pray, &c. LESSONS.— 1. Why God sometimes leaves the wells dry. His people sometimes come so to delight in the means of grace, that they forget they are only means, and then He withholds His blessing, that they may be taught that He alone can satisfy their souls (Psalms 84:2; Psalms 62:5). 2. Why, when there is water in the wells, some are not quickened and refreshed. (1.) Water revives the living, not the dead. (2.) Some forget to bring their buckets. They have no real desires after God, no true faith in His power and willingness to bless them, and to each of them we may say, “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the wells are deep” (John 4:11). THE DUTY OF Isa_12:6. Cry out and shout, &c.Two things are here observable:— 1. The person addressed, “thou inhabitant of Zion” [1012] i.e., one who is no longer a stranger and foreigner, but a fellow-citizen with the saints (Ephesians 2:12; Ephesians 2:19). 2. The admonition given, “Cry out and shout.” Consider— [1012] Zion was the name of a high mound situated upon a bed of rock enclosed within the walls of Jerusalem, and making the finest and strongest part thereof. Here was first the Tabernacle, and then the Temple, and concerning it great things are declared (Psalms 132:13-18). If we look through the literal description to the spiritual glory discernible, we shall soon see that it was typical of a higher state, and a shadow of good things to come. I need hardly remind you that, by a figure of speech, Zion is used in the New Testament as significant of the Church of the living God (Hebrews 12:22).—Jay. Such are the encouragements that consoled the ancient city of God in the day of her trouble. Harassed, her garrisons stormed, her armies scattered, her very sanctuary threatened with violation. she was bade remember her Eternal King, and take comfort in the thought of that watchful Guardian who sooner or later would assuredly avenge her wrongs. Often was she taught the same lesson; and often, in despite of her own froward and unbelieving heart, was the prediction realised. The Lord still “loved the gates of Zion;” the streams of His holy “river still made glad the city of God;” and He was “known in her palace for a refuge.” But a gloomier hour at length arrived; even Divine patience has its limits; and the last dread crime of Zion could only be expiated in her ruin. Blood had flowed beneath her hands, every drop of which was worth a universe, and she had invoked its curse upon her own head and the head of her children. And now, behold, in the fearful words of her own prophets, “the lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way,”—Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen, because their tongues and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of His glory. “But what?—is this the city of which such glorious things are spoken—that the Highest Himself should establish her, that she should not be moved?” Where are His mighty promises of perpetuity? Where is that foundation which no power should ever shake—that Zion, in which the poor of His people were to trust? Brethren, look around you, and you behold the evidences of its existence, and of the eternal faithfulness of Him who is pledged to its immortality. A greater than Zion inherits her name; a greater than Zion bore it in the far-reaching scope of the prophetic vision. That “city of the great King” was but a perishable emblem of a “city whose builder and maker is God.” It is true she was honoured by His symbolic presence and sanctified by His sacred worship; it is true that for ages she alone, in a world of darkness, held the precious lamp of His truth; but what are these characters of honour to hers, whose every living stone is quickened by His indwelling energy, whose worship is no more in type and shadow, but in spirit and in substance; whose preaching and teaching, no longer shrouded in obscurity and limited to a corner of the earth, spreads over all lands, embraces the whole family of mankind, and makes even the course of that sun whose “going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it, and from whose light nothing is hid,” a faint image of the power with which she diffuses through all nations “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”? (See also 2 Corinthians 3:10-11.)—Archer Butler. I. THE TRUTH ON WHICH THE IS FOUNDED. “Great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” This includes— 1. His character, “the Holy One of Israel.” The holiness of God has shone forth in all that He has done in heaven and on earth (Psalms 145:17); in heaven it is the theme of the songs of the most exalted intelligences (Isaiah 6:3); on earth it inspires bad men with dread and dislike (Isaiah 30:11), and good men with thankfulness and hope (Psalms 30:4; Hebrews 12:10; H. E. I, 2275, 2843). 2. His greatness. “Great”—in duration, wisdom, power, dominion, and resources. All these render Him terrible as an enemy, desirable as a friend [1015] 3. His residence. “In the midst of thee.” But is not God everywhere? Yes, but not everywhere in the same character; not in heaven as in earth, &c. Wherever His presence is spoken of in a way of promise or privilege, it is to be distinguished from His attribute of omnipresence, for it has then in it something peculiarly beneficial and saving (Deuteronomy 4:7; Psalms 34:18). God’s presence in the midst of His people is the guarantee of their safety and the source of their joy. Let them adore the condescension He shows in dwelling in their midst. [1015] How well may the Church on Zion rejoice to have such a God dwelling in the midst of it! He is great as the Giver of promises, and great in fulfilling them; great in grace, and great in judgment; great in all His saving acts, which spread from Israel to all mankind.—Delitzsch. II. THE . 1. Religion is animated. “Cry out and shout,” &c. What is here required cannot be merely the exclamation, separate from suitable dispositions and sentiments, as is the case with some. Noise is in itself worth nothing. On the other hand, where there are these feelings, it is permissible, yea, praiseworthy, to give free and exultant expression to them (Revelation 5:12). Some disparage such expressions as enthusiasm, but there is nothing that should call forth enthusiasm like the Gospel. Religion calls for not only feeling and sentiment, but for the highest degree of feeling and sentiment [1018] 2. Religion, rational as well as animated. Why is the inhabitant of Zion to cry aloud and shout? “For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” This more than justified him, for from hence the Church can infer safety, assistance, consolation, honour. Thus God is with His people, and this is grace: soon they shall be with Him, and that is glory.—William Jay: Sunday Evening Sermons and Thursday Evening Lectures, pp. 297–305. [1018] Take the Gospel. What is it? Not a decision of Parliament, or the termination of a debate which may have no effect on our welfare. It brings us glad tidings of great joy. It is infinitely important, it is eternally interesting to us. It is our life. It is all our salvation, and it should be all our desire. Therefore we should receive it as a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. We should receive it as a dying man would a remedy, or as a condemned criminal would hail a reprieve. We should receive it with feelings superior to those with which we receive anything else. It is a subject which rises infinitely above all others in interest and importance, and demands all the energies of the soul, and renders Dr. Young’s words the words of truth and soberness:— “On such a theme ’twere impious to be calm: Passion is reason; transport, temper here.” —Jay. THE PROUD CITY DOOMEDIsa_13:1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. In 2 Kings 17 we find an account of the invasion of Israel by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:1-6). Then follows a long enumeration of the sins which had brought this Divine visitation upon the ten tribes, ending with the words, “So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (2 Kings 17:23). If the scourge was no longer in the hands of the king of Assyria, it would be transferred to other hands not less terrible. 1. Would this scourge destroy the life of the Jewish nation? This was the awful question which presented itself to the minds of the prophets when they saw one and another limb of this nation lopped off, when they saw that a great numerical majority of the tribes would be carried away. Isaiah’s eyes were opened to see whence the permanence of the race was derived, how great critical moments of its life discovered Him who was everlastingly present with it. The child born in hours of trouble and rebuke had borne witness to him of the continuance of the regal family as well as of the people of God’s covenant, when the rage of their enemies as well as their own faithlessness were threatening them with destruction. Nor was this all. In the miserable, heartless reign of Ahaz the vision had been presented to him of a “Rod coming out of the stem of Jesse, which should stand for an ensign of the people. To it should the Gentiles seek, and His rest should be glorious.” Consider the Rod out of Jesse, what it betokened (Isaiah 11:10-12)! The immediate fruits which Isaiah saw coming out of this root might have appeared in the days of any patriotic and prosperous prince, and did actually appear in the latter days of Hezekiah. No doubt Hezekiah might become, and did actually become, “an ensign to the nations,” just as Solomon had been before him, one to whom they brought presents, whose alliance they sought, whose elevation out of a deep calamity was a proof that some mighty God was with him. But— 2. Though we need not seek in any more distant days than those of Hezekiah for a very satisfactory fulfilment of these predictions (and let it never be forgotten that what may seem to us, when we look back over 3000 years, an exaggerated description of deliverance and restoration, must have seemed inadequate and almost cold to those who experienced the blessing),—though Hezekiah was a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and though the Spirit of the Lord did rest upon him (Isaiah 11:2),—though the peacefulness and order of his last years might faithfully carry out the symbols of the wolf and the lamb lying down togther, yet it was no less impossible for the prophet to think chiefly of Hezekiah when he was uttering these words than it would have been for him to fancy that he was the King whom he saw sitting on the throne, and his train filling the temple in the year that Uzziah died (chap. Isaiah 6:1-4). There was, however, this great blessing which came to Isaiah from his being able to connect the Divine King with an actual man—the belief that a man must embody and present the Godhead, that only in a man could its blessedness and glory appear, acquired a force and vividness from his hope of Hezekiah’s government and from his actual experience of it, which we may say, without rashness or profaneness, would have been otherwise wanting in him. In using that language, we are only affirming that any method but the one which we know the Divine Wisdom has adopted for conveying a truth to a man’s spirit must be an imperfect method. Hezekiah’s existence was necessary to the instruction of Isaiah, and through him of all generations to come. Perhaps Shalmaneser and Sennacherib were, in another way, scarcely less necessary. Apparently the prophet passes in this chapter to an entirely new subject. The Assyrian seems to be forgotten. He opens with the burden of Babylon; he goes on to the burden of Damascus, &c. But Babel or Babylon represented to the prophets the attempt to establish a universal society, not upon the acknowledgment of the Divine care and protection, but upon the acknowledgment of a mere power in nature against which men must try to measure their own. The order and history of the Jewish nation were made, from age to age, silently to testify against it. “Babylon is the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency” (Isaiah 13:19); her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged (Isaiah 13:22). But these and similar words must refer to more than the destruction of a certain Chaldean city then or afterwards. How can we limit them to it when we find such words as those in Isaiah 13:11-13? Instead of being, as some suppose, an interpolated fragment, the burden of Babylon comes in to make all the visitations upon the other tribes of the earth intelligible. They are diverse but harmonious portions of the same Divine message to man—a message of terror, but also of deliverance and hope. In chap. 14 we feel how wonderfully these are combined. But though most feel something of the grandeur of this poetry, and a few the truth of this prophecy, we do not enough consider upon what both are founded. The God-Man was the ground upon which the Jewish nation stood; here you have the contrast—the Man-God; he would ascend up to heaven and exalt his throne above the stars of God. This is the natural ruler of a society which counts the gold of Ophir more precious than human beings. We have here the Babylonian power and the Jerusalem power, that parody of human and Divine greatness which is seen in an earthly tyrant, that perfect reconciliation of divinity and humanity which is seen in the Redeemer. Consider both images well. Both are presented to us; we must admire and copy one of them; and whichever we take, we must resolutely discard the other. If we have ever mixed them together in our minds, a time is at hand that will separate them for ever. The Babylonian mark and image, your own evil nature, a corrupt society, the evil spirit, have been striving to stamp you ever since your childhood. Each hour you are tempted to think a man less precious than the gold of Ophir; the current maxims of the world take for granted that he is; you in a thousand ways are acting on those maxims. Oh, remember that in them, and in the habits, which they beget, lies the certain presage of slavery for men and nations, the foretaste of decay and ruin, which no human contrivances can avert, which the gifts and blessings of God’s providence only accelerate. May God grant us power to cast Babylonian principles out of our hearts, that when they come before us we may despise them and laugh them to scorn, knowing that not against us but against the Holy One the enemy is exalting himself. In that day may we be able to sing the song which the prophet said should be sung in the land of Judah (Isaiah 26:1-4).—F. D. Maurice, M.A.: Prophets and Kings, pp. 272–290. THE DAY OF THE LORDIsa_13:6. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand. Sad and unnatural is the condition of those to whom the coming of “the day of the Lord” is a cause for dismay. But this is the condition of the wicked. They can think of God prevailing and asserting Himself only with dread. Dread must take possession of them whenever they think of the future, for the profoundest and most ineradicable instincts of their nature assure them that the “day of the Lord”—a day of judgment and retribution—must come. Thus far all is plain. But when we read and think about what is to take place on “the day of the Lord” (Isaiah 13:7-8; Isaiah 13:15-16; Isaiah 13:18), astonishment takes possession of us, and we feel disposed to call it “the day of the devil.” How can a day like this be called “the day of the Lord”? Note— 1. That all the cruelties here described were inflicted by men. 2. That these men were moved to inflict these cruelties by their own passions; that they acted as free agents, and without any thought of fulfilling a Divine purpose. 3. That the supreme passion by which they were moved was the passion of revenge—of revenge for cruelties equally frightful inflicted by the sufferers of that day. Nothing can exceed in horror the picture which the Babylonians themselves drew of the enormities perpetrated by them on conquered nations. 4. That, consequently, the Babylonians were reaping as they had sown. The day that was coming upon them was a day of retribution, and in this sense emphatically “a day of the Lord.” As a matter of fact, retribution is one of the laws under which we live (H. E. I., 4609, 4611, 4612), and it is a Divine law, a law worthy of God. It is an ordinance of mercy, for the tendency of it is to restrain men from sin. By their knowledge of its existence and the certainty of its operation (P. D., 2995), wicked men are undoubtedly greatly restrained from wickedness. Were it not for the days when it is manifestly seen in operation, when great transgressors are overwhelmed with great sufferings, atheism would prevail; a reign of terror and of unrestrained cruelty would begin, and every day would be a day of the devil. 5. This day, with all its horrors, was an essential preliminary to the accomplishment of God’s purposes of mercy in regard to His people. For them it was emphatically “a day of the Lord,” for it was the day of their deliverance from bondage, a day of exultant thanksgiving that the power of their relentless oppressors was for ever broken (chap. Isaiah 14:1-6). In the history of our race there have been many such days, e.g., the French Revolution of 1789, the American Civil War; days when the worst passions of humanity were manifested without restraint; but days when the wisdom of God was displayed in bringing good out of evil, in punishing the iniquities of the past, in ushering in a brighter and better era of freedom and justice. The record of such “days of the Lord” should be eminently instructive to us. 1. They should teach us the true characters of those statesmen who use national power for purposes of unrighteous national aggrandisement. They are patriots but traitors, rendering inevitable a bitter harvest of national shame and sorrow. 2. They show the folly of supposing that the great power of any nation justifies it in the hope that it may safely deal unjustly with other and weaker nations. Guilty nations set in operation forces mightier and surer in their operation than any they can command—those forming the instrumentality by which God governs the earth, and in spite of human passions, maintains the existence and carries forward the development of the human race; these, combining, bring on a “day of the Lord,” in which, by the overthrow of the haughtiest wrongdoers, His existence and authority, and the folly of the practical atheism to which great nations are prone, are demonstrated (P. D., 2544). THE DOOM OF THE OF BABYLONIsa_13:16. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Consider this terrible declaration— I. As it regards man. 1. As a revelation of the degradation of which he is capable. History may be said to be a manifold revelation to this effect; the Bible alone gives hope for man, by disclosing his capabilities of development and exaltation. 2. As a remindal that no earthly empire is in and of itself secure against utter over throw. 3. As a remindal that what are called national disasters, are made up of sufferings endured by a vast number of individuals. II. As it regards God. So considered, it should be remembered— 1. That His permission of such things is, when viewed comprehensively, only part of the great mystery of the permission of evil. 2. That this is an instance of the working of one of the great natural laws by which God governs the universe—the law of retribution. 3. That in the heart of this terrible prediction there is a bright ray of hope. When you see a surgeon performing a terrible operation on a patient, you are sure that he is confident that the patient will be restored to health. So when we look at the world as it is, we are certified that there is a better world to be. God would never have permitted the world to be, if He did not see how out of this present misery He could educe eternal and triumphant blessedness. Towards that better future God is leading on the world (H. E. I., 3421–3423). The revulsion of feeling with which we read this prediction is one proof of it; there was a time when such incidents in the prosecution of a war would have been regarded as a matter of course. That it should not be so now marks an advance, and is a prophecy of further advances. THE LOVE OF MONEYIsa_13:17. The Medes … shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. I. One of the most universal and powerful of all passions is the love of money. Consider— 1. How wide-spread is this passion. The instant men rise above utter barbarism, it manifests itself. Paradoxical as it may sound, it is one of the first signs that civilisation has begun. In every civilised land, and among all classes, it constantly manifests itself [1021] It is one of the inspiring and moulding forces that are always at work. 2. How powerful it is in its operation! It drives men to exhausting toil. It leads them to face appalling dangers. It persuades them to endure distressing privations. It betrays them into the basest crimes. Up to a certain point, it may be said to be a useful servant; it works to promote our welfare, by overbalancing other tendencies that would degrade and ruin us; but when once that limit is overpassed, it transforms itself into a tyrannical master. Like many an Eastern tyrant, it destroys all other lawful passions that might dispute with it the throne (H. E. I., 400, 402). [1021] In many of those who seem utterly free from the love of money, it is only dormant; like the thirst for blood in that tiger which, captured when a cub, was brought up as a household pet, but showed itself to be a tiger indeed when, licking a slight wound in its master’s hand, it first tasted blood. So, many who appear to be utterly free from the love of money are so simply because they have never possessed more than sufficed for their bare necessities. Let them possess more, and avarice will show itself. This is the explanation of the familiar fact, that many who become prosperous become niggardly; they may continue to give, but it is always in a steadily diminishing proportion to their income (H. E. I., 4013; P. D., 3068, 3488). II. But this passion, powerful as it is, may be controlled and conquered. “The Medes … shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.” This means, not that they should be exempt from the influence of this worldwide passion, but that in them it would be temporarily overborne by another more powerful passion—the passion for revenge. For years the dominion of Babylon over them had been maintained by the most relentless rigour and frightful cruelties; and when the hour for successful revolt came, the one thought of the Medes would be—Revenge! That one intense longing would consume all others; the men on whom it had laid hold would forget their thirst for riches. This really is only an instance and illustration of what Dr. Chalmers used to call “the expulsive power of a new affection.” Many other affections come up to the human heart, and expel avarice; e.g., love of wife or children, ambition, vanity, &c. We see, therefore, that the love of money can be conquered, and as reasonable men always in danger of being overcome by it, we should ask by what passion or principle it can be conquered most nobly. That principle and that passion is the love of Christ. Of those who are truly possessed by it, it may be truly said that they do not regard silver; and as for gold, they do not delight in it. They may have much money, and by their splendid genius for business may be constantly gaining much more; but they possess it, it does not possess them; they are its masters. By the use of it they are ennobled. Let us pray that our hearts may be garrisoned by this more powerful and noble passion; then all the assaults of avarice upon them shall be made in vain. We shall meet them as Christ Himself met the offer of all the wealth and glory of the world; and the result will be, that we shall possess the true riches which will be valuable in the eternal world (Matthew 4:8-10; Matthew 6:19-21). SPARE THE (Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon.) Isaiah 13:18. Their eye shall not spare children. This declaration is made concerning the Medes, by whom the power of Babylon was destined to be broken. So thoroughly bent will they be upon their mission of revenge, that they will not be turned away from it by any appeals either to their avarice (Isaiah 13:17) or to their pity (text). The helplessness of infancy and the innocence of youth, which are naturally so impressive and persuasive, will not avail to stay them in their devastating career. We should display a singular ignorance of the world in which we live, if we were therefore to pronounce the Medes exceptional monsters of iniquity. Alas! there are many imitators of their relentless cruelty. In our own land children are not spared in relation to evils even more terrible than war. Youth is always beset by dangers, even when it is most carefully guarded; but when it is specially under the influence of wicked men, it is often ruthlessly sacrificed. Widespread is the spirit of evil which knows not how to pity it. Examples of its existence and operations are to be found— 1. In houses where the most hurtful principles and vicious practices are continually set before children. From their youth up they are not spared from the most disastrous influences (H. E. I., 775–779). 2. In business, where often the most sacred interests of childhood are sacrificed for the sake of gain. Their health, by inflicting upon them excessive labour. Even their morality, by fiends who tempt them into haunts of vice. Compared with these incarnations of diabolical cruelty, the Medes were merciful. The season of childhood appeals to our concern and should awake our compassion— 1. By its helplessness. It has to lean upon others. 2. By its ignorance. It has had no time to learn (H. E. I., 780). 3. By its inexperience. Unless it is aided by the guidance of mature wisdom, it must almost necessarily go astray. 4. By its peculiar susceptibility to every kind of moral influence. To these appeals let us give reverent, cheerful, and thoughtful heed. Let us not be content to shudder at this prediction concerning the Medes, or at such historical records as that of the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem (Matthew 2); let us make the children the objects of our care. 1. Let us spare our own children, from all unreasonable demands upon them, from the mischiefs that will inevitably come upon them if we do not carefully train them in the way they should go. 2. Let us spare the children of the poor from the evils of ignorance. These evils are terrible and far-reaching. Not to rescue them from these evils when we have the power to do so, is to doom them to them. In the Sunday-school we have a means of rescue which we cannot neglect without sin.—William Manning. SODOM AND Isa_13:19. And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, &c.The anticipated destruction of Babylon is here compared to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of its completeness, and because of the hopelessness of any return of that city to its former glory (Isaiah 13:20-22). The fate of Sodom and Gomorrah should be pondered, not merely because it is here used as a symbol of the fate of Babylon, but also because of the solemn lessons it affords in relation to sin. That memorable overthrow occurred—I. As a Divine vengeance upon long-continued and unmitigated wickedness (Genesis 18:20-21). II. Notwithstanding the influence of a good man in their midst (2 Peter 2:7-8). A man like Lot, even though he perhaps suffered injury to his own character, could not live among people like the Sodomites without being a witness for better things and a testimony against their crimes. III. Notwithstanding the fervent intercessions on their behalf of an eminently godly man (Genesis 18:23, &c.). IV. The overthrow came at last without any suspicion on the part of their guilty inhabitants that their doom was so near (Proverbs 29:1). But why dwell upon a fate so awful, and that occurred so long ago? Because it is a solemn warning to men to-day. Listen to our Saviour’s teaching on this point (Matthew 11:20-24). From this we learn that the fate of those who reject Christ will be more severe even than that which befell those guilty cities— 1. Because of clearer light against which they sinned. It cannot be in any way a trivial thing to possess the Gospel (2 Corinthians 2:16). 2. Because of the more abundant opportunities of salvation which were afforded them. 3. Because of the more abundant and excellent examples set before them. 4. Because of the multiplied examples of warning to which they should have given heed.—William Manning. THE JOY OF Isa_14:3-4. And it shall come to pass in the day, &c.In these verses is described the feeling of relief and joy of Israel in view of release from the Babylonish captivity. So profound will be their sense of God’s deliverance and favour, that they will look with contempt even upon the imperious and exacting Babylon, whose glory will be smitten, whose strength will be destroyed. This is an experience known to men in their spiritual seekings and findings of God. Blessed is that “rest” which follows many a season of sorrow, and fear, and hard bondage wherein men are made to serve. Consider— I. SOME JOYFUL , of which we may be said to have here a type. Every soul engaged in a true search after God can recall such experiences: first there was the “sorrow,” then the “joy;” first the “fear,” then the confidence; first the “bondage,” and then the rescue and the liberty. E.g., 1. The time of spiritual conversion. That is often preceded by deep conviction, anguish, and gloom. Alarming are those awakenings whose first mission is to show us our guilt and danger. Then we feel the grievousness of the bondage of sin. It is a time of exile, want, servitude. What a glorious day is that in which the Lord gives us rest from our sorrow and fear, by removing from us the terrors of the law, and leading us into the liberty of the Gospel! This is the deliverance to which our Saviour calls us (Matthew 11:28). 2. The light which comes after a period of great mental conflict and doubt respecting Divine things also illustrates our subject. Honest and reverent doubt, which intercepts a true seeker after God, is no sin. To creatures who have everything to learn, doubt is but a part of the process of learning; all original research, all independent inquiry, has more or less of it. But doubt may become a hard master, a ruthless tyrant; that which comes from mere prying curiosity, idle speculation, empty cavilling, is certain to do so; in this case doubt, instead of being a pathway, becomes a prison (H. E. I., 4867, 4868). But doubt in any case is a source of unhappiness; it should lead, not to scepticism (H. E. I., 4867, 4868; P. D., 910), but to prayer (P. D., 915, 916). Those whose prayers for deliverance from it have been answered, know how blessed is that day when the Lord gives them “rest.” 3. The period of victory which follows a season of severe temptation is another illustration. In most virtues weak, there are sides of our character specially exposed to assault. The sin which most easily besets us proves our oppressor, our tyrant (H. E. I., 4482–4484, 4497–4499). Recall the conflicts you have often had, how often sin has wellnigh proved fatal to you. What a gracious day was that when the Lord came to your help, and gave you rest from your enemy! 4. The heavenly life hereafter will be a still better realisation of the thought before us. To many of God’s people the general character of their earthly life is so mysterious, burdensome, and sad, that it all seems a bondage to them. To such, death will come as the day of the Lord to give them “rest” (H. E. I., 220, 1623–1628). II. THE REAL OF OUR FOES, which in the day of our deliverance will be made plain to us, and which should be apprehended by our faith even now (Isaiah 14:4). 1. Greater is He that is for us than all that can be against us, and therefore, if we be faithful, our victory is sure (1 John 4:4; Romans 8:37; H. E. I., 934, 2368, 2791). 2. By Him even our very foes and oppressors shall be made to help us. In the case of Israel, their masters were to become their servants, their oppressors their subjects (Isaiah 14:2). It is so in the spiritual life: our very sorrows, fears, nay, our sins, may be made to serve great ends; a vanquished fear, a defeated sin, will leave us stronger to meet the next. Let us so live and strive, by the grace of God, that, having triumphed over every evil habit, every ignoble doubt, every besetting sin, we may be able to say at last, “How hath the oppressor ceased!”—William Manning. THE GRAVE AND ITS Isa_14:9-12. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, &c.I. There is an invisible world (H. E. I., 2173–2175). II. Its inhabitants stand in a mysterious relation to this. III. Are conscious of passing events. IV. Despise all earthly distinctions. V. Await the coming of their fellows. VI. Receive them according to their moral character.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, part i. p. 20. THE Isa_14:11. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave. One of the most effectual means of comforting the Church in times of oppression, is by predicting the downfall of her enemies. Here Babylon is doomed; her monarch, whose conquests had been so far-reaching, whose power had proved so irresistible, is represented as having met with a mightier than himself; as descending to the abode of the dead; as leaving behind him a body which, instead of being honoured with a royal funeral, has no other covering than the dust and the worms; and as being himself insulted by the astonished mockery of the meanest of those who had preceded him into the invisible world. His removal from the world has been as the cessation of a devastating hurricane, and the whole earth rejoices thereat; it re-echoes with songs of gladness that the dreaded victor has himself been vanquished. Well may the world rejoice that its crowned scourges are not immortal! I. Let us recall some familiar truths concerning this conqueror of conquerors. 1. He assaults all ranks and all ages (H. E. I., 1536, 1537; P. D., 677, 700, 707, 751, 752). The world is an unwalled cemetery. Much of the dust we tread on once lived. What is the history of the world but the history of the reign of death? From Abel to the infant who died a moment ago, death has executed his commission without a single pause; sometimes in quiet forms, dust mingling with its native dust; sometimes on a grander scale, by battles, earthquakes, &c. There are a thousand doors out of life; they all stand open; and through some of them death will lead us all; for, like the Great Being whose servant he is, with him there is “no respect of persons” [1024] 2. He is not arrested in his career from any respect for the plans of men, however heroic and useful they may be. How powerful man often appears in his collective grandeur, binding the ocean in chains, controlling the elements, numbering the stars, building great cities which look like temples erected to Time and destined to outlast his reign, founding empires, and spreading himself out by commerce and enterprise to distant islands and continents; and he has always still greater projects behind. But while man plans, death receives his commission; the ground sinks beneath him, his power suddenly collapses. Few histories would be more instructive or impressive than that of the unfinished projects of men of might and genius, e.g., Cæsar and his proposed digest of law, Cuvier and his proposed compendium of science (Psalms 146:4; H. E. I., 3266, 3273). 3. He determines all character. Passing to and fro, he finds character everywhere in the course of formation; suddenly he brings the process to an end, and with their character precisely in the state in which he found it, those whom he strikes down go into the eternal world. A certain fact, a solemn consideration this! [1024] When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents on a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those we must so quickly follow; when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men who divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind; when I read the several dates of some that died as yesterday, and some of six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all be contemporaries and make our appearance together.—Addison. II. Let me remind you of the strange insensibility of mankind to the existence and operations of this power, from which none of us can escape, and which may so unexpectedly bring all our plans and purposes to an end. Few men give any practical heed to the fact that they are mortal (H. E. I., 1557–1565; P. D., 69). The conduct of mankind in neglecting the concerns of immortality, reverses all the elements of wisdom. Men bury themselves in the concerns of time, and forget that their consciences will have an awful resurrection in another world. This insensibility is the more unpardonable since God uses so many means to arouse and to instruct us. Reflect on the momentous character of life, its shortness, its grand purpose, its solemn issues; look to the grand vision beyond the shades of death. III. In order that we may be delivered from this prevalent insensibility, let us recall some of the advantages arising from a frequent contemplation of, and a Scriptural preparation for, the approach of death. 1. Preparation for death quite changes its aspect. To a Christian it would be a dreadful thing not to die; his would be the case of a child who was never to come of age, of an exile who was never to go home (H. E. I., 1571–1578; P. D., 667, 669, 747). 2. Preparation for death exalts the character of life. It dispels much of the gloom of life; the bright prospect at the end irradiates all the intervening way. 3. In preparing for death we become imbued with the temper and the tastes of heaven (H. E. I., 1566, 2731–2737.)—Samuel Thodey. THE SEED OF Isa_14:20. The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. I. This is the verdict of the Scriptures. They abound in evidence that confirms it. Whatever may be the resources of wicked men, true glory does not lie in their path, and nought they can do will avail to secure honourable memory for their wickedness. On the contrary, their name and deeds will be attended with disaster and covered with shame. And this in spite— 1. Of the wealth which may be connected with evil-doing (Job 21:7-21; Psalms 52:5-7, &c.); or, 2. The power it may have (Psalms 73:3-8; Psalms 73:18-20), even if it be a confederated power (Proverbs 11:21); or, 3. The ingenuity with which it may conduct its work (Psalms 36:2-4; Micah 2:1-3). These are but a few of the declarations of the Bible on this subject. II. This is also the verdict of human experience. As a matter of fact, we see that a wicked course of life is regarded as a shame. It is held up as a beacon to be avoided, whilst the career of the good is held up as a model to be followed. History is full of examples of men whose names are held in universal detestation, notwithstanding their connection with ingenuity, wealth, and power. Each of us knows how well the fact is proved by myriads of examples in social life. A persistently wicked course is known to be a blighted one, and any attempt to invest it with glory or renown is felt to be wrong. We recoil even from the thought that it should be possible for such a course to command the homage of men. III. This truth gives us great hope for the future of our world. If it were possible for wrongdoing to gain for itself imperishable renown, we might tremble for the safety of those principles of righteousness and truth which have always been regarded as the main support and stay of good men. Reckless folly and wild presumption would become exalted and enthroned, and we might well shudder at the possibility that, under the attractions of successful wickedness, men would rush in masses and bow down to Evil, declaring it to be their Good. This abandoned idolatry, this deep depravity, is now reached only in isolated cases, and such are regarded even by godless men as deplorable and hopeless. It is a hopeful fact that evildoers have to carry on much of their work in the dark, for it is a sure token that, as the light widens and deepens, the works of darkness must fall; their covering will be removed, and their shelter will be gone. IV. This truth is also one of encouragement to every individual Christian in his efforts after a Christ-like life. Evil-doing does not fail for want of effort; its attempts are bold, its struggles are determined. Yet it is doomed always to wear the name of dishonour and shame; a wicked man will never get glory for his wickedness. But Christian life is in itself true and real honour; its glory is as a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day. The Christian is a son of God, and no higher dignity than this is conceivable (H. E. I., 1073–1076); he is traversing a path which will for ever lead him on to scenes of new splendour and blessedness. Seeing that this is our high calling and destiny, let us neither fear nor envy the seed of evildoers, however strong or secure they may be, but with greater persistency than ever let us “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”—William Manning. This is— 1. Matter of observation; 2. The natural effects of bad training and example (H. E. I., 777–779); 3. The judicial appointment of God (H. E. I., 824).—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, part i. p. 21. A ANSWERIsa_14:32. What shall one answer? &c.Translators and interpreters differ as to whether the answer in this verse was intended to be given by or to the messengers of the nations; as to the nations whose messengers are here spoken of; and as to the time when they came on their errand. Adopting the view which represents them as coming to Jerusalem to congratulate Hezekiah after the marvellous deliverance of that city from the Assyrians (chap. Isaiah 37:36-38), we remind you— I. That the wonders of God’s love to His Church often surprise strangers as well as friends. For the deliverances wrought for her are often— 1. Surprisingly seasonable, e.g., the over throw of the Egyptian host in the Red Sea, when everything seemed to favour Pharaoh and to be against Israel (Exodus 15:13-15); the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib. 2. Astonishing because brought about by unlikely means. Who could have anticipated the manner of the deliverance of Jerusalem on this occasion? [Give other examples.] 3. Astonishing because vouchsafed in spite of great provocations and unworthiness. Every such deliverance is a work of grace as well as of power. II. In such times of deliverance friends and enemies alike wonder at the secure foundations on which the Church is built. The literal Zion was a marvel of architecture (Psalms 48:13), and in this respect it was a worthy symbol of the Church [1027] 1. The strength and stability of the spiritual Zion is guaranteed by the character and resources of the Builder: “The Lord hath founded Zion.” 2. Therefore we should not fear the might of any of the adversaries that come up against her (H. E. I., 1246–1251). [1027] See notes to outline: THE DUTY OF , chap. Isaiah 12:6. III. The stability and security of Zion are sources of delighted satisfaction to the humblest of her inhabitants: “The poor of His people shall trust in it.” They know they are under the guardianship of One who is “mighty to save,” and who encircles the least as well as the greatest in the arms of His love. Their consciousness of poverty and weakness leads them to rest in Him with an undivided trust, and they thus attain unconsciously to the blessedness of those whose trust is in God only, the peace which rests on the only foundation that cannot be moved.—Samuel Thodey. Mark what the text affirms, “The Lord hath founded Zion;” this is the guarantee of His love and of her stability: “the poor of His people shall trust in it,” or, as the margin has it, “shall betake themselves unto it;” this is the one purpose of her Divine mission upon earth—the care, the teaching, the education, the guidance of the poor. I. THE OF THE CHURCH. 1. The strongest, most fundamental title to protection is creation. Even among ourselves no one frames an object in order to destroy it; he who makes, makes that he may preserve. Thus is creation in itself a presumptive title to protection; and it is abundantly plain that the strength of such a bond will ever increase with the cost of the object produced. In one sense the whole material universe cost its Creator nothing, for its production was to Him a thing of infinite ease; but this cannot be said of the Church. He spoke to bid the one, He died to make the other exist. When He beholds His Church, He sees in it the monument of His own inexpressible sorrows; He feels this offspring of His Divine agonies drawn closer to His eternal heart by the thought of all it cost to give her being. 2. In this Church of His is His own honour pledged. He hath not covenanted with the world that now is to immortalise it; but He has passed His own word for the perpetuity of His Church (Matthew 16:18; Isaiah 60:20-21). 3. The Church, in its ultimate perfection, is set forth as the very reward of all the sorrows of its Lord. To “see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied” is His destined crown; this “joy set before Him” was that which enabled Him to “endure the cross, despising the shame.” (See also Ephesians 5:25-27.) Shall He be defrauded of His recompense? 4. There is more than creation to bind the Church to Christ, more than promise, more than reward; there is communion, oneness, identification. A man may desert his child; he cannot desert himself. Even though the Redeemer could forget His espoused bride; even though He could deny His plighted promise; yea, though He could abandon His own reward, He cannot abandon His own body (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 5:30). With such a union there can be no separation; if Christ be immortal, the Church is so; when He dies she shall perish, but not till then. II. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. “The poor of His people shall trust in it.” The Church of Christ is one vast institute for the benefit of the poor. The poor were the special objects of Christ’s solicitude and tenderness, and they have been, and should be, the special objects of the Church’s care. Even in her worst days she has had an open hand for the poor. She should ever follow the example of her Lord in caring for their temporal needs. But it is in the doctrine she preaches, and the way she preaches it, that the Church is indeed the poor man’s consoler [1030]William Archer Butler, M.A.: Sermons, Doctrinal and Practical, Second Series, pp. 227–237. [1030] It is in meeting his sorrow with tidings of glory to come, in brightening the gloom of his humble home with the hallowed light of eternity, in soothing his days of hard and heavy toil with her peaceful Sabbaths, in watching over his bed of sickness with a patience as unwearied as if his poor chambers were gorgeous with gilded ceilings and silken tapestry; it is in these things that the Church carries on that loveliest attribute of Her Lord, “Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress.”—Archer Butler. GOD’S Isa_16:4. Let Mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab. I. In the most deserted condition of His people, God acknowledges them as His own. “Mine outcasts.” Sennacherib thought them his; but though forsaken by all the world, God claims them as His own, and avows His interest in them. Men pursue an opposite course; when individuals sink in the social scale, the kindly warmth of friendship is chilled, and the bond of intercourse broken (H. E. I., 23, 24, 2152–2157; P. D., 1422). But God is the friend who sticketh closer than any brother [1033] True, they sometimes esteem themselves outcasts even from Him (Psalms 42:2), and still more frequently are thought to be so by the ungodly (Psalms 42:3); but in this the ungodly make a mistake which in their case is natural, and God’s people should never wrong Him by suspecting Him of fickleness (chap. Isaiah 49:15). [1033] Philip Henry says, “God’s people may be an outcast people—cast out from men’s love, their synagogue, their country; but God will own His people when men cast them out. They are outcasts, but they are His; and somehow or other He will provide a dwelling for them.” He adds, that though many of the ejected ministers were brought very low, had many children, were greatly harassed by persecutors, and their friends were unable to support them, yet in all his acquaintance he never knew, nor had heard of, any Nonconformist minister being in prison for debt. II. God provides a refuge for His people when and where it might be least expected. “With thee, Moab.” Moab was not a neutral, but a hostile state, one of Israel’s most inveterate foes, always on the outlook for opportunities to display its hostility. Strange, therefore, that Moab should be selected as a protector for Jehovah’s outcasts; strange, but not unexampled. God often raises up friends for His people in unexpected quarters, supplies their needs by unexpected means, or turns their foes into friends (Proverbs 16:7). Esau’s heart was suddenly changed; Joseph found favour in the eyes of the keeper of the prison; Elijah was fed by ravens; the hungry lions forbore to touch Daniel, &c. III. God would have His people to be only sojourners in Moab. His outcasts were merely to dwell there; they were not to be incorporated with the Moabitish nation; they were not to adopt either the social customs or the religious beliefs of that people. In like manner He would have His people remember always that in this world they are only sojourners (1 Peter 2:11; H. E. I., 5026–5065). IV. God is preparing to bring His outcast and scattered people home. He hath prepared for them a city, and He will bring them to the city He hath prepared for them (John 14:1). Let them recognise, rejoice in, and live in harmony with this gracious purpose (Philippians 3:17-21).—Samuel Thodey. [1036][1036] “I have long looked for you,” said a persecuting magistrate to a poor woman, “and now I commit you to prison; and then what will you do?” “If it please my Heavenly Father,” she replied, “I shall be fed at your table;” and so she was, for his own wife, who sat by, sent her daily food (Psalms 84:11-12). [1039][1039] See Outlines: HUSKS, and REASONS FOR THE OF PRAYER, chap. Isaiah 1:15. Isaiah 16:12. He shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail. In the profoundly affecting picture which the prophet draws of the calamities coming on the Moabites, he represents them as at length, every other means of relief being exhausted, coming with sad and weary hearts to their sanctuary to call upon their god for deliverance. Their supplications were destined to fail, for they were presented to that which had no power to hear or save (Psalms 115:4-8). This line in this dark picture reminds us of two facts in the life of the men of our own time, who see clearly the folly of idolatry. I. In times of sorrow they are often seen in the sanctuary. Many who at other times lead openly irreligious lives are then seen using the forms of devotion. This is natural (H. E. I., 3718); it is not wrong; that which is wrong is the infrequency with which the sanctuary is visited and prayer offered by them (H. E. I, 3878, 3879). It is natural and fitting that in time of trouble men should seek God in the sanctuary, tor the sanctuary is the place— 1. Of special promise (Exodus 20:24; Deuteronomy 12:5; 1 Kings 9:3; Matthew 18:20). 2. Of special means. Everything there tends to the production and increase of a devotional spirit (H. E. I., 5078). 3. Of special memory—of memories of help obtained, of sorrows solaced in former times. II. But all this makes more remarkable the other fact of which these words may well remind us, that many of the supplications that are offered in the sanctuary are offered in vain. We know that this is a fact: how is it to be explained? In such ways as these— 1. Many of the suppliants have little or no faith, and faith is the essential condition of blessing (H. E. I., 3827–3830). 2. Many of the suppliants are not really in earnest, and lukewarmness is an offence to the Divine Being (H. E. I., 3814, 3815, 3831–3838). 3. Many of the suppliants are not really penitent. Their prayers are mere calls for help in time of distress, and God has nowhere promised to help the impenitent and rebellious (H. E. I., 3846, 3858; P. D., 3595). To point out the causes of the weakness and failure of such prayers is also to point out the remedies that must be applied if the suppliants would have their prayers “prevail.”—William Manning. In times of trouble, men— 1. Feel their need of help. 2. Generally have recourse to fallacious sources (H. E. I., 172–175). 3. Meet with disappointment, because God is forgotten or unknown.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, part i. p. 23. AND CHANGES OF LIFEIsa_17:5-7. And it shall be as when the harvestman, &c.God’s visitations of judgment are the subject of the prophet’s burdens (Isaiah 17:1). So the text. Adversities and sorrows set in. Blessings gone, except a few. “Two or three berries,” &c. I. The various illustrations of the text. 1. In the adverse changes of life. Many who were rich and prosperous are now poor. All gone, except two or three berries. Some so through their own folly, &c.; others by the allotment of Providence, sickness, &c. (H. E. I., 4403–4406, 4975–4986). 2. In the failure of bodily health and vigour. Once strong and robust, &c.; now left but a few berries, &c. 3. In the bereavements of kindred and friends. Once a crowd of them—parents, brothers, sisters, children—but they have gone, one after another. 4. In the powers and capacities for useful activity. Once active, useful, but now frailty and weakness have superseded. This is distressing to the sensitive, &c. Pushed aside by another generation. 5. It will apply to times and seasons of probation. How wise was old Barzillai! (2 Samuel 19:31). The indications of age, &c. (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Few years left, &c., or even days. II. The uses we should make of the subject. 1. It should impress us with the vanity of earthly things. All fleeting, all retiring; like the seasons, like streams. 2. The folly of earthly-mindedness. How extreme! Grasping shadows, resting on the moving wave, building castles in the air, &c. 3. The necessity of wisely using our opportunities. For the best ends. Working while it is day—now, while we have light and life. 4. Seeking a fitness for the world of the future (Hebrews 10:34; Hebrews 11:3-16). 5. Believing and devotional confidence in God. Application:—Christ is ever the same. In all His offices, work, and graciousness, He is without a shadow of turning.—Jabez Burns, D.D.: 150 Sketches of Sermons, pp. 296, 297. This striking passage depicts the process of God’s judgments upon Israel. We may take it as suggestive— I. Of the sweeping destructiveness of calamities in human life (Isaiah 17:5). How often has the picture been realised!— 1. In the history of nations. The process of the depopulation and misery with which Israel was threatened, may be imagined from the view given in chap. Isaiah 3:1-8. Modern parallels may easily be found, the wars of the Roses, the plague of London, &c. 2. In the social calamities of families. One after another is broken up, one relationship after another is severed, until only an “outmost” branch is left as a remnant. Widow, orphans, friendless. Such are those who remain to tell the tale. 3. In the physical calamities of individuals. 4. In the degradation of the soul through the deceitfulness of sin. In some extreme cases, what a sad undermining of character and destruction of capacity do we behold. II. Of the hopefulness of human life even when it is at its worst (Isaiah 17:6). Though the reaper has made sure work, yet enough remains to give hope. There is here true gospel, suggesting such thoughts as these:— 1. Begin at the point of your ability, however low it may be. Every man is rightly expected to make use of whatever power he has. If it is only sight, or only hearing, or only one hand, one talent out of ten, he must use it. The loss of the other nine will not excuse his neglect of the one he has. 2. Beginning thus low down, yet in earnest, we have the assurance of improvement and progress. We have abundant illustration of this in the history of the “remnant” that was left in Israel (2 Chronicles 30:11; 2 Chronicles 34:6; 2 Chronicles 34:9, &c.). We see here an encouragement for every sinner who will awake, though late, to the true purposes of life. Redemption is the favourite work of God. He is on the side of feeble, struggling men, and delights to encourage and help “the remnant” which is spared (H. E. I., 934–941, 956, 958, 2368, 4790–4792; P. D., 474). The very purpose for which Christ came into the world was to help the struggling, to save the lost. Those who have been brought down to the extremity of need and the verge of despair may find friendship and help in Him (H. E. I., 928, 929).—William Manning. Isa_17:7-8. At that day shall a man look, &c.In the prophecies of terror to guilty nations there is always some provision of comfort for God’s faithful and penitent people. His prophets were commissioned to minister hope to His friends, while they foretold misery to His enemies. In the text Isaiah, predicting the overthrow of the ten tribes, furnishes consolation to the faithful remnant who had not yielded to the prevalent idolatry (Isaiah 17:6), and declares that the judgments he announced would result in the conversion of many who had been ensnared by it. We are thus led to consider the designs of God in the afflictions of His people. I. To recall their wandering hearts to Himself. “At that day shall a man look to his Maker” (H. E. I., 56–59, 66–70). This is the result of sanctified affliction. Whenever it is seen, it shows that the processes of grace have been combined with the trials of providence, and that the health of the spirit has been restored by the Physician of souls. Otherwise affliction hardens, and the man goes back with greater eagerness to worldliness or iniquity, as the retreating wave presently rolls back upon the beach with greater velocity than before (H. E. I., 223–228). But not so if the healing influence has been sought and found. Then “a man will look to his Maker”— 1. With a suppliant eye, to find in Him sources of consolation and a rock of defence such as the world cannot furnish (Psalms 123:1-2; Jonah 2:1). 2. With a penitent eye (Luke 22:62; Zechariah 12:10). 3. With a confiding and believing eye (chap. Isaiah 8:17). 4. With a rejoicing eye (Romans 5:11; Habakkuk 3:18). II. To raise their estimate of the holiness of the Divine character and the rectitude of the Divine dispensations. “Shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel.” Sin begins with a diminished sense of God’s holiness, and conversion is marked by a renewed impression of it (Psalms 51:4). III. To separate them from all sinful and idolatrous dependencies. “He shall not look,” &c. The sin of the ten tribes was idolatry (2 Kings 17:16), but here it is foretold that it shall be brought to an end. Those who had been guilty of this folly and this sin would not even look at the altars and the images they had fashioned with such care. So God aims by His afflictive providences to separate His people from everything in which they put an exaggerated and unworthy trust (H. E. I., 110, 111). IV. To endear the mercy that mingles with the trials. This appears— 1. In the moderate degree in which God’s people are corrected, compared with the final and exterminating judgments which fall upon the wicked. Damascus was to be utterly destroyed (Isaiah 17:1), but a remnant was to be left to Israel (Isaiah 17:5; see also chap. Isaiah 27:7-9). God’s people always see that He has afflicted them less than they deserve (Lamentations 3:22) [1042] 2. In the alleviations of their trials (H. E. I., 117–121). 3. In the triumphant issue of the whole. They are delivered from the idolatry by which they were degraded (H. E. I., 116).—Samuel Thodey. [1042] See Outline: GOD’S TO PUNISH, chap. Isaiah 1:9. OF GODIsa_17:10-11. Because thou hast forgotten, &c.I. It is possible to forget the God of our salvation. 1. The majority of men habitually forget Him. He very seldom holds a real and commanding place in the hearts of any of us. We are all prone to have our hearts wholly filled with the cares or pleasures of life. Even if our aims be in themselves lawful, we seldom recognise God in framing or prosecuting them. Hence the shock which the thought of God’s nearness gives us in times of calamity, sickness, or expected death. The very shock shows that we are open to the prophet’s charge. 2. This forgetfulness of God, to which we are all so prone, should be recognised to be a state of peril and guilt. Who is so near to us as God? who so essential to us? who has so many claims upon our grateful and continued remembrance? To be forgetful of Him is a sin of which we should think with shame. II. This forgetfulness of God leads to false trusts. The throne of our heart cannot remain vacant; if God be not there, unworthy objects will surely take His place. The “pleasant plants” and foreign shoots (or “strange slips”) here represent the pursuit of lust and idolatry, and that fatal reliance on human help which is so often denounced (chap. Isaiah 2:22; Jeremiah 17:5). The sin denounced by the prophet has not become obsolete. All round about us are men who have forgotten God, and are seeking and putting their trust in pleasure, pomp, money, or knowledge. There is a pursuit of knowledge, even a “science” falsely so called that deliberately excludes God from its range, and pronounces Him unknowable! These are the things for which men live, to which they devote all they are and have, from which they look for the happiness for which their hearts crave; these are their gods! Forgetfulness of God necessarily leads to idolatry in some form or other; desires and tendencies, in themselves right when under right control, become occasions of guilt; God is shifted from the centre of operations, and the trust of men fixes itself inevitably on unworthy objects (H. E. I., 39). III. These false trusts lead to bitter disappointments. “The harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” At the very time when abundance of fruit was expected, nothing awaits the anxious toiler but disappointment and failure. Mildew, or blight, or drought, or fire has done its deadly work, and nothing is left but rotting masses, heaps of useless and decaying vegetation. What a sad picture! barrenness and dearth where there should be life and plenty! Yet this is a true picture of the fate of many who have persisted in their rejection of God, and in their clinging to false hopes. A life dedicated to fashion, pleasure, money-getting, or worldly ambition, necessarily ends in a reaping-time of blighted hopes, of darkened prospects, of remorse and despair (H. E. I., 246–248, 5021–5025; P. D., 138, 162, 255, 3592). 1. This result of a godless life will be found even in those cases where all the good that was striven after has been realised; the heart is still left unsatisfied (Ecclesiastes 1:12 to Ecclesiastes 2:17). 2. “Desperate sorrow” is the natural result of discovering that the time for securing a profitable harvest is gone (Jeremiah 8:20; P. D., 2254). Earnestly consider God’s claims upon you; renounce all false trusts; sow for that harvest in which there can be no real disappointment (Galatians 6:6). Redeem the time that yet remains; to the worst of us a gracious promise is still held out (Malachi 3:7; Psalms 116:7).—William Manning. THE OF THE WICKEDIsa_17:12. Woe to the multitude, &c.These verses appear to have no connection with the prophecies that precede or follow them, but they seem to indicate the character and result of the great invasion of Sennacherib. As a description of that event, they are most beautiful and graphic, sufficient to create terror in the most thoughtless and boastful sinners. For they remind them of the ease with which the overthrow of the rebellious is effected when God visits them in the midst of their pride and self-confidence. In regard to the punishment here depicted, think—I. Of the striking contrasts which the day of visitation reveals respecting the conduct and the position of the wicked. Isaiah 17:12 shows us the vast and varied host in fancied security; we have a magnificent picture of a state of might, pomp, vainglory, self-confidence; but ere we reach the end of Isa 17:13, we see it scattered! Even while it gloried in its strength, the storm that was to scatter it had already gathered over it. We see the same contrast in everyday life; wicked men secure, strong, boastful—the next moment utterly cast down (Psalms 73:18-20); or, by the near approach of death, transformed into the subjects of a pitiable despair (P. D., 684). II. Of the resistless execution of the sentence of doom. In pursuit of their wicked schemes, sinners are often led to a daring defiance of all who threaten their progress, even of God Himself; e.g., Pharaoh (Exodus 5:2), Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:17, &c.). But how sharp is the rebuke which God administers; with what terrible energy are His decrees executed! The profane boasters become as chaff, as gossamer before the whirlwind (H. E. I., 2298). III. Of the swiftness with which the sentence of doom is executed (Isaiah 17:14). The morning dawns upon their noise and pomp, but fast as the beams of light does their judgment overtake them; trouble comes at the eventide, and by the next morning they are not (P. D., 3413). It is true that the punishment of the wicked often seems to be delayed (Ecclesiastes 8:11); but— 1. Sin and punishment are inseparable (H. E. I., 4603–4610); and, 2. Whenever the punishment comes it is sudden. Such is the blinding and delusive power of cherished sin that its penalty always finds the sinner unprepared to receive it; it is always a surprise and a shock to him. 1. Nations and armies cannot successfully evade the penalties of their sins; how much less can the individual sinner do so! 2. The certainty of the punishment of all unrepented sin should lead us seriously to reflect upon the attitude we are assuming before God. 3. The subject should lead to repentance, but not to despair (Psalms 130:7; John 3:16-17).—William Manning. TRUE Isa_19:1-3; Isaiah 19:14. The burden of Egypt, &c.The prophecies of Isaiah take a wide range, embrace the fortunes of almost every nation, however remote, with whom the Israelites were brought into common relation, whether of policy or commerce—Moab, Damascus, Tyre, Babylon, Ethiopia, Egypt. The prophet records the political and social phenomena of his day, not with the eye of a mere statesman or diplomatist, but as reviewing the moral as well as the political aspects of things, the eternal governing laws as well as the fitful moods and changes of a nation’s life, the spiritual as well as the material forces of the world. Israel, in their dread of the great Assyrian monarchy, often cast wistful eyes towards Egypt, where they hoped to find a sure and powerful ally. The Egyptians accepted their subsidies, but thought they consulted their own interests best by observing what has been called amongst ourselves a “masterly inactivity.” Their strength was to sit still. They had a large standing army; but, as Rabshakeh showed, on a memorable occasion, that he knew (chap. Isaiah 36:6) the nation, with all its outward semblance of prosperity, was being eaten up with a thousand moral and social cankers, which corrupted the very source of all national life. This chapter lays bare those wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. 1. There was a day when Egypt had been famous for its wisdom. This wisdom had become a thing of the past (Isaiah 19:11-12). 2. There was no unity of purpose, no coherence of action in the body politic. The true ideas of the family, of the municipality, of the nation, were lost. Every man was fighting against his brother (Isaiah 19:2). It is history eternally repeating itself; it is the lament of Thucydides over Greece; of Horace, Livy, and Tacitus over the corruption of guilty imperialism, and over the absence of the masculine, simple, republican virtues of ancient Rome. 3. With the decay of public virtue comes the decay of public spirit, and then soon follows the decay of national strength. Then comes what these old Hebrew seers called the “judgment;” God coming out of His place to visit the earth; anarchy, internal dissolution, collapse, conquest by the foreigner; the giving over of the nation into the hand of a cruel lord; the establishment of a military despotism. It were easy to point these remarks elsewhere, but let us look at home. Many feel that during the last decade of years or more England has been parting with many of her old traditions. Some of those principles which were merely corrupt remnants of a social and political system which has passed away—feudalism—we have undoubtedly gained by losing. But there are others which we have lost, or are fast losing, to the great detriment of the commonwealth. The high sense of duty to the State overruling the sense of interest in the individual citizen; the true measure of a nation’s wealth and greatness, not by its revenue in pounds sterling, but by its revenue in the healthy bodies, and honest hearts, and pure, healthy homes of the people; the noble, self-sacrificing spirit of devotion to the call of duty; the principle of right recognised as a higher principle than that of expediency; a temper of loyalty in the strict sense of the word, of willing obedience to the law and those who represent the law; strict commercial integrity, and not the tricks of trade which have been generated by an unwholesome competition—these are maxims of ancient wisdom which made England great, and the loss of which will make England small. Our greatness, whatever it has been, has not rested so much upon material forces, but, like Israel’s of old, upon moral. We can only hope that our position among the peoples will be maintained as long as we hold fast the principles by which it was won. These privileges are not things of chance, but the direct result of moral laws as immutable and irreversible as the laws which govern the physical world. God send us statesmen who will turn the nation’s mind away from delusive and partisan aims, and direct them seriously to efforts which may unite us all in one great crusade against evil; in which every soldier might certainly feel that he was fighting under the banner of Christ, in a righteous war, for objects which surely have a place in the redemption which Christ accomplished for the world.—Bishop Fraser: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. pp. 177, 178. AN ALTAR AND A SAVIOUR FOR EGYPTIsa_19:18-20. In that day shall five cities, &c.I. God is able to raise up monuments and trophies of His grace in the most unlikely places (Isaiah 19:18-19). For the historical fulfilments of these predictions, see the ordinary commentaries. They should teach us not to despair of the progress of religion in the most unlikely places, the most unlikely times, among the most unlikely persons. The grace of God is able to subdue the hardest hearts, to enlighten the darkest minds, to convert the most guilty natures, to cast out Satan where his power seems strongest and his interest most secure. Despair not of your own salvation (H. E. I., 2376), of the salvation of those dear to you, of the final triumph of the cause of truth (H. E. I., 979, 1166–1168). But recollect that all that has been done has been done by the use of appropriate means: the altar to God in Egypt was built by human hands, the Ark was not built by miracle but by means; all the triumphs we anticipate are to be achieved by the diffusion of Divine truth, by the prayers and efforts of the Church. What effort are you making? II. God often overrules the trials of life to produce a spirit of prayer, and to bring men to Himself. “They shall cry unto the Lord because of their oppressors [1045][1045] See Outline: , chap. Isaiah 17:7-8. III. It is God’s prerogative to raise up a Saviour (Isaiah 19:20). Whatever comforts or deliverances you have had through the medium of creatures, the hand of God is to be pre-eminently acknowledged in them all. Spiritually we need a great Saviour, and God has provided one equal to the emergency of the case. Our guilt is very great, our danger very threatening, our enemies very powerful, our ruin very awful, but help is laid on One that is mighty. The greatness of Christ as a Saviour appears from the essential dignity of His nature (Hebrews 1:1), from the certain efficacy of His atonement (Hebrews 7:25), from the countless number of the redeemed (Revelation 7:9), from the completeness of the salvation He imparts (1 Corinthians 1:30).—Samuel Thodey. Isa_19:22. And the Lord shall smite Egypt, &c.I. The benevolent design of God in chastisement. God smites in order to heal. Scripture teaches throughout that God’s dealings with men are— 1. Not capricious. 2. Not indiscriminate. 3. Not unjust. He does not impose burdens that cannot be borne, nor exact obedience which man cannot render, nor select favourites for preference or victims for vengeance, without any regard to the relations existing between man and Himself. Contrary to all this, God’s smiting is that— (1) of a Rescuer, who inflicts blows upon our chains that He may set us free; (2) of a Physician, who in mercy probes the wound that He may heal it; (3) of a Father, who uses the rod for the salutary purposes of correction and reformation (H. E. I., 56–74). II. The conduct befitting in men when under chastisement. “And they shall return,” &c. This return includes— 1. Submission (H. E. I., 143). 2. Entreaty for help. (See also Isaiah 19:20.) This involves humble confession of sin, and hearty reliance upon God (H. E. I., 145–147). 3. Sincerity of purpose, as manifested in the fulfilment of vows. (See also Isaiah 19:21.)—William Manning. THE BURDEN OF DUMAHIsa_21:11-12. The burden of Dumah, &c.There are three distinct prophecies in this chapter, and they are all termed burdens, as denoting heavy judgments. The first respects Babylon; the next, Dumah, Idumea, or Edom, inhabiting Mount Seir; and the last, Arabia.The fall of Babylon by the Medes and Persians is announced under the form of a watchman stationed to discover approaching objects, with orders to declare what he saw (Isaiah 21:6-9). It was an event peculiarly interesting to Judah. Babylon was the floor on which Judah was to be thrashed, till the refuse should be separated from the grain. The event which destroyed the one delivered the other (Isaiah 21:10).The fall of Babylon was interesting to other nations as well as Judah; particularly to the Idumeans or Edomites, who were reduced to servitude within a few years after the taking of Jerusalem. Now, seeing that Judah had received a favourable report, Edom must needs inquire of the watchman (like Pharaoh’s baker) of Joseph, after he had announced good tidings to the butler, whether there was nothing equally favourable to them. [We are not to understand, however, that messengers were really sent out of Edom to Isaiah; the process was merely a pneumatical one.—Delitzsch.] The answer is, NOTHING; but, on the contrary, the lot of Judah’s enemies, “a burden.”The revolution would indeed, for a time, excite the joy of the conquered nations (chap. Isaiah 14:7-8); but the Edomites should meet with a disappointment. To them a change of government should only be a change of masters. The fair morning of their hopes should issue in a long and dark night of despondency. In the day of Babylon’s fall, according to the prayer of the captives, when every prisoner was lifting up his head in hope, Edom was remembered, as excepted from an act of grace, on account of his singular atrocities (Psalms 137:7-9).The Edomites were very impatient under the Babylonish yoke, and very importunate in their inquiries after deliverance; reiterating the question, “What of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” When will this dark and long captivity be ended? And now that their hopes are repulsed by the watchman’s answer, they are exceedingly unwilling to relinquish them. Loth to depart with an answer so ungrateful, they linger, and inquire again and again, in hopes that the sentence may be reversed. But they are told that all their lingering is in vain. “If ye will inquire, inquire ye, return, come” again; yet shall your answer be the same.And what was the crime of the Edomites that should draw down upon them this heavy burden, this irresistible doom? Their inveterate hatred of the people of God (Obadiah 1:10). Perhaps there was no nation whose treatment of Israel was so invariably spiteful, and whose enmity was accompanied with such aggravating circumstances. They were descended from Abraham and Isaac, and were treated by Israel, at the time they came out of Egypt, as brethren; but as they then returned evil for good (Numbers 20:14-21), so it was ever afterwards. Their conduct, on the melancholy occasion of Jerusalem being taken by the Chaldeans, was infamous (Obadiah 1:10-16).The passage affords a tremendous lesson to ungodly sinner, and especially to those who, having descended from pious parents, and possessed religious advantages, are, notwithstanding, distinguished by their enmity to true religion. The situation of the Edomites rendered it impossible for them to be so ignorant as other heathen nations of the God of Israel; and their hatred appears to have been proportioned to their knowledge. Such is the character of great numbers in the religious world. They have both seen and hated the truth. The consequence will be, if grace prevent not, they will flatter themselves awhile with vain hopes; but, ere they are aware, their morning will be changed into an endless night.Edom was once addressed in the language of kindness and brotherly affection; but having turned a deaf ear to this, all their inquiries after deliverance are now utterly disregarded. Such will be the end of sinners. “When once the Judge hath risen up and shut the door,” they may begin to knock, may inquire and return, and come again, but all will be in vain; a night of ever-during darkness must be their portion.The passage also, taken in its connection, holds up to us the different situation of the friends and enemies of God under public calamities. It is natural in such circumstances for all to inquire, “What of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” Each, also, may experience a portion of successive light and darkness in his lot. But the grand difference lies in the issue of things. God’s people were thrashed on the floor of Babylon; and, when purified, were presently restored. To them there arose light in darkness. Weeping continued for a night, but joy came in the morning. Not so with Edom; their night came last. Such will be the portion of God’s enemies: they may wish for changes, in hope of their circumstances being bettered; but the principal thing wanting is a change in themselves. While strangers to this, the oracles of Heaven prophesy no good concerning them. A morning may come, but the night cometh also.—Andrew Fuller: Complete Works, pp. 514, 515.The whole Bible has, as its common and pervading argument, one mighty subject, which, appearing in a thousand different forms, is substantially the same in every page of the sacred volume. That subject is, the salvation appointed for the chosen of mankind, and the ruin decreed for those who reject the offer. Therefore when the prophetic Scriptures publish to us promises of peace and denunciations of woe, let us never deem that the Divine Spirit had no ulterior purpose in these predictions. Let us never cast aside the volume and cry that we are not Edom, or Egypt, or Babylon, or Tyre; and that, therefore, we have nothing to do either with their crimes or their punishment. Let us not vainly dream that the mighty machinery of the prophetic messages was put into play merely to call down curses on a few of the temporary dynasties of this perishable world! “All Scripture was written for our use,” and these “springing and germinant prophecies” (as they have been called) have a significancy beyond the revolutions of petty kingdoms. They represent, in majestic order and manifest type, the great truths of eternal salvation and eternal ruin; they exhibit, in the sensible language of exterior imagery, what the great Teacher of after-times gave in the higher language of spiritual truth. If the laws of God be uniform and unchangeable, we are justified in reading by this light from heaven the prophetic declarations of the course and principles of His earthly providences.With such views as these elevating our thoughts beyond the details of perished empires into the mightier truths of the eternal empire of our God, let us reflect briefly upon the words before us.The prophet appears to introduce himself as addressed in scorn by the people of the land which he is commissioned to warn. “Watchman, what of the night?” What new report of woe hast thou to unroll, who hast placed thyself as an authorised observer and censurer of our doings? But the prophetical watchman—the calm commissioner of Heaven—replies, adopting their own language, “Yes, the morning (the true morning of hope and peace) cometh, and also the night (the real and terrible night of God’s vengeance); if ye will (if ye are in genuine earnest to inquire), inquire! Return, come.” Obtain the knowledge you seek, the knowledge of the way of life; and, acting upon this knowledge, repent and return to the Lord your God.Regard, then, the guilty Edom that is warned; and the office and answer of the watchman who warns it.I cannot now undertake to count over the array of those who address the spiritual watchmen of the Church of Christ in tones of derision, and mock their ministry. Some there are who ask the report of “the night” with utter carelessness as to the reply; some there are who ask it in contempt.But what is still the duty of him who holds the momentous position of watchman in the city of God? On the occasion before us, remark— 1. He did not turn away from the question, in whatever spirit it was asked. 2. He uttered with equal assurance a threat and a promise. 3. He pressed the necessity of care in the study, and earnest inquiry after the nature, of the truth; and he summed up all in an anxious, a cordial, and reiterated invitation to repentance and reconciliation with an offended but pardoning God. Thus, the single verse might be regarded as an abstract of the duties of the ministerial office.—W. Archer Butler: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 339–345.NIGHT AND MORNINGIsa_21:11-12. Watchman, what of the night?That there is night in this world few will question. He must be a bold optimist who thinks everything as it is, is for the best possible in the best possible of worlds. Darkness still covers the earth. God’s children, who have a glorious light within them, have a dark night all round about them. Night is the symbol of gloom and suffering; and it is the season of sin. It is moral night, because “men love darkness rather than light.” Every true-hearted, earnest Christian is a watchman: he watches for his own soul, and for the souls of others; and he longs for the advent of the world’s new morning, when the shadows shall flee away. Regarding the earnest Christian as the person accosted in the text, what are his thoughts and fears about the night? What are his hopes about the morning? I. When the Christian looks out upon the world, he sees himself surrounded by the night of unbelief and irreligion, and yet he beholds streaks of sunny dawn. There are many things at which if he looked exclusively he would despair—materialism taught by popular teachers, atheism the creed of not a few, abounding luxury, sensuality defiling and degrading all classes of the community. But, looking beyond these, he sees evidences of Christian faith and hope such as the world never before witnessed—Sunday-schools, tract societies, home and foreign missions, various organisations for Christian labour, generously supported and efficiently maintained; and, as he looks, he feels that the morning draweth nigh. II. When the Christian man looks into his own heart, he sees much that speaks of the night, but much also that tells of the coming morning. III. The Christless man, as well as the Christian, may well ask, “What of the night?” He may relieve the gloom of his existence by a few sparks of transient merriment, but soon they will be all extinguished; and for him there will be no morning!—W. M. Statham: Christian World Pulpit, iii. 193. Passing from the historical application of this oracle, we observe that it may be taken as setting forth the spirit of inquiry first raised in the soul by the hand of God, the form that inquiry will take, the answer it will receive, and the direction in which it will find ultimate satisfaction. I. Thoughts on the spirit of religious inquiry. The picture before us is that of a walled city; the middle watch of the night, when the citizens are asleep. But one anxious spirit cannot sleep; he turns out into the dark, silent, deserted street, oppressed by a strange feeling that something is going to happen. He hears the heavy footfall of the watchman pacing to and fro on the city walls. With eagerness not to be repressed, he cries, “Watchman,” &c. This is symbolical; it has its counterparts in our own time. 1. This restless inquirer is the exception. The many sleep, only one wakes and inquires. The danger is common, but only one feels any apprehension of it. There are multitudes of sinners, few inquirers concerning the way of salvation. 2. The spirit of inquiry appears in an unexpected quarter. A man of Seir, an Edomite, lifts up eager questions; the men of Israel sleep. The old, old story. Many lepers in Israel: Naaman cleansed; ten healed, the Samaritan only returns to give thanks. The boldest ventures of faith were made by the Gentile centurion and the Syro-Phœnician woman. Those who pressed into the kingdom were not Scribes and Pharisees, but publicans and sinners. So it is still. 3. The inquiry was well directed. The appeal was not to the citizens who were asleep, but to the watchman who was awake. If you have questions to ask, ask of the man of quick perception, keen sensibility, high standing, broad and firm basis of hope in Christ. Not necessarily of the minister, but of the man who is spiritually wide-awake; he is the true watchman. 4. The inquiry was weighty. What of the night? Is it far spent? When will the day dawn? What of the foe? Are they quiet in their camp? Or are they endeavouring to surprise and capture the city? We have all cause to put questions of corresponding importance. 5. This inquiry was earnest. In some cases the inquiry is listless, is only a matter of compliment; or it is entered upon reluctantly, as an unpleasant duty. But this man is in earnest. He calls again and again. He will be heard; it is a matter of moment to him. He does not know what is about to happen; the watchman should know—placed high, outlook wide, senses trained. The inquirer will not submit to be disregarded. Oh, for more of this earnestness. II. Thoughts on the answer. 1. The answer comes through the watchman. Human lips start inquiries, and through human lips the answer comes. One heart is filled with fear; another heart filled with faith must be its helper. Let those to whom the answer has been entrusted give it promptly, clearly, joyfully. 2. The answer declares God’s methods with men. God has two great methods: one has its image in the morning, the other in the night. Let morning set forth compassion, tender mercy, loving gifts; night, judgment, awful anger, heavy inflictions. If the morning be neglected or resisted, then the night will certainly fall upon you. Note the order in which these methods are employed. Morning, fresh, clear, dewy, bracing, beautiful, comes first. So in the history of the world, of the Church, of the individual. First the morning of youth! prize it highly, use it wisely. Upon the sinner comes first the morning of mercy, of invitation, of entreaty and promise. Alas that he should despise and neglect it! 2. But the night comes afterwards! True, the night of death comes to all, but there is an infinite distance between death in Christ and death out of Christ. He who dies in Christ, passes into the eternal day; he who dies out of Christ, is cast into “the outer darkness!” “Inquire”—seek to know the way of salvation. “Return”—as the prodigal from the far country. “Come”—blessed word! “Come” penitently, believingly, NOW!—J. R. Wood. “Night” is suggestive of anxious, perplexed, critical states; e.g., travellers in the desert, voyagers on the ocean, sufferers in the sick-chamber. Very naturally do we transfer such thoughts as these to our spiritual experiences (Psalms 130:1; Psalms 130:8). Our text may be taken as suggestive of the World’s Cry and the World’s Hope in all ages. I. THE WORLD’S CRY. “What of the night?” This is— 1. The cry of a soul awakened to its guilt. The very purpose of conviction is to show the sinner his wandering, downward, benighted state. Hence the terror which first views of guilt usually cause. The flash which in the midnight hour shows the traveller the path of safety, also shows him the dreadful precipice which yawns at his feet. When the sinner is aroused from his sinful career, he is bewildered by the many voices of hope and fear, of warning and promise, which greet his ear; he is oppressed with anxiety to know how such a night of danger and heart-searching will end. 2. The cry of a soul struggling with its doubts. The night of mystery often burdens the hearts of true believers, as Job and David found when they struggled with the great problems of life. Life is a new thing to each of us, and many of the same problems perplex us still: e.g., the existence of moral evil, the infinite goodness of God, the truth of Divine revelation. These sometimes press upon us with unusual weight, and shroud us in thick darkness. 3. The cry of the Church in its hours of anxiety and peril. These have been frequent, and have been due to many causes: e.g., persecution from without, indifference within, general ungodliness and unholy living, tides of scepticism. The watchmen of the Church have to keep an earnest and anxious vigil when such nights as these settle upon her. 4. The cry of humanity itself. There are times when not merely a few men are oppressed by the burdens of their time, but when men in the mass become awake to them. The world betrays its keen sense of disease by the strong remedies it employs. Against wide-spread ignorance, it opposes vast educational schemes; for deep-rooted vices, it contrives various measures of reformation; under a sense of the terrible ravages of the war-spirit, it yearns for international peace. Nations, as well as individuals, have trying experiences of the terrors of social and moral night. II. THE WORLD’S HOPE. “The morning cometh.” In the midst of all the world’s darkness we may cherish this blessed hope (H. E. I., 3421–3423). But whence is it derived? Solely from the fact that God in Christ is reconciling the world unto Himself. It is along the track of Divine revelation that we look for the bright rays of the morning. There is hope for our race because of what Christ is—the Revealer of God, the Saviour of sinners, the Head of the Church, the Restorer of humanity. The way, then, to help on the dawning of that day we all long to see, is to live in Him, to live for Him. Life derived from Him, and spent for Him, will be truly blessed in itself, and will be a means of blessing others.—William Manning. THE OF WARIsa_21:15. The grievousness of war. In our quiet sanctuary, so full of holy and peaceful memories, let us think about war; the more deeply we do so, the more will the aptness of the phrase which forms our text become apparent to us. I. The grievousness of war is seen in its causes. War is grievous in its origin and in all the things that foster it. It has its origin in the unholy lusts and pitiful mistakes of mankind (James 4:1). These lusts and mistakes, what are they? 1. The lust for increased possessions and for power (P. D., 143, 150). 2. The false glory with which war has been invested. To steal and kill on a small scale is infamous, but to do so on a huge scale is heroic! The wholesale butcher surrounds himself with pomp and pageantry that dazzle the eye and enslave the mind (P. D., 3470, 3476). 3. Blindness to the real fields on which true courage and heroism are manifested. The Christian courage which can meet and overcome the assaults of wickedness, which can turn aside the edge of scorn, and hurl back the weapons of temptation; that can urge men through living martyrdoms which do not keep time to music or song, which carries Moffat into South Africa, &c.,—this is too ethereal for most men to discern or admire. They have no suspicion of the moral victories that might be theirs on the fields of humble service and self-sacrifice. 4. Insensibility to the worth of human souls. A suspicion of the value of life would unnerve the warrior for his task; he could not then, as he does now, regard men as mere food for powder. II. The grievousness of war is seen in its effects. These are twofold:— 1. Physical. “The grievousness of war” cannot be exaggerated, if we look at it from this point of view alone. Think— (1) of the physical and mental suffering that is caused by it (P. D., 3468, 3469, 3472, 3476); (2) of the far-reaching and crushing desolation caused by it (P. D., 3466); (3) of the frightful cost of preparation for war; of the armed truce in which the nations of Europe live. 2. Moral. These are still more terrible. (1.) War brutalises those actually engaged in it (P. D., 3464). (2.) War makes criminals by producing a state of want. (3.) War aggravates national animosities, and leaves to unborn generations a legacy of hatred. Every war sows the seeds of future conflict. (4.) War and preparation for war check the progress of those agencies by which the misery of our race would be abated, and its happiness indefinitely increased. The cause of education, of missions, of the Gospel, languishes under the blight of the war-spirit. The cost of a very few wars would evangelise the world (P. D., 3476). Let this meditation move us to action. 1. Let us exert our utmost influence to bring it to pass that national power shall be wielded by men who love peace. 2. Let us encourage everything that tends to facilitate international intercourse (P. D., 3461). 3. Let us on every possible occasion exalt moral qualities above mere physical daring (P. D., 1798, 1801–1803). 4. Let us put forth every effort to diffuse the principles of Christianity. The Gospel is the only true and effectual peacemaker; only in Christ will men ever be lastingly reconciled to each other.—William Manning. THE OF GOD’S Isa_22:18. He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country. Such was the prophet’s message to a haughty statesman who prided himself on his power. Learn from it— 1. The ease with which God effects His judgments. There are many things we wish to do which require great preparations and extensive machinery; but to toss a ball from the hand is an easy matter, mere child’s play. He who takes up the isles as a very little thing, performs all His works with an ease which cannot be baffled or disturbed. 2. The utter uselessness of any resistance to the Divine judgments. As surely as a ball must follow the line of projection, so surely must we go whither the judgments of God carry us when His set time to visit us is come (H. E. I., 2269, 4960). 3. The awfulness of falling into the hands of the living God.—William Manning. THE GLORY OF THE MESSIAHIsa_22:24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house—As on the nails or spikes fixed in the walls of the ancient temples and palaces it was customary to hang suits of armour, shields, helmets, swords, &c., that had been taken in war as spoils of victory, or that had been used by illustrious ancestors. The declaration is made concerning Eliakim, and the meaning of it is, that all his relatives would connect with him all they deemed illustrious, and would rest upon him as their common support. Some of the expressions used concerning him are appropriated by our Redeemer to Himself (comp. Isaiah 22:22 and Revelation 3:7); and, without adopting the view that Eliakim was a type of Christ, we may say that, true as this declaration was concerning Eliakim, it is still more eminently true of Him to whom “the key of David” belongs by right. Upon Him they shall hang all the glory of His Father’s house.” I. THE GLORY THAT IS PLACED UPON CHRIST. Applying the text to Christ, the phrase “His father’s house” acquires a new and more glorious significance, even that of the Church of the living God, the one family in heaven and on earth. All the glory of that spiritual and eternal house depends upon and is justly ascribed to Christ. 1. All the glory of purchasing the Church. All the persons of whom it is composed were in circumstances of bondage and misery, yea, under sentence of death, from which He ransomed them at inconceivable cost (1 Peter 1:18-19). 2. All the glory of redeeming the Church. This is not a mere repetition of what has just been said. We are the subjects of a twofold redemption—a redemption of price and a redemption of power. From the penalties of sin Christ redeemed us by His blood; from the power of sin, by His Spirit. A supremely difficult and an eternally glorious task is that which He thus undertook and has accomplished. 3. All the glory of preserving the Church. What a marvellous history of dangers and deliverances it has had! 4. All the glory of perfecting the Church. It shall be complete in number, complete and resplendent with every spiritual grace. Remember what marvellous symbols are employed to set forth the beauty and the preciousness of its component parts, what treasures of spiritual wisdom and grace are already included in it. Hereafter, when it shall stand in all its radiance, the wonder and the admiration of all heavenly intelligences, all the glory of it shall hang upon Christ. II. THE PERSONS WHO UNITE IN PLACING THIS GLORY ON CHRIST. “They shall hang,” &c. The penitent sinner hangs upon Christ all the glory of his hope of acceptance with God. 2. The justified believer hangs upon Him all the glory of the favoured position in which he stands. 3. The spiritual veteran hangs upon Him all the glory of His triumphs. 4. The dying Christian hangs upon Him all the glory of the calmness and courage with which he advances to the final victory. 5. The glorified Church hangs upon Him all the glory of its perfected salvation. 6. Angels and archangels, though they were not the subjects of redemption, join in the song of salvation (Revelation 5:11-13), and ascribe to Him all the splendour in which they shine. 7. GOD exalted Him to the right hand of power, and gave Him a Name above every name (Philippians 2:9-11). “Oh that with yonder sacred throngWe at His feet may fall,Join in the everlasting song,And crown Him Lord of all!”—George Smith, D.D. GOD IN THE FIRESIsa_24:15. Glorify ye the Lord in the fires. We are required to honour God, not only in all we do (1 Corinthians 10:31), but in all we suffer (text). Consider— I. THE STATE HERE . “In the fires.” Fire and water are both Scriptural figures of affliction (Psalms 66:12; Isaiah 43:2; 1 Peter 4:12). Stripped of metaphor, the passage before us supposes a state of suffering. In this state we may be found— 1. As men (Job 5:6-7; H. E. I., 47–51); 2. As Christians (Psalms 34:19). This may seem strange to the natural man, who concludes that the favourite of Heaven is entitled to every indulgence upon earth; and it has proved a source of temptation to the people of God themselves, who have been led from their sufferings to suspect their safety. But this inference is unscriptural (Hebrews 2:10; Isaiah 53:10; Matthew 10:25; Hebrews 12:6; H. E. I., 189–196). Could we view many of those who are infinitely dear to God, we should find them in a state of affliction, often exceedingly trying; and we should see them there, not hardening themselves by infidel reasonings or stoical apathy; not endeavouring to banish all sense of their sorrows by repairing to the dissipations of the world; but waiting humbly upon God (Psalms 61:1-2; H. E. I., 157, 158). This is well; but it is not enough to seek God in our afflictions, we must serve Him. Consider, then— II. THE DUTY HERE . “Glorify,” &c. We cannot add to God’s essential glory, but we can declare it; we can make it more fully and widely known (Psalms 19:1). This is the duty to which we are at all times called (1 Peter 2:9). We discharge it in affliction, when we verbally and practically acknowledge— 1. God’s agency, recognising that our trial has not come upon us by accident, but by His appointment or permission (Job 2:10; H. E. I., 143; P. D., 92, 99). 2. His rectitude (Psalms 145:17; Daniel 9:7; Psalms 119:75). 3. His wisdom, which regulates His corrections and every circumstance connected with them. He never errs in the time, the place, the kind, the instrument, the continuance of affliction; it is precisely the very thing we need, and nothing could be altered without injury (H. E. I., 179–188). 4. His goodness, in sending the affliction at all (H. E. I., 162–165), and in the alleviations and compensations by which it is accompanied (H. E. I., 117–121). A grateful mind will never overlook these. 5. His power, to support us in the affliction, and in due season to deliver us from it. All the records of Scripture should minister to our faith in His ability to help and deliver; He is unchangeable; He is as near you as He was to His people of old; and you are as dear to Him as they were (H. E. I., 198–202). III. REASONS FOR THIS DUTY. We ought to glorify God in the fires— 1. Because it is our duty to honour Him at all times, and affliction cannot possibly exempt us from it. Though He has permitted affliction to come upon us, He still remains our Creator, our Preserver, our Benefactor, our Redeemer, and as such is entitled to the homage of our heart and life. 2. Because affliction furnishes one of the finest opportunities for honouring God (H. E. I., 3692–3694). 3. Hope should animate us, because it is distinctly declared that those who honour God shall be honoured by Him. As the consequence of sanctifying God in the fires, one of two things is certain: either they will be removed, for when the end is answered the dispensation will cease; or you will be compensated for their continuance, by increasing either the present internal supports of grace, or the future recompense of glory, or in both these ways combined. But can we, who are so weak, perform a duty so hard? No, you cannot do it; but the grace of God will be sufficient even for this. View your difficulties in connection with your supplies, God’s commands in connection with His promises, and boldly face them all (Philippians 4:12-13).—William Jay: Works, vol. xii. pp. 159–169. Glorify God— 1. In the fires of persecution by resolute adherence to the truth; 2. In the fires of temptation by a firm resistance to evil; 3. In the fires of affliction by patient submission to His will.—George Smith, D.D. THE GRAND Isa_25:1. O Lord, Thou art my God. I. THE BETWEEN GOD AND . 1. The Lord is our God in a necessary and absolute sense. 2. He should be our God by choice (H. E. I., 306, 307, 2381, 2385, 4630–4647, 4970). 3. If He is thus to become our God, it must be through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the exercise of an appropriating faith (H. E. I., 1952). II. THE WE MAY FROM THIS . 1. Light in darkness. 2. Guidance in perplexity. 3. Protection in danger. 4. Strength in duty. 5. Consolation in sorrow. 6. Sanctity and glory. III. THE DUTIES ARISING OUT OF THIS . 1. We should exalt Him. 2. We should be jealous for His honour. 3. We must obey His commands. 4. We should acquiesce in His will. 5. We should seek our pleasure and satisfaction from Him.—John Corbin. THE OF THE GOSPEL(Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 25:6-8. And in this mountain, &c.What the spirit of prophecy has here recorded is the testimony of Jesus and of His salvation, the subject presented to our view being the blessings of the Gospel of the Son of God. They are described in their general nature, in their unrivalled excellence, and in their universal extent. I. The blessings of the Gospel are here described in their general nature, as including instruction for the ignorant, consolation for the sorrowful, and life for the dead. They thus correspond to the state of man without the Gospel, which is a state of darkness, misery, and death. 1. The natural state of fallen man is a state of moral darkness. A veil is upon him, by which those things which make for his peace and essentially affect his well-being are hidden from his eyes. It is a triple veil. (1.) There is the fold of native ignorance. The merely natural man is totally ignorant of God and eternity. He knows not whence he came or whither he is going. He is altogether “sensual, having not the Spirit,” and cannot know those things of the Spirit of God which are only spiritually discerned. Hence, ever since the Fall, darkness has covered the earth and gross darkness the people. (2.) There is the yet thicker fold of moral corruption. Sin has exactly the same tendency in each particular case as in the case of Adam. It darkens the understanding by its deceitfulness, as well as hardens the heart by its malignity. It tends to extinguish that candle of the Lord which shines in the conscience, and to render useless and unavailing those other means which God has provided for delivering us from the night of Nature. Those in whom it reigns choose the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil (cf. Ephesians 4:17-18). (3.) There is the fold of Satanic infatuation. “The whole world lieth in the wicked one.” He rules in the hearts of all the children of disobedience; and his kingdom is the kingdom of delusion and darkness. He beguiled Eve through his subtilty, and he still labours to corrupt and darken the minds of men (2 Corinthians 4:4). All this is true of all the unregenerate, however diversified may be their external condition and local circumstances. Hence multitudes even of nominal Christians are fit objects of our compassionate care and exertion. But the description of the text is still more applicable to the case of heathen nations not yet visited by the Gospel. They have not the light which nominal Christians do not allow to shine into them; in general, they have no effectual light. Over them is cast the veil not merely of ignorance and sin, but of superstition and false religion, than which nothing can be more fatally opposed to the entrance of light and the operation of Divine grace. Their very systems of religion are the means of perpetuating folly and vice, instead of reclaiming them to wisdom and righteousness. In many cases that “religion” sanctions and prescribes the most cruel of sacrifices and the most licentious of rites. In Christendom men may be superstitious and wicked, licentious and cruel, but it is because they neglect their religion. In heathen and Mohammedan countries, they are so because they attend to their religion. They breathe its genuine spirit and exemplify its proper tendency. All that is deemed sacred and authoritative in the name of religion unites with all the ignorance and depravity of fallen man, and with all the subtilty and power of the Prince of Darkness to produce and perpetuate a system of error and iniquity. False religion may pretend to be a sun which enlightens, but it is really a veil which darkens all who come under its power—a veil much more effectual to favour the ravages of sin, misery, and death than even any of the coverings previously mentioned. 2. Man is described in the text as the child not only of darkness and error, but also of misery and death. For ignorance is the mother, not of devotion, but of sin, in all its multiplied forms. And sin is invariably linked to misery! The wretchedness of men bears an exact correspondence to their ignorance and wickedness (Romans 3:16-17). If this statement be true of natural men in general, it is still more awfully verified in the condition of the heathen world in particular. Infidel travellers who have cheated the public from time to time by highly-coloured pictures of the happiness of pagans, ought not on such a point to be believed. It cannot be that in the dark places of the earth, the habitations of cruelty, no groans should be heard, no tears be seen. The fact is, that while heathenism leaves its votaries to the unmitigated operation of all those natural and moral causes of distress which are common to man in general, it opens many new sources of misery, inflicts many additional desolations, creates many forms of terror, suffering, and destruction, which are peculiar to itself. All men are born to tears, because born in sin; but the tears of pagans are often tears of blood. Every groan they heave is big with double wretchedness. The Gospel, in its provision of blessings for the human race, adapts itself to that state of darkness, wretchedness, and mortality which I have faintly described. 1. It removes darkness. It reveals to us the existence, character, and will of God, our own origin, immortality, and accountableness, the way of salvation and the path of duty; and, used by the Holy Spirit as His great instrument, it changes the heart of those who receive it, and delivers them from the delusions and dominion of Satan. In these several ways does the Gospel become the instrument of illumination. By it, and in connection with it, God destroys the covering which is naturally on men’s faces, and the veil that is spread over their understandings and hearts. The consequence is, in instances innumerable, that “beholding as in a glass,” with unveiled face, “the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The glorious diffusion of light and purity which results from Christianity is still more striking when it obtains access to heathen nations. In proportion to the deeper gloom of their former ignorance is the splendour of the new illumination, when the Sun of righteousness arises upon them with healing in His beams. On such occasions, it may be said with peculiar emphasis, “The entrance of Thy Word giveth light,”—a light which is able to penetrate and destroy even the thickest veil of false religion. 2. It wipes away tears. This is here declared to be a part of its design, and experience proves it to be one of its actual operations (Psalms 89:15-16). It leads to repentance, and so to pardon, purity, and genuine peace. It comforts in sorrow. It cheers in death. To the heathen it is peculiarly valuable and welcome. It opens to them, in common with others, the sources of spiritual enjoyment and the hopes of eternal bliss. And besides, it abolishes pagan cruelties and diffuses principles of humanity and kindness. Hence result the amelioration of their civil institutions, the increase of domestic happiness, and the improvement of social life (H. E. I. 1122–1133). 3. It swallows up death in victory. It delivers every believer from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15; H. E. I. 1109–1111, 1589, 1594). God will most gloriously swallow up death in victory when He shall actually recover from the territories of the grave, by His almighty power, those spoils which death has won. In proportion to its progress in heathen countries, the Gospel will not merely extract the sting of death, but arrest and diminish its most awful ravages. The waste of human life in many pagan lands is incalculable. As true religion increases, even in Christian countries, wars, which it has already rendered less sanguinary, will be less frequent too (chap. Isaiah 2:4). II. The unrivalled excellence of the blessings of the Gospel. “A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” Variety! richness! abundance! (See pp. 253–256.) Who does not recognise, in the unrivalled excellence of the blessings the Gospel conveys, the most powerful arguments for missionary exertion? Who can think of the Gospel feast, in contrast with the famine of the heathen, without wishing that they also might be bidden to the heavenly entertainment? III. The universal extent of the blessings of Christianity. “The Lord of hosts shall make unto all people a feast of fat things.” 1. They are adapted to all people. 2. They are sufficient for all people. 3. They were designed for all people. 4. The wide world shall, sooner or later, partake of them. One result of this universal spread and triumph of Christianity is stated in the text: “The rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth.” 1. By the successful exertions of God’s people to evangelise the world, the reproach, which is at present too well-founded, of neglecting to care for those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, shall become no longer just and applicable. 2. In consequence of the general spread and influence of Christianity, the reproach of Christ, the scandal of the Cross, shall cease; and the Church, formerly despised and laughed to scorn, shall be held in great honour and reputation (chap. Isaiah 60:13-16). 3. The particular reproach of spiritual barrenness—the reproach founded on the paucity of her converts, and the small number of her children—shall then for ever cease. At present “Jacob is small,” and the flock of Jesus is, comparatively, a little flock. This fact has been converted by infidels into matter of attack upon Christianity itself. They have tauntingly urged the narrow extent of our religion as an argument against its divinity. That argument admits, even now, of solid refutation. But in due season the fact itself shall be altered, and no shadow of plausibility be left for the reproach (chap. Isaiah 54:1-5). . 1. The text should teach you your personal obligations and privileges in reference to the Gospel. The feast is spread out before you; to you are the blessings of it freely offered (chap. Isaiah 55:1-3). 2. The text teaches you the ground of missionary exertions. To partake of the feast ourselves is our first duty; but, while we “eat the fat and drink the sweet,” shall we not “send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared?” Can any duty be more obviously founded in reason and justice, humanity and piety, than that of sending the bread of life to our perishing fellow-creatures? The most hateful and inexcusable of all monopolies is the monopoly of Christian truths and consolations. 3. There are great encouragements to such labour. (1.) The certainty of Divine approbation. (2.) The certainty of consequent success (H. E. I. 1166–1168). But remember, if you would share in the triumphs of the Gospel, you must share in the labour and expense of their achievement.—Jabez Bunting, D.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 453–483. ADVENT AND JOYSIsa_25:9. And it shall be said in that day, &c. Isaiah is here, as he is so often, the prophet not merely of future events, but of future states of mind and feeling; not merely of God’s dealings with His people, but of the way in which they would or should meet their God. To what event does he refer! 1. First of all, to the deliverance of Hezekiah and his people from King Sennacherib [1054] That deliverance was recognised as God’s work. The recognition of God’s presence in the great turning-points of human history is in all ages natural to religious minds. He is with men and nations at all times, but in the great crises of history that presence is brought more vividly before the imagination. So was it when a great storm destroyed the Spanish Armada, and when the power of the first Napoleon was broken first at Leipsic and then at Waterloo. Devout minds felt that these were reappearances of God in human history, and they rejoiced in Him. [1054] It was no ordinary day that saw the discomfiture of the Assyrian host before the walls of Jerusalem. We can scarcely understand the terror and dismay with which a religious Jew must have watched the growth of those mighty Oriental despotisms which, rising one after the other in the valley of the Euphrates and of the Tigris, aspired to nothing less than the conquest of the known world. The victory of a conqueror like Sennacherib meant the extinction of national life and of personal liberty in the conquered people; it meant often enough violent transportation from their homes, separation from their families, with all the degrading and penal accompaniments of complete subjugation. It meant this to the conquered pagan cities; for Jerusalem it meant this and more. The knowledge and worship of God maintained by institutions of God, by institutions of Divine appointment, maintained only in that little corner of the wide world, were linked on to the fortunes of the Jewish state, and in the victory of Sennacherib would be involved not merely political humiliation, but religious darkness. When, then, his armies advanced across the continent again and again, making of a city a heap, and of a fenced city a ruin, and at last appeared before Jerusalem, when the blast of the terrible men was as a storm against the wall, there was natural dismay in every religious and patriotic soul. It seemed as though a veil or covering, like that which was spread over the holy things in the Jewish ritual, was being spread more and more completely over all nations at each step of the Assyrian monarch’s advance, and in those hours of darkness all true-hearted men in Jerusalem waited for God. He had delivered them from the Egyptian slavery; He had given them the realm of David and Solomon. He who had done so much for them would not desert them now. In His own way He would rebuke this insolent enemy of His truth and His people, and this passionate longing for His intervention quickened the eye and welled the heart of Jerusalem when at last it came. The destruction of Sennacherib’s host was one of those supreme moments in the history of a people which can never be lived over again by posterity. The sense of deliverance was proportioned to the agony which had preceded it. To Isaiah and his contemporaries it seemed as though a canopy of thick darkness was lifted from the face of the world, as though the recollections of slaughter and of death were entirely swallowed up in the absorbing sense of deliverance, as though the tears of the city had been wiped away and the rebuke of God’s people was taken from earth, and therefore from the heart of Israel there burst forth a welcome proportioned to the anxious longing that had preceded it: “Lo, this is our God: we have waited for Him; He will save us.”—Liddon. 2. But beyond the immediate present, Isaiah sees, it may be indistinctly, into a distant future. The judgment of his time foreshadowed some universal judgment upon all the enemies of mankind, some deliverance final, universal, at the end of time. For that judgment and deliverance the Church, both on earth and in heaven, waits and prays (Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:22-23; Revelation 6:9-10). To them the answer seems to be long delayed; but it will come (Revelation 6:12-17); and when at last it bursts upon the world, it will be welcomed by the servants of God as was the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian army. 3. But between the days of Hezekiah and the final judgment there is another event closer to the prophet’s thought—the appearance of the great Deliverer in the midst of human history. All that belongs to the nearer history of Judah melts away in the prophet’s vision into that greater future which belongs to the King Messiah. The Assyrians themselves are replaced in his thoughts by the greater enemies of humanity; the city of David and Mount Zion become the spiritual city of God, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Church of the Divine Redeemer. Here, as so often, the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, with its vast and incalculable consequences to the world of souls, is the keynote of Isaiah’s deepest thought, and in our text he epitomises the heart-song of Christendom, which ascends day by day to the throne of the Redeemer. (1.) “Lo, this is our God.” Christ is not for us Christians merely or chiefly the preacher or herald of a religion of which another being, distinct from Himself, is its object. The Gospel creed does not run thus, “There is no God but God, and Christ is His prophet.” When He appears to the soul of man at the crisis of its penitence, or its conversion, the greeting which meets and befits Him is not, “Lo, this is a good man sent from God to teach some high and forgotten moral truths;” no, but “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him; He will save us!” (H. E. I., 835–845). (2.) So might the Jews, the children of the prophets, have sung; so did some of those who entered most deeply into the meaning of the promises given to their fathers (Luke 1:46-55; Luke 1:68-79; Luke 2:29-32). (3.) So might the noble philosophers of Greece have sung; so they did sing when, in Christ the incarnate God, of whom they had dreamed and for whom they had sought, was revealed to them. (4.) So have sung in all ages that multitude of human souls whom a profound sense of moral need has brought to the feet of the Redeemer (H. E. I., 948–971).—H. P. Liddon, M.A.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii. pp. 1–3. I. WHAT ARE THOSE COMINGS OF CHRIST WHICH ARE THE OF JOY TO THE CHURCH? 1. His coming in the flesh, His incarnation. To this His people had looked forward; in it they rejoiced. Good cause had they for gladness, for He came to spread the gospel feast, to remove the clouds of ignorance and error, to destroy the reign of sin and death. 2. His coming in the Spirit, at the day of Pentecost; in the experience of the individual soul, in the hours of penitence, of temptation, of sorrow. His coming in the flesh was the great promise of the Old Testament; His coming in the Spirit is the great promise of the New. 3. His coming to receive the soul to glory. He comes unchanged. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. 4. His coming to bring the present dispensation to a close. It may be heralded by many alarming and distressing events, but it will be itself a cause for joy. To the wicked it will be a day of unmixed terror, but to the righteous of gladness; for it will bring them redemption from the power of every sin, from the assault of every enemy; every fetter will be broken, every cloud dispelled. II. WHAT IS TO ENABLE US TO WELCOME THE OF CHRIST? 1. A knowledge of Him as our God and Redeemer. 2. An experience of the benefits of His salvation. 3. Love for Him. 4. Submission to His will and zeal for His glory.—Samuel Thodey. I. In the day of judgment nothing will inspire us with joy and confidence but a real interest in Jesus Christ. The ungodly now possess many sources of present enjoyment; but in that day they will have ceased for ever. One grand, all-important idea will then fill the mind: “The solemn day of account is come; how shall I abide it? How shall I endure the presence of the heart-searching Judge?” But whence can this assurance be obtained? Only from an interest in Jesus Christ. Those who do not possess it will then be filled with shame and terror; but, amid all its terrors, those who do possess it will be enabled to rejoice. II. In that day none will be found to have a real interest in Christ, nor capable of rejoicing, but those who are now waiting for His coming. This is a characteristic of all genuine Christians (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Luke 12:36). Hence, in our text, we find the saints representing their conduct towards the Lord in the days of their flesh by the same term: “We have waited for Him.” It may be useful, then, to point out some of the particulars implied in this general description of the Christian character. To “wait for Christ” implies— 1. A FIRM BELIEF IN HIS SECOND COMING, and of the infinitely momentous consequences which will follow that event. The true Christian walks “by faith, not by sight.” Unlike the profane (2 Peter 3:4), he lays it down in his mind as an infallible truth that “the day of the Lord will come.” 2. A TO BE FOR IT. How the wise virgins acted (Matthew 25:4). 3. A PATIENT IN WELL-DOING (Luke 12:35-46). Are you thus “waiting” for the second coming of your Lord?—Edward Cooper: Practical and Familiar Sermons, vol. iv. pp. 225–240. The chapter from which these words are taken contains a noble description of the glory and the grace of God, of His glory in ruling irresistibly the nations of the earth, and in crushing the enemies of His Church, of His glory and grace in the salvation of mankind. It records by anticipation the triumphs of the Gospel, the downfall of the powers of darkness, the annihilation of death itself, the reign of perpetual peace and joy. I. A recognition of the birth of the Messiah. It is a matter of historical certainty that the people of God did wait for the coming of the Saviour from the time of the very first promise given to the woman after the fall, to the period of our Lord’s appearance upon the earth, at which season there was a general expectation in all the neighbouring regions of the advent of some mighty personage who was to realise all the sublime descriptions of the ancient prophets. Anna the prophetess, Joseph of Arimithea, the aged Simeon and other devout men, were waiting for the “consolation of Israel.” II. An assertion of His divinity. “This is our God,”—not merely a prophet, a priest, a king, chosen by Jehovah from among His people, and commissioned to give laws and statutes, as Moses was, or to assert Jehovah’s authority and punish idolatry, as Elijah was, or to denounce His wrath against an apostate people and at the same time to foreshadow a great deliverance to come, as Isaiah was himself, or Jeremiah, or any other of those holy men who spake in old times by the Holy Ghost; but this is OUR GOD, this is Emmanuel—God with us—God manifest in the flesh. III. A declaration of His atoning Work. How vast that work He took on Himself to execute,—the reconciliation in His own person of sinful man to an offended God, the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan, and the abolition of death! No man could have performed it (Psalms 49:7). Could any of the angels, then, have taken in hand this enterprise? Beyond the power, above the conception of any being of limited goodness, knowledge, and power, it could only be accomplished by the Divine Son of God. It was God’s work, devised and executed by Omnipotence. IV. A recognition of the second coming of Christ. We are admonished by the Church that there is a Second Coming of Christ, for which the Church is waiting, and for which we, with every member of the Church, ought to be looking with earnest and anxious expectation. Is our language, “How long, O Lord?” Our answer is, How long the final triumph of the Saviour may be deferred, how long a period may elapse before the world is ripe for judgment, is one of those secrets which God has reserved to Himself (Acts 1:7). The end of all things, if it be not, in the literal sense of the word, at hand, is every year and every day and every moment drawing nearer to each of us. We are all in silent but unceasing movement towards the judgment-hall of Christ. In this point of view, the moment of our death may be regarded as placing us at once before His awful tribunal, for the space between the two, as it affects our eternal destination, will be to us as nothing. When the judgment is set, the books opened, we shall suddenly stand before the Judge, precisely in that state of preparation in which we were found at the moment of our departure out of life. Those who have lived as children of God, as servants of Jesus Christ, under the solemn, yet not fearful, expectation of that day, will then be able to lift up their heads and raise the song of joyful recognition. Application.—If ever there was a great practical truth, this is one. If we do not wait for the great day of the Lord in such a spirit of carefulness and circumspection as to refer to it all our actions, words, and thoughts, then it is perfectly certain that we shall be surprised at its coming and be taken utterly unprepared. It will come on us as a thief in the night, and we shall sink into everlasting perdition; not for the want of means and opportunities of being saved, but for want of common prudence and forethought in the most momentous of all concerns. What, then, is the conclusion? Live like men that are waiting for their Lord, that when He arrives, He may be welcomed. Accustom yourselves to His presence, in His sanctuary, at His table, in His word, in secret communings with Him in the temple of a purified heart. So when this solemn day shall have come the glad response may be, “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him; He will come and save us!”—C. J. Blomfield, D.D. THE HANDIsa_25:10. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest. “Rest!” As a father’s hand on the head of his first-born, blessing and protecting his child. That mountain is impregnable which rests under the shadow of God’s hand. I. Of every enterprise we should ask, “Is it right?” If wickedness be in “the mountain,” God’s protecting hand will not rest upon it. A just cause creates a good conscience, and hence inspires strength. It is only the just man who feels that God “teaches his hands to war and his fingers to fight, so that a bow of steel is broken by his arms.” “The righteous is bold as a lion.” The good man can patiently wait and confidently expect God’s blessing (James 5:7). II. Material force allied with injustice will eventually become weak as straw, vile as a dung-heap. The strong places of Moab had no inherent lastingness, because built in a godless spirit (Psalms 127:1). III. Forts and castles, ironclads and armies, can never save an unrighteous nation from decay. National selfishness, oppressive enterprises, weaken the strongest defences, corrupt the richest treasures. Babylon became a marsh, Nineveh a forsaken mound, Tyre a deserted rock. In the colloseum at Rome where martyrs bled, the fox, the bat, and the owl now make their home. The walls of Moab were levelled with the dust. By justice only can peoples be strong. If God be in the city, its walls will be lasting as the hills.—William Parkes. DAYS OF Isa_26:1-2. In that day shall this song be sung, &c.There are days in the history of God’s people when they specially need His interposing power. This is their prayer (Psalms 30:10). This their glad confession (Psalms 90:17). At such seasons of direct deliverance the natural expression of the heart is one of gladness. If the poetic faculty be strong within them, as in the case of the king of Israel, they sing in lyric splendour, as in Psalms 18. 1. That historic period referred to by the prophet Isaiah in this chapter was such a day. They had been marvellously protected from the invading Assyrian. His host had been smitten as by the blast of the Lord. When from the city walls they saw the thin relics of that grand army hasten away, then would this song of salvation be echoed through the city. When under the imperial protection of Cyrus the exiles returned to their own land, that was another day of deliverance. They rebuilt the temple and renewed the temple service. Then they sang in their own land, the land of Judah, the songs of Zion. 2. But the first great event in their history, the birthday of their nation, their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, was specially memorable as “that day.” And in every subsequent national deliverance, from the times of the Judges, all through the splendid leadership of David and the heroic days of the Maccabean brothers, that first deliverance seemed to be renewed, and the old song from the Red Sea shore was again chanted (Exodus 15:6). 3. In the infant days of the Primitive Church, meeting then in the upper room in Jerusalem, when its two leaders, Peter and John, were seized and confronted with “their rulers, and elders, and scribes,” and sternly threatened “not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus.” That was a day of deliverance. Then was seen how gloriously transformed were these two Galilean fishermen under the inspiration of the Kingdom of Christ, how sublimely fit they were to lead the forlorn hope of the Church through the breach of Judaism and heathenism on to the conquest of the world. See Acts 4:19-20; Acts 4:23-24. How deeply and rapturously impressed was that little church with the conviction that the power of Him who had made heaven and earth was then resting on their own chiefs, and making them bold to speak “His name.” They shook the very walls of the room with the volume of their song: “We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.” 4. Another day of deliverance came to the early Church, when the cry of the primitive martyrs was heard (Revelation 6:9-10). That “little season” soon passed, and their cry was answered; rest came to the martyred Church. No more holy men were thrown to the lions, no more delicate women thrust into caldrons of boiling pitch; the sword slept in its scabbard, and crucifixions were ended. Then the churches had rest, and this hymn was joyously sung. Since those early centuries, God’s Church has passed through many a fiery furnace, and has come out all the purer and all the stronger. And many a song of deliverance has floated up to heaven. 5. This season of gladness has been realised by God’s people individually. (1.) When a consciousness of the forgiveness of sins has come. When in the temple of the soul this voice has been heard: “Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace.” (2.) When the child of God has been delivered from some dark calamity, so threatening that no human help could deliver. (3.) But the grandest deliverance is the final one. The best wine is kept for the last cup. When the death-river is crossed, and the crystal gates respond to the command, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.” Then, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, when standing within that city where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest, will the redeemed of the Lord shout this song as never before: “We have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.”—William Parkes. KEEPINGIsa_26:3-4. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, &c.The delightfulness and the value of peace to the nation, the Church, the family, the individual (P. D. 2664). Consider— I. THE PROMISE. 1. It is universal in its range. It is made to any and every man who will trust in God. 2. It is sure. Men fail for various reasons to keep their promises, but every Divine promise is certain to be fulfilled (H. E. I. 4052, 4053). 3. The peace which is pledged and secured to all who will fulfil the condition of the text is perfect—so perfect that it can only be described by a repetition of the word, “peace, peace.” God never gives in driblets. His gifts are like Himself, perfect for their fulness, for their suitability, for their enduring qualities. God can keep His people in perfect peace when the devil accuses, when the world allures or threatens, when sickness tries, when adversity oppresses, even when the heart is sore tried, and when grim death would affright (H. E. I. 1253, 1893, 1894, 1911–1926; P. D. 2669, 2673). II. THE . “Whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusted in Thee.” Trust unites. The mind will not be stayed upon God unless there be perfect confidence in His wisdom, power, and love. Trust and love go together. Love begets confidence, and confidence strengthens love. The whole nature must be stayed on God, and on God only. There must be no division in the heart’s affections: we cannot serve God and Mammon and be kept in perfect peace. There must be trust before there can be peace; God Himself cannot give perfect peace to the untrustful. III. THE . “Trust ye in the Lord for ever.” We trust in the Lord when, encouraged by His promises, we hold fast to Him. It is nothing deeper, nothing more difficult than that. Its very simplicity is its difficulty. As the limpet binds itself to the rock, and is not disturbed by the dashing billows, so let the soul by an ardent affection bind itself to the Rock of Ages. The word “ever” gives a wonderful expansiveness to our text. It points at once to God’s eternity and man’s immortality. He is a being capable of being trusted for ever, and for ever we shall be capable of trusting Him. Our trust is to be unlimited and unintermitted; it is to be exercised at all times, under all circumstances, through all ages. IV. THE STABLE OF THE ’S . “For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” The peace must be perfect that rests upon, and rises out of, such a solid foundation. The mountains are “everlasting” only in figure, but the foundation on which we rest is everlasting in fact (Psalms 91:1-2).—W. Burrows, B.A.The world needs the message contained in our text. Most faces that we see are careworn. They are so because behind them there are anxious hearts distressed by fears of various kinds—by fears concerning the body, by fears concerning the soul. The vast majority of men are destitute of true peace; for while in the world there are many ways—of pleasure, of sin, of disappointment, of misery, of death—there is no way of peace. The multitudes who throng past us are miserable because the way of peace they have not known. I. LOOK AT THE PERSON WHO IS KEPT IN PEACE. He is a person whose mind is stayed on God. A man’s self, sin, pleasure, false religion, vain hopes, are every one of them troubled waves in an ocean of disquietude, and no soul can stay itself upon them, though many souls have sought to do so. Who, lying down in the very midst of the sea, can find there repose? As he lieth down upon the waves, they yield beneath him—the billows roll over him; he is sinking in the mighty deep. So with the sinner lying down in the midst of the sea and of the storm of this world apart from God. But he who lieth down upon God is as a man upon a rock, or as one in a mighty fortress; he is at peace—secure in fact and in feeling. But it is only as God is revealed to us in Christ that we may rest upon Him. Apart from Christ, He is to sinners “a consuming fire.” Only through Christ may we find the blessedness we so much need, but through Christ we may find it. II. LOOK AT THE POWER WHICH KEEPS THE IN PEACE. It is not the power of his own faith (H. E. I. 1970, 1975). It is not the power of his own effort, struggling to obtain confidence. It is the power of God: “Thou wilt keep him,” &c. The sinner obtains peace by yielding himself to God (Romans 6:13). The believer has peace while he leaves himself in God’s hands, quietly submissive, cheerfully willing that God should lead him and do with him whatever is pleasing in His sight (P. D. 2966–2968, 2970–2972). Then all God’s attributes—His omniscience, His omnipotence, His faithfulness, His tender mercy—minister to his peace (P. D. 3379). III. LOOK AT THE PEACE IN WHICH SUCH A PERSON IS KEPT. It is “perfect peace.” Peace in spite of all that conscience may say, of the temptations that assail us, of the troubles of life, of the certainty and mystery of death. With the peace of pardon, all this peace flows into the soul, increasing more and more. It is the peace of Christ, the same peace which filled and sustained Him (John 14:27). You remember that we are shown Him with His head on a pillow, His eyes closed, His mind in unconscious repose, asleep in the midst of the wild storm at night upon the Lake of Galilee, when the waves beat upon the trembling vessel, and the wind strove to raise the waves still higher, and engulph them all. He slept, secure and peaceful, amid the storm. So does the soul of the believer that stayeth itself upon God. Upon what lay that peaceful head of Jesus but upon the unseen arm and heart of God? Men said of Christ mockingly, “He trusted in God.” He did trust in God, as the most exalted believer, and far more than the most exalted believer; and in that simplicity of faith He was kept in peace, sleeping amidst the storm. So is it with the believer. O believer! is it so with you?—Henry Grattan Guinness: Sermon in The Christian World, 1860. Here is the secret of life—peace, perfect peace—and the sure way of attaining it. Consider— I. THE . “Whose mind is stayed on Thee.” His mind is fixed with such intensity that it cannot be diverted from the object on which it is set. This object is not himself (Proverbs 28:26), nor his riches (Proverbs 23:5), nor his fellow-men (Ch. Isaiah 2:22; Jeremiah 17:4-5), but GOD, in whom he trusts unhesitatingly, exclusively, universally. He accepts all that the Scriptures reveal concerning God, and makes these revelations the foundation of his confidence and his prayers. II. THE . “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.” See also Jeremiah 17:7. The idea suggested is that of habitual and continued blessedness. The elements of peace are begun in the soul, and they are brought to maturity in the whole course of the future life. The peace given is like a river (chap. Isaiah 66:12), both for abundance and permanence. That is, while, and only while, the mind is stayed upon God (chap. Isaiah 48:18). Then he is kept in peace, for God is its finisher as well as its author; and it is “perfect peace,” because it is peace of all kinds, in its highest degree, at all times, under all circumstances. III. THE REASON FOR THE OF THE . “Because he trusteth in Thee.” Faith honours God (Romans 4:21), and therefore those who exercise it are honoured by Him (1 Samuel 2:30; H. E. I. 4057, 4058). IV. THE DUTY . “Trust ye,” &c. While we are listening to expositions of this text, this duty seems to be easy; but in actual life our faith is tried and often fails, because we lose sight of the promises and perfections of God. Here there come to us disappointments, difficulties, temptations to distrust But it is our duty to struggle with them all; and if we do so, it will be our blessedness to overcome them all (chap. Isaiah 40:27-31). “Trust ye in the Lord; trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”—James Morgan, D.D.: The Home Pulpit, pp. 512–516. There is sometimes a world of meaning in a single word: Country, home, peace! How it sometimes tells of booming cannon hushed into silence, of glittering swords sent back into their sheaths, of hundreds of homes relieved from distressing anxieties and fears, of thousands of lives respited at least for a time! How it sometimes tells of surging passions hushed into a calm, of vengeful purposes superseded, of the fires of enmity quenched, of despair giving place to hope and joy! Peace has its histories, many and pleasant; its triumphs, various and substantial; its heralds, divine, angelic, human. Ministers have messages of peace to deliver to their congregations, and in our text we have one of them. I. THE IN THE TEXT. “Whose mind is stayed on Thee.” It is a mind resting on God as the God of grace reconciling sinners to Himself through the mediation of Christ, dispensing pardon, sanctity, salvation—a mind resting, after reconciliation, on His truthfulness, wisdom, almightiness, holiness—a mind resting on His rule and government over all the forces of Nature and all the events of daily life, both national and individual. II. THE IN THE TEXT. “Thou wilt keep,” &c. Thou wilt do it; not merely delegate and intrust this to any agency whatever. Thou wilt do it; there is no uncertainty or peradventure about it. “In perfect peace:” peace of all kinds, and in a superlative degree; peace flowing from reconciliation; peace in the midst of unexplained mysteries; peace in the midst of adverse providences; peace amid the uncertainties of the future.—John Corbin. THE OF GOD AND HIS PEOPLEIsa_26:7. The way of the just, &c.Isaiah foretold the captivity of Judah in Babylon, also its termination. This chapter is a song ready for the occasion. It relates the story, and it unfolds the principles that underlie the events. Our text is thoroughly practical. It reminds us,— I. That righteousness is the personal characteristic of God and of His redeemed people. 1. God is righteous. “Thou most upright.” He is perfectly righteous. It is essential to the Divine nature; the contrary cannot be supposed; as heat is natural to fire. God Himself, His laws, His providential government, even His redeeming mercy, are all characterised by perfect rectitude. So prominent is this idea that we are taught to exercise simple faith in God, and assume that we are imperfectly informed if we are unable to reconcile anything in our experience with His perfect righteousness. 2. His people also are righteous—here called “the just.” It is suggestive when God’s people are thus called by a name similar to His own. They share in the same righteousness, although in different degrees. More is intended than that they are in a justified state. That is implied. They are justified by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the text refers to the righteousness which assimilates them to the Divine nature. The grace of God produces a new nature. Saul of Tarsus became a new man on his conversion. A savage adopts the habits and forms the tastes of civilised Christian life. It is a new nature. 1 John 4:4 : “Ye are of God.” As children partake the nature of their parents, His nature is in them, though not yet perfected. Their sympathies are with Him. In so far as they are unrighteous, they are inconsistent with their true selves. The life of God in the regenerated soul is a principle ever tending toward the perfect righteousness of the Divine nature from which it came. II. When righteousness characterises a person, it will dictate his conduct. 1. The conduct of the righteous man. “The way of the just is uprightness;” his course of life. He is erect in his moral manhood, as contrasted with one who is bent and crooked. Men’s ideas of uprightness are apt to become partial and one sided. Some seem to imagine that all demands of righteousness are met by the acceptance of Christ and the experience of spiritual feeling, while they overlook the demands of human relationships. Others confine their view to men. They imagine all demands are met, when they are fair and honourable in their dealings with men, while God is left out of consideration. The Divine idea of righteousness is not thus partial. It takes in the whole of our moral relations, our relations both to God and man. And the good man strives to bring his whole life into conformity to it. [Work this out in detail: “The way of the just is uprightness” (1), in regard to God; (2), in regard to man]. 2. The conduct of the righteous God. “Thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just.” At first sight like confusion of metaphor. It means to ponder it. The heathen symbol of Divine righteousness is that of justice holding the scales (Daniel 5:27). The conduct of the righteous is weighed. God observes it; His honour is concerned in it. He will eventually pronounce upon it (2 Corinthians 5:10). Examine, then:— 1. Are you among the just? Have you experienced a change of heart? 2. Are you pursuing the path of the just? This applies to your actual dealing with God and with man. Consider how far imperfection may be consistent with reality. Do not try how far you may go safely. There comes a point at which a man must be condemned, at which he must condemn himself. At that point he will either repent or harden himself. Let us cultivate the highest measures of practical uprightness.—J. Rawlinson. THE JUST MAN’S Isa_26:7. Thou most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. We can scarcely find anywhere a more touching description of the God of our salvation than that furnished by Job (Isaiah 25:10). God has always given His people songs in the night, and in the night-time of affliction He has furnished them with songs of consolation and confidence. Our text is a part of one of those songs. The Chaldean power threatened God’s people. They were instructed to cherish a firm faith in God. Not a breath of despair was to reach the camp of the enemy; rather they were taught a scornful defiance of that proud king who had defied the armies of the living God (Isaiah 37:22). “In that day shall this song be sung.” The connection may teach us that it is wisdom to treasure up a source of consolation against the day of adversity. It is in spring that we are to prepare for winter; in the morning of life to prepare for old age. The oil must be ready for the midnight hour. No good soldier will run for his armour “when the enemy comes in like a flood.” The text suggests the Christian’s reasons for security and repose under the various events of life. These are— I. The perfect wisdom and rectitude which marks God’s universal government. “Thou most upright, dost weigh,” &c. This world is not a neglected province of the Divine Dominions. That impression of the Divine supremacy which inspires the songs of seraphs quickens the joy of frail humanity. While thrones, principalities, and powers exclaim as with the voice of many waters, “Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth,” the inhabitants of the earth roll back the response, “The Lord reigneth: let the earth rejoice.” The Christian knows no such Deity as Chance or Fate. This is God’s world, nor has He left it like an ocean weed to float at random on the dark and shoreless ocean of uncertainty. What was worthy His creation must be worth His control. God’s method of government partakes of His own perfections, and is therefore infinitely wise and good. We rejoice that God ruleth over all, and keeps the dominion of the world in His own hands. The remotest consequences of things are all seen by Him; whatever evil occurs He permits; whatever good arises He originates; whatever series of causes come to a final issue, the train was laid by His wisdom, conducted by His power, controlled by His goodness. This topic, therefore, furnishes a ground of security and repose to the Christian. Amidst the shakings of the nations and the storms of life, it is delightful to know that the sceptre of universal power is in the hand of Infinite Love. He reigneth, be the earth ever so unquiet. II. The minute attention which God pays to the individual interests of His people. This comes out whichever interpretation you put upon the word here translated “weigh.” It may mean, to weigh as in scales or a balance (Psalms 58:3); but it may also mean, and does usually, to make straight, or smooth, or level (Psalms 78:50, &c.) (Barnes). “He ‘weighs’ or ‘ponders’ (s. w. a. in Proverbs 4:26; Proverbs 5:21) the path, with a view to keeping it straight and level” (Kay). 1. The idea of “weighing” implies careful impression. The balance is held with a careful hand, and a keen eye is on both the scales. This is a source of comfort to the just, and to them alone. 2. The same minute, condescending observance is implied in the other interpretation. God will make a plain, level way for His people to walk in. All obstacles to their progress shall be removed. They never have any need to turn aside from the well-constructed road of God’s commandments into “crooked ways” of man’s devising (Psalms 17:3-5). They shall reach their destination in the better world. Samuel Thodey. THE WAY OF GOD’S Isa_26:8. Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee. I. Observe what God’s judgments are. They are simply the expression of His thoughts. His final judgment is the declaration of His thoughts of a man’s character; His judgments here are also His declaration of what He thinks of our conduct and ways. One special thing for which psalmists and prophets adore Him is that men can see that His judgments are true and righteous (Psalms 19:9; Psalms 119:75, &c.) Their tendency and aim is to teach men what righteousness is (Isaiah 26:9). II. The way of God’s judgments is the way of His laws. The calamities which men call “judgments” are generally the results of infraction by them of the laws by which He governs the universe. The civil war in America was a judgment of God because it was a natural result of their toleration and defence of slavery; the war, with all its terrors, was a heavy penalty, and was clearly connected with their sin. So the cattle-plague in England was doubtless a natural result of some violation, through carelessness or greed, of God’s laws concerning the breeding and tending of cattle, and was thus one of God’s judgments. III. The way of God’s judgments prescribes our way of prayer and expectation. We are to pray and expect, not that, while we continue as we were, God will remove the judgment; but that He will help us to understand it, and that He will dispose us to abandon the conduct that has brought it upon us. In thus waiting upon God—with penitence for our transgression, with prayer for light, and with sincere resolve to amend—we may expect God to bless us; but this we may expect only while we wait upon Him thus.—Alexander Mackennal, B.S: Sermon on the Cattle-plague. Those who wait for God in the way of His judgments are, 1. Those who in prosperous and peaceful times endeavour to serve Him. 2. Those who desire to learn from them the lessons they were designed to teach. 3. Those who honour God by submission and trust in the trying hour. 4. These, even in the midst of judgment, may confidently expect the favour of God. A purpose of benevolence runs through even the stern and “strange work” of justice; and God, even when He chastises, will not utterly smite down the trusting heart.—William, Manning. THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE OF GODIsa_26:9-10. For when Thy judgments, &c.I. The judgments of God are frequently in the earth—such as earthquakes, hurricanes, pestilence, commercial disasters. These are not, as the infidel asserts, merely the result of the working of natural causes: these public calamities are the punishment of public sins. Nations are thus punished, because they have no immortality, and therefore, if they are to be judged at all, must be judged here and now. Without these chastisements, which often astonish the hearts of the most insensible, and bring the most incredulous to their right mind, the world would be only a theatre of atheism and crime. That these calamities are strictly “the judgments of God,” is the testimony of Scripture (Amos 3:6; Jeremiah 32:23, &c.), of the universal conscience, which speaks loudly in times of calamity [1066] and of reason. Acknowledge a First Cause which directs all things, and we are obliged to confess that public calamities are the judgments of God. [1066] We see that people of every description endeavour to appease Heaven, in time of public calamities, by prayers, incense, sacrifices, and solemn humiliations. And though many of them have been deceived in the object of their worship, and have erred in many of the practices which they adopted as proper to appease the Divinity, their actions set forth the feelings of man’s conscience, and prove that it is a general sentiment, that in public calamities we ought to learn righteousness.—Superville. II. God’s design in sending His judgments upon the earth is that the inhabitants thereof should learn righteousness—righteousness towards Him, towards their neighbours, and towards themselves. This is His design, and to comply with it is the indispensable duty of those whom He afflicts [1069] natural tendency of these chastisements is to remove the obstacles that ordinarily oppose themselves to our conversion: indolence, thoughtlessness, abuse of God’s patience, the hope of long life [1072][1069] Judgment that falls upon another should be as a catechism to us by way of instruction; when judgments are abroad in the world, shall not the people learn righteousness? Shall the lion roar and the beasts of the field not tremble? Shall God’s hand lie heavily upon us, and we stand by, as idle spectators, nothing at all minding what is done? Shall our very next neighbour’s house be on fire, and we look on as men unconcerned in the danger? It cannot be, it must not be. There is, without all doubt, the same combustible stuff—the same, if not greater sins—lodged in our hearts, and the same punishment hovering over our heads; it is, therefore, high time to look about us.—Donne, 1573–1631. [1072] Herodotus informs us, that in a certain temple of Egypt there was a statue of Sennacherib with an inscription, the sense of which was, “Learn to fear the Deity, in looking at me.” The judgments of God upon rebellious sinners are monuments which God erects in the world, and which express, in characters which all men should read, “Learn to fear the Deity, in looking at us.” A celebrated poet among the ancient Romans, in describing the divers punishments of hell, presents us with a fine sentence, “Learn righteounesss by us, and do not despise the gods.” It appears by this, that the secrets of man’s conscience, and his natural sentiments, lead him to profit by the examples which God exhibits of His justice, whether in this world or the next, and to respect a Supreme Being who knows how to avenge Himself, both now and hereafter.—Superville. III. God’s design in sending judgments upon the earth is often frustrated by the fact that some sinners are so obdurate that neither judgments nor mercies will move them (Isaiah 26:10). The “favour” here spoken of is a temporal favour, a deliverance from physical misery, a suspension of the judgments which were falling upon the wicked. Such favours, instead of calling forth gratitude, are frequently turned into reasons for sinning (Ecclesiastes 8:11; Exodus 8:15). To harden ourselves against the “judgments” of God is a great sin, but to harden ourselves against His “favours” is a still greater sin. Those who commit it leave the Almighty no alternative but to utterly destroy them.—Daniel de Superville: Sermons, pp. 332–361. PEACE THE GIFT OF GOD(A Thanksgiving Sermon.) Isaiah 26:12. Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou hast wrought all our work in us. The joyfulness of the occasion. Peace a greater blessing than mere victory; for he that celebrates victory celebrates an event which has been produced by an incalculable measure of human suffering. Let us consider— I. What there is in the restoration of peace, generally considered, to excite our gratitude. 1. The effusion of human blood is stayed, and all the suffering inseparable from war. 2. The injurious effects of war on human character afford another reason for thanksgiving on the return of peace. War renders men callous to human misery. The sacredness of human life is forgotten. Wars lead to intestine dissensions, and embitter and perpetuate national animosities. II. What there is in the particular circumstances of this country to warrant us in considering the blessing as of special and particular value. 1. The triumph of which this peace is the result is the triumph of a righteous cause. Peace is often the result of the superiority acquired by the aggressor. The cause of right does not always at once prevail. Unoffending natives are conquered, or obliged to submissions contrary to their rights and interests, and then peace follows; peace dictated, not argued. There is peace, but not the spirit of peace. 2. We have preserved our national honour. Our victory has not been purchased by any alliance of which we have cause to be ashamed. 3. Peace does not find us, as it finds many nations, with our houses desolated and our cities destroyed by fire. 4. It was seasonable. We had put forth our utmost strength. Had we not succeeded at the moment we should have fallen to rise no more as a nation of the first order. 5. It may be considered an indication of the Divine approbation. On this subject we would not be presumptuous, but it may at least be affirmed that the happy change in our affairs, which has ultimately led to peace, followed, and, in some instances, immediately followed, certain acts of national reformation (e.g., the emancipation of the slaves) and acknowledgment of God which, from the condescending assurance of His Word, we know must have been acceptable to Him. 6. It will increase our means of promoting the kingdom of Christ in the world, and thus establish our national prosperity by continuing to us the blessing of God. III. The reasons of our thankful acknowledgment of God on this occasion. He is the giver of the blessing of peace. Text. This is a most important principle, and if our hearts be not firmly grounded in it, our thanksgiving is a mockery; for why do we thank Him if we ascribe the work to second causes? He that excludes God from the world of providence might as well exclude Him from the world of nature. He who can attribute the events which are daily taking place in society, and especially such events as are connected with the celebration of this day, to mere human agency, is not less an Atheist than the man who ascribes the birth and being of the fair system of the universe to chance or the dance of atoms. .—The proper expression of our thankfulness for this great blessing will be to do our utmost in the diffusion of the Gospel, that the final reign of the Prince of Peace may commence, and “quietness and assurance for ever” become the lot of man.—Richard Watson: Works, vol. ii. pp. 20–40. , PEACE Isa_26:12. Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. Rather, “for us.” The Church acknowledges that all her deliverances and successes have been accomplished for her; and on what God has done for her in the past, she rightly bases her expectation as to what God will do for her in the future. He who was able to deliver His people from their bondage in Babylon, would secure peace for them when He had restored them to their own land. But, then, of all the works that God accomplishes for His people, some of the most important are precisely those which He accomplishes in them. So we may profitably meditate on our text as it stands. I. THE ’S . 1. A divine work has been accomplished for him. “Thou,” &c. Throughout, the New Testament teaches us that the Christian is a man, not who has delivered himself, but who has been delivered; not a hero who broke the chains by which he was bound, but a poor slave of sin who was set free and uplifted to true manhood (Philippians 2:13; Ephesians 2:10); everything is ascribed to the Spirit—the life, the good works, the comforts of the Christian (John 3:5; Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:22; Acts 9:31). 2. As the operation is divine, so is it internal in its effects. We should never overlook what God has done for us in His kind and tender providence (Psalms 23:6). But the greatest of all God’s works for us is redemption by the blood of the cross. This was accomplished long ago (John 19:30). Nothing can now be added to it, but you are mistaken if you suppose that His work for you is to supersede His work in you. If your sins are not subdued as well as pardoned, you will never be able to serve and enjoy God. Unless you have a meetness for heaven, as well as a title to it, you will never be at home there. The salvation that is promised and accomplished is internal (John 4:14; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Psalms 51:10). 3. The operation is manifold in its influence. “All our works.” How much needs to be done in man! Conscience is to be awakened, purified, pacified; the understanding is to be enlightened; the judgment is to be informed; the will is to be subdued; the affections to be spiritualised; the world is to be dethroned in the heart, and holy principles implanted there. There needs the continuing act of a performing God from the hour of the first conviction of sin to the resurrection of the body unto eternal life (Philippians 1:6). 4. His divine work is acknowledged. “Thou hast wrought,” &c. Much remains to be done in us, but much has been accomplished in every believer, and it should be acknowledged. Humility well becomes us, but gratitude becomes us equally (Psalms 66:16). II. HIS FUTURE . “Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us.” 1. There is an appointment or ordination. To ordain is an act of authority and power. You may wish and promise a thing, but the monarch ordains, and what he ordains is supported by all the resources of the realm, and will be accomplished. Much more shall God’s counsel stand and His pleasure be done. 2. What is the blessing He will ordain? “Peace!” Peace temporal (Proverbs 16:7). Peace spiritual [1075][1075] See outlines on Isaiah 26:3.—This peace of the Christian often fluctuates. It has various degrees. Some have comparatively little of it, arising from constitutional malady, from ignorance, or as a correction for sin, but it commonly increases in death. It is therefore compared to a river which meanders and fertilises as it goes, but becomes wider and deeper as it approximates to the sea; so the peace of God’s people generally increases as they get nearer eternity.—Jay. III. THE OF THE ON THE . “Thou wilt … for Thou hast.” The expectations of God’s people are based— 1. On the experience of God’s people in all generations (Psalms 22:4). 2. On their own experience of His faithfulness and mercy (Psalms 116:1-2) [1078]William Jay: Sunday Evening Sermons, &c., pp. 306–312. [1078] When a friend has always been kind, we think it base and unworthy not to suppose that he is ready to succour and help. But here we have the advantage: Men may be weak and unable to help, but God is almighty; men may change their mind, but with Him is “no shadow of turning.” Remember what God has done, view it as a pledge, a beginning, an earnest foretaste of what He will do. Has He not shown you the evil of sin, the beauty of holiness, and the preciousness of a Saviour? If He had a mind to destroy you, would He have shown you such things as these? Nay, He will ordain everything for your welfare.—Jay H. E. I. 2363–2377, 2791.MAN’S , GOD’S Isa_26:12. Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. It is not all men who could speak these words to God; the wicked and the worldly-minded could not use such language without blasphemy. It is the godly, and they only, who can dare to use the language of our text, and even they must do so with a certain limitation. Nothing that is evil in any of God’s people is in any way His work. It is only their good works of which it can be truly said, “God wrought them;” and of these it may be said, God wrought not some only, but all of them. I. THE WHICH OUR TEXT . Man is by nature a creature so depraved that he is “unto every good work reprobate.” God looks into his heart, and seeing evil motives even in his best performances, pronounces “all his righteousnesses ‘filthy rags.’ ” Where things are not done to please God, He is displeased. No matter what show the unregenerate make before their fellow-sinners, God turns away His face from them, and counts them even “dead in trespasses and sins,” whilst men, perhaps, are holding them in admiration (Article xiii.; Luke 16:15; Romans 8:7-8). When, therefore, a man does begin to please God, it is because God hath “wrought him for this self-same thing” by the mighty working of His power (Ephesians 2:4-5; Philippians 2:13). In these passages, the earliest beginning of any good work in us is ascribed wholly to the Lord (Article x.) The Holy Spirit is the author of all good in man from first to last. “From Him all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed.” Repentance is His Work. “Godly sorrow” is no natural emotion (Acts 5:31; Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). So also is faith (1 Corinthians 12:3). So, again, is all holiness of heart and life (Ephesians 2:10; Proverbs 16:1; Galatians 5:22-23). All excellences in man are “fruits of the Spirit.” Such is the doctrine of our text. Consider,— II. THE WHICH GOD’S PEOPLE OUGHT TO WHEN THEY REFLECT UPON IT. Is it true that God hath wrought all our works in us? What a ground there is here, then,—1, for humility. Surely “boasting is excluded.” Pride is an absurdity (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 15:10.) 2, for thankfulness. Solomon was full of wonder and amazement that God should condescend to come and dwell within his costly temple. Should not the Lord’s people be still more gratefully amazed that He should make a temple of their hearts! 3, for encouragement (Philippians 1:6). Let the believer look at the very construction of our text, let him read it in connection with the words which go before, and he will see what a comfortable argument is drawn from it: “Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us, for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” The presence of His grace within our bosoms is a token of the favour which He means to show us. He who put oil into our lamp and set it burning, and then said, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,” will never omit to feed the celestial flame.—A. Roberts, M.A.: Plain Sermons, Second Series, vol. i. 21–30. Isa_26:13-14. O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us, &c. We have in this language— I. A . “Other lords,” &c. Exegetically the point to be determined is whether the “other lords” who “have ruled over us,” are the king and people of Babylon or idol gods; the former with coercion, the latter with their own wicked consent? Perhaps both ideas are included and a sad sequence implied. They had wandered of their own wicked will into the service of pagan gods, and now against their will were forced to serve pagan kings. Paganism had led to vice; vice had destroyed all true manliness. Heroism in Jewish history had lived only so long as fidelity to Jehovah had lasted. Piety having decayed, heroism was dead; they could not stand before their invaders. Paganism had enslaved them. This they now feel, and hate Paganism, and shun it more thoroughly than ever before. II. A HOLY RESOLVE, involving, 1. A recognition of Divine claims. It is right that we should consecrate our services to Thee. By Thee created and sustained, it is robbery to carry our services elsewhere. Thou art our Father, and to honour others instead of Thee is unfilial ingratitude. Our King Thou art, and not to serve Thee is sedition. 2. A consciousness of dependence on Divine help. “But by Thee only,” &c., i.e., “Only by Thy Divine help can we hope to be faithful to Thee.” Here is a renunciation, not only of heathenism, but also of all self-sufficiency. By sad experience they have learnt that without God they can do nothing. III. A SHOUT OF VICTORY (Isaiah 26:14).The struggle against sin may be severe and long. Bad habits are not easily overcome. But divine help gives victory to human endeavours. He who uttered the almost despairing cry, “O wretched man that I am,” &c., can now give the victorious shout, “I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There are those who once served mammon, and bowed to ambition; who followed the Moloch of revenge and hate; slaves to drunkenness and nameless vices, who now through Divine grace can say of these bad habits, “They are dead … Thou hast visited and destroyed them,” &c.—W. Parkes. Man is a responsible being. To say he is responsible to himself is to say nothing more than that he claims to act according to his own inclination. Responsibility has regard to another. Lordship from without is exercised over every human soul. Good and evil—God and Satan—contend for the dominion. Evil usurps the dominion until an inward revolution occurs. Thus the Jewish people had cast off the authority of Jehovah, and placed themselves under the dominion of other Gods. The captivity in Babylon converted them from this folly. They then determined that thenceforward they would only “make mention of,” celebrate and honour, give the dominion to the Lord their God. Here is a penitential confession and a good resolution. I. A . “Other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us.” The dominion of evil in human souls is: 1. Multiform. It assumes many shapes. The gods the Jewish people served were numerous as the nations under whose influence they fell. So the form of evil most congenial to a man’s own nature is sure to assail him (H. E. I. 4679–4683). Not only so; while each has probably his special besetment, each has also multitudinous besetments (H. E. I. 4550, 4551). The penitent sees that his sins pass all power of numeration or recollection; they have become lords and masters (Romans 6:16; H. E. I. 4482–4484). 2. Wrongful. “Other lords beside Thee.” The language implies that God ought to have had the dominion. Then it must be wrong to give it to others. He is the rightful sovereign on every ground. Nor can he divide His throne with any rival. As it is impossible to serve two masters whose interests are opposed to each other, or to adhere to two claimants of the same crown, so is it to make mention of the name of God and at the same time to submit to the dominion of other lords. But we have attempted this. “Will a man rob God?” Yes. Men who would not wrong each other will defraud God daily without compunction and without shame. To allow the dominion of other lords is a wrong done to God. 3. Voluntary. It has been entirely with our own consent. Those who make this confession mean that they have been blamable for the wrongful dominion of other lords. Freedom is essential to responsibility. We have consented to sin—loved it. Nor does it avail to say we are unable to break from its power. If unable, what has brought our moral nature into such a state of imbecility? Are not its chains wound round our nature by our own consent? Is not the wretched victim of intemperance responsible for his inability to resist the cup, when that inability is the result of the voluntary indulgence of years? The fetters of the sinner have been forged by himself. The criminality reaches farther back than the present sin; to the sins freely chosen long ago, which have led up to the present power of sin over the will. If the will is in bondage to sin, it was, in the first instance, voluntarily surrendered. Now the penitent sinner sees all this. He comes with lowly submission and penitential confession. II. A GOOD . “By Thee only will we make mention of Thy name.” The confession of the ransomed Jews meant more than empty words. They had seen their error; they intended a complete change, a radical reformation. Idolatry was for ever renounced. This is a type of the conversion of a sinner. The confession means not only that he seeks forgiveness, but also—1, Intends reformation—abandonment of all sin, no reservation of any sin, the course of life completely altered. 2, Supposes regeneration. Man can only see the outward change; but what does it represent? Awakening to the danger, sight of the evil of sin. The disposition is different; the heart is changed. Hence the will determines the other way. 3, Proceeds from God. There is a work of the Holy Spirit in conversion. We need His help to fulfil the resolution. “By Thee only.” Have you experienced this change? It is a personal one. Whether you have or not, He is the Lord—your Lord; therefore right that He demands your service. O yield His claim!—J. Rawlinson. PRAYER IN TROUBLEIsa_26:16. “Lord, in trouble,” &c. Every man knows what trouble is; what it is to lie under the chastening hand of God. In the day of trouble, we feel our dependence on external help. Some in adversity seek friends whom they neglect in prosperity. Happy is he who, when trouble comes, finds himself surrounded by true friends. Acquire the art of keeping your friends. But there are troubles to which human sympathy and help are inadequate. Times when men’s thoughts drift towards God. Trouble reminds us of the unseen, the spiritual, the eternal. It quickens the spiritual sense by casting the fierce light of eternity on the things of time. Men visit God in trouble by pouring out to Him their prayers. I. Some pray in trouble, who are prayerless at other times. Multitudes live entirely without prayer. Taught by mothers in infancy. For a considerable part of ripening youth they maintained the habit. But began to neglect, were afraid of ridicule, or fell into sinful indulgence; it would appal them to think how long it is since they poured out one prayer to God. Surprising that with God so near, so many should habitually turn away and never seek His face. But some heavy trouble comes. They pause, recollect themselves, remember the long years of misspent time, pray, promise, and vow (H. E. I., 69). Does this always continue when the trouble has departed? Is not this often the history? The cloud breaks, the sun bursts out again, the man forgets that the sun was ever hid. Ship in storm. Cries, prayers, vows. Ship is saved. Prayers cease; revelry is resumed. How often on the bed of sickness are prayers and promises uttered which are forgotten with returning health. Pharaoh alarmed by the successive plagues. Besought Moses to pray. Hardened his heart again. The children of Israel repeatedly fell into idolatry. Visited with judgments. Cried to the Lord. When punishment was withdrawn returned to the sin. Conviction is not conversion; awakening not repentance. If the heart remains unchanged, a man will only pray as long as he is alarmed (H. E. I., 3877–3879.) II. Some begin to pray in trouble, and continue to pray afterwards. Many have had to thank God for trouble. Borne along the stream of prosperity towards destruction. Some obstruction. It was unwelcome. It compelled examination. It revealed the yawning falls a little way beyond. Just in time to return. Every human soul requires one such grand interruption of its career. Grace of God employs various means for its effectuation. Trouble is one (Hosea 5:15). The soul’s deep sin, danger, need, has been revealed. The cry has gone up to heaven. It was the cry of true repentance and humble faith in the Crucified One. Comes from the trouble a new man—a praying man (Manasseh, 2 Chronicles 33:10-13. The prodigal son, Luke 15:14-21). III. Some pray habitually, but especially in trouble. Prayer is the special characteristic of a Christian. It is his “vital breath.” He cannot fail to establish stated seasons of prayer, both public and private. He endeavours to maintain the spirit of prayer. By its aid the blood of the spiritual life is kept in circulation. An important sense in which he prays “without ceasing” (H. E. I., 3866–3879; P. D., 2839). And every remarkable event is made the occasion of special prayer. Certainly trouble is one of these. Do you not go to God in your sorrows, as a child goes to his father or his mother? Bishop Reynolds says: “A godly heart is like those flowers which shut when the sun sets, and open again when the sun returns and shines upon them. Hannah prayed silently so long as she was in bitterness of spirit; but as soon as God answered her prayer and filled her heart with joy, presently her mouth was enlarged into a song of thanksgiving.” In trouble you pray, 1. for deliverance, in submission to the Divine will. 2. More especially for a sanctified use of trouble; complete submission, faith, purification (Philippians 4:6-7).—J. Rawlinson. REVIVALIsa_26:19. Thy dead men shall live. I. This is the language of exultation. [1081] In this part of the chapter the tone changes from sorrow, failure, and abortion to life, prosperity, and joy. “Thy dead, O Zion, shall live again.” Thy people have been virtually, civilly, nationally dead, but they shall have a resurrection. Because these dead are God’s people, their resurrection from national death is certain. Then, thrilled with confidence in this truth, the prophet gives utterance to the voice of God within him, “Awake and sing, ye that lie buried in dust, awake; come forth from your (figurative) graves, and break out in song as ye come up to the light of day!” [1081] This passage proves beyond a question that the idea of a resurrection from the dead was familiar to the prophet and to his first readers, for whose immediate use he wrote. Sensible writers never borrow figures from things unknown, but always from things better known than the facts they would illustrate. As no writer could draw a figure from what was unknown to himself, so, if he sought to teach, he would not draw one from what was unknown to his readers. As Isaiah could not talk about a resurrection if he had never known the idea and the words to express it, so he would not expect to be understood unless his readers were also familiar with it.—Cowles. II. This expression involves a contrast. The resurrection of national life of God’s people stands in contrast with the denial of resurrection to the wicked rulers of Babylon (Isaiah 26:14). That Chaldean nation went down to its political grave with no hope, no possibility of being raised to national life again. On the contrary, God’s people, from being in a state of national death in Babylon, were eventually called into national life. III. This declaration suggests a truth which nations ought to learn. No nation that seeks God and His righteousness can be permanently kept down. “Righteousness exalteth a nation;” exalteth it from depression into power. It may be brought low, but if the elements of rectitude lie within it, if public justice be a part of its political creed, and respect for the rights of others its unvarying practice, then, though apparently buried in the grave of defeat and degradation, its resurrection shall come. God rules not only amid the armies of heaven, but amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and to every nation maintaining justice, mercy, and truth, though brought ever so low, the voice of history proclaims, “Thy dead men shall live!” The bodies of English martyrs in the Tudor period perished. Under the Stuart dynasty the bones of those English patriots who defied “crowned and mitred tyranny” were dug up and dishonoured. That part of them corruptible and worthless died, but the better part of them has experienced a resurrection. Their principles live to-day. “Thy dead men shall live.”—Henry Cowles, D.D. GOD’S TO SHELTER(For a Time of National Distress.)Isaiah 26:20. Come, my people, &c.The history of humanity as a whole, and of nations and communities as a part, is like that of individual man, diversified and varying, made up of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow. There is a “but” in every condition, a crook in every lot. The people of God, however, have alleviations which the world knows not of. They have promises of present comfort and help, hopes of future recompense, and they are invited to make God their Refuge now. This was very much the case with the captive Jews in Babylon. Wars and commotions would rage as a tempest around Babylon, and bring its overthrow. But while the storm raged, the people of God were to be calm and tranquil; were to enter into their places of retirement, and avoid the commotions of war. This passage is a word in season to God’s people now. I. THE PERSONS INVITED. “My people.” This was addressed to the Jews, who stood in a peculiar relation to God. It has now a wider range. It may include— 1. Those who are His by profession. This includes a large portion of the people of this land. Many of these, however, are out of Christ, and they are specially invited to repair to Him as their complete and only refuge from the storms of conscience and the righteous displeasure of a Holy God. 2. Those who are His by personal consecration. Not only received into the visible Church by an outward profession, but have become living members of that mystical body of which Christ is the Head. In times of danger and distress, when the judgments of God are in the earth, they are invited to repair to Christ. He is a complete refuge from every storm. II. THE DUTY . 1. The form of the injunction. No terrible threatening, but mild and compassionate invitation. Though our Redeemer and Master has a right to command, yet He more frequently employs the language of invitation. 2. The place of retreat. We may think of many sacred localities to which we may repair in the time of national or individual sorrow. There is the open sanctuary. This to many is a place of refuge and comfort. There is the home. Families may meet and together commune with God. There is the private closet. There we may humble ourselves, mourn our own faults and those of others, and seek God’s favour. But after we have thought of all these places we must go much further, into a more mysterious and safer sanctuary. These are only the way to the City of Refuge; only the plank by which we may ascend to the Ark; only the door-way into the Temple. Ours must be the language of the Apostle (John 6:68). 3. The purpose of retirement. For defence. Israel must remain within the blood-sprinkled doors while the destroying angel wields his sword outside. Rahab and her family abide within their dwelling while Jericho is destroyed. Amid the tokens of danger and the coming storm, we are to hide ourselves in the perfections of God, in the merits of Christ. We must enter into the ark, and like Noah expect the Lord to shut us in. When the Hebrews had sprinkled the blood of the Paschal lamb, the command was, “None of you shall go out of his house till the morning.” The manslayer could not go within the City of Refuge. Here in Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is safety from every danger, a complete Refuge in every time of need. .—The whole of this year has been marked more or less by personal, relative, or national calamity. It opened in storm, and a fine ship, the London, perished. Pestilence among the cattle followed. War broke out and mercantile prosperity waned. Now a painful visitation is among us. God is now calling you to Himself.—George Smith, D.D., August 9, 1866. OF SAFETYIsa_26:20. Enter into thy chambers, &c. The religion of Christ, as a religion of consolation, is eminently suited to the condition of men in a sinful, suffering, and dying world. The same Saviour who died to save, lives to bless, saying, “Lo, I am with you always,” &c. The same Holy Spirit sanctifies and comforts. This Scripture suggests, that in the worst of storms God’s people have a secure hiding-place. I. A TRUTH IMPLIED. God’s people have chambers of security and defence in time of danger. Every perfection of the divine character, every office of Christ, every divine promise is a chamber of defence (Proverbs 18:10). II. A WELCOME DUTY . “Enter,” &c. 1. Who gives this invitation? The Lord Jehovah, with whom is Everlasting Strength. 2. To whom this invitation is given, “My people.” Not Babylon, not Egypt, but “my people.” 3. What it is to which He calls them. To enter their closets, hold communion with Him, trust themselves to His keeping. III. THE REASONS FOR THIS RETREAT. 1. Because the calamity anticipated is very great. God comes out of His place to judge the nations, &c. 2. The season of danger is short. “For a little moment.” Self-sacrifice and self-restraint for Christ’s sake will not last long. 3. Because the blessings promised are very valuable. Present purity and peace, future glory, &c.—Samuel Thodey. Isa_26:20. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. An exhortation to religious retirement. Man was intended for society, but also for contemplation. When devoted to pious purposes, retirement is highly useful to man and most acceptable to God (H. E. I., 3466–3525). It is commended to us both by precept and example (Genesis 24:63; Matthew 14:23, &c.) But the retreat which the Scriptures commend is temporary, not total; not that of a monk to his cell, in which he passes his days in barren and unprofitable speculation, but that of men living in the world, who go out of it for a time in order that they may return to it better fitted for the duties which God has assigned them there. That you may be stimulated to this duty, consider its advantages. I. Religious retirement takes off the impression which the neighbourhood of evil example has a tendency to make upon the mind. We need often to escape from it in order that we may see its true character, and renew our strength to resist it. II. Religious retirement is favourable for fixing pious purposes in the mind, and strengthening our habits of virtue. Dazzled no longer by the false glitter of the world, we open our eyes to the beauties of the better country; stunned no more with the noise of folly, we can listen in silence to the still small voice. At leisure we can reflect by what temptations we were formerly foiled, that we may guard against them in time to come; for seeing the evil day, we can prepare ourselves for its conflicts. III. In religious retirement we attain to self-knowledge. Here wisdom begins. We can never ascend to the knowledge of Him whom to know is life eternal, without knowing ourselves; and we can never know ourselves without retiring from the world, without stripping off whatever is artificial about us, without throwing off the veil which we wear before men, and devoting our sacred hours to serious consideration. IV. Retirement and meditation will open up a source of new and better entertainment than you meet with in the world (Psalms 104:34).—John Logan: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 156–164. THE SONG TO THE Isa_27:2-3. In that day sing ye unto her, &c.There are different opinions as to what is meant by “leviathan, that crooked serpent,” and “the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1), whether the same power is signified by different names, &c. (1.) On a point concerning which learned and able men cannot see eye to eye, it would be presumptuous in me to give an opinion. (2.) If we cannot feel certain as to the literal meaning, the spiritual is plain. (3.) Neither of the expositions affects the substance of the prophecy. A great deliverance is spoken of, to be accomplished by the destruction of the enemies of the Church, and the Lord gives a command to comfort His people. There is in our text a command and a promise. I. THE COMMAND. 1. “Sing ye unto her.” It is taken for granted that the spiritual condition of the Church is pleasing to God, but that the feeling of His people is in a low state. Sometimes the Lord directs His servant to reprimand them: “Show unto my people their transgression.” A Church may need comfort while some of its members deserve correction. Possibly the faulty members are the cause of discomfort to the Church, and render it desirable that she should be comforted. It is so in the family. We comfort the family when a member of it has transgressed. The fact that one member needs correction causes the others to need consolation. In some cases, it requires much wisdom to decide whether an encouragement or a reproof should be given. We have seen the rod used when a kind word would have been more suitable; and some are singing songs while it would be more appropriate to sound an alarm. There is need for rightly dividing the Word of truth. “A word in its season,” &c. Possibly the accurate expositor will ask who is commanded to sing. Is it the prophets, or the priests, or the choir of the Temple? This is a poetical book, and sometimes it calls on the heavens, the mountains, and the trees of the field to sing. In this respect I would rather let the command of the text remain undecided, and say to everybody and everything, “Sing unto her!” 2. What shall be sung to this vineyard? Remind her in this song that she is “the vineyard of the Lord of hosts.” The Old Testament is full of references to a vineyard, to vines, and to wine. The reason for this is, that the Bible is an Eastern book. A vineyard supposes— (1.) Separation. Not the superiority of its soil to that of the surrounding country makes the vineyard, but its separation. It is not because the saints are by nature better than others that they are God’s vineyard, but because they are set apart by Him. The idea of separation as regards the Church is made conspicuous in every age. The saints, the disciples, constitute the flock and the vineyard of the Old Testament, the Church of the New. When I speak of a separated Church, of course I do not allude to any sect, but to the Church in general. There are hypocrites in the Churches, but none in the Church. It is in the world, but not of the world. The soul is in the body, but not of the body. “Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:7). Ceremonials cannot plant the vine; there are necessarily ordinances, but circumcision could not make the Jews a godly people, and there were thousands of ungodly people partaking every year of the Passover. A change of heart, a change in the condition of the soul, constitutes the planting in the vineyard; not a ceremonial separation, but a change of mind; not the affixing of the stamp of a sect, but the impartation of the image of God (H. E. I. 1171–1183). II. THE PROMISE. A large and comprehensive one. It includes— 1. Care. “I the Lord do keep it.” With regard to a vineyard, there is a special meaning in the word “keep.” The vine requires great care. There is much work for the knife. From the pruning of the vine by the vinedresser, there is much valuable instruction to be gained. We learn that what appear to be grievous losses may secure great gains (H. E. I. 63, 104, 126). Oh, this pruning, how painful it often is! But it is not done because the Owner of the vineyard delights in it; it proves His love. See Jochebed taking an ark of bulrushes, putting the child Moses in it, and then laying it amidst the perils of the Nile: not because she hated him! No; love was at the bottom of it all, though it appeared otherwise. It behoves the pulpit still to assure God’s people of His care for them. 2. Provision. “I will water it.” There was necessity for watering the vineyard constantly. This was done by means of trenches conveying the water to the roots of the plants. For this purpose rain-water was carefully stored in cisterns; dew was also of great service. The means of grace are somewhat like watercourses. We are dry enough and withered in appearance, but what would we be without the means of grace? What is the dew? The noiseless influences of the Holy Spirit. We will compare revivals to showers; they are not with us, like the watercourses, always. I do not know whether the natural vineyards must have water without intermission; but the vineyard of the Lord of hosts requires it “every moment,” and here is His promise to supply the need. 3. Safety. “Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” It shall be protected from the blighting frost, from thieves and spoilers, from “the boar out of the wood,” from “the little foxes that spoil the vines.” “I the Lord do keep it.” He will not only give His angels charge concerning it, though He will do that. “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.” That shall be done, and more! “For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about her, and will be the glory in the midst of her.” All things are in the hand of God, and under His control they shall co-operate for her safety. It is not surprising that Moses, as he surveyed Israel from the top of Mount Nebo, should say, “Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help? The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” In dwelling near God there is safety. Israel was always flourishing when with God. The safety of God’s people means more than being kept together and saved from destruction: “Lest any hurt it!” How excellent are the promises of God!—Gweithiau Rhyddieithol, pp. 48–51, by the late William Ambrose of Port Madoc, translated from the Welsh by the Rev. T. Johns, of Llanelly. A SOLEMN Isa_27:4-5. Fury is not in me, &c. The figurative language in Isaiah 27:1 sets forth some powerful and terrible enemies of Israel—cruel, crafty, and bloodthirsty oppressors. But, terrible as they were to Israel, they were no more than “briers and thorns” in the way of Israel’s God. He would “march against them and go through them,” just as soldiers on their march tread down and crush so frail a barrier as these would be against them. His own people the while should be the object of His special and necessary care (Isaiah 27:2-3). And if they should so offend as to draw down His judgments upon them, still He would not deal with them as adversaries. He would be ready to make peace with them again on their humbling themselves before Him. The solemn disclaimer of our text should be borne in mind by us when we study— I. GOD’S AGAINST THE WICKED. Many of these are very terrible, and a certain class of religionists would have us believe that these alarming texts of Holy Scripture are metaphors that mean nothing, and that we dishonour “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” if we associate His name with anything that savours of wrath, vengeance, and severity. But this is taking a meagre and one-sided view of the Divine character. In God there is not only love, but also holiness, which “cannot look upon iniquity;” justice, which “will by no means clear the guilty;” and truth, which forewarns and will not fail to punish the transgressors of law and order. Let us not mistake the character of such punishment. A furious man acts on the passionate impulse of the moment. He strikes blindly and without consideration; does many things which, when the excitement is over, he will be sorry for and try to undo. But nothing like this is there with God. His threatenings are not uttered in blind and inconsiderate wrath, but in awful calmness of judgment, and in vindication of His essential and eternal holiness; and thus, too, they will be executed. This it is that will make the judgment-day so awful, and that then will reduce the condemned to despair. The son who sees his father’s anger so stirred against him, that vain attempt were it to reason with him, vain to offer a word of explanation or excuse, does well to keep out of his father’s way, and hope for a better time to stand before him and ask to be forgiven. But no such hope is there, when the offender sees that his aggrieved parent—not furiously, but “of very faithfulness”—is about to administer a threatened punishment; ay, and that his heart is heavy, and his eye dim with tears, even while he punishes! And this, allowing for the inevitable weakness of any illustration of such a matter, may serve to convey the idea which I would impress upon you. “The Father of mercies and God of all comfort” will certainly execute His threatenings against impenitent transgressors. Not in passionate haste, not on sudden impulse of which He might afterwards repent, will the Lord make “a way for His anger” against sin. II. THE OF THE . Not a few earnest men becloud and all but explain away this fundamental doctrine, because (they tell us) they cannot endure the thought of sin being punished in the person of the Sinless One. They do not like to hear of the Father’s “wrath” being averted and (as it is said) “appeased” by the death of His Son; of God looking out (as it were) for a victim, and fastening upon the One found guiltless as a substitute for the guilty mass! But this mistaken representation arises from attributing to God a passion which in men would be indignation and wrath. But what does our text say? “Fury is not in Me.” We may not think of our heavenly Father as an angry Being, furiously raging against those whom the devil has proved too strong for, and not to be appeased till He found a victim on which to wreak His vengeance! But no unwillingness on our part to hear it can alter that which is written (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 4:18; Isaiah 53:5-6). If we study this great subject aright, we shall find in the Atonement the result of the co-working of the calmest (and therefore most inflexible) justice and the tenderest love.—T. W. Peile, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 101–112. The text expresses the preference of God for forgiveness rather than for punishment, and the conditions of that forgiveness; but, at the same time, the utter overthrow of all who continue in opposition to His will. It suggests— I. A blessed absence in the nature of God. “Fury is not in me.” Fury seems to be uncontrolled and uncontrollable anger, such as that with which the storm seems to beat upon the dismasted, helmless vessel; such as that which inspires the hungry lion that has been for some hours disappointed of its prey. When a man is so under the influence of anger that no consideration from within or intercession from without can pacify him, he is in a state of fury. But no such state is possible to our God. His anger is always under control, He is always the Lord God, abundant in goodness and truth; and we have also plentiful evidence that, in the height of His displeasure, He is accessible to intercession on behalf of His creatures. See how the Son of God ends His woes against “Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites,” with “O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered,” &c. Recall the effect of Abram’s pleading for Sodom, and that of Moses for unbelieving Israel (Numbers 14) The declaration of the text has been abundantly verified in all ages. Nevertheless, II. This blessed absence in the nature of God is compatible with contention with the unrepenting. “Who would set the briers,” &c. Imagine a father and a son at variance, the father being in the right, and the son in the wrong. There are two ways of reconciliation: either the son must comply with the conditions of the father, or the father must lower his standard to the level of the son. But what a wrong would the father do himself, his family, and society, if he were to adopt this course! He ought not, will not. If the son resolves to fight it out, reconciliation is impossible. This is the relative position of God and the ungodly man. God says, “I am Jehovah, I change not.” It is a blessed impossibility. But the unrepentant man ought, can, must! If not, the fire of goodness must be set against the briers of wickedness, a contest as hopeless, and of which the issue is as certain, as that of the devouring flame with briers and thorns. Conclusion.—The absence of fury in God leads Him to prefer pardon to punishment, and to provide means for the former. “Let him take hold of my strength,” &c. Men, churches, and nations are lovers of peace in proportion as they are righteous (Psalms 72:3). The preference of God for peace depends upon the very attribute of which the ungodly would rob Him, His righteousness. What is God’s strength? How take hold of it? When a man falls overboard at sea, the appointed means of rescue is the life-belt which is thrown to him. Seizing that, he lays hold of the strength of the vessel to save him. When the man-slayer, fleeing from the avenger of blood, entered the city of refuge, He took hold of God’s appointed means of shelter. God’s strength is His pardoning prerogative, exercised to us through Christ, the “arm” or “strength” of the Lord. See how Moses takes hold of it (Numbers 14:19). And the prodigal (Luke 15:21; Romans 5:1).—Horace Bushnell, D.D.TAKING HOLD OF GOD’S Isa_27:5. Or let him take hold of My strength, &c. [1087][1087] Cheyne translates and comments: “Or else.… A truly evangelical belief that God is willing to be reconciled even to His enemies.… Seize upon my fortress—Let him take sanctuary in the Name of Jehovah (Proverbs 18:10); in short, let him become a believing servant of Jehovah. ‘Fortress,’ a symbolical name for a protecting deity, as Isaiah 17:10, Psalms 52:7 (9).” Kay: “Or, ‘Let a man lay hold of My strong refuge;’ let him flee to my altar of reconciliation (cf. 1 Kings 1:50).” I. IN WHAT GOD’S . First, we think of Almightiness, that irresistible power which created the world, &c. We are apt to forget those other and higher sources of strength which belong to God (1 Kings 19:12). Wisdom is strength (Ecclesiastes 9:15-16). Truthfulness is strength. Justice is power. Mercy to the weak is often the manifestation of the highest strength. England has often put forth her power; her soldiers have crushed the most appalling rebellions; her guns have sunk the mightiest navies; but history will perhaps record it as the highest display of her power when, under a sense of justice, she withdrew her forces when she might have crushed her foes (as in the late Transvaal war, 1881). Now, this element of mercy, as manifest in the work of Christ, is God’s strength (Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:24). God’s fatherly love is the essence of His power (H. E. I., 3206). Christ is the expression of that love. Christ is God’s strength. “And let him take hold of My strength.” II. HOW MAY MAN TAKE HOLD OF GOD’S ? (1.) By submission. (Romans 6:13; Psalms 2:10). As nothing is so reasonable, so nothing is so wise as submission to God. (2.) By prayer. Prayer is the hand of the child stretching out in the dark and anxious to feel itself under that father’s protecting power. Prayer takes hold of God’s strength. (3.) By obedience (1 Peter 1:14). When Saul of Tarsus, after asking, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” went straightway and did God’s will, then there came to him a moral power mightier than he had ever wielded before. (4.) By implicit trust in God’s mercy [1090][1090] “I think I can convey the meaning of this passage so that every one may understand it, by what took place in my own family within these few days. One of my children committed a fault for which I thought it to be my duty to chastise him. I called him to me, explained to him the evil of what he had done, and told him how grieved I was that I must punish him for it. He heard me in silence, then rushed into my arms, and burst into tears. I could sooner have cut off my arm than have then struck him for his fault; he had taken hold of my strength—he had made peace with me.”—Toller. III. THE RESULT OF THUS TAKING HOLD OF GOD’S . The result is that Divine strength is infused into our minds. We become “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” Trust is the medium through which God’s power is transmitted to man’s weakness (Hebrews 6:19). We can only really know those whom we love and trust (Daniel 11:32). The most invincible and lasting institution in the world is the Church of Christ, because composed of those who are “partakers of the Divine nature,” and whom God has made strong.—William Parkes, F.R.G.S. THE FUTURE OF ISRAELIsa_27:6. He shall cause them, &c. [1093][1093] Note the translation of this verse by Alexander and Delitzsch, in which Kay, Birks, and Cheyne concur. It did not often happen to ancient nations to rise into new vigour after being conquered and removed. Ancient Assyria and Babylon fell, and their influence faded. But it was otherwise with Israel. They had flourished; abused their trust; were punished by being conquered and removed. But they did not perish. From the Babylonian grave they rose. Centuries longer they existed, until their crowning sin. No further need for their national existence. It ceased. But their separate identity as a race continued. The Jew is everywhere. Everywhere he is a witness to the truth of the Bible. And the influence of the Jewish people continues. The influence of the classic writers of Greece and Rome continues. Their study is essential to a liberal education. But only the few enjoy that advantage. The literature of the Jewish race was confined almost entirely to their sacred books. But how wide its influence! Read by the scholar and the peasant, &c. Lifts men’s thoughts above the level of this world, and presents a loftier ideal of human character than any of the mere “thinkers” of ancient or modern times. Nor is it only the perpetuation and influence of a literature. It is the perpetuation of a type of moral life. One who came of Jacob has exerted and is exerting an influence never equalled. Born in a manger, trained in poverty, dying on a cross, He has been and is the fountain of spiritual life to millions. In Him they have become a new seed of Jacob (Galatians 3:29). The text foretells the stability, the growth, and the diffusion of the Church. I. ITS . “Take root.” This is necessary to growth. And life is necessary to it. You may plant a stone, or a piece of dried wood, but it can never take root. Why? It wants the mysterious principle called life. Reasons for this. And the roots are the firmest part of the plant. Hence the metaphor—a man is rooted in his position. Fine forest-tree with roots, like arms, many feet on every side. Impossible to dislodge that tree. This is one of the emblems of the stability of the Christian’s spiritual position (Colossians 2:7). Thus the stability of the Church, the aggregate of spiritual men, is set forth in the text. It has struck its roots so deep, and spread them so far, that, as hitherto, so in the future, it shall continue. Storms of opposition, persecution, infidelity unable to uproot it. “The gates of hell shall not prevail.” II. ITS GROWTH. Rooting of a tree only valuable in relation to its continued life and growth. Change is the law of life. Look at it in the individual member of the spiritual Israel. In the living tree in spring the bud breaksforth, then the beautiful blossom—promise of the fruit. So in the Christian life. Gradually it develops by a certain though irregular progression. Nor will this promise of fruitfulness be falsified (Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 6:22; Psalms 92:13-14; H. E. I., 2508–2516, 2538–2544). Multiply this by the number of living members in any Church, and how much of spiritual goodness and beauty will be in that circle! Not only within it, but in the homes, among the neighbours, over the whole sphere of their influence. Then multiply this by all the Churches. What an amount of moral beauty thus in the world! III. ITS . “And fill the face of the world with fruit.” This vision was always present to the prophet’s eye. Suppose it realised, and the whole world converted. Then the world will be filled with goodness. But it is all in the spiritual succession from Jacob. How much comes of little! So it has ever been; small beginnings, gradual growth, great endings. Do you say you cannot believe in the world’s conversion? Do you believe the harvest comes from the seed? That Jesus multiplied the loaves? Is anything too hard for the Lord?—J. Rawlinson. THE OF GOD’S PEOPLEIsa_27:7-9. Hath He smitten him as He smote his smiter, or was he slain as his slayers were slain? In exact measure, when dismissing her, Thou didst contend with her; He scared her away with His rough blast in the day of the east wind. Therefore on these terms [or, hereby] shall the guilt of Jacob be purged, and this shall be all the fruit of taking away his sin, when he maketh all the altar-stones like lime-stones dashed in pieces, that Ashérahs and sun-images rise up no more.—Cheyne. This is a continuation of the song of the vineyard (Isaiah 27:2-6). That song was to be sung after deliverance from disasters which had come upon God’s chosen people, as the chastisement of their sins. The prophet here pauses to reflect and to instruct them. His instructions are of exceeding value to us, for God acts on the same principles in every age. I. GOD’S PEOPLE ARE OFTEN . They fail in duty, or they even transgress His commandments. Then they certainly suffer. Utter is the delusion that they may sin with impunity. Unlike human parents, God never spoils His children; He has no foolish fondness for them that would lead Him to be blind to or tolerant of their faults. On the contrary, sin in them is most grievous to Him (H. E. I., 4563–4570), and the chastisement thereof is certain and often severe (Amos 3:2). Terrible was the punishment which Isaiah foresaw would come upon Israel—deportation to the land of their conquerors. In that calamity what varied and awful sufferings were involved! So it is still! there is severity as well as mercy in the God we serve. Because He loves us, He will not allow us to go on to ruin unchecked. By terrible calamities, if need be, He will arrest us in the path to perdition. II. IN THE GOD VISITS HIS PEOPLE HIS MERCY IS . Manifest, 1. In the fact that they befall them here and now. How kind in Him, not to stand silently by, and leave them to go on unchecked to ruin! Remember, the sinner has no claim upon the mercy of God in any form. 2. In the restraint with which they are measured out [1096] There is no passion or vindictiveness in God’s dealings with them that provoke Him to anger. Though His chastisements may seem to burst upon the backslider like a hurricane of east wind, in reality mercy controls and directs the storm. “In exact measure,” &c., [1099] Because it is so exactly measured out by mercy, (1) it always falls short of the guilt of the sinner. Did justice measure it out, so that it should be commensurate with the guilt of the transgressor, it would mean destruction. This is seen in the case of the enemies of God. Persistent ungodliness is visited at length, not with chastisement, but with judgment, i.e., utter ruin (note the picture of the doom of Babylon in Isaiah 27:10-11). So that when God’s erring people have been chastened most severely, His prophets can put to them Isaiah’s question in Isaiah 27:7. To it they can only return the answer given in Psalms 103:10. (2). It always falls short of the transgressor’s power of endurance (H. E. I., 180,187). When it is ended, he still lives—lives to bless the hand that smote him (Psalms 119:71; Psalms 119:75; Psalms 119:67). 3. In the motive that inspires them all. By them God seeks, not the destruction of His erring people, but their deliverance. Israel was held in the degrading bondage of idolatry; the terrible calamities of the captivity were the strokes by which He brake their fetters. When the discipline was over, they hated idolatry in all its forms; all the altar-stones in which they had delighted were “like limestones dashed in pieces,” and the Ashérahs and sun-images rose in their midst no more. It is the same motive that inspires Him in all His afflictive dealings with His people to-day (H. E. I., 56–59, 66–74). Therefore, if He is visiting us with afflictions,— 1. Let us not be rebellious, but submissive (H. E. I., 158). 2. Let us be moved to penitential self-examination (H. E. I., 145–147). 3. Let us give heartfelt thanks to God because He is resolved to make us like Himself (Hebrews 12:10; H. E. I., 162–165). [1096] See pp. 6, 20. [1099] Isaiah 27:8. In measure. Rather, with measure by measure: Heb. “with seah-seah,” a seah, being the third part of an ephab, was a moderate measure. With forbearance and graduated severity, dealing out punishment in carefully adjusted quantities, and at successive times, “not suffering Thy whole displeasure to arise,” “correcting with judgment, not in anger” (Jeremiah 10:24; Jeremiah 30:11).—Kay. THE OF SINIsa_27:9. By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. The history of God’s ancient people is a divine teaching. He had brought them into special relations to Himself, and had conferred on them special privileges. They were intended to be witnesses for Him in the world. To a large extent they failed. Instead of persistent faithfulness to their mission, they repeatedly fell into idolatrous practices. Punishment came. They repented. But when the impression was gone, they renewed the sin. For centuries this continued, until the terrible disaster of the Babylonian captivity. Then they finally renounced idolatry. This was the divine design in permitting that disaster to befall them. The prophet foretold it with suggestive accuracy. “By this shall the iniquities of Jacob be purged,” &c. Their conduct, and the divine dealing with them, finds its parallel in the history of the modern Church. The parallel holds— I. WITH REGARD TO THEIR SIN. The spiritual Jacob sins. Saintly individuals, here and there, whose conduct is an honour to the gospel; but comparatively limited number. Many who in youth felt strongly have seriously declined from the warmth of their first love. Instead of keeping themselves from the world, they are under its influence; like imperfect swimmers, who get within the power of a wave and find they have neither strength nor skill to cope with it. They listen to the sentiments of the world on matters of religion and morality. By little and little they conform. Like Samson, when shorn of his locks, they become weak as other men. From contentment with imperfection they become reconciled to positive sin. Sometimes they even exceed their teachers. Christian professors who have declined into sinful ways often become worse than those from whom they have taken their lesson. And does not God hate sin in them as He hates it in others? A man’s standing in Christ is nothing, if he is living in wilful sin. It deadens his conscience, interrupts his communion with God, exposes him to the peril of final apostasy and perdition. Read the former as well as the latter part of 1 John 1:7. (H. E. I., 4563–4570.) II. WITH REGARD TO THE OF SIN. The discipline God sent to the Jewish people was— (1.) Severe. It seemed hard to be driven from their beautiful city to a foreign land, possibly to be absorbed in its population or held in slavery. Nor had they the consolation of knowing that they had not brought it on themselves. God knows how to regulate the severity of suffering according to all the facts that must be taken into account, and all the ends that are to be served. However severe our sufferings, we are compelled to admit that they are always less than we deserve. But if His strokes are to be felt, they must sometimes be severe. (2.) Punitive. God punished Jacob for his sin; but He did not cast him off. His disapprobation of sin had been shown in words; now it must be shown by punishment (Hosea 12:2). The sufferings of God’s people are sometimes trials of faith. But they are often punishments. When a parent inflicts punishment, does he mean that he has disowned his child? Does it not spring from and prove the relation between them? God punishes as a father: and because He is a father. But this is different from allowing the penal consequences of sin to fall fully on them. That would be disownment, perdition. He fulfils His word (Psalms 89:30-37. H. E. I., 56–59, 66–70). (3.) Corrective. “Purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin.” It does not win the pardon of sin. No man’s suffering can atone for his sin. That comes another way. The divine One has atoned. Here repentance, reformation is contemplated. As when the husbandman prosecutes his labours he aims to produce the fruit, so God’s design in His people’s troubles is to take away their sin. A rough method; but necessary. The wild storm damages but purifies. The vine-dresser cuts off branches that the tree may bear more fruit. The sharp frosts of affliction kill the weeds of sin. The medicine is distasteful, but it attacks and dislodges the disease. But have afflictions invariably this effect? No. Sometimes received in a rebellious spirit; God not recognised in them; thoughtfulness not encouraged; the heart is hardened; comfort is sought from pernicious sources; the soul is driven further from God and deeper into sin. But when trouble is sanctified— (1.) It suggests serious thoughtfulness. How has it come? From God? Why? Sin. Our moral instincts point to retribution. Perhaps some particular sin. May be an immediate connection of the punishment—with intemperance for instance, or fraudulent business transactions. There will be self-examination. God, responsibility, eternity will be realised. (2.) It produces self-humiliation. Confession of sin. Penitential cry for mercy at the cross. Renewed self-dedication. (3.) It reawakens spiritual life. It is a reason for the reception of fresh impetus. New earnestness in the culture of holiness; new watchfulness against evil. Like a child corrected. Then if troubles surround you— (1.) Be conscious of God’s hand. Look beyond the secondary causes. (2.) Justify God in His dealing. (3.) Be patient; wait His time. (4.) Study His design in sending the trouble. And unite with Him for the accomplishment of that design (H. E. I., 143–154).—J. Rawlinson. THE STORMS OF LIFEIsa_27:8. In measure when it shooteth forth, &c.I. There is a special appropriateness in comparing the trials of life to storms. 1. Storms are the exceptions and not the normal or common condition of the atmosphere. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” True; but Christ in saying so does not assert that we shall have tribulation only. “Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Yes; but it is not said that there is nothing but trouble. “Through much tribulation,” &c. Yea, through many storms the mariner has to go through life; but there is fine weather also. 2. Storms come from God. See what is said about trouble (Job 5:6), “All my springs are in THEE,” the sweet and the bitter. 3. Storms come from different directions: the family, the Church, business, &c. 4. Storms are unpleasant to bear. The anxiety of the sailor’s wife. The traveller on the moor. 5. Storms leave their traces behind. The ravages of the sea. The effects of gales on edifices. So in life. The bereaved family. The capitalist reduced to want, &c. 6. But storms are beneficial (Hebrews 12:10-11). II. The storms of life are regulated and controlled by God. It is of Him that our text speaks. Who “debates in measure?” Who “stayeth His rough wind in the day of His east wind?” He who is almighty, all-wise, and good. His greatness, as shown in the firmament, hints that He is too great to observe human beings. But notice our Saviour’s teaching: while instructing us concerning His Father, He speaks not of His omnipotence, &c., but of His observation of small things (Matthew 10:29-30). Put a green leaf or a drop of water under a microscope, and you will see myriads of living animalcules. God observes every one. “Casting all your care on Him, for He careth for you.” “He” and “you!” III. The storms of life are proportioned to His people’s strength. “In measure.” (See pp. 290, 291.) A Jew never exercised greater care and exactitude in weighing out his gold and diamonds than does God while meting out trials to His people. “Grace to help in time of need;” yea, and storms equal to our strength. We do not know how much our strength is. One man over-estimates his strength, another under-estimates it. “But He knoweth our frame.” “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able” (H. E. I. 179–188, 3674–3695). In various ways He maintains the merciful proportion of the storm to the strength. 1. He does so sometimes by sending the lesser storms before the greater. Jacob at Bethel was unable to undergo the trials of Jacob at Mahanaim. By the time he reached the latter place, he had become a prince, an Israel. Carrying the least burden prepares a man for carrying the greatest (Hercules and the ox). 2. Sometimes by sending the heaviest first. The man may then be in the fulness of his vigour, or in spirit he may be so contumacious that some rough handling may be necessary to bring his pride into subjection. 3. By removing one trial before another comes. Poverty is taken away before ill-health sets in. “He stayeth His rough wind.” 4. By sending each one in its time. “It could not have come at a worse time.” Who says so? “If it had happened at another time, it would have been easier to bear.” That may be so, but would it have been as profitable? It was necessary for you to feel. Less suffering would not have sufficed for that end. IV. The storms of life promote purposes of wisdom and love. 1. The Lord sometimes orders trials as chastisements. It is not always so; we are too apt to explain everything as chastisement. But God has promised to correct (Jeremiah 30:11), and it is the promise of a father, not the threatening of a judge. (1.) Sometimes one correction prevents many more. (2.) When the Lord sends trials in the way of correction, He graciously gives His children the reasons for thus dealing with them. “The iniquity which he knoweth” (1 Samuel 3:13). What father would correct a child without explaining to him what it was for? And what correction would benefit the saints while ignorant of the object in view? Possibly the neighbours may not know, but he has himself a private account with God. Hence arises a consequent duty (H. E. I. 144). (3.) When God thus sends trials, they are corrections, and not merely punishments; manifestations not of vengeance, but of His love. A gardener uses the pruning-knife only for the good of the fruit-bearing trees in his garden. God’s corrections are designed only to take away the sin of His people (see Isaiah 27:9, and Zechariah 13:9; H. E. I. 56–74). 2. The Lord sometimes orders trials as exhibitions of the graces of His people. The tempest which beat upon Job was not corrective, though he thought so while it lasted (Job 10:2; Job 13:24). The trial brought out into view his trust in God: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” The Lord’s purpose was to prove that Job was “a perfect and an upright man” (H. E. I. 91–98). 3. Storms are sometimes preventive. A fiery trial is approaching; the man is in danger, for he is too weak to withstand it; by a lesser trial he is withdrawn from it. Two ships are drawing near in a fog; they are making towards each other at a perfect angle. The top-mast of one is blown down; the men on deck bemoan the misfortune; but it was the means of slackening the pace of the vessel, and so prevented a collision. A man is sometimes laid on a bed of sickness to save his life—to save his soul! 4. Storms sometimes prepare men for nobler work. Moses, after being brought up in the lap of luxury, is watching the flock forty years in Midian. All the learning of Egypt is lost in a shepherd. Nay! Moses requires a double education, for he has a duplicate work to perform—appearing before Pharaoh in the palace, and leading Israel through the wilderness. E.g., what good can a preacher do, if he has no experience of his own? (Psalms 51:12-13; 2 Corinthians 1:3-6; H. E. I. 101–108, 2464, 2465). Some one may say that he has no knowledge of storms from experience. Wait! Peradventure thou shalt know. Should they come, bow. Nothing breaks, if it bends.—Gweithiau Rhyddieithol, pp. 78–81, by the late William Ambrose of Port Madoc. Translated from the Welsh by the Rev. T. Johns of Llanelly. THE DOOM OF THE Isa_27:10-11. Yet the defenced city, &c.I. WHAT A PICTURE! Proud Babylon so utterly overthrown that on its site cattle feed, and women gather dried sticks for firewood. What an astonishing faith that rendered it possible for any one even to conceive of such a national revolution. That faith grew out of a victorious confidence in the righteousness of God as the ruler of the world, and in His faithfulness to His promises. Such a faith we should cultivate when we see iniquity triumphant. Its utter overthrow is sure. II. WHAT AN ! “For it is a people of no understanding; therefore,” &c. It appears to be in direct contradiction to our Saviour’s prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But in the latter case the ignorance was involuntary; in the former, it was deliberate and persistent. Babylon resisted every effort God made to instruct her, and persisted in her career of defiance of His authority and of outrage on all the claims of man. Such obduracy was at length confronted by Divine justice, and then ensued utter ruin. This is the eternal law of the universe. Therefore, let the impenitent tremble, for persistence in sin forfeits all our claims upon God as our Creator (H. E. I., 4488, 4489). THE GREAT TRUMPETIsa_27:13. And it shall come to pass in that day, &c.This prophecy was literally fulfilled (Ezra 1); but it has a wider meaning, and thus also it shall be fulfilled. I. THE OF THE GOSPEL. “The great trumpet.” 1. It is designed for the world. When liberty was proclaimed for the slaves of the West Indies, the slaves of America remained in bondage. When the slaves of America were liberated, the bondmen in Cuba, Peru, &c., were not set free. But here is a blessing for the whole world. “Which shall be to all people,.… a light to lighten the Gentiles” (Luke 2:10; Luke 2:32). One side of the earth can only enjoy the rays of the sun at the same time; but this “light” shall shed its rays on the whole world. 2. It is designed for the world in its most important interests. There are inventions and scientific discoveries—such as the steam-engine, &c.—which are valuable to the whole world. But they are valuable only in regard to the present life. But the Gospel meets the wants of the soul, and concerns the endless life beyond. 3. It is so great that all other things in the world are small in comparison with it; trade, learning, &c. 4. It is so great that it bestows greatness upon everything it touches. Upon oratory, although it is independent of excellency of speech. Upon any country in which it is proclaimed and accepted: e.g., Great Britain, America. Under its shelter liberty, learning, &c., flourish (H. E. I. 1124–1132). II. THE OF THE GOSPEL. “The great trumpet shall be blown.” What is the good of a trumpet without some one to blow it? (Romans 10:14.) 1. Who is to blow it? Not angels (Hebrews 2:5). The law was given by the ministry of angels; by them the trumpet was blown on Mount Sinai (Acts 7:53). But they recognise that the trumpet of the Gospel is to be blown by man (Acts 5:20; Acts 10:31-32). This treasure is in earthen vessels. Gideon’s Lamps. Men are better than angels for this purpose. This is proved by the fact that God ordered it so. But there are other minor satisfactory arguments, such as: (1.) The danger of glorifying the missionary above the mission. (2.) The angels’ disadvantages. They lack the necessary experience. Blessed lack, in all other respects! They have never been contaminated by sin, and hence know not how to speak to the heart of the sinner. By men the trumpet is now being blown, and will be blown to the end of time. The trumpeters are falling, ministers are dying, but the ministry is alive! 2. How is it to be blown? (1.) Clearly (1 Corinthians 14:8). If the promises are proclaimed, care must be taken to show to whom they belong. So with the threatenings, &c. (2.) Vigorously. It must be done thoroughly, or not at all. (3.) Bravely (Ephesians 6:19). The question is not what will “take,” what is popular, what would please the masses, but “What saith the Lord?” III. THE OBJECTS OF THE . “They which were ready to perish.” 1. Pagans are such (Romans 1) “Them which sat in the region and shadow of death” (Matthew 4:16). 2. Every unconverted sinner. They are all to be addressed as those who are “ready to perish.” The matter cannot be compromised because they are seat-holders, contributors, &c. Your kindness shall not prevent our blowing from the trumpet the tones you need to hear. IV. THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL. “And they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” 1. Whence shall they come? From their Pharisaical hiding-places, the quicksands of excuses, &c. They are bound in the chains of slavery; but “they shall come!” This is as certain as the deliverance from Babylon. Take up your harps and strike them! 2. How will they come? Weeping. Without delay. Confidently. 3. Whither and to whom will they come? (1.) To Christ; they cannot live without Him. (2.) To His house. .— 1. Thousands have come; will you? 2. God has another trumpet.—Gweithiau Rhyddiethol (pp. 174–176), by the late Rev. W. Ambrose, Portmadoc. Translated from the Welsh by the Rev. T. Johns, Llanelly. ENGLAND’S CRYING SINIsa_28:1-4. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, &c., [1102][1102] See pages 116 and 127. Ephraim one of the most important of the tribes. It occupied some of the richest land, about the middle of Palestine. When the ten tribes formed a separate kingdom, Ephraim was the principal tribe in it. Hence the new kingdom was sometimes called Ephraim. Its capital Samaria, here called “the crown of pride.” It was a position of great natural strength. Its situation exceedingly beautiful. The sides of the hill on which it was built sloped down to rich valleys, covered with beautiful flowers and fruit-bearing trees. “Glorious beauty.” “Fat valleys.” No wonder the people were proud of it. When this prophecy was written, it was at the height of its pride. But it was doomed. The glorious beauty was a fading flower. The crown of pride was to be trodden under feet. Samaria was a delicious morsel for the invader, plucked and eaten as soon as seen. Shalmanezer, with the Assyrian host, invaded, overcame, carried the people away, never to return. Unlike Judah in this respect. An unsolved problem to this day, where are the ten tribes? do they still exist, or are they entirely extinct? It was because of sin. The story of Samaria’s idolatry. To tamper with idolatry was to renounce allegiance to Jehovah. But that was not all. Serious moral obliquities came in the wake of idolatry. Among these was intemperance. Had become a crying sin. Was helping to drag the nation down to ruin. “Woe to the crown of pride,” &c. Here is a warning to England. England’s crying sin is Samaria’s crying sin. God forbid that England should persist in it, so as to bring on herself Samaria’s doom! Mark— I. ITS . It was treated as sin in the case of Samaria. It is still a sin, as well as a vice and a crime. Keep to the text in pointing out its sinfulness. Drunkards described as “them that are overcome with wine.” Not a trifling thing to be overcome. The drunkard allows a thing he loves to overcome him and rob him of that for the safe keeping of which he is responsible to God. He is under obligation to keep himself for God, and he betrays his trust. What is overcome? 1. Reason. A great trust. Bound to use it to the best of our ability; therefore to keep it in efficient working order so far as it lies in our power. If you lent a man a tool, or a machine, you would require him to keep it from injury. But strong drink contends with and overcomes reason. You attach no importance to opinions expressed or reasonings attempted by a drunken man. His reason has been overcome by his own consent. He could not have been overcome if he had refused to play with the enemy. 2. Conscience. Is not conscience a sacred trust? Sentry at the door of character. Shall the sentry be drugged when the enemy is near? Does not intemperance stupefy the conscience? Many a man who once would have dreaded a sin more than a blow has become regardless of sin, regardless of God. Not only does intoxication deaden the sense of its own criminality; it lowers the moral tone as to everything else. The moral nature becomes enfeebled. Any other temptation more likely to succeed. By little and little comes over the soul a tendency to make light of every kind of sin. Communion with God is broken off. Prayer is a dull and comfortless exercise when the excitement of intemperance has become attractive. The religious nature becomes dead or maudlin under the influence of drunkenness. Alas! that men should undermine and disable their noblest faculty! (H. E. I., 4498). 3. Physical strength. Are not our bodies also entrusted to us to keep safely for the uses the Maker intends? If the suicide who takes his own life by a single stroke rushes into the presence of his judge uncalled, must not the man who by negligence, folly, or vice, shortens his life, answer for it in the same way? But the drunkard does this by being overcome with wine. II. ITS PENALTY. There was a worm at the root of the glorious beauty, and fruitfulness, and pride of Ephraim; and therefore it was a fading flower. The worm was their sinfulness. The drunkard may say that he is prosperous to-day; but the worm is at the root. 1. Look at the consequences to himself. The deteriorated character, lowered tastes, lowered company of many a well-educated and splendid young man, and many a beautiful promising boy. The social degradation. “Trodden down.” Avoided and despised by former associates. The ruined circumstances. Gradually downwards, and finally at the depth of poverty. The Lost Eternity. “No inheritance.” 2. Look at the consequences to his family. Wife unhappy. Children uneducated and untrained. Home impoverished and desolate. There is a skeleton in that house. 3. Look at the consequences to society. Drunkards usually seek society. Their example influences others. How to cure? How to prevent? 1. Legislation. Can the legislature do nothing more than it has done? What of Sunday closing? What of music saloons? What of limitation of the hours? What of diminishing the number of houses? What of abolition of the traffic? 2. Abstinence. Urge it on drunkards as their only chance of recovery. On the young as their best security. On Christians as the most effective protest and influential example. 3. Religion. Realise the sinfulness of intemperance. Let the grace of God reign over thoughts, appetites, habits.—J. Rawlinson. THE ’S DIGNITY AND POWERIsa_28:5-6. In that day shall the LORD of Hosts be for a crown, &c.This sustaining assurance stands in striking antithesis to the solemn threatenings and humbling charges which precede and follow it. It rises like some stately palace amid the ruins of man’s humbled pride and broken hopes. This voice comes from heaven in the very hour of earth’s desolation and decay. The prominent figure on the prophet’s canvas is very unlike the objects grouped around it. On the one side you look into a lovely valley, in the centre of which, on a commanding height, stands Samaria, the capital of the “Ten Tribes,” “the crown of pride,” “the glorious beauty.” But that proud crown is soon to be cast to the ground; that “glorious beauty” is but as a garland of fading flowers; that luxuriant valley, whose very “fatness” was made the minister of sensual indulgence, will soon be over-swept by the desolating march of the Assyrian invader; that gaudy splendour, the boast of Ephraim’s drunkards, is as short-lived as the wreaths which the revellers bind around their brows. The worm of intemperance is gnawing at the root of “the fading flower,” and overhead the storm is gathering that will blight its beauty. Turn now to the other side of the central figure, where the kingdom of Judah is introduced (Isaiah 28:7). Jerusalem as well as Samaria has her troops of reckless inebriates and her scenes of disgusting intoxication; though her punishment is not so near as that of the northern kingdom, here, too, are seen the marks of sure decline. On both sides, then, the prophet’s picture is gloomy and portentous—the earth a scene of drunken revelry, and the black sky streaked with the lightnings of divine wrath. But out of this sombre background of sottish intemperance and overhanging judgment, of falling crowns and fading wreaths, rises the luminous figure of our text. “In that day” of vanishing glory “shall the Lord of Hosts,” &c. In the fulness of its wealth this promise belongs to us; the Lord of Hosts has become to us “a crown of glory.” I. THE ’S DIGNITY. Let us not tone down the grandeur of the promise. Christ is the crown with which the believer is invested. He is an heir of God, a partaker of the divine nature. Let us see what is implied in this representation, bearing in mind the crown to which it stands in contrast. 1. It is a crown of honour without insecurity. Man is like a discrowned and exiled king (Lamentations 5:16). But God has taken means to restore him to his lost dignity (1 Corinthians 1:30). The crown of original righteousness which sin had torn from our brows and trampled in the dust has been replaced by the righteousness of Christ. How complete and glorious is His work in our behalf, to what dignity does He raise us! This crown cannot be placed on our head without inspiring us with a sense of honour, a feeling of recovered power, of joy and hope and security. There may be a crowned head without a kingly heart. A young prince may mount the throne incapable of discharging its duties, or, perhaps, trembling lest his new dignity should make him a mark for the bullet of the assassin; but the Christian’s honour cometh from God, and, along with the restored kingship, kingly qualities are imparted, so that no man can take his crown. 2. This is a crown in which we may boast without pride. Samaria was a crown of pride to the Ephraimites, and because they gloried in it, it was soon to be overturned. But while this crown of carnal confidence was thus to be swept away, God becomes to His people a more glorious crown in which they might boast without pride. When anything short of God is made our confidence it fosters vainglory, but with God as our crown all self-sufficiency is excluded. 3. It is a crown of joy without degradation. As it does not foster pride, so neither does it allow its wearer to descend to low indulgence. Reference is probably made to the wreath of flowers worn by drunken revellers on festive occasions. Under the plea of festive mirth they wallowed in the mire of sensuality. How soon their garlands would fall in disorder from their heads, or fall with their heads as they lay in senseless intoxication. The believer’s “diadem of beauty” points to purity and self-control (Psalms 4:7). 4. It is an unfading crown. This point in the contrast is equally obvious. And is not “the fading flower” an emblem of all our earthly joys? “All that sweet was made, but to be lost when sweetest.”This world’s fairest chaplets will soon wither on our brows; its honours, possessions, and hopes are evanescent; but the Lord will be our everlasting crown, our God will be our eternal glory (H. E. I., 4975–4989). II. THE ’S POWER. In Isaiah 28:6 we have all the elements of personal power, social well-being, and national greatness (Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:18). The indwelling Spirit confers three benefits. I. A clear head. “A spirit of judgment.” Solomon asked this blessing. It does not fall to many of us to sit on the bench, but what is good for the judge is a precious gift for all. When the Spirit pours His light upon the mind, the eyes of our understanding are enlightened. A clear intellect, a sound mind, an unwarped, unprejudiced judgment, is needed in all walks of life. How appropriate is this part of the promise! How could justice be rightly administered in such a state of society as that described by the prophet? If there is one thing that saps the morals, and muddles the understanding, it is intemperance. Men in positions of responsibility need all their wits about them. 2. A brave heart is promised “to them who turn the tide of battle to the gate.” The soldier as well as the judge is to participate in the gifts of God’s Spirit. We have a spiritual warfare to wage (Ephesians 6:12), and we are pledged to conquer the world for Christ. Beware lest we render ourselves unfit for military service by luxurious habits, and sinful indulgence. The drunkards of Ephraim could do nothing to oppose the invaders of their country. We need the Spirit to fire our hearts with courage and enterprise. Without His influence we shall prove poltroons. 3. A strong arm. Self-denial is a source of moral courage and of spiritual strength. Far from us be the dissoluteness which enfeebles our powers, both of mind and body. Such, then, are the contents of this precious promise. Oh, that we were all invested with this crown of holiness, dignity, and beauty. How many are content with the gilded coronets and fading chaplets of the world. You remember the scene in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” part ii., which has been made the subject of a painting by Sir Noel Paton—the man raking straw while one held a glittering crown over his head. Make Christ your boast. The crown of pride shall be hurled to the ground, the garlanded revellers shall sink in their own corruption, the honours which men so eagerly seek are as a fading flower, but this crown shall sparkle for ever on the believer’s head (Daniel 12:3; Psalms 90:17).—William Guthrie, M.A.God had said He would discrown Ephraim, remove his beauty, and stain his pride. This was done when Samaria was overthrown by the Assyrians. “In that day” He would do to the “residue of His people”—apparently the kingdom of Judah—what is said in our present text. It was done in the reign of Hezekiah, when the true worship was re-established, reformation effected, and the nation defended against its enemies. The text may be regarded, however, as a description of the splendour of the regenerated world. I. THE PERSONS . “The residue of His people: him that sitteth in judgment: and them that turn the battle to the gate.” All classes. Brave defenders; governors and administrators of justice, and the great mass of the people. Hence we observe that the blessing of the Gospel is needed by and suited to every class and every man. If there be a man anywhere who does not need it, it is either because— (1), he has no soul to save; or (2), he has not sinned; or (3), he is sufficient in himself to remove sin and its consequences from himself. But none of these can be said of any man. II. THE . It consists in that which the Lord will be to the regenerated world. 1. Honour. Men mistake the things that constitute the true honour and dignity of human nature. Sounding titles; enormous wealth; personal beauty; commanding intellect; undisputed power. They are all insufficient and insecure, like fading flowers. God is the true crown of glory to man. When the soul returns from its wanderings to God and is re-united to Him through Christ, the crown is placed upon his head (Jeremiah 9:23-24). 2. Wisdom. Both in barbarous and civilised countries, man without the Gospel is ignorant of the character of God, and of the way to approach Him (1 Corinthians 1:21). He gropes about in the darkness, if he desire to find Him at all. But Christ is made of God to us “wisdom,” as well as “righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” In Him the divine character is clearly seen in the fulness, harmony, and glory of its attributes. In Him also we learn how man can be reconciled to God, and the way to eternal life. 3. Strength. Not physical, nor intellectual power, however valuable in the regions proper to them. But moral power; the power of the human will; the most important power of all. This alone possesses the terrible capacity of resisting the Almighty. The most powerful animals act as they have been created to act. All mechanical forces act according to their laws. But man, possessed of will, is possessed of a power that can either defy or obey the authority of Omnipotence. When the Gospel comes to the human heart, it constrains the will into a mighty force for good. God and man combine to overthrow the empire of evil in the heart and in the world. “The Lord of hosts is for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.” III. THE TIME . “In that day.” Christ came “in the fulness of time.” There are reasons and circumstances specially favourable to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. There is a time in the purpose of Jehovah when all nations shall walk in the light. We may mark the circumstances which are usually indicative of the further spread of the Gospel. 1. When there is a time of special revival, reformation, and earnestness in the Church. As in time of Hezekiah. 2. When God stirs up His people to exert themselves for the world’s salvation, it is a sign that the world’s salvation is coming on apace. “When God enters the chamber, and awakes His children, and bids them rise, it is a sign that the morning has come.” 3. When the church longs, waits, prays for the success of the work, the time is likely to have come. “As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children.” Let the Church of Christ really desire, believe in, pray for the world’s conversion, and God will open the windows of heaven and pour down the blessing. Have you been sufficiently interested in the world’s salvation? As individuals? Are we sufficiently interested in our own?—J. Rawlinson. EARLY (Sunday School Anniversary Sermon.) Isaiah 28:9-10. Whom shall He teach knowledge? &c. Whether we regard these verses as the language of the drunkards of Ephraim, deriding the Lord’s messengers for the plainness and urgency of their unwelcome instructions, or as the language of the prophet himself affirming interrogatively the spiritual ignorance and imbecility of the people, with their prophets and priests, they suggest the importance of earnestly instructing the young in the knowledge of our relations to God and eternity. We may turn to them more hopefully than to the old. Youth is the time for learning. In the first ten years of life are laid the foundations of the social and religious character which every man carries to the grave. Therefore we should not leave them to be laid haphazard, but should do our utmost to bring it to pass that they shall be such that on them can be built the structure of a holy life. To accomplish this we must instruct them in the revealed will of God. 1. The youth learns nothing good until he is taught. Though wise to do evil, to do good he has no knowledge. 2. The young mind is susceptible of deep and enduring impressions (H. E. I., 775, 776, 786). 3. Scriptural knowledge is not only of surpassing value, but is more easily imparted to the young than most of that human knowledge for which the opening powers are often severely taxed. If difficulties arise from immaturity and levity of mind, they are more than balanced by freedom from the prejudices of age, and the perplexing cares of life; by their docility and instinctive desire to penetrate the unknown; by the eagerness with which they seize upon the explanations of facts in nature and providence, or on similitudes and allegories; and by their unsuspecting confidence in the ability of their appointed teachers. Their natural aversion to God is but partially developed, and waits the coming of riper years to mature its strong resistance to the Divine claims. 4. The weightiest obligations rest on parents to give their children religious instruction (H. E. I., 803–806). When parents are unable to do so personally, through defect of ability, or the urgency of paramount duties, it is their privilege to do so through the kind offices of others. 5. A failure in the discharge of parental obligations to children imposes on others who fear God the duty of teaching them knowledge. They are immortal; for them Christ died. Of the fulness and glory of the results of a faithful performance of this duty no adequate conception can be formed by us on this side of heaven.—R. S. Storrs, D.D.: American National Preacher, xix. 121–141. THE POWER OF LITTLESIsa_28:10. Here a little and there a little. The application of this text is first of all to the impressions produced by the Word of God and the efficacy of constant religious instruction. But it is in this same way, by little and little, that all great and lasting impressions are made and the mightiest results accomplished. I. The processes of nature.—Mighty and sudden changes are not the rule, but gradual and prepared ones. The seasons, the months, day into night, night into day—how gradual and imperceptible the transitions. The germination of seed, &c. II. The formation of character.—Little by little every man’s character is formed (H. E. I., 709–711, 1836–1851) or spoiled (H. E. I., 4521–4523, 4720–4725). All the steps, successively, that lead either to heaven or hell are small, one by one, except in great crimes, and even then there has been a gradual preparation for them (H. E. I., 428, 429). So conversion, that great change of the soul, is prepared for imperceptibly (H. E. I., 1462). From minute and commonplace thoughts, words, actions, results character for eternity! III. Christian service.—Called not to acts of heroism, but to a faithful discharge of commonplace duties (H. E. I., 4149). IV. Christian work.—It is by little and little that, in such a world as this, we must do the greater part of the good that we ever accomplish (H. E. I., 1725). V. The training of children.—Heavenly habits are to be formed in them by the influence upon them of daily, familiar, minute, but ever-recurring examples set before them (H. E. I., 777–779, 790, 802). VI. Preparation for heaven.—Try to gain a little for God, a little for heaven, a little more of grace every day. Do this in little things and you will accomplish great things. Here a little and there a little will carry you on from step to step, from grace to glory (H. E. I., 2512, 2537).—G. B. Cheever, D.D.: American National Preacher, xxvi. 145–152. OF THE GOSPEL Isa_28:12. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. Isaiah was one of the most eloquent of preachers, yet he could not win the ears and hearts of those to whom he spoke. He spoke more of Jesus Christ than all the rest of the prophets, yet the message of love was treated as though it were an idle tale. His doc trine was clear as the daylight, yet men would not see it (chap. Isaiah 53:1). It was not the fault of the preacher that Israel rejected his warnings: all the fault lay with that disobedient and gainsaying nation. The people to whom he spoke so earnestly were drunken in a double sense:— 1. They were overcome with wine (Isaiah 28:7-8). How is it likely that the truth shall enter an ear which has been rendered deaf by this degrading vice? How is the Word of God likely to operate upon a conscience that has been drenched and drowned by strong drink? Flee from this destroyer before your bands are made strong and you are hopelessly fettered by the habit. 2. They were also intoxicated with pride. Their country was fruitful, and its chief city, Samaria, stood on the hill-top, like a diadem of beauty crowning the land, and they delighted in it. Among them were many champions whose strength sufficed to turn the battle to the gate, therefore they hoped to resist every invader, and so their hearts were lifted up. Moreover, they said, “We are an intelligent people; we are men of cultured intellect, instructed scribes, and we do not need persons like Isaiah to weary us with their ding-dong of ‘precept upon precept, line upon line,’ as if we were mere children at school. Besides, we are good enough. Do we not worship our God under the form of the golden calves in Dan and Bethel? Do we not respect the sacrifices and the holy days?” So spoke the more religious of them, while the rest gloried in their shame. Being intoxicated with pride, it was not likely that they would hear the message of the prophet who bade them turn from their evil ways. Pride is the devil’s drag-net, in which he taketh more fishes than in any other, except procrastination. The two forms of drunkenness are equally destructive. Whether body or soul be intoxicated, mischief will surely come of it. Let us not get drunk with pride because we are not drunkards; for if we are so vain and foolish, we shall as certainly perish by pride as we should have done by drink. I. THE OF THE GOSPEL as it is set forth in the passage before us. This Scripture does not allude to the Gospel primarily, but to the message which Isaiah had to deliver, which was in part the command of the law and in part the promise of grace: but the same rule holds good of all the words of the Lord; and indeed any excellence which was found in the prophet’s message is found yet more abundantly in the fuller testimony of the Gospel in Christ Jesus. 1. The excellence of that Gospel lies, first, in its object. For (1.) It is a revelation of rest. Christ’s ambassadors are sent to proclaim to you that which shall give you ease, peace, quiet, rest. It is true we have to begin with certain truths that disturb and distress; but our object is to dig out the foundation into which may be laid the stones of restfulness. The object of the Gospel is not to make men anxious, but to calm their anxieties; not to fill them with endless controversy, but to lead them into all truth. The Gospel gives rest of conscience, by the complete forgiveness of sin through the atoning blood of Christ; rest of heart, by supplying an object for the affections worthy of their love; and rest of intellect, by teaching it certainties which can be accepted without question. Our message does not consist of things guessed at by wit, nor evolved out of man’s inner consciousness by study, nor developed by argument through human reason; but it treats of revealed certainties, absolutely and infallibly true, upon which the understanding may rest itself as thoroughly as a building rests upon a foundation of rock. The Word of the Lord comes to give believing men rest about the present by telling them that God ordereth all things for their good; and as for the future, it brightens all coming time and eternity with promises. The man who will hear the Gospel message, and receive it into his soul, shall know the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, and shall keep his heart and mind by Jesus Christ. (2.) It is the cause of rest. “This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest.” The Gospel of our salvation is not only a command to rest, but it brings the gift of rest within itself. Let the Gospel be admitted into the heart, and it will create a profound calm, hushing all the tumult and strife of conscience, removing all apprehensions of Divine wrath, stilling all rebellion against the supreme Will, and so working in the spirit by the energy of the Holy Ghost a deep and blessed peace. (3.) This rest is especially meant for the weary. “This is the rest where with ye may cause the weary to rest.” Oh, ye that are weary with the round of worldly pleasure, worn with ambition, fretted with disappointment, embittered by the faithlessness of those you trusted in, come and confide in Jesus and be at rest. Here is the rest, here is the refreshing. Jesus expressly puts it: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Despondent and despairing, condemned, and in your own conscience cast out to the gates of hell, yet look to Jesus and rest shall be yours. (4.) In addition to bringing us rest, the message of mercy points us to a refreshing. “This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.” If the rested one should grow weary again, the Good Shepherd will give him refreshing; if he wanders, the Lord will restore him; if he grows faint, He will revive him; yea, He has begun His gracious work of renewing, and He will continue it by renewing the heart from day to day, blending the will with His own, and making the whole man more and more to rejoice in Him. Now, note with peculiar joy that Isaiah did not come to these people to talk about rest in dubious terms, and say, “There is no doubt a rest to be found somewhere in that goodness of God of which it is reasonable to conjecture.” No; he puts his finger right down on the truth, and he says, “This is the rest, and this is the refreshing.” Even so we at this day, when we come to you with a message from God, come with definite teaching; we proclaim in the name of God that whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus hath everlasting life: this is the rest, and this is the refreshing. Nor did he preach a rest of a selfish character. They say we teach men to get peace and rest for themselves, and make themselves comfortable, whatever becomes of others. They know better, and they forge these falsehoods because their heart is false. Are we not always bidding men look out from themselves, and love others even as Christ has loved them? We abhor the idea that personal safety is the consummation of a religious man’s desires, for we believe that the life of grace is the death of selfishness. This is one of the glories of the Gospel, that “this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest.” Get rest yourself, and you will soon cause other weary minds to rest. That secret something which your own heart possesses shall enable you to communicate good cheer to many a weary heart, and hope to many a desponding mind. 2. The other excellence of the Gospel of which I shall speak at this time lies in its manner. (1.) It comes with authority. The Gospel does not pretend to be a speculative scheme or a theory of philosophy which will suit the nineteenth century, but will be exploded in the twentieth. No; it comes to men as a message from God, and he that speaks it aright does not speak it as a thinker uttering his own thoughts; but he utters what he has learned, and acts as God’s tongue, repeating what he finds in God’s Word by the power of God’s Spirit. 2. It was delivered with great simplicity. Isaiah came with it “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.” It is the glory of the Gospel that it is so plain. If it were so profound that we must take a degree at a university before we could comprehend it, what a miserable Gospel it would be for mocking the world with! But it is divinely sublime in its simplicity, and hence the common people hear it gladly. As the verse seems to imply, it is fitted for those who are weaned from the breast; those who are little more than babes may yet drink in this unadulterated milk of the Word. Many a little child has comprehended the salvation of Jesus Christ sufficiently to rejoice in it. I bless God for a simple Gospel, for it suits me, and thousands of others whose minds cannot boast of greatness or genius. It equally suits men of intellect, and it is only quarrelled with by pretenders. A man who really has a capacious mind is usually childlike, and, like Sir Isaac Newton, is glad to sit at Jesu’s feet. Great minds love the simple Gospel of God, for they find rest in it from all the worry and the weariness of questions and of doubts. 3. It is taught us by degrees. It is not forced home upon men’s minds all at once, but it comes “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.” God does not flash the everlasting daylight on weak eyes in one blaze of glory, but there is at first a dim dawn, and the soft incoming of a tender light for tender eyes, and so by degrees we see. 4. The Gospel is repeated. If we do see it at once, it comes again to us, for it is “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.” From morning to morning, from Sunday to Sunday, by book after book, by text after text, by spiritual impression after spiritual impression, the Divine gentleness makes us wise unto salvation. 5. It is brought home to us in ways suitable to our capacity. It is told to us, as it were, with stammering lips (see Isaiah 28:11), just as mothers teach their little children in a language all their own. In much of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, God condescends to lay aside His own speech and talk the language of men. He bows to us and tells us His mind in types and ordinances, which are a sort of child-language fitted for our capacity. If you do not understand the Word of God, it is not because He does not put it plainly, but because of the blindness of your heart and the besotted condition of your spirit. Take heed that you are not drunken with the wine of pride, but be willing to learn; for God Himself hath not darkened counsel by mysterious words, but He has put His mind before you as plainly as the sun in the heavens. “Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.” II. THE WHICH ARE TAKEN TO THE GOSPEL. 1. They are most wanton. Men object to that which promises them rest! Above all the things in the world this is what our troubled spirits need. Oh, the intense folly of men, that when the Gospel sets rest before them they will not hear it, but turn upon their heel. There is no system of doctrine under heaven that can give quiet to the conscience of men, quiet that is worth having, except the Gospel; and there are thousands of us who bear witness that we live in the daily enjoyment of peace through believing in Jesus, and yet our honest report is not believed; nay, they will not hear the truth. 2. Objections against the Gospel are wilful, even as it is here said, “This is the refreshing, yet they would not hear.” When men say they cannot believe the Gospel, ask them whether they will patiently hear it in all its simplicity. No, they say, they do not want to hear it. The Gospel is so difficult to believe; so they say. Will they come and hear it preached in its fulness? Will they read the Gospels for themselves carefully? Oh, no; they cannot take the trouble. Just so. But a man who does not want to be convinced must not blame anybody if he remains in error, nor wonder that objections swarm in his mind. 3. Such objections are wicked, because they are rebellion against God and an insult to His truth and mercy. If this Gospel be of God, I am bound to receive it: I have no right to cavil at it, nor raise questions, philosophical or otherwise. It is mine just to say, “Does God say this and that? Then it is true, and I yield to it. Does the Lord thus set before me a way of salvation? I will run in it with delight.” 4. These people raised objections that were the outgrowth of their pride. They objected to the simplicity of Isaiah’s preaching. They said, “Who is he? You should not go to hear him; he talks to us as if we were children. Besides, it is the same thing over and over again. You may go when you like, he is always harping on the same string.” Have you not heard folks say in these days concerning a true Gospel preacher, that he is always preaching about sovereign grace, or the blood of Christ, or crying out, “Believe, believe, and you shall be saved”? They sneer and say, “It is the old ditty over and over again.” The passage translated “precept upon precept, line upon line,” was uttered in ridicule, and sounded like a ding-dong rhyme with which they mocked Isaiah. The words were intended to caricature the preacher; though they do not suggest the idea when translated, they do suggest it readily enough in the Hebrew. There are people now living who, when the Gospel is plainly and simply preached, exclaim, “We want progressive thought; we want”—they do not quite know what they do want. Too many wish for a map to heaven so mysteriously drawn that they may be excused from following it. Multitudes prefer the Gospel shrouded in a mist; they love to see the wisdom of man shut out the wisdom of God. This was the style of objection current in Isaiah’s day, and it is fashionable still. III. THE DIVINE OF THESE . 1. The Lord threatens them with the loss of that which they despised. He has sent them a message of rest and they will not have it, and therefore in the 20th verse He warns them that they shall have no rest henceforth: “For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.” All those who wilfully reject the Gospel and take up with philosophies and speculations will be rewarded with inward discontent. Ask the preachers of that kind of doctrine whether they themselves have found an anchorage, and as a rule they will answer, “No, no; we are in pursuit of truth; we are hunting after it, but we have not reached it yet.” They are never likely to reach it, for they are on the wrong track. The Gospel was made to rest conscience, soul, heart, will, memory, hope, fear, yea, the entire man; but when men laugh at all fixity of belief, how can they be rested? This is the condemnation of the unbeliever, that he shall never find a settlement, but, like the wandering Jew, shall roam for ever. Leave the Cross, and you have left the hinge of all things, and neglected the one sure corner-stone and fixed foundation, and henceforth you shall be as a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 2. They shall be punished by a gradual hardening of heart. They said that Isaiah’s message was “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little,” and justice answers them, “Even so it shall be to you a thing despised and ridiculed, so that you will go farther away from it; you will fall backward and be broken, and snared and taken” (Isaiah 28:13.) A fall backward is the worst kind of fall. If a man falls forward, he may somewhat save himself and rise again; but if he falls backward, he falls with all his weight and is helpless. Those who stumble at Christ, the sure foundation-stone, shall be broken. When opposers hope to retrieve their position, they find themselves snared by their habits, entangled in the net of the great fowler, and taken by the destroyer. This downward course is followed full often by those who begin cavilling at a simple Gospel; they cavil more and more, and become its open enemies to their eternal ruin. 3. This is to be followed by a growing inability to understand. “For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people.” Since they would not hear plain speech, God will make simplicity itself to seem like stammering to them. Men that cannot endure simple language shall at last become unable to understand it. If men will not understand, they shall not understand. A man may shut his eyes so long that he cannot open them. In India many devotees have held up their arms so long that they can never take them down again. Beware lest an utter imbecility of heart come upon those of you who refuse the Gospel. Lastly, this warning is given to those who object to the Gospel, that whatever refuge they choose for themselves shall utterly fail them. Thus saith the Lord, “Judgment will I also lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” Down come the great hailstones dashing everything to shivers, the threatenings of God’s Word breaking to pieces all the false and flattering hopes of the ungodly. Then comes the active wrath of God like an over whelming flood to sweep away everything on which the sinner stood, and he, in his obstinate unbelief, is carried away as with a flood into that utter destruction, that everlasting misery, which God has declared shall be the lot of all those who refuse the living Christ.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1593. THE SURE Isa_28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold! I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone for a firm foundation; he that believeth shall not be in haste.—Birks [1105][1105] “He that believeth shall not make haste.” The apostles Paul and Peter, in citing this passage, quote from the Septuagint, and accordingly they render it “he that believeth shall not be ashamed” (Romans 9:33), or “confounded” (1 Peter 2:6). The Hebrew word properly signifies “to make haste,” and hence, according to one lexicographer, “to hurry hither and thither as persons in confusion.” The apparent discrepancy between the text as given by Isaiah in the Old Testament and as quoted by the apostles in the New vanishes at once when we consider the nature of the figure employed. Conceive the situation of a man who has “built his house upon the sand.” The rains descend, the floods beat upon that house, the foundations begin to give way, the house totters to its fall, and the frightened inmate, terrified and bewildered, “makes haste” to escape to a place of safety. Another has built his house upon the rock. Upon this also the rains descend and the floods beat, but its firm foundations remain unmoved because it is founded upon a rock, and its happy inmate, so far from being obliged to “make haste” to escape, in conscious security may smile at the storm. “He that believeth shall not make haste”—“shall not be confounded”—“shall not be ashamed” of his hope.—John Dowling, D.D. I. Who this foundation is. II. Where this foundation is laid. III. The Author of this foundation. IV. The character of this foundation. V. The safety of those who build upon it.—R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, p. 202. I. God’s foundation for the eternal salvation of sinners. II. Its properties and excellences. III. The blessedness of those who build on it.—W. Hancock, B.D.: Sermons, pp. 1–16. The person and salvation of Jesus Christ are frequently spoken of under the image here presented, the most obvious and expressive image of security, that of a foundation. Our Saviour expressly appropriates to Himself (Psalms 118:22). The same architectural idea appears in Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4-8. I. The grand object which God proposed to Himself in all His dispensations to man, viz., the laying of a foundation on which the hope of a repenting sinner might rest, with regard to God and Eternity. We trace this object, 1. In the primal promise (Genesis 3:15). 2. In the mysterious rite of sacrifice divinely appointed from the beginning to prefigure “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” 3. In the whole system of the Mosaic law, “the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” 4. More and more distinctly announced in the Psalms and Prophecies. The foundation proclaimed by Jehovah in the text is the chief end of all He has done and revealed to mankind; the central point in which all the lines of His providence and His word meet and terminate. Nature supplies the scene, providence the scaffolding, revelation the plan, of that mighty spiritual edifice of which this is the foundation. II. This foundation was needed. None will dispute this point. So sensible are men that they need a foundation for hope towards God, that every one is disposed to lay his own. Every one feels that without some restitution made to a holy God sin cannot be pardoned nor the sinner saved. The question is, How shall a proper foundation be laid? where shall an adequate restitution be found? The most important question in the universe to be answered, and at the same time the most difficult! (1 Samuel 2:25). Only three kinds of restitution on the part of man are imaginable—penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings; but none of these, nor all put together, can be deemed satisfactory in the case before us. 1. Penitence is no foundation of the soul before God; the most sorrowful remembrance of sin cannot repair it (H. E. I., 4225–4228). 2. Neither are good works, to which the same insufficiency attaches; they are always required, and therefore can never possess a superfluity or redundancy of merit (H. E. I., 375, 1950). And this applies to the best works; but what are ours in the sight of God? 3. The only remaining kind of restitution is by voluntary sufferings: this, by its very definition, is absurd and vain, for if any sufferings are required they become part of our duty; but to invent penances of our own is no part of our duty, and must be contradictory rather than satisfactory to the Divine law. Penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings, may be methods of procuring for us the priestly absolution of a poor sinful man like ourselves; but they will not secure for us the Divine acceptance. III. Observe, it is in the midst of the false foundations, the “baseless fabrics” of sinners, that God in our text introduces His own, the only true and solid foundation. All who build their hope on any other will be compelled at last to say, “We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.” See 1 Corinthians 3:10. The wonderful way in which this stone was laid; how a person of the Godhead assumed our human nature, He who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, He became “Jehovah our righteousness.” See 2 Corinthians 5:19. He who laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth alone could lay this foundation in Zion! The excellent qualities of this foundation. It is represented— 1. As “a tried stone:” a foundation which has resisted the strongest attempts to shake it,—that has stood the trial of unnumbered enemies and friends. It has been proved in the fiery trial of Divine justice, and the sins of the whole world have tried its strength to sustain an overwhelming weight. The storms of persecution have raged against it in vain, still it stands uninjured (Hebrews 13:8)! In every respect “a tried stone;” tried by God, by Satan, by man; tried in life, in death, in eternity; tried by all the saints in all their trials; and never tried in vain! 2. As “a corner-stone.” The corner-stone unites both sides of an edifice; and St. Paul represents Christ as Him in whom the whole building, fitly compacted, rises a spiritual habitation of God (Ephesians 2:19-22). 3. As “precious;” precious in respect to the Saviour’s Person as the only begotten Son of God; in respect to His sacrifice; a foundation composed not of corruptible things (1 Peter 1:18-19). 4. As “a sure foundation:” not an imaginary one like every other, but one real and substantial! In the Hebrew the word is reduplicated for the greater emphasis, “A foundation, a foundation!” Not a transitory but an eternal one. We are dying men; we sojourn in a world of vanity and death; what we want is a “sure foundation.” Behold in Christ this grand desideratum! V. The happiness of him who rests on this foundation. “He that believeth shall not make haste;” he shall not be thrown into disquietude and agitation of spirit. Never has the strength of this foundation been so well appreciated as when it was most tried, most needed. When our flesh and our heart fail, then is the time to find in God the rock of our heart, in Christ the foundation of our soul! .—But then we must possess the character defined in the text; “he that believeth,” is he that amidst the wreck of nature shall be saved on this foundation. We must see to it that we have that faith which is known by its fruits, which keeps the commandments, purifies the heart, works by love, overcomes the world, resists the devil, rejoices in Christ.—Robert Hall: Fifty Sermons, pp. 68–86. I. God’s foundation for the stability of His Church. 1. This foundation was planned in the eternal counsels of Jehovah (1 Peter 1:20; Luke 11:50; Revelation 13:8). 2. This foundation was actually laid in the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:22). 3. This foundation is proclaimed in the preaching of the Gospel (Luke 24:47; Acts 13:38-39). II. The peculiar qualities by which this foundation is distinguished. 1. It is a stone, denoting strength. 2. It is a living stone. Possessing life in Himself, He is able to communicate it (John 1:4; John 5:26; Romans 8:2). 3. A tried stone. The Father tried it, earth tried it, hell tried it. 4. A precious corner-stone. Corner-stones are generally placed for three purposes, for (a.) union; for (b.) beauty; for (c.) direction or example. 5. A sure foundation. III. The safety and blessedness of all those who depend upon this foundation.—J. Sherman: British Pulpit, ii. 185–193. Whatever subordinate reference there may be in these words to the Jews, the principal reference is to the Messiah. For this view we have apostolic authority. St. Paul says: “As it is written.” Where? In our text. “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed.” And St. Peter quotes from Isaiah the same text. I. THE EMBLEM OF THE LORD JESUS. “A stone.” Whether we consider Him “a stone” for solidity, or for strength, or for duration, He is all these; for whatever changes may take place among men, with Him “there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.” Peter calls Him— 1. A “living stone,” meaning that He has life in Himself, that He procures and dispenses it to others. So Paul (Colossians 3:4). 2. He is a tried stone. Everything in regard to Him was tried in the days of His flesh: His wisdom, His meekness, His love. 3. He is a precious stone. Precious to God the Father, to angels, to Christians. (1 Peter 2:7.) 4. A precious corner-stone. The corner-stone stands to unite. He unites in His person deity and manhood. We see in Him united the Old and New Testament dispensations. He unites Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14). II. His destination. “Behold I lay in Zion,” &c. 1. Who lays this foundation? GOD. 2. Where does He lay this foundation? “In Zion.” Jesus was a Jew, of the family of David. To the woman at the well He said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” See Psalms 110:2; and Isaiah 2:2-3; Isaiah 25:6. III. How well He answers the purpose and end. “A sure foundation.” He is a sure foundation for all. Myriads have trusted in Him, and to the whole world it may be said (Isaiah 26:4). IV. The blessedness of those who make use of it. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” This declaration is not opposed to diligence; no, for “the King’s business requireth haste.” No (Psalms 119:60). But— 1. To impatience (see chap. Isaiah 5:19), “Blessed are they that wait on Him.” 2. To confusion. Terror will overwhelm the godless (Revelation 1:7). But believers (1 John 2:28). V. Observe the ushering in of the whole scene. “Behold.” Angels pause before the great work of redemption, and “desire to look unto these things.” “Herein is His love made manifest.” Behold He “hath commended His love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Be not of those who “Behold and wonder and perish;” but let the command inspire you with gratitude, admiration, obedience, and zeal. “Hear, and your souls shall live.”—William Jay: Sunday Evening Discourses, pp. 18–25. I. The prominent idea of the text. Christ a foundation-stone. 1. The Builder is Jehovah Himself. He drew the plan of the spiritual building, determined the materials of which it should be constructed, the stone on which it should rest, and then with His own hand laid that foundation. 2. The Site of the building was “Zion.” This is generally explained as referring to the Church. But is not the Church the building? Is there not an incongruity in saying, I lay in the Church a foundation-stone on which the Church is to be built? Is there any reason why the passage might not be understood literally as referring to Jerusalem? Is there not a very appropriate sense in which it was true that the foundation on which the Church rests was laid in Jerusalem? Was it not there that the Son of God offered up Himself as a sacrifice, and made atonement for man? Was it not there that the Holy Spirit descended and gave effect to the finished work of redemption? Was it not there the gospel was first preached by the apostles? And was not all this in accordance with the pre-arrangements of God’s plan? As Zechariah’s fountain was to be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and as Ezekiel’s waters were to flow forth from the temple, so Isaiah’s foundation-stone was laid in Jerusalem. 3. The building to be reared on this stone was to be composed of Christian men of all ages and all nations. They are being collected now; they will all as lively stones be gathered in, fitly framed together, and built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. II. The qualities attributed to this foundation-stone. 1. A tried stone. 2. A precious corner-stone. How shall we estimate its worth? By its intrinsic value? Precious beyond all price. By its scarceness? No other stone like it in the universe. By the importance of the service it renders in the building? Precious to the Builder, to the holy angels, to the redeemed before the throne, to believers on earth. 3. A sure foundation. Firm, solid, safe. III. The import of the promise annexed [1108] 1. Shall not make haste, or be in haste. 2. Shall not be put to shame (Romans 9:33; Romans 10:11, &c.) [1108] A. V. “Shall not make haste.” See translations by Alexander and Delitzsch. Kay and Birks, “Shall not be in haste.” Cheyne, “He that hath faith shall not give way.” The text reading does not suit the connection; it seems to have arisen out of a confusion of the letters mem and kheth. Sept., Tay., Pesh., feeling that something was wrong, render freely “Shall not be put to shame?” But as to the connection see preceding extract from Dowling. .—If not on the foundation, get on it. If on it, keep on it. Be not content to build on it yourself, but try to induce others to do so.—John Corbin. I. Sinful, dying man needs a foundation on which he may securely rest his immortal hopes. Every man who studies his own nature and destiny as immortal and accountable instinctively feels that he needs something to give him support under the trials of life, and peace and hope as he is about to enter upon the invisible world. This feeling may exert no decisive influence over his conduct; it may be counteracted by other influences; but it is in him; and he cannot get rid of it. II. Such a foundation is laid for him in Zion. This foundation is our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-6). It is described (1) as a stone, indicating the solidity and durableness of that on which we are invited to rest our immortal interests. In rearing a building of any importance, we deem it essential that the foundation be laid in the most enduring materials. How much more should we look for this when we build for eternity! 2. As a tried stone. It has been tested in every possible way, and in the severest manner, and therefore justly claims our full and unhesitating confidence [1111] Other grounds of hope have been resorted to by men—philosophy, infidelity, self-righteousness—but they have always failed in the day of trial. But a countless multitude, as they have risen from earth to heaven, have testified to the perfect safety of trusting in Christ. Hence it is called (3) a precious stone. How precious none can know but such as have made trial of it in their times of need—the sinner, burdened with a sense of guilt, and sinking in despair; the believer, rejoicing in hope, and looking forward to heaven as his eternal home; the dying Christian, as he closes his eyes on this world, in joyful hope of another and a better; the redeemed in glory, as they cast their crowns at His feet. Ask them what they think of Christ. 4. As a corner-stone. The principal weight of an edifice rests on the corners; and hence, in building, the largest and firmest blocks are selected and placed there as best adapted to unite and support the whole structure. This is the idea intended to be expressed when Christ is spoken of as a corner-stone. It is He who, by His truth, His grace, and His spirit, converts and sustains the whole living temple (Ephesians 2:20-22). 5. As summing up the whole—a sure foundation. Hence it is said, “He that believeth shall not make haste” [1114] The specific idea is that of a man on whose house the tempest beats, and who apprehends that the foundation is insecure, or feels it to be giving way beneath him, and therefore makes haste to flee from his dwelling to seek a more safe position. The foundation laid in Zion is so firm and secure that if a man trusts himself on it, he shall have no cause of alarm, however the storms may beat, and the waves dash and foam around him. Amid the wreck of matter and the crash of dissolving worlds, he shall not be confounded, but shall come forth at last unharmed and victorious over all, and find in his Judge a friend, and in the kingdom of his Father and God an everlasting home. [1111] If you had a bridge to cross which had stood for centuries and over which thousands of people had passed every day with entire safety, you would feel no hesitation in making that of it yourself. So is Christ set before you—a tested foundation of hope.—Hawes. [1114] “He that believeth shall not make haste.” The apostles Paul and Peter, in citing this passage, quote from the Septuagint, and accordingly they render it “he that believeth shall not be ashamed” (Romans 9:33), or “confounded” (1 Peter 2:6). The Hebrew word properly signifies “to make haste,” and hence, according to one lexicographer, “to hurry hither and thither as persons in confusion.” The apparent discrepancy between the text as given by Isaiah in the Old Testament and as quoted by the apostles in the New vanishes at once when we consider the nature of the figure employed. Conceive the situation of a man who has “built his house upon the sand.” The rains descend, the floods beat upon that house, the foundations begin to give way, the house totters to its fall, and the frightened inmate, terrified and bewildered, “makes haste” to escape to a place of safety. Another has built his house upon the rock. Upon this also the rains descend and the floods beat, but its firm foundations remain unmoved because it is founded upon a rock, and its happy inmate, so far from being obliged to “make haste” to escape, in conscious security may smile at the storm. “He that believeth shall not make haste”—“shall not be confounded”—“shall not be ashamed” of his hope.—John Dowling, D.D. III. It is the duty and privilege of all to build their hopes on this foundation without delay.Joel Hawes, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 307–317. OUR TRUST AND OUR TESTIsa_28:16. A tried stone. This phrase may be more literally rendered “a stone of proof,” and so rendered admits of two interpretations. The commonly received opinion, that it means a stone which has been tried and found sufficient is probably correct, and is more in harmony with the context; but Calvin understands by it a stone which was to be the test or standard of comparison for others. However this may be, we have inspired authority for saying that the stone is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:6); and we may profitably consider Him in these two aspects, as our Trust and our Test. I. HE IS OUR TRUST, because He has been tried. “Tried in the days of His humanity by all the vehemence of temptations, and the weight of afflictions, yet, like gold from the furnace, rendered more shining and illustrious by the fiery scrutiny.”—(Hervey.) [For further amplifications, see the other outlines on this text]. II. HE IS OUR TEST. In Him we have the true touchstone of character. All men naturally divide themselves into good or bad, saved or lost, by their acceptance or rejection of Him. By this touch-stone strange discoveries have been made in every age. The Pharisees and Scribes had a high character for piety until this trying stone was applied to them, and then it appeared what they were—the most inveterate enemies of God on earth. The reception which men gave to Jesus Christ is the grand criterion of their character, as Simeon predicted, (Luke 2:34). This is the supreme test by which God is trying you, and by which your eternal destiny will be determined.—Samuel Davies, A.M.: Sermons, ii. 29–33. A TESTED SAVIOURIsa_28:16. A tried stone. This is perhaps an allusion to the custom of builders who are about to lay the foundation for some massive structure. Before they raise the edifice they test the character of the substratum on which they think of building. Is not our blessed Lord in every way a tried, a tested, an approved Saviour! I. Did not the Father try Him and find Him faithful in every way?—in His willingness, His obedience, His love? II. Did not Satan try Him and find Him upright? Tried by temptations addressed to His natural appetite, to pride, and to ambition. III. Was He not tried by wicked and unbelieving men? By Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians in His own day, and by sceptics in ours. IV. By the afflicted, the poor, the destitute in His own day and ours? and in each case only to bring out more clearly the marvellousness of His resources. V. By the contrite and broken-hearted? VI. By believers in every generation? And what has been their unanimous testimony? Is it not that they found Him more than equal to all their wants and able to do for them all that they could ask or think? Could so many millions of witnesses, in other respects trustworthy, be mistaken on this point? VII. HAVE YOU TRIED HIM?—R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 208–215. FALSE REFUGESIsa_28:17. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies. Numerous are the stratagems of Satan to ruin souls. In some he effects this by hurrying them on in the broad way of open transgression; in others, by rendering them the victims of some peculiar constitutional sin—pride, avarice, &c.; in others, by inciting a spirit of disbelief of the truth (Psalms 14:1); in others, by inducing inattention to the things of the soul. But our text leads us to contemplate the false refuges to which he causes others to betake themselves. I. Sinners often feel the necessity of a refuge. This arises sometimes from— 1. An internal sense of guilt. Unless in cases of utter obduracy, transgression and remorse are ever wedded together. Even Pagans have felt these workings of conscience, these pangs of guilty torture. Under these, men sigh for peace, long for rest, and earnestly desire a refuge. 2. The calamitous events of life. Sudden adversity, domestic bereavement, visiting the open grave of some friend, bodily indisposition, mental disquietude, &c. 3. The supposed nearness of death. Men who mock at religion in health, quail at the approach of death. Voltaire trembled in a storm, anxious then to have deliverance, to obtain a refuge. 4. Under the alarming influence of the preached word. When the truth has flashed across the mind and startled the conscience. Thus Felix, and thus thousands. How lamentable that these impressions and convictions are often so fleeting; but still more so, when the convicted sinner flees to sources of false security. II. Sinners frequently betake themselves to refuges of lies. Of these notice— 1. Partial reformation of life. Giving up the grosser sins of which they have been guilty, intemperance, profanity, fraud, &c. When the whole body is diseased, the amputation of one member is fruitless. 2. A general regard to Christian morality, to the outward acts of obedience, and the decencies of society. 3. An outward profession of religion. Punctual regard to public worship, a proper regard to ordinances, a name among the people of God. 4. A prominent and public sectarian spirit. Rigid adherence to party, sect, and creed; violent anathematising all others; great ardour in the public events of the Church to which they belong. “Come, see my zeal,” &c. 5. Distinguished generosity. Liberality to the poor, works of beneficence, co-operation with the compassionate and benevolent. All these things are good in their legitimate sphere and extent, but they are all often only refuges of lies; they may engage a man’s anxious attention, while the root of the matter has yet no place in his heart (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Matthew 7:22-23). 6. A still more commonly frequent refuge of lies: a general reliance on the mercy of God. A kind of self-confident persuasion that God is good, that He will not punish, an indefinite resting on His clemency, forgetting His righteousness, purity, truth, &c. III. Such refuges of lies will be ultimately swept away. They will be so— 1. In a dying hour. Then the mental vision often becomes peculiarly acute, the moral sense keen and distinct, and the honesty of the spirit throws off the tinsel mask, which is now manifestly worse than useless. How poor and worthless is self-righteousness, in all its possible extent, to a spirit just stepping into the presence of the holy God. A queen of England, although professing to be “Defender of the Faith,” and having bishops at her control, felt this, and died in circumstances of unutterable alarm. 2. In the morning of the resurrection. Then all classes and distinctions will be reduced to two. None but the righteous will have a part in the first resurrection. Others will rise with shame, confusion, and horror to everlasting contempt. 3. In the decisions of the judgment. God will judge all men in righteousness. The wicked and the righteous will be separated (Matthew 25:32-33); no pretence, disguise, plea, stratagem, importunity, or effort, will avail. All refuges of lies will be swept away. .— 1. Warn against these destructive schemes and wiles of Satan. 2. Exhibit the one only refuge, Jesus Christ, who delivers from the wrath to come. 3. Urge instant faith in Him. “Count all things but loss,” &c. All who believe in him are secure for both worlds. To this Refuge let all repair, earnestly, and now.—Jabez Burns, D.D.: Pulpit Cyclopædia, iii. 153–156. FALSE REFUGESIsa_28:18. Your covenant with death shall be disannulled. Like the sinners spoken of in this chapter, most sinful men say in effect, “We have made a covenant with death,” &c. (Isaiah 28:15). I. That he may escape the dreaded consequences of sin, the troubled sinner seeks a refuge. He flees— 1. From the voice of reason. The presence of a reasoning power in man is incompatible with the practice of sin. This is seen in the fact that when sinners can be brought to think, they at once admit themselves to be wrong. The moment a man commences to think about sin, that moment he becomes aware that it will not bear thinking about. It is because a sinful life is an unthinking life that God’s invitations to sinners are invitations to reason (chap. Isaiah 1:18; Psalms 50:22). 2. From an accusing conscience. The authority of conscience is supreme, and no man can sin without feeling its sting. To escape remorse, which is conscience at work, men seek a refuge. 3. From an offended God. Sin is offensive to God’s holiness; for being pure, He must hate impurity. Because sinners are conscious that they have rendered themselves obnoxious to God, they seek a refuge. 4. From a broken law. In obedience to law there is safety, right, and happiness; while in disregarding law there is nothing but disaster. And from the consequences of the broken law—the broken law of God written on the heart, proclaimed in Nature, revealed in the Bible—the sinner tries to hide. 5. From an endless future. This more than anything else terrifies sinners and drives them to seek shelter. II. Sinners, blindly infatuated, seek a refuge in wrong objects. They make a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. The terms “death” and “hell” stand for the whole class of false securities in which men seek shelter by making a covenant and agreement with them. 1. Unbelief is one of the more modern refuges of sin. When men can blot out of the universe the idea of God, quench the sense of moral responsibility, remove the belief in immortality, persuade themselves that there is no other world, that death is an eternal sleep, that heaven is only an air-castle, and hell a mere chimera, they may then indulge in evil to their hearts’ content. 2. Superstition is another. Not in open unbelief, but under the cover of a false religion others seek to shelter. Unable to shake off belief in God and in a spiritual world, they search for some system which will at once allow a profession of religion and a practice of wickedness. Nor are such systems wanting, nor are they without disciples. Romanism offers indulgences for gold and pardons for pence, and thus provides a refuge for the stronger in pocket than in brain. 3. Annihilation is another. According to some, such is the awfulness of the thought of extinction of being, that men revolt from it. Establish it that when sinners die they cease to live, and what better refuge for sin is possible, and what other is needed? Sinful men will soon say, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” 4. Excess is another. When the previous ones have failed to give comfort, the sinner rushes madly into excess. The drunkard seeks in increased intemperance to drown the sorrow his indulgence has occasioned. 5. Indifference is the last. This is the only comfort some men can find in their career of evil. But indifference is impossible without a denial of human responsibility. Sad indeed must the condition of human nature be when brought to this. III. The refuges so confidently trusted in are utterly insecure. 1. Because they are incompatible with the real need of man. Only that can be conducive to man’s safety which meets man’s need. No human need is met by infidelity, or by superstition, or by annihilation, or by indulgence, or by indifference. Any one of these, tested by this argument drawn from human necessities, will be found a refuge of lies. 2. Because they are at variance with human instincts. Instinctively men believe in a Divine existence, in moral accountability, and in immortality. 3. Because they contradict human experience. They have all been tried, and as often as they have been tried they have been found false. 4. Because they are opposed to the teaching of revelation, both natural and Biblical. Nature proclaims loudly against all sin-sought refuges. The teaching of Nature and the Bible is that man is incompetent to provide for his own security, and that God only, in the exercise of His Divine prerogative, can provide for sinners the security they need. IV. By Divine appointment the refuges so madly sought shall be totally destroyed. “Your covenant with death shall be disannulled.” 1. By consequence of their inherent character. They are “refuges of lies,” and necessarily all refuges built on lies must perish. 2. By necessity of strict justice. “Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet” (Isaiah 28:17). 3. By the exertion of Almighty power. “And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” .—God has mercifully provided a true refuge. He only cuts off the false that He may exhibit the true. “Behold, I lay in Sion for a foundation a stone,” &c. (Isaiah 28:16).—William Brooks: Study and the Pulpit, New Series, vol. 1 pp. 413–416. THE SHORT BED AND THE NARROW Isa_28:20. For the bed is shorter, &c.Of all the striking images made use of in this chapter, none was so likely to catch the ear, and impress itself on the memory, and become a seed of useful reflection, as that embodied in this proverbial saying. Epigrams have done much to guide popular movements. Lord Bacon speaks of them as “the edge-tools which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs.” The adage before us is homely, but forcible and expressive. To a fastidious taste and a false refinement it may appear undignified; but where one has to deal with reckless folly and obstinacy, he selects what best serves his purpose of exposing it. Lifted out of the occasions which gave them birth, these pithy and sententious sayings admit of manifold applications. They refute error, and make truth visible. I. Apply this aphorism to the shifts of diplomacy. This is the use which the prophet makes of it. No words could better expose the folly of the Egyptian alliance. The “scornful” politicians of Jerusalem “had not only secured themselves by a treaty with that personification of death and hell, the Assyrian, but they had outwitted him; for what chance could a mere barbarian soldier have against the deep-laid policy of an old, long-civilised state? They were in communication with Egypt and Ethiopia, and at the proper time would bring the armies of Tirhakeh to free them from the power of Sennacherib.” This was the plausible but imprudent and deceitful scheme which the prophet denounced; and all such measures will in due time land their short-sighted and dishonest authors in the short bed with the narrow covering. II. Apply it to the dishonesties of trade and the reckless extravagances of living. The rash speculator and the careless spendthrift will soon find out its truth. If they do not live within their means, and regulate dress and diet according to their income, they will soon find themselves in the short bed, vainly seeking warmth and comfort under a scanty covering. How much society has suffered from reckless speculation! Many a promising youth has foolishly squandered his means, and has grown so enormously in his luxurious habits, that he has no room to stretch himself on the short bed of his income. Visions of sequestration disturb his repose; pinching poverty hinders his comfort. III. The same imprudent miscalculation is seen in the plans of worldly-minded men. Their purpose is to make a fortune, and then retire to enjoy it. They imagine that thus they shall have constructed an ample bed with abundant covering, in which they may comfortably spend the evening of life’s day. But they have made their bed without measuring its occupant at his full height. Providing for the body, but neglecting the soul, they are cribbed and confined within the narrow boundaries of time, and it will be well for them if they discover their mistake when the chill frosts of old age seize upon their uncovered limbs. IV. Apply it to the expedients by which men seek spiritual rest. There are many short beds on which they seek repose, and narrow coverings in which they try to wrap themselves. What apologies do they find for their sin!—how earnestly they work out a righteousness of their own in which to find shelter, forgetting that “all have sinned and come short,” and “the one thing” they lack is a fatal defect! They will soon shiver with cold under this insufficient covering. Nothing but the saving work of Christ can answer man’s need as a sinful creature. Here is both room and warmth (Matthew 11:28). As the fond mother lays her child to sleep, so will He provide for our comfort (Isaiah 66:13). The word “hap” is dear to a Scotch ear, expressing “the care with which the bedclothes are laid upon the little forms, and carefully tucked in about the round sleeping cheeks.” Seek rest in Christ. He will support you in sickness and soothe you in pain; and when laid down on your last bed, rejoicing in the fulness and all-sufficiency of His grace, you will fall asleep in Him. A common proverb runs, “He has made his bed, and now he must lie on it,” sometimes harshly used, yet expressing a solemn truth (Galatians 6:7; Isaiah 50:11).—William Guthrie, M.A.An end is proposed to be accomplished; the first consideration will be the suitability and sufficiency of means. The kingdom of Judah was trusting in inadequate defences against the Assyrians, whose approach was feared. False gods. Words of false prophets. Alliance with Egypt. Warned against all these. True defence in faithful adherence to God as covenant God. If they continued to look elsewhere they would find themselves in the position of a man in a bed too short for him, or with a covering too narrow to wrap himself. Instead of comfort and rest, weariness, discomfort, unrest. The bed does not answer its end. It is inadequate. This thought is capable of another application. Men’s religious beliefs and practices may be inadequate. A religion for man must be true in itself, be evidenced as true, be adapted to and sufficient for his religious necessities, capacities, and susceptibilities. Otherwise, it is inadequate. Point out the inadequacy of some religious ideas that are in vogue. I. Scepticism is inadequate. There is not only the unbelief that denies the truth of Christianity, but the more subtle unbelief which refuses to affirm while it does not exactly deny. It says we know nothing, and may act on the assumption that there is nothing—as to God, Christ, a future state. Now we might show that there is sufficient evidence, but at present only show that this theory is not adequate to the demands of human nature. It is a fair inference from the almost universal experience of mankind that the doctrines of God, conscience, responsibility, prayer, a future state of existence, are congenial to human nature. Education does not account for them, although it may give them shape. Without them human nature is short of something which it needs. It is adapted to them. Without them its deepest needs are inadequately supplied. The religion of the Bible supplies the need of man in all these respects. It reveals the Divine Being and character. It tells of a Father on whom, in his helplessness, man may call. It guides his conscience so that it may fitly guide him. It acquaints us with the nature of the life to come. II. Self-righteousness is inadequate. There are necessities which did not exist in man’s original constitution, self-created necessities. The state of sinfulness is a second nature, super-induced on the original nature. Overlooking this, many imagine the Divine favour can be won and the religious life prosecuted by obedience to God and kindness to man. They proceed on the supposition that it is only necessary to continue such a course from any given commencement. If the sinful part is recognised, it is assumed that it will be condoned in consideration of the new service. It is assumed that the long-standing debt of former sin will be gradually paid by goodness in excess of ordinary demands, or that God, in some unknown way, will remit it. This bed is too short. This covering too narrow. The religion for a fallen creature must deal seriously with the state of sin, guilt, condemnation. The question meets you at the outset, if every farthing of your present income is absolutely required to meet your barest necessities, how can you out of it pay back debts? Does not the law require a perfect obedience? Do you at present render more than it requires? Do you ever, with your best endeavour, come up to the law? It is hopelessly inadequate. The religion for man must provide a free forgiveness; one also honourable to God. It is not in our power. It is in God. And He has made such a provision. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that provision. His obedience, death, righteousness. Freely given without works to the believing sinner. This is the only adequate ground. This bed is long enough. This covering wide enough. III. Ceremonialism is inadequate. Human nature is impure. It needs cleansing as well as pardon. Some imagine this is accomplished by sacramental grace, through baptism, which is supposed to regenerate; and the mysterious influence of the consecrated bread and wine. All this is inadequate. No outward rite can effect an inward and spiritual change. There must be a new nature. There must be a love of holiness and a living growth into holiness. There must be a new birth. There must be the conviction of sinfulness; the acceptance of Christ; the surrender to the authority of Christ. For this the Gospel provision is adequate. There is the word of God which proclaims the mercy and offers the inducement. There is the Holy Spirit which changes the heart. Be not satisfied with inadequate religion. Remember the solemn importance of possessing an adequate religion.—J. Rawlinson. MOCKERYIsa_28:22. Now, therefore, be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. The sense of the ludicrous is excited by words, ideas, images, or objects in which unexpected resemblances are seen in things previously considered incongruous, or in which incongruity is perceived where complete resemblance was supposed. The perception of the ludicrous varies. Where it exists in connection with the ability to convey the ludicrous idea in language, it is called wit. It is one of God’s gifts. There is no reason why it should not be exercised. The evil is in untimeliness and excess. It is dispiriting and sad to be with people who always and only see the dismal side of everything. It is equally pitiable to observe people who are ever in search of something laughable. The latter is a present-day danger. We have publications whose aim is to present the ludicrous side of everything. The popular taste encourages such writing. Even grand themes are not exempt from this kind of treatment. Some mock deliberately that they may injure; others thoughtlessly for the amusement of the moment. Of all wit it is the most gratuitous, the easiest, the most mischievous and dangerous. I. THE OBJECTS BY WHICH IT IS EXCITED. Religious persons; their peculiarities, especially their foibles. Christian ministers as to their style and manner. In their impatience of the warnings addressed to them by the prophet, the people of Judah mocked his teaching as characterised by the repetition that is only suitable to children (9–13). Some find food for mockery in the doctrines of the Gospel. Others in its demand of holiness (Proverbs 14:9). Others in the observances of worship. Others find the language of Scripture the most convenient point to their jests. II. THE MOTIVES IN WHICH IT . Many do it from mere inconsiderateness. It is sometimes indulged in from the wish to please. Mockery of religious persons and things is so palatable to many that there is great temptation to it. More frequently it originates in the rooted hostility of the carnal mind against all earnest religion. Mockery is the most annoying form of attack; it is most keenly felt; it is most difficult to answer. It serves the purpose when argument fails. One grinning Voltaire may do more execution than many reasoning Humes. Many a time since the days of Nehemiah have Sanballat and his Samaritans mocked the builders of the wall of Jerusalem. III. THE DANGERS WHICH IT . 1. To those who hear it. They become less susceptible of religious impression. If the head of a family habitually refer to religious persons and subjects in a mocking and disrespectful manner, his children will probably grow up with a dislike of religion. 2. To those who indulge in it. They lose their own respect for religion, if they had any, by associating it with ideas of a low and ludicrous nature. They lose the elevating mental influence of having their minds in earnest contact with its grand truths. They lose the spiritual improvement which might have been the result of such contact. 3. And the warning of the text points to direct punishment. The “consumption determined.” It points to the bands of captivity which would be more strong because of their unbelieving mockery. The mocker is preparing strong bands of distress for his conscience, if the day should ever come when he is awakened to a sense of sin and an earnest desire for salvation. How bitterly will he repent the injury his levities did to his own mind and the mind of others. Still more saddening is the thought that the mocker is likely so to harden his heart into insensibility to serious impression, that even on the bed of death, and with the solemnities of eternity before him, it will be impossible to awaken serious concern. Follow the mocking soul to the bar of God where it must answer for its mockeries, and for all the state of mind which rendered it possible to mock. There will be no mockery in hell!Do not brave these bands. Young men, do not sit in the seat of the scorner. Do not be among the mockers. Let the mocker hear the solemn warning of the text, and repent and seek mercy through the cross, and relinquish his folly.—J. Rawlinson. THE PARABLE OF THE Isa_28:24-25. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? &c. [1117][1117] In this parable the mystery of the Divine Providence is laid open, its secret disclosed. All ploughing is for sowing; all threshing is intended for the preservation of the grain. When God chastens us, it is not that He means to destroy us, but because He has set His heart on saving us, because He has appointed us to life and not to death. He works with discrimination. He employs various methods, sends sorrows of all sorts and sizes, that He may adapt Himself to every man’s needs, and to all our varieties of place, time, and circumstances. Just as the husbandman varies his treatment of the soil, and allots to each kind of seed a soil and place suitable to its kind; just as, after the harvest has been gathered in, he employs only such instruments as are best adapted for separating the different kinds of grain from the straw and the chaff. With like wisdom and discretion God deals with us, assigning to each of us our proper station and lot, and, when we sin against Him, adapting His judgments to our several needs. The sorrows, losses, bereavements which befall us are but as the sharp edge of the share, or the keen teeth of the harrow, and are intended to prepare us to receive the good seed, and to bring forth much fruit. Or again, they are like the stroke of the flail, or the keen pressure of the sledge, or the ponderous oppression of the waggon-wheel, or the swift rattle of the horses’ hoofs; and are designed to separate the chaff from the grain, the worthless from the worthy, the evil from the good in us, that we may be made meet for the garner of God. “Cure sin and you cure sorrow,” say the reason and conscience of the world: and the sorrow comes that the sin may be cured, adds the prophet; the very miseries that spring from evil are intended to eradicate the evil from which they spring. The weeds call for the plough; and the plough comes at their call; but it comes and cuts up the weeds and the ground in which they have taken root, only that the seeds of wholesome herbs and herbs of grace may be sown in the furrows. The chaff calls for the flail, and the flail is sent, but sent only to beat out the nourishing grain. Would that this conception were as assured, and as familiar to us as to the old Hebrew prophets I For, sooner or later, we shall all have to endure Borrows, which rend our hearts as the ploughshare rends the ground, or which bruise our hearts as the flail bruises the corn.—S. Cox, D.D.: Expositor, vol. i. pp. 89–98. Means adapted to the end must be used if any end is to be accomplished. The physician knows this. So does the general. So does the manufacturer. So does the farmer. He is not always ploughing. Nor always sowing. Nor always threshing. Nor does he treat every kind of produce in the same way. And God employs various methods in dealing with men. He aims to turn them from evil, and He adapts His methods. The teaching of the text may be applied to the divine dealing with men generally. I. God intended to open a way of salvation. Man needs salvation because he is a sinner. Can conceive a state of things in which he would not need it, as of one who needs no physician. If he had continued holy and obedient. But that is not his case. He is a sinner, characterised by impurity, and exposed to perdition.—Now God, in His pitying love, would save us. How shall He proceed? Shall He, by His arbitrary will, sweep away the facts? Such a procedure would be entirely inconsistent with the existence of moral government and the rectitude of the divine character. 1. One part of the case to be dealt with was the condemned state of man under the divine law. Forgiveness could not righteously be given without some satisfaction. Man could not make it. God in Christ, in His whole personality and work, has made the satisfaction. The method adopted is exactly adapted to the nature of the case. 2. But the other part of the case was also to be dealt with. Sinfulness is deep-seated in man’s nature. He loves it. Until he is changed, he is not even inclined to sue for mercy, still less to escape from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent to turn us from our iniquities. How does He do this? (1.) By moral motive. The law was inadequate. He introduces a new motive. Not only the mercy, but the fact that it has been procured at such a cost, that the love was equal to such a sacrifice. It appeals directly to the heart, as well as to the judgment, for a condemnation of sin. (2.) By spiritual influence. The influence of the Holy Spirit strives with those to whom the gospel is preached, with a view to the overcoming their indifference, reluctance, and sin.—The method is adapted, in both its sides, to the end in view. It only requires the sinner’s consent. Hence— II. God intended the way of salvation to be made known to men. If consent to it and faith in it is requisite to participation of its blessings, it must be understood— 1. The information might have been imparted in a separate revelation by the Holy Spirit to every man. Would supersede all evidence, and all exercise of human faculty. Would not be adapted to man as a reasonable being. 2. Angelic ministry might have been employed. Open to similar objection. Would have made miracle the rule instead of the exception. It would have changed the order of nature. 3. The method adopted is the simple arrangement that those who are acquainted with it, believe it, consent to it, make the gospel known. A method exactly adapted to the nature of the case. According to the constitution of human nature, the Gospel thus approaches it for the purpose of gaining the understanding, the heart, and the will. Bear in mind the power of sympathy between human beings. He who has received a truth desires to impart it. He who has experienced the salvation pities those who need it as he did. He who speaks from his own experience speaks with tenderness, and earnestness, and influence. The sick heed the recommendation of a physician by those whom he has cured. On this principle of adaptation the Lord Jesus instituted the living ministry of apostles, evangelists, pastors, parents, all Christians. He inspired some to put on permanent record the truth as He revealed it, as a standard of appeal. They are to study it. They are to use the same principle of adaptation. There is youth, age, different measure of instruction, different classes, spheres, circumstances. III. God intended to train those whom He saved. Believers are already saved, because pardoned and sanctified. But they require training into riper holiness, greater usefulness, greater fitness for the future heaven. Therefore the Saviour instituted such means as are adapted to secure these ends. Church fellowship, public worship, pastoral teaching, Christian habits of watchfulness, thoughtfulness, prayer. All these are adapted to the training of the spiritual plant. Are you in sympathy with God’s end? In yourselves? In the world? Then adapt yourselves to its realisation.—J. Rawlinson. In these verses there are three kinds of seed mentioned; fitches, cummin, and corn. The fitches and cummin were small seeds like the caraway or chickpea. When these smaller herbs had to be threshed, this was done by hand; but when the corn had to be threshed, that was thrown on the floor, and men would fasten horses or oxen to a cart with iron-dented wheels; that cart would be drawn round the threshing-floor, and so the work would be accomplished. And so the idea expressed is different kinds of threshing for different products. I. We must all go through some kind of threshing process. The fact that you are devoting your life to honourable and noble purposes will not win you any escape. Wilber-force, the Christian Emancipator, was in his day derisively called “Doctor Cantwell.” Thomas Babington Macaulay, the advocate of all that was good long before he became the most conspicuous historian of his day, was caricatured in one of the Quarterly Reviews as “Bubble-tongue Macaulay.” Norman M‘Leod, the great friend of the Scotch poor, was industriously maligned in all quarters. All the small wits of London took after John Wesley, the father of Methodism. If such men could not escape the maligning of the world, neither can you expect to get rid of the sharp, keen stroke of the tribulum. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. II. It is no compliment to us if we escape great trial. There are men who suppose they are the Lord’s favourites, simply because their barns are full, and their bank account is flush, and there are no funerals in the house. It may be because they are fitches and cummin, while down at the end of the lane, the poor widow may be the Lord’s corn. You are little pounded, because you are little worth, and she bruised and ground, because she is the best part of the harvest. By carefulness of the threshing, you may always conclude the value of the grain. (H. E. I., 189–196, 3692–3695). III. God proportions our trials to what we can bear. The rod for the cummin, the staff for the fitches, the iron wheel for the corn. (H. E. I, 179–188, 3674–3695). IV. God continues trials until we let go. As soon as the farmer sees that the straw has let go the grain, he stops the threshing. We hold on to this world with its pleasures, riches, and emoluments, as though for ever. God comes along with some threshing trouble, and beats us loose. Oh, let go! Depend upon it that God will keep upon you the staff, or the rod, or the iron wheel until you do let go. V. Christian sorrow is going to have a sure terminus. “Bread corn is bruised, because He will not be ever threshing it.” So much of us as is wheat will be separated from so much of us as is chaff, and there will be no more need of pounding. “He will not ever be threshing it.” Blessed be God for that! (Revelation 21:4).—T. De Witt Talmage, D.D. A FEAST FOR FAITHIsa_28:29. This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. The sentiment of the text is that the art, and science, and skill of man are the gifts of God. The prophet instances only agriculture, but the same principle applies to all the arts and manufactures, and in a higher degree still to those sublimer sciences which elevate the human mind, and make us acquainted with the majestic and mysterious powers of nature. The drift of the writer of the text is this, if God thus instructs man in wisdom, how wise must He be Himself! If the mere rays which come from Him convey to us so much light that we are perfectly astonished at what man can do, what must be the infinite wisdom in counsel and the excellence of working which are to be discovered in God Himself! There are two things which shall occupy our attention. The first is, the vision of God which the text presents to us; and the second is, the lesson which such a vision is calculated to teach us. I. The vision of God which is presented to us in the text. The great principle of the text is that God has a plan, and that this plan is wonderful in itself, and is found to be excellent when it is carried out. This is illustrated (1.) in nature. All creation is full of traces of design. “He weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” Nothing was made without the most accurate calculation. The stars seem cast about on the floor of heaven as men might fling at random gold-dust from their hands; yet there is not a single star whose place might be altered without mischief to the whole arrangement. In the meanest animal and minutest insect there are the most admirable contrivances to suit its habits and make its condition happy. And apparent irregularity is only undiscovered order. 2. From providence. The great providential operations of God are all the results of His foredetermined purpose and decree. All through human history every lover of the Lord will see that the awful wheels of Providence have worked with excellent regularity. Empires have fallen, but the truth has risen. Dynasties have perished, but immortal principles have conquered. 3. Your own personal experience of that providence goes to prove this with equal clearness. How often have you seen that God overrules all things for your good! (H. E. I. 4015–4022). 4. The wonderful planning of the excellent Worker is seen in the great economy of Redemption. How marvellous that God, the Mighty Maker, should appear in human flesh and become a man, that so fallen, sinful, miserable man might be lifted up and become the Son of God! When I see this great sight these words of Isaiah’s ring with a bell-like music in my ears, “He is wonderful in counsel.” 5. Then turning from Redemption itself, look at the Gospel. That Gospel is just the reverse of what human wisdom would advise. It is not “do and live,” but “believe and live.” 6. Then I might speak of God’s plan and God’s work in inward experience. The experience of every Christian is in some respects different from that of another, but it is always the result of God’s plan. 7. Another illustration will be found in the use of instrumentality. It is a wonderful design of God to use one man in the conversion of another. The one is benefited while the other is blessed. 8. The grandest illustration of all will be when, at last, God’s counsels shall be perfectly fulfilled. Man shall burst forth into one mighty song, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!” II. Some of the lessons from it.— 1. To the unconverted: seeing His counsel is so wondrous, I would to God you would agree to it! 2. To the people of God: I want you to agree to this in your own particular case. 3. Brother workers, let us have a well-formed plan, and let it be God’s plan. 4. When we know God’s plan we must remember to carry it out. 5. When you are resolved to carry out God’s plan, joyfully expect singular assistance.—C. H. Spurgeon. ARIELIsa_29:1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. The word “Ariel” properly means “the Lion of God,” and is elsewhere used of the great brazen altar on which the sacred fire blazed, and which might be said to devour as a lion the sacrifices presented on it to God. In our text, however, “Ariel” is used as a name of Jerusalem. The fact that David had dwelt in it is mentioned, not by way of historical reference, but as aggravating the guiltiness of the city, and as in some way proving that it might expect to be visited with more than common vengeance. In what way is the fact that Jerusalem could be described as “the city where David dwelt” a justification of the woes which the prophet was about to denounce against it? The answer is easy: We are answerable to God for every blessing received at His hands, so that we cannot possess a single privilege which will not, if neglected or abused, be brought against us as a charge and heighten our condemnation. This is as true of communities as of individuals; and the fact that Jerusalem had profited so little, morally and spiritually, from David’s residence in it was a clear aggravation of its guilt.— 1. David had dwelt in Jerusalem as a king. As such, his authority and his example might have been expected to have made a deep impression on the religious life of the people. Consider how powerful is the example of men in exalted stations.— 2. David had dwelt in Jerusalem as a poet. Consider how powerful is the influence of song on national character, and how truly David’s psalms were national songs. As every English child is taught loyalty by the notes of “God save the Queen,” every Jewish child was instructed in piety by the well-known strains of the sweet singer of Israel. Surely if anything could have kept religion alive in Jerusalem, it would have been this writing it into the poetry, this weaving it into the music of the nation. It was like taking possession of the strings of a nation’s heart, and providing that their vibrations should respond only to truth.— 3. The memory of David had long been a blessing to Jerusalem. For his sake evil had been averted from it (2 Kings 19:34). To pronounce a woe upon the Jerusalem or the city where David had dwelt was to tell the Jews that the conservative influence of that monarch’s piety would no longer be of any avail for them; that even as children, though long spared in recompense of the righteousness of their fathers, may reach a point at which they have filled the measure of their guilt, and at which, therefore, they can receive no further favour as the offspring of those whom God hath loved; so their iniquity had reached such a height that forbearance, long manifested for the sake of the most pious of kings, was at length wearied out, and there remained no further place for intercession. The principle involved in this passage is applicable alike to communities and individuals. 1. It is made the charge against Jerusalem that it was the city where David had dwelt—the plain inference from this being that it was a great aggravation of the national wickedness that so righteous a prince, so zealous a supporter of true religion as David, had sat for years upon the throne of Judah. By parity of reasoning, if there have been raised up in our own country men mighty in the exhibiting and establishing truth, and if in the lapse of time we grow indifferent to the truth, and perhaps even half inclined to the errors which were exposed and expelled, will it not be made a matter of accusation against us that ours is the land in which those worthies dwelt? Suppose, for example, we were to undervalue the Reformation, suppose we were to think lightly of the errors of Popery, then might our text be regarded as denouncing special woe on ourselves—woe to England—to England, the country where Wickliffe, and Cranmer, and Ridley dwelt! For it is not to be questioned that we shall have much to answer for if, after God had raised up Reformers, and they, with incalculable labour and at incalculable cost, had cleansed our Church from the abominations of Popery, we should in any measure let go the truth and make alliance or truce with the tenets or practices of Rome. The same principle is applicable (2.) to many a parish in which some devoted minister of Christ has laboured, and (3.) to many a household in which the example and teaching of godly parents have been set at nought.—H. Melvill, B.D.: Sermons Preached during the Latter Years of his Life, vol. i. pp. 125–140. Isa_29:7-8. Shall be as a dream of a night vision, &c.The reference in these two verses is to the threatened attack on Jerusalem by the Assyrian invasion in the reign of Hezekiah. They take us to the time the invader had taken all the other fortified places in the kingdom; and now his general, Rabshakeh, was encamped before the capital, with the confident expectation of easily taking it. It would seem as if, the requisite preparations having been made, that immense army had retired to rest, with the intention of making the assault on the next day. We can imagine them in their dreams picturing to themselves the scenes of the approaching capture, the shouting, the onset, the slaughter, the devastation, the prisoners, the booty, the triumph, the glory—scenes, however, these which they were destined never to witness! For, in the dead of night, the Destroying Angel went forth, and in the morning nothing remained of 185,000 of them but their lifeless corpses. So ended their dreams! Even as the army of Sennacherib was dreaming of a conquest which had no real existence, so are there multitudes of persons now dreaming that they are accomplishing the great object of their existence who are no more doing so than if they lay wrapped in the slumbers of the night. I propose to speak of such persons under the three heads of , WORK, . I. . I am not condemning pleasure. Pleasure has its place in every human life, just as truly as work and religion. I am speaking of a life devoted to pleasure. Nor do I speak of the grosser pleasures—these shock us at once, others delude us—but of those whose great aim in life is to please themselves; who, in respect to any proposed course of action, never think of asking, “Is it my duty?” But what is there to show that such a life is only a dream-like substitute for real life? 1. It leaves our best faculties unused. Can it be believed that God made us “a little lower than the angels” that we might spend our lives in pursuits which hardly require the faculties of a man? 2. A life of pleasure is a selfish life. Where pleasure is the habitual object of pursuit there must be selfishness. Wherever pleasure is the great object of life, the interest of others will be held in low esteem. 3. A life of pleasure also exposes to temptation. 4. It unfits men for another world. We shall never be ready for heaven if we never think seriously about it; and pleasure pre-eminently withdraws our thoughts from that world (H. E. I., 5059). II. Another form of the dream is the impression that WORK, i.e., secular occupation, is the great business of life. Work is not to be spoken of without respect. 1. The Bible praises work. “Six days shalt thou labour.” 2. It keeps us from dependence on others. 3. It benefits those dependent upon us. 4. It is good as enabling a man to help his neighbours. 5. Good as giving a man influence by means of the wealth it produces. 6. Good as keeping us out of much evil. Intemperance is usually the vice of the idle. So of other vices. But still it has its dangerous side. It shuts out the other world by the undue prominence it gives to this. It diminishes our sympathy with the suffering, and makes us unconcerned about the kingdom of Christ. Noble as work is when compared with idleness, it is not the great business of life. God did not endow us with intellect, heart, and spirit, with relations to Himself, to our fellows, and to immortality, that we might spend our lives in a practical denial of them all. A life of mere work is a dream as truly as a life of pleasure. III. Another thing which men are apt to consider the great business of life is . In many cases “religion” is little more than amusement; in others superstition; in others mere sentiment. There is a “religion” which is merely an affair of the intellect; another where it is hereditary, where a man follows a form of religion because his fathers did so before him. It is forgotten that religion is a life. Religious knowledge, beliefs, feelings, exercises are but the scaffolding and not the building; means to an end, not the end itself. The great end of life is not to be religious, but to be good. True religion has two sides: it first puts us right with God and then with our fellow-men. We love God first, and only then do we love man and work for his good. The prophet tells us how the dreams of these Assyrians vanished. Even such will be the disappointment of those who are dreaming away the grand possibilities of the present life.—B. P. Pratten, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 187–191. FROM THE DREAMIsa_29:8. It shall be even as when an hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty. This passage describes the disappointment of the Assyrians, whose imagination had feasted on the conquest of Jerusalem. The simile is striking. A man in extreme hunger or thirst will dream that his craving is satisfied. He awakes to feel the privation more acutely. The text may be applied to the case of a man disappointed with the world, awakened to a sense of its emptiness, concerned for his soul. There is a sense of sin, danger, need. On the day of Pentecost the awakened cried, “What shall we do?” Thus the Philippian jailor. We will address this state of mind— I. In words of sympathy. The awakened solicitude is justified by— 1. the value of the soul; 2. the fact of sin; 3. the reality of danger; 4. the provision of the gospel; 5. the call of God; 6. the unsatisfactoriness of neglect; 7. the flight of time. II. In words of caution. 1. Beware of relapsing into indifference (H. E. I., 1479–1490). Many are awakened and anxious, but it does not endure. Herod heard John gladly and did many things. Transient impressions are like Ephraim’s goodness (Hosea 6:4). Some are excitable but fickle. When the charm of novelty departs, their enthusiasm departs. Religion experiences similar treatment. Nor is it from yourself alone that you are exposed to this peril. You will meet with those who will endeavour to repress your earnestness. They will commend a moderate attention to religion, but will counsel you to wait until you are older, &c. A quiet, sober, decent attention to religious duties is well enough, but they cannot see the necessity for making religion the primary concern. Beware of such advisers. This is a matter in which earnestness is demanded. Keep fresh and vigorous in your mind the considerations by which you were first awakened. Salvation is either the supremely important thing the gospel declares, or it is nothing. Is the sick man too anxious for health, too attentive to the physician’s directions? When the starving man has dreamed of food, does any one repress his eagerness for the reality when, on awaking, he finds it was only a dream? Beware lest either unsympathising friends or your own weakness administer the opiate that will send you back into the slumber of indifference from which you have been awakened. 2. Beware of assuming that you are converted because you are awakened. Awakening is not conversion. Conviction is not conversion; it does not necessarily end in it. Pharaoh said, “I have sinned.” It is a hopeful circumstance; a step on the road; attention called to the disease; disappearance of the dream. The awakened on the day of Pentecost were directed respecting conversion. 3. Beware of finding comfort anywhere else than in the gospel. Performance of religious duties; prayers; peaceful feeling, you know not why; impression that you are forgiven. It is untempered mortar; it will not bind the walls. Nothing less than faith in Jesus. III. In words of counsel. Comply at once with the call of the Gospel. Christ’s work is all-sufficient. Faith and repentance is submission at both points. The call is— 1. Gracious. 2. Immediate. Do not delay; do not wait for the Spirit nor anything else. You are a man, not a machine. You must obey the gospel. The Spirit is working with the gospel.—John Rawlinson. THE OF AGAINST MOUNT ZION(Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 29:8. So shall the multitude of the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. Nothing tends to inspirit exertion in any great enterprise so much as the certain prospect of success. Hope is the spur of action, the very life of enterprise. Hence to encourage the fearful and animate the brave in the culture of their own piety, and especially in their efforts to extend the kingdom of the Redeemer, there are given in God’s Word the amplest promises of Divine help and assurances of ultimate success. But for “the sure word of prophecy,” the servants of God would long since have trembled for the ark of the Lord, and have despaired of the salvation of the race. But delays to us are not delays with God. Long ago He has declared, “Yet have I set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” “But we see not as yet all things put under Him.” The foot of His Providence falls too soft for mortal ear to mark. While He walks on the great ocean of human affairs as Jesus walked on the Galilean sea, His footsteps leave no traces behind. But yet He never stands still. “My Father worketh hitherto.” His progress is certain. In reference to the spread of His gospel it may be said, “In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man shall come.” At His approach all opposition is fruitless, all resistance vain. Every obstacle shall vanish, as a dream is forgotten when the dreamer awaketh. This passage suggests— I. The number and might of the enemies of the gospel. It is always unwise to underrate the forces of the enemy. Injury has been done to the cause of missions by this action. Good men in the ardour of their zeal seemed to speak as though heathendom was to be won by one new crusade, and that the walls of Satan’s kingdom would fall flat at a single blast of their rams’ horns. But Scripture takes opposite ground, and intimates that there must be a continuous and persistent struggle. Our Great General does not conquer in a single campaign; He goes forth “conquering and to conquer.” These numerous and powerful enemies of Christ’s kingdom arise from our own corrupt nature; from the peculiar circumstances of the heathen world; from every class of society, and are perpetually set in motion by the powers of darkness. Though they are “the multitude of all the nations,” they have one prince, “the prince of the powers of darkness.” To prevent our forming exaggerated pictures of success, let us remember: 1. That the original enmity of the human heart is always and everywhere the same. Every sinful passion of the human heart starts up an armed enemy against Christ and His truth. If at home, after centuries of Christian work, the obstacles to the gospel are so great, how much more formidable must they be in Pagan lands! 2. The power of Satan is at all times the same. And if here he rules supreme in the children of disobedience, what must his power be in those heathen lands where he is so strongly entrenched in superstition, idolatry and prejudices, crimes and passions of men confederated with him since Adam fell! 3. The world at large, in its spirit and pursuits, is decidedly hostile. Even in our own country, how few can be looked upon as the genuine disciples of Christ, the true soldiers of the cross! How mighty the forces sent out even here against the Lord and against His anointed! This part of the earth is still in the hands of the wicked. II. The utter futility and certain overthrow of their projects. 1. Their schemes are fallacious and visionary. “It shall be as when a hungry man dreameth.” What more delusive than a dream! 2. Their disappointment is certain. The history of the past is against them. Past history has verified the words of the Master, “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The prophecy of the future, the course of Providence, the covenant of grace, the very progress of civilisation, but more than all the very existence of God, is against them. “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice.” III. The glory that shall arise from thence to Zion’s King (Psalms 72:10-11; Psalms 72:15). His wisdom will baffle all their designs, His power crush every hostile force, and His kingdom rise on the ruin of their dark confederacies (1 Corinthians 15:25).—Samuel Thodey. LIP-SERVICE INSTEAD OF HEART-WORSHIPIsa_29:13-14. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near to Me with their mouth, &c.The charge against the people is clear; it is that of a heartless religion, formal and full of hypocrisy. “Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” That is, their religion is a mechanical following of human directions, instead of the spontaneous uprising of a heart inspired with the fear and love of God. I. The charge against the Jews in Isaiah’s day. It is twofold—the removal of the heart and the substitution of a lip-service. 1. The removal of the heart. God demands the service of the heart (Proverbs 23:26; Jeremiah 29:13). The Psalmist felt how reasonable was this demand when he said, “I will praise Thee, O Lord, with the whole heart” (Psalms 9:1). A man may do some things with a slack hand and yet be blameless, but to steer an Atlantic steamer in a storm, he needs the whole force of both hands. Unless our whole soul be in God’s service, our worship will be thrown back upon us with the withering words, “Who hath demanded this at your hands?” This worthless thing! “Bring no more vain oblations.” How strikingly our Lord put this principle of supremacy (Luke 14:26): “In every man’s heart I must be supreme, or therein I cannot dwell.” Infidels most ignorantly misread this passage. One of their counts against Christianity is that it frowns on family joys; while every day’s facts prove that the truest Christian is the best husband, father, &c. God being first in a man’s heart, that heart is humanised, its generosity enlarged, so as to take in, not only the family, but “all mankind.” But some, after having given their hearts to the Lord, withdraw them from His service (Matthew 13:22; 2 Timothy 4:10). II. This charge has been true in every generation. The heart’s weakness and the world’s force are ever the same. This evil existed in our Lord’s day (Matthew 15:8-9). For long years before the Reformation whole nations of Christendom presented to God a mere formal worship. And to-day, of how many congregations may the words of Ezekiel be said! (Ezekiel 33:31). III. The worthless substitution presented to God. “And with their lips do honour Me.” The instinct of worship is so strong within the soul that men everywhere worship something. It may be the hideous fetish of the African or the artistic statue of the refined Greek, but something the Greek and the barbarian must have. When that young mother, in the days of Solomon, arose in the morning and found a dead child by her side instead of her own living one, how severe must have been the shock! Had there been no child by her side, no dead substitute, she might have thought that her own child lived somewhere and might sometime be found. But that dead substitute at first nearly killed her by despair. It is bad to withdraw a living heart from the Lord, but to substitute a dead one is first to rob God and then wickedly insult Him (H. E. I., 5066–5070). IV. The threat (Isaiah 29:14). The threat is that of cherished expectations bitterly disappointed. In times of extremity, full of confidence in the wisdom of their leaders, they shall seek light and leading, and behold nothing but darkness and folly. How often have the leaders of a nation been stricken with folly, and, like a blinded steersman, have driven the ship to destruction! “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish.” Disappointment! It is only another expression about the foolish man disappointed in his false security, his house resting on the sand, and of those who “make lies their refuge, and under falsehood hide themselves.” The threat is that “the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” Though men may not admit that their worship is mere lip-service, and their neighbours not see their hypocrisy, yet to the eye of God “The painted hypocrites are knownThrough the disguise they wear.”—William Parkes, F.R.G.S.Two conditions under which religion is in a declining state. 1. When the ordinances of divine worship are generally neglected. 2. When the attendance on worship, however large, does not represent a religious state of mind, but is simply an outward performance. The latter was the state into which religion had fallen in Judea. The religious observances of the people were not inspired by knowledge of God’s Word, but by human authority. The text— I. Describes a great privilege. “This people draw near me.” God speaks after the manner of men. When we desire to speak closely to a friend we get near him. This is coming close to God (Psalms 73:28; Hebrews 10:22; Hebrews 7:19; James 4:8). Is it not a wonder that the Almighty permits us to draw nigh to Him? Men make it difficult for their inferiors to obtain access; but the Infinite and Eternal One makes Himself accessible to His creatures. Not only so; He has made a way for creatures stained by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ stands between God and man by virtue of His atoning death and interceding life. The guilty, condemned, utterly impure, have only to renounce their sinfulness and avail themselves of this new and living way. If there is truthfulness and sincerity, they will be welcome. In the sanctuary, in meeting for prayer, in the family, in the closet, in the round of daily duty, we may draw near to God. Do you know anything of the blessedness of this privilege? Enjoyment, comfort, purity, fitness for intercourse with men, for the battle of life, for the work of the world, do they not all come through this privilege? II. Points out a serious abuse (Isaiah 29:13). Their sin was not the abandonment of worship. That is a measure of ungodliness not reached without a long process. Unsettled faith, indifference to spiritual blessings, habits of sinful indulgence, conduct to it. What multitudes have reduced themselves to this predicament? But it was not their case. They had not relinquished the ordinances of worship; they observed them. But there was a twofold defect: the heart was absent and the motive was wrong. 1. Something was present that ought to have been absent. “Their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men.” Their piety was only out of respect for some human authority. Our Lord quoted this part of the text in His exposure of externalism as exemplified by the Pharisees of His time (Matthew 15:9). Human authority in religion is here distinctly denounced. One man may hand the Word of God to another, but no man must impose his notions of religion on another by his mere authority. A man’s religious service must be the result of his personal conviction. If he is religious because some one else is, or because it is respectable, or because it may promote his worldly interest, or because it is recognised and imposed by the authority of the state, it is not really the honour and worship of God at all, but of man. 2. Something was absent that ought to have been present. “But have removed their heart far from Me.” God must be worshipped with the heart. Apart from the outward expression of inward reality, the movement of the lips and the utterance of the mouth are nothing. Real worship is the consent of the understanding, will, affections, to the homage which is paid by the lips. Without this they are mockery, as when one who stands in the king’s presence is alienated from his allegiance. III. Utters a solemn warning (Isaiah 29:14). Their religion was only the counsel of man. It was unavailing for its purpose, and would come to nothing (1 Corinthians 1:19). Such worship is: 1. Unacceptable. God is not deceived. Realise the terribleness of being rejected. He says, “It is not the kind of worship I require.” After all your wisdom (Isaiah 1:11-15). 2. Unsuccessful. The prayers offered only by the lips are not heard. No answer comes, no blessing descends. This comes of the policy which followed the precepts of men. 3. Unstable. After such religion reaction may be expected. There is no inward life to sustain the outward exercises. Does not the test point to that deeper spiritual blindness which follows the attempt to put the wisdom of man in the place of the wisdom of God? In religion and at its worship take care: 1. That there is sincerity. See that the heart is right with God. “Ye must be born again.” 2. That there is simplicity. Let there be no superfluous externalism in worship; only what is necessary to the suitable expression of the heart’s worship. 3. That there is earnestness. And if a merely formal worship is rejected, what is the predicament of those who do not even offer that, but who live without any acknowledgment of God?—John Rawlinson. THE JOY OF THE MEEKIsa_29:19. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord. I. THE PERSONS HERE . Meekness does not mean timidity (2 Timothy 1:7); not the craven spirit of the coward, but the quiet power of the strong man (Proverbs 28:1). It does not mean the absence of courage, but the absence of that ignorant and arrogant self-sufficiency which Peter showed when he said, “Though all men forsake Thee, yet will not I.” It is that calmness of spirit which grows not out of reliance on self, but out of reliance on God. It is recorded of one whose courage at times had flashed up like a consuming fire, “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” His meekness was not feebleness, but a calm strength; quiet endurance in the doing of duty under difficulties. He was not provoked by the wrong-headedness or irritated by the ingratitude of the nation he wished to serve, but he quietly bore their stubbornness, and persisted in doing them good against their will. Hence a quiet doing and a quiet bearing of the will of God is one constituent in this quality of the mind “meekness.” It does not mean that equableness of disposition which comes from nature, so much as that calmness of spirit which comes from grace. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23). This quality of mind in God’s people is shown: 1. In their intercourse with God. In His presence they manifest “a humble, lowly, and contrite heart.” Theirs is not the spirit of the Pharisee, but the lowly contrition of the publican. Not “Stand by, for I am holier than thou,” but “I am not worthy,” &c. In a ready acceptance of the doctrines of grace and salvation through a Saviour crucified. Not like the Pharisees, who scorned the Saviour “as a root out of a dry ground,” but like those few elect souls, just and devout, who “were waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Christianity is a discipline of humility. In making men Christ-like it makes them meek. Jesus was meek and lowly, and He promises to those like Himself rest of soul. 2. In their submission to the allotments of Providence (Job 14:14; Job 13:15; Micah 7:9; Leviticus 10:3; 1 Samuel 3:18; H. E. I. 157, 158, &c.) 3. In their deportment before their fellow-men. They do not arrogate to themselves that superiority which despises and neglects others, but obey the apostolic injunctions (1 Peter 2:17; 1 Peter 3:8). II. THE GOD CONFERS UPON THEM. 1. He saves them. Often in outward troubles they become the charge and care of His providence (Zephaniah 2:3). How wonderfully was Moses saved from the strivings and rebellions of the people! Leaving his vindication in the hands of the Great Judge, God took up his cause; and when the whole camp was against him, God delivered him. How wonderfully was Joseph delivered from the pit and the prison, and Jeremiah in the siege! But always are they saved from soul-destruction. “Saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” 2. He beautifies them. “He will beautify the meek with salvation.” By the robe of righteousness, the inward adorning of the soul in every virtue, by the special manifestation of His mercy when most needed (chap. Isaiah 61:3), by giving them that esteem and commanding influence which often attracts and impresses their fellow-men. 3. He makes it appear that He delights in them. “The Lord taketh pleasure in His people.” III. THEIR . “The poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” They rejoice in His salvation; they praise Him in voice, and heart, and life (Isaiah 61:10).—Samuel Thodey. JOYIsa_29:19. The meek shall increase their joy. It is commonly said that while religion is man’s duty and his interest, it is not productive of enjoyment. Yet the Bible is full of joyful expressions, and of exhortations to joy. It even meets the sorrows of humanity and brings joy out of them. Its association of joy with conditions not joyful is remarkable (Matthew 5:3-5). Observe the contrasts in our passage (Isaiah 29:18-19). Circumstances are mentioned which amount to the removal of all alarm (Isaiah 29:20). From the outward fact, the faith of the persons here described rises to the hand that accomplished it. Our subject is religious joy. I. THE SOURCE WHENCE IT IS DERIVED. “The Lord. The Holy One of Israel.” We rejoice in what we have desired, hoped for, and obtained. This does not exclude enjoyment of the blessings of the present life. They are closely associated with it. They suggest it. We ask whence they come. The habit of regarding earthly advantages as gifts from the hand of God keeps the divine character before us as that of a Being to be regarded with pleasure. Thus, if we ascend to the spiritual region and contemplate the salvation of man, it includes the compassionate love of God, which gave His Son to impoverishment, suffering, and death; full forgiveness of sin; the various influences of the Divine Spirit; the elevated spiritual privileges and hopes bestowed on fallen men. All this came from the grace of God; it originated in His nature. “God is love.” But the God whose nature can be read in this way is not a God to repel, but attract; not a God of whom to stand in terrified awe, but a God in whom to rejoice. And this result emerges if we take a more direct look at the divine character. We are supplied with verbal asseverations as well as historical illustrations. We read of the Almighty, the All-wise, the All-righteous, the All-holy, as well as the All-loving. Power, even with justice, would fail to produce joy. But a God of power, and love, and holiness can be a delight, because He can be loved. But no object of delight can be considered a part from its subject. Nothing is universally delightful. Before you can enjoy anything you must have sympathy with it, a taste for it. There are people who cannot enjoy the finest concert. There must be the heart that is capable of joy in the Holy One of Israel, the heart of “the meek, the poor among men;” the heart changed by the grace of God. II. THE OF WHICH IT . We know our feelings better by experience than by analysis. We can imagine a father so utterly unsatisfactory in his character and conduct that his own children are ashamed to mention his name. We can imagine one whose kindness, whose faultless conduct, whose commanding intellect render them proud of his name. They think of him with pleasure. Thus the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. If you attempt to examine, you will find that your joy in God is compounded of several other feelings, which, like tributary streams, swell with the river of your pleasure. 1. Gratitude. For experience of the divine goodness. It expresses itself in thanks and songs. You think with pleasure of one to whom you are grateful. 2. Affection. Love is closely akin to gratitude. And God has taken away all cause of alienation. The love of God in Christ possesses the heart. Love delights in its object (Romans 5:11). 3. Confidence. We trust Him entirely. In present distresses or future fears. If distrust crosses our minds, we dismiss it as inconsistent with the truth of which we have satisfied ourselves. Now if there is perfect confidence in Him on whom we depend, we cannot fail to rejoice in Him. 4. Approbation. We find the Holy One of Israel a Being in whom we can be infinitely satisfied. At no point, in no respect, could we desire Him to be different from what He is. Nor is it the admiration sometimes expressed for characters there is no desire to imitate. Christians earnestly desire likeness to God. Putting all these together, there must be joy in the Lord. III. THE WHICH IT . “The meek shall increase their joy in the Lord.” Earthly joy is short-lived. The objects from which it proceeds are liable to change and perish. Many of them, even if they continue, fall. They become flat by satiety and continuity. We outgrow them as a child outgrows his toys. But Christian joy is permanent and tends to increase, because its object remains the same for ever, while His fulness is ever unfolding itself. Knowing and experiencing more of God, there is more joy in Him. Thus there is a constant increase—in the present world, and in the world to come. Would you enjoy this privilege? Then make it possible. Possess the character. Ye must be born again. Do not indulge sin. Keep Christ in your thoughts. Thus you will be superior to earthly enjoyments.—John Rawlinson. THE ORIGIN AND THE END OF SINIsa_30:1-3. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me, &c.The policy inculcated by the Divine Ruler on the Jewish nation was a policy of isolation. Now, this would be a self-destructive policy. But the circumstances of that nation were peculiar. It was not a missionary to the world, but it was a witness. When it formed alliances with surrounding nations, its witness became indistinct. It often dropped its testimony and adopted the idolatries against which its protest should have been uniform. This prophecy is against the alliance with Egypt. Assyria was about to invade that country. It was feared she would take Judea on the way. Now, the Lord was its defence; there was therefore no need to seek assistance from any other power whatsoever. It was a rebellious and unbelieving spirit that sought this alliance. The politicians sought a covering from the impending storm; but they did not seek it by divine counsel. They were adding another sin to the number against them. It would be shame and confusion at the end. Egypt would be unwilling or unable to help. Human nature is ever the same. Here is a representation of the way in which sinners act, and of its consequences. I. All sin proceeds from neglect and defiance of God’s counsel. 1. It is implied that God has counselled or may be consulted respecting human conduct. By the prophet He had declared against the alliance with Egypt. In the written word we have His will. It does not deal with our modern life and circumstances in detail. Impossible. But we have what is better; principles of action which we are to apply to circumstances. No one ever long in a moral difficulty, if he honestly apply these principles. Every act which is of the nature of evil is forbidden. Many sinful acts are forbidden by name. We have the example of the Son of God. We have the most inspiring motives: gratitude, love, hope, fear. A revolution of our nature in the direction of God’s holiness is demanded. The ministry of the word expounds and enforces these great principles. Men do not sin for want of counsel from God. 2. Our text charges men with acting on other counsel than the divine. The charge is twofold. (1.) Neglect of the counsel they ought to have sought. Sincere desire to be right would apply to the Divine Word in relation to all the conduct of life. How many adopt and act upon the principle that it shall guide everything? Is not its authority discounted? When tempted to the questionable or sinful, but advantageous, how many, with steady clearness of moral vision, look straight at God’s counsel? As to the ministry of the Word, one part of the function of which is to keep men’s moral perceptions clear, how many absent themselves from it entirely! (2.) Seeking the counsel they ought not to have sought. They sought counsel of their own inclinations. It was a foregone conclusion. They wished to go down into Egypt. If they consulted, it was, as often happens, with those inclined in the same way. Men are secretly conscious of alienation from God, which instinctively dislikes His recommendations. Man’s moral nature is unhinged; and he turns from God anywhither. The maxims of the world, the opinions of associates, considerations of worldly interest, conspire to the rejection of His counsel. Micaiah must be imprisoned if he prophesy evil, although it be true. II. Sin is cumulative and growing. “That they may add sin to sin.” Sin is rarely single (H.E.I., 4507–4509). A rope is twined from many threads. The Jewish people committed one sin by forsaking the counsel of God, another in trusting to the help of Egypt. Some substances have an affinity for each other. So have moral elements. Sins have a fearfully attractive and accumulative power. The youth wanders from the house of God. Conscience is stifled. Amusement is sought. Loose companions are cultivated. Restraint is gradually thrown off. Fraud is necessary. Fraud requires falsehood. One falsehood requires another. Sin is added to sin. Soon as a sin is committed it drops the seed of another, and so onward in terrible progression. Add grain of sand to grain until it becomes a mountain. Money is scraped together by care and labour, but sins rush to each other with mutual attraction. If you could have foreseen the growth of your own sins, surely you would have refrained. Count the sins of your life. They are added up in God’s book. III. Every sin contains the germ of its own punishment. “Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.” Sin makes promises which it fails to perform. You are disappointed. This is part of the punishment. Punishment is often appropriate, growing out of the sin. Sometimes this is palpable, as in the case of sensual lusts. Oftener subtle. Punishment accumulates, as sin does. There is a treasuring up of wrath (H. E. I., 4603–4614). Will you continue to accumulate it? or will you pause, cease? You must repent. Do not hug your chains. You must cry for mercy. You must yield. You must repair to the cross.—John Rawlinson. SOME ASPECTS OF DUTYIsa_30:7. Therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. Jerusalem and Judah were threatened by Sennacherib with dangers and desolations. This people’s sin, for which they were reproved by Isaiah, was their trusting to the Egyptians; they were all in a hurry to obtain help from them, without seeking counsel of God and resting upon Him. Isaiah saw that the help of the Egyptians would be worthless to them, and therefore he counselled them to “sit still,” trusting in the power, providence, and promise of God, from whom too much cannot be expected. I. Notice the prophet’s intermeddling in this important matter. He publishes God’s mind concerning it. It is the duty of ministers to meddle sometimes in public matters, whether in Church or State; they are to show Jacob their sins, and Israel their transgressions. This is a part of ministers’ work, to testify against sin in all. Christ was the light of the world; and they should be like their Master, testifying against all works of darkness. True, the world quarrels with the servants of God because they bear testimony against its sins; and on this account many ministers who have some light, put their light in prison: “They hold the truth in unrighteousness.” They do this by not bearing witness against public wrongs, and the sin and defection of statesmen. But it was a graceless expression of a graceless Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “What am I concerned with the souls or the sins of others? What am I concerned with the public evils of the day I live in?” True religion begins at home, but it does not end there; it will come without doors with us (H. E. I. 1184–1186). II. Observe the manner of the prophet’s address to this people. “Therefore have I cried concerning this.” It is the duty of ministers to be earnest and zealous in reproving sin and reclaiming sinners. They are to be both seers and criers; and when they see any danger, they should CRY, that the people may hear and flee out of harm’s way. 1. This is true in regard to public wrongs and national projects which are contrary to the will of God (P. D. 2855). 2. They need to cry about matters of eternity, that people may secure something that death may not be able to take from them—such as these: saving knowledge, saving faith, pardon of sin, evangelical love of God in Christ, faithful labours for the honour and glory of God.—Ralph Erskine, A. M.: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 252, 253. DISLIKE TO Isa_30:9-11. This is a rebellious people, &c.Many wish to be deceived. They have made truth their enemy and shrink from the light, desiring present relief and peace, even at the expense of future happiness. Many a man does not like to be told the truth about his business or his health. The Jews did not like to be told the truth about their national prospects. The incessant reference of the prophets to the holiness of God was offensive to them, and they tried to silence their faithful monitors. Faithful ministers of Christ meet with the same reception from many of their hearers. These cannot bear to have their consciences roused, their fears alarmed, and their minds rendered uneasy. I. THE TRUTHS WHICH ARE USUALLY TO SUCH PERSONS. The spirituality and unbending strictness of the divine law, the deep depravity of human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of man’s conduct, the universal necessity of regeneration, the inefficacy of works for justification, the indispensable obligation to a separation from the world, the holiness of God, His irreconcilable hatred to all sin, and His irrevocable purpose to punish it, and the awfulness and interminableness of the doom of the impenitent. Such subjects call up the enmity of the carnal mind. They distress those who are wrongfully at ease in Zion, and they demand that the preacher shall leave them, and discourse on more pleasing themes. II. THE CAUSE OF THIS DISLIKE OF . 1. Unbelief. Multitudes who admit in gross the authority of the Bible deny it in detail. Its unpalatable truths are rejected. 2. The refinements of modern society and taste. It is allowed that the curses of a violated law may be uttered in barns or churches for the poor, and may fall on the rude ears of the multitude, but the doctrine and style of preaching to the congregations of rank and fashion must be smooth and soft. 3. Wounded pride. Persons of outwardly blameless life hate the doctrine which disturbs their self-complacency, and revile the man who attempts to sink them in their own esteem. 4. Painful forebodings of future misery. Resolutely cleaving to their sins, they do not like to be reminded of the doom to which they are hastening. III. THE OF THIS DISLIKE OF . 1. It is foolish. Is it wise in the victim of vice to ask the physician to tell him that he is in good health, and is carrying on a harmless course of indulgence, &c., &c.? No concealment of the situation of the sinner can alter his condition in the sight of God or change the relation in which he stands to eternity. 2. It is sinful. (1.) In its origin. It springs from a determination to go on in sin. (2.) In its nature. It is a love of falsehood, a desire to confound the distinction between sin and holiness. Nor is this all; in aiming to suppress the voice of warning, he acts the part of that infatuated and cruel wretch who would bribe the sentinel to be silent when the foe is about to rush into the camp, or would seduce the watchman to be quiet when the fire had broken out at midnight and was raging through the city. The attempt to induce the preacher to utter “smooth things,” is an attempt to induce him to destroy himself and to contribute to the destruction of them that hear him. (3.) In its consequences. Notwithstanding the most faithful warnings, they are hurried on by it to ruin. Like infatuated Balaams, they force a passage to destruction. 3. It is dangerous. It leads men to close their ears to what it concerns them especially to know. It is only by a faithful disclosure of their situation that they can escape, but they will not hear it. . 1. To ministers. (1.) The guilt of ministers who do not discharge the duties of their office with uncompromising fidelity is indescribable. They are mere pulpit agents of the devil, receiving the wages of the sanctuary while they do his work; keeping all still and quiet among his slaves, preventing all attempts to throw off his hateful yoke by flattering them with the idea that they are the servants of God. (2.) The conversion of sinners should be the chief object of every minister of Christ. They constitute the majority of every congregation; they will soon be beyond the reach of salvation. (3.) The conversion of the impenitent must be sought by suitable means. What may be called the alarming style of preaching is most adapted to convert the impenitent. Not gross and revolting descriptions of eternal torment; these are offensive and disgusting, and generally defeat their purpose, especially when done in a harsh, unfeeling manner. But a minister’s habitual preaching should be so discriminating as to leave no unconverted sinner at a loss with whom to class himself, whether with believers or with unbelievers; and it should not unfrequently contain those allusions to and descriptions of the wrath of God which, like the distant rumblings of the gathering and approaching storm, should drive men to the refuge provided by infinite mercy in the cross of Christ. (4.) It is at our peril that we soften down the terrors of the Lord to please any man; we must not shun to declare the whole counsel of God; we must stand clear of the blood of the rich as well as of the poor. Did Paul regard the feelings of Felix? 2. To professing Christians. (1.) Many would have the preacher confine himself to words of comfort, and object to everything searching and practical as legal. Upon their principles, all parts of God’s Word but the promises are unnecessary; they are useless to believers, for they are above them by privilege; useless to sinners, for they are below them in respect to obligation. What is this but a requesting that the Holy One of Israel may cease from before His people? (2.) Inconsistent professors are likewise anxious that the preacher should confine himself to consolatory topics. Hypocrites! he gives you that which belongs to you. Consolation would be to you a deadly poison, a fatal opiate. (3.) Sometimes even those who have only the ordinary imperfections of even the best men wish to hear less of the alarming parts of divine truth. But have you no concern for the salvation of others? Besides, who can tell but what you dislike may be necessary for keeping you awake? (4.) Let those who cannot bear to hear the descriptions of future punishment think with themselves how they shall be able to endure it.—John Angell James, Sermons, ii. 181–214. THE VANITY OF EARTHLY HELP IN TIME OF TRIAL, AND THE PROFIT OF PATIENT WAITINGIsa_30:15-16. For thus saith the Lord God, &c.The history of the Jews a striking proof of human depravity. That people at once the most favoured by God, and the most obstinate in rebellion against God. Ever hankering after some new idol, and falling into some new sin. Burden of the prophets was to reprove their pride and hardness. Isaiah no exception. In this chapter there is a solemn warning, the last remonstrance previous to Sennacherib and his army coming upon them. First, the insufficiency of all human dependence. Chronic failing of the Jews was dependence on the arm of flesh. In national difficulties they went to Egypt for horses, or turned to Assyria for help, thinking that these would insure defence. But these devices always failed. God, from the first, placed His people in such circumstances that they could not fail to see that it was not human might which delivered them. Illustrate this by the Exodus, Gideon, David, and Goliath. In all this instruction for us, God is jealous of His honour. He brings to nought the works of the wise who ignore Him, and crowns with success the efforts of the weak and foolish who trust Him. These words were especially addressed to the Ancient Church, and consequently their teaching is for God’s people now. We are too apt to be discouraged when earthly powers are arrayed against us, and to be elated when they are for us, in both cases placing our chief dependence on them. To do this is to lose sight of the true dignity and glory of the Church of God. The Church is the Spouse of Christ; she is gifted and dowried by Him; and does not depend for success upon the State, or any form of human help. The first preachers of Christianity were poor and unlearned men, owing all their success to the power of the Holy Ghost. We must rely upon the same force. God teaches this lesson of dependence on Himself, not only to the Church as a whole, but to individual members. Hence He sends personal affliction, domestic trials; brings men into circumstances where human aid is of no avail. They can do nothing for themselves; nothing can be done for them. Trust in God is their only resource. This leads to the second thought, the profit of patient waiting on the Lord. “Their strength is to sit still.” “In returning and rest shall ye be saved.” In returning from endeavours to obtain help from earthly sources. God suffers us to lean on the aid of man that we may realise its futility. Faith finds its best exercise in trial; it is also strengthened and confirmed by affliction. In such conditions, too, faith produces its richest and rarest fruit. Faith must evidence itself by works. Days of sorrow and chambers of sickness bear witness to the heroism of the believer. There are no heroes like those who suffer calmly and in secret. Many such will at the last be exalted higher than even martyrs and confessors. The secret of patient waiting is trust in God’s promises. Our waiting must be on the Lord. Such waiting disciplines and chastens us. Evil tempers are subdued. Attachment to the world is destroyed. God’s Word becomes our daily bread; His presence as the breath of our life; and gradually the character is perfected, and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.—Rev. S. Robins, M.A., Dale: Miscellaneous Sermons, p. 415. DIVINE Isa_30:15-17. For thus saith the Lord God, &c.The subject treated is the proposition to seek help from Egypt against the Assyrians. Here is the divine remonstrance. It illustrates the Gospel, its treatment, and the retribution that will follow. I. THE . “In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” God was the defender of His people. Their strength was to trust in Him. It is so still. He is the only Saviour. A divine salvation is— 1. Needed. As much as when Sennacherib spread his hosts before Jerusalem; as much as when the children of Israel in the wilderness needed the manna, without which they must have perished, &c.; for man is sinful; and because sinful helpless. 2. Proclaimed (Isaiah 45:22; Acts 13:38-39). God pitied the world, and sent His Son. Jesus died. His death satisfied for sin. Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost. And willing. In the ministry of the gospel He invites every sinner to come to Him. 3. Conditioned. “Return—rest.” There must be a complete change from sin; from wrong confidence to simple faith. Many examples in the Old Testament show that believing reliance on God was a surer way to deliverance than the power of man. Apostolic preaching points to faith as the link of connection between the sinner and the Saviour. The salvation is by faith, that it may be free. II. THE FOOLISH . Isaiah 30:16. They had no faith. They looked to human helpers. It is the tendency of man. And thus the gospel is set aside. 1. By negligence. Because of prevailing unbelief spiritual blessings are undervalued. Sin is loved. There is little moral earnestness. Acceptance of the Gospel is postponed as if it were some disagreeable duty. 2. By contempt. The horses on which they said they would ride point to Egypt as their strength. It was contempt of God’s help. Thus their fathers had turned to the golden calf. Thus some turn to money, some to earthly pleasures, some to the Church, some to the priest for salvation. Anywhere rather than to the Saviour Himself. 3. By self-confidence. Ceremonies of religion are performed; prayers offered; obedience rendered; alms given with a view to propitiate the divine favour and obtain salvation as a debt. It rejects the truth of the Bible. It proceeds from ungodliness, pride, and unbelief. III. THE . Isaiah 30:17. All your confidence will break down. You will be utterly ruined. It will be as when a great power collapses. So shall it be with sinners (Psalms 52; Jeremiah 17:5-6). So with sinners who reject the Gospel. There will be— 1. Complete failure. You will be left in your original helplessness; at the mercy of the enemy; at the mercy of your sins. 2. Signal punishment. For the criminality is most aggravated. You have insulted God by flinging back His offered hand. Mark the means by which punishment will come. By the very things you have trusted. Mark the manner in which punishment will come. It will be utter ruin. Mark the end your punishment will serve. It will be a beacon to warn others against your fate. Instead of trusting in any other help, fly to Jesus. Believe in Him. He gives the weary rest. You shall be saved, now and for ever.—J. Rawlinson. WAITING FOR THE LORDIsa_30:18. Blessed are all they that wait for Him. I. What is meant by waiting upon the Lord? Not that sitting still and biding our time, like a man waiting for a coach. Not that we are to sit in quiet, idle supineness, expecting the Lord to come and fill our souls with joy and peace, as He used to fill the tabernacle with His glory. Yet, because they cannot convert their own souls, and sanctify their own hearts, thousands rashly conclude that they must quietly wait until the Lord work a miracle for them and save them. The Bible declares our helplessness in order that we may be stirred up to seek help from God (Ephesians 5:14; Philippians 2:12-13; 2 Peter 2:10). What do we mean when we engage a servant to wait upon us? Not that he is to compose himself to sleep until we signify that we want him; but that he should attend upon us, hold himself in readiness to do our bidding, make himself acquainted with our rules and conform to them, and with our wishes, and do his best to obey them with all readiness, cheerfulness, and faithfulness. So when the Lord bids us “wait for Him,” He means that we should diligently seek His face, inquire into His laws, keep His statutes, and walk in His ordinances, expecting to receive, in His own good time, the blessings which He has promised to those who “wait upon Him.” II. How are we to wait for the Lord? 1. We must wait upon God with the heart; we must be in earnest. We have no respect for the attentions and fair speeches of our fellow-men when we have reason to believe them mere idle compliments: will God accept from us what we scorn to receive from one another? (Jeremiah 13:13). 2. We must wait entirely upon God, whether we are in search of peace, strength, or happiness (Psalms 72:15). 3. We must wait upon the Lord patiently and perseveringly. He is the rewarder of all them “that diligently seek Him;” but He has never pledged Himself either to the time when, or the mode in which, He will answer our prayers. He may put our sincerity to the test by keeping us waiting for some time; but we shall never wait in vain (Psalms 40:1). Remember how long Abraham had to wait for the fulfilment of the promise of a seed; but in the end, through faith and patience, he inherited the promise (Galatians 6:9).—E. Crow, M.A.: Plain Sermons, pp. 120–136. Change and uncertainty mark all things here. The wisest plans often baffled, the fairest prospects blighted. But the truths and blessings of the Gospel are not subject to this law of uncertainty. God’s schemes are never frustrated; His promises never broken. I. THAT DEVOUT OF MIND HERE . “Waiting for God.” 1. His people wait in the exercise of earnest and believing prayer. They seek Him in the means of His own appointment; by that sort of diligent seeking which is opposed to that of the slothful (Proverbs 13:4). 2. His people wait in holy expectation of blessings in providence and grace. It is the patient waiting for the performance of the promise in the exercise of faith. It implies a knowledge of God,—a confidence in Him,—a rest in His promises, as of a child in a father; a servant in a master (Psalms 123:1-2). 3. They wait for a clearing up of perplexities in the Divine Government. Oftentimes in their own history and in the history of others, God’s providence bears a mysterious and perplexing aspect. But the believing soul says, “All will come right at last. What we know not now we shall know hereafter” (H. E. I., 4043–4048). II. THE OF SUCH WAITING FOR GOD. 1. The very exercise of prayer, faith, and patience is a culture of the soul. In such culture there lies “Blessedness.” 2. Theirs shall be the blessedness of satisfaction. Disappointment meets man in every walk of life, but those who trust in the Lord’s Justice, Wisdom, and Goodness shall never “be ashamed.”—Samuel Thodey. I. God’s appearances on account of His people are sometimes delayed. 1. In answering prayer. 2. In relieving them in their afflictions. 3. In explaining Himself in regard to their afflictions. 4. In affording the joys of His salvation and the comfort of the Holy Ghost. II. Your duty in the meantime: it is to wait for Him calmly, patiently, expectantly. III. The blessedness that will attend the exercise of waiting for Him.—William Jay: Sunday Evening Sermons, pp. 319–324. GOD’S TO LISTEN TO THE NEEDYIsa_30:19. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. I. There are persons before me for whom this gracious assurance is particularly suitable. It is most comforting— 1. To all afflicted people. You are depressed; things have gone amiss; you do not prosper in business, or you are sickening in body, or a dear one lies at home pining away. In your straits possibly you may be ready to try some wrong way of helping yourself out of your difficulties. Yield not to Satan. There is help in God for you now. The Lord is not now visiting you in wrath; there is kindness in His severity. By yielding yourself to God, and trusting Him in this your evil plight, you will obtain deliverance (Isaiah 30:15). 2. To those who are troubled on account of sin. In order to escape from sin and punishment, the very first thing with you is to come back to your God whom you have offended, since He alone can pardon you. There must be a turning of the face in repentance, and a looking of the eye by faith unto God in Christ Jesus, or you will die in your sins (H. E. I., 1479–1484). The natural tendency of your heart, even when under a sense of sin, will be to keep from the Lord. Alas! you will look at your sin again and again till you are ready to pine away in despair, but you will not look to Christ Jesus and be saved. Possibly you may conclude that there is no hope for you in better things, and that therefore you had better enjoy such pleasures as may be found in sin, and take your swing while you may. Do not believe this lie of Satan. There is hope; you are in the land of mercy still. You need do nothing to make the Lord propitious, He is love already; you need not undergo penance, nor pass through grievous anguish of spirit in order to render God more merciful, for His grace aboundeth. Therefore we say to you, Go to Him and test Him, for He will be gracious to the voice of your cry. 3. To backsliders filled with their own ways, who are alarmed and distressed at their grievous departures from God. You may well be grieved, for you have done much dishonour to the name of God amongst the ungodly; you have pierced His saints with many sorrows. If you were cast off for ever as a traitor and left to die as a son of perdition, what could be said but that you were reaping the fruit of your own ways? Yet the text rings in your ears at this time like a clear silver bell, and its one note is grace. “He will be very gracious unto thee” (Jeremiah 3:14; H. E. I., 424). 4. To all believers in Christ who are at all exercised in heart; and we are all in that condition at times. Even when by full assurance we can read our title clear to-day, we become anxious as to the morrow. If trials multiply, how will faith be able to stand? When the days of weakness arrive, what shall we do in our old age? Behind all stands the skeleton form of death. “What shall we do in the swellings of Jordan?” We recollect how we ran with the footmen in our former trials, and they wearied us, and we ask ourselves, “How shall we contend with horsemen?” When standing, as we shall, on the brink of eternity, will our religion then prove a reality, or will our hope dissolve like a dream? Such questions torment our souls. Let all such fears vanish. In child-like confidence come to God, and go no more from Him. Let this verse smile on you, and beckon you to your Father’s heart. II. The assurance here given is very firmly based. It rests— 1. On the plain promise of God as given in the text, and in many similar declarations scattered all over the Scriptures. 2. On the gracious nature of God. It is His nature to be gracious. Judgment is His strange work, but He delighteth in mercy. Nothing pleases Him more than to pass by transgression, iniquity, and sin when we lie humble and penitent before Him. 3. On the prevalence of prayer. This we know, an experience of eight-and-twenty years has proved that God heareth prayer; therefore we say to you, Go to Him and test Him, for He will be gracious to the voice of your cry. III. The well-confirmed assurance of the text should be practically accepted at once. 1. Let us renounce at once all earth-born confidences. What is your confidence? Your wealth? Your strong common-sense? Your stalwart frame? What are you relying on? Will it support you in death? Will it stand you in good stead in eternity? It will not if it be anything short of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us flee from all creature-confidence as from a filthy thing, for it is base to the last degree to be trusting in another creature and putting that creature into the place of its Creator. 2. Refuse despair. 3. Try now the power of prayer and child-like confidence in God.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxiv. pp. 337–348. THE BREAD OF Isa_30:20-21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, &c. [1129][1129] The Authorised Version, upon which these outlines are founded, is supported by Mr. Cheyne, who translates: “And though the Lord give you bread in short measure and water in scant quantity,” &c. But Delitzsch, Kay, and Birks render the first clause: “And the Lord will give you bread in your adversity and water in your affliction.” Mr. Birks adds: “These words form part of a promise, not its limitation. The affliction has been fully denounced before. Here they are assured that, although besieged, they will not be given over to famine. The path of duty will be made plain by God’s prophets, and speedy deliverance be given.” I. . “The Bread of Adversity” was a proverbial expression among the Jews (1 Kings 22:27; Psalms 80:5). The Lord gives: He who gave the cup of salvation gives the cup of affliction. He who gives the bread of life gives also the bread of adversity (Hebrews 12:6.) Recollect that the Lord who gives you the bread of adversity gave His own Son no better fare, no richer diet. II. . “Yet shall not thy teachers be removed,” &c. He will compensate temporal troubles by spiritual blessings. Numbers have found that as tribulation abounded, consolation abounded by Christ (1 Corinthians 1:5). Such consolations are threefold. 1. A free access to God’s throne. “He will be very gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry.” Prayer relieves distress. 2. A faithful administration of God’s word and ordinances. Religious instruction shall be continued, “thy teachers shall not be removed.” 3. A gracious direction of God’s providence. III. . 1. Guard against whatever may endanger Christian privileges. Neglect of prayer; absence of love; seductions of the world. 3. Recollect what is needful to give this promise full effect—the influence of the Spirit. Pray for and expect a baptism of the Holy Ghost. 3. Commend to others the consolations you receive. Visit the sick; remember the widow and the fatherless. In comforting others, your own bread of adversity shall be made sweet.—Samuel Thodey. I. A . Affliction may be continuous and severe. Bread and water are the prominent things in the sustenance of life. Day by day received. Few, if any, are entirely exempt from affliction. Periods of difficulty and privation, when weeks and months of consuming anxiety are experienced. Losses which seriously incommode and cripple their business. Troubles in the family, sometimes from the conduct of those most loved. Bereavements which rend the heart. Sickness, accident, consuming disease, and excruciating pain wear life slowly away. The godly are not exempted. The infected atmosphere may poison the saint as well as the sinner. If a good man falls over a precipice he will be killed. “The same hurricane may equally swamp the vessel which is filled with pirates and that which is filled by a band of devoted missionaries.” If a Christian neglect his business, or conduct it on unsound principles, he must expect insolvency. He may conduct it with perfect commercial wisdom and care, and yet be overtaken by disasters from causes beyond his control. But it does not happen by chance. There is no such thing as fate. We recognise the hand of the Lord. “Though the Lord give you the bread of affliction and the water of adversity.” In this truth is help for believers perplexed by the mystery of sorrow. It throws their thoughts on God. And they have such confidence in Him that it is a resting-place. We do not know, we never can know, the evils He prevents. When He permits or sends trouble we may rest assured that there is a sufficient reason (Lamentations 3:33). What are the reasons? [1132] We may mistake their application, but they are such as these: 1. It is sometimes punitive. God has established a connection between sin and suffering. The former always works towards the latter. The chain of connection may be so subtle, and may extend so far back, that we cannot follow it. Yet such a chain there is. When affliction comes, it is useful to trace the chain, and ascertain, if we can, wherefore the Lord is contending with us. 2. It is sometimes corrective. He deals with us as men deal with their children (Hebrews 12:5-11). It is not that he may vent His anger, but recall them to their better selves. He means it as the refiner means the fire into which he casts the gold (Psalms 119:67). 3. It is sometimes auxiliary. The means to an end. The dark way into light. It is necessary to some advantage which could not be reached without it. Joseph’s slavery and imprisonment were the steps to his subsequent greatness. Jesus reached the crown by the cross. Perhaps you can illustrate from your own experience. [1132] H. E. I., 56–115. Meantime, here is II. AN . Their teachers had been removed. The prophets were persecuted (Isaiah 30:9-10). Jeremiah, Zedekiah, under Jezebel’s persecution. Obadiah had hid a hundred in caves. Persecution usually fastens on the teachers as most prominent. Thus Apostles. Thus the Nonconforming clergy in England. Thus the missionaries were driven from Madagascar. But the promise here is that they shall regain their liberty. And this will be not only a relief to themselves, but an antidote to the people’s calamities. It will secure: 1. Instruction. “Thy teachers.” Truth is the basis of everything in experience or practice. It is their business carefully to unfold and apply the truth [1135] 2. Consolation. Christian ordinances are consolatory. There are truths that bear on troubles. The views of the Divine character and of the course of Providence exhibited in the Gospel sustain and comfort. 3. Direction. There is danger of turning to right or left. So many allurements, from ignorance, misguidance, temptation. By the ministry you hear the voice which points out the way, invites steadfastness, warns against divergence. [1135] The Christian Church requires a teaching ministry. Not only must the Gospel be proclaimed to the world, the Church must be trained into knowledge, experience, holiness, activity. Individual study of Scripture is largely useful. But regularly recurring religious services, of which careful instruction is a part, are universally necessary. Godly men must be released from secular business, trained, set apart to the study and ministry of the word. The living voice of the preacher helps guides, confirms, and gives greater practical influence to the private reading of Christians. Even under the old dispensation, large use was made of this method. There were schools of the prophets. A few were so eminent that they have left their words behind them. But there were many whose names have not survived their time. Jesus trained His disciples for their future work. After His Ascension, He gave various gifts to men for the work of the ministry. He continues them. While one could wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that He would put His Spirit upon them, so that they would work to the full extent of their ability for the world’s salvation, it remains true that the strength of the Church is in an able, well-instructed, godly, and earnest ministry. Among the blessings here promised to the ancient Church is the restoration of its silenced teachers to their work after its period of discipline.—Rawlinson. God provides guidance in the journey to the better land. Value the ministry of the word. Attend it. Follow its teaching.—J. Rawlinson. THE GUIDING VOICEIsa_30:21. And thou shalt hear a voice behind thee, &c.This may be a promise to God’s people of the continuance of the services of the ministry, or of the additional blessings of spiritual suggestions to guide them in the path of duty. I. It may be a continuation of the promise in the preceding verse: “Thy teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee.” The Word of God proclaimed by faithful ministers follows men. Sometimes, as they listen to it, they reject it, but it pursues them, and gives them no rest until they obey it. When they are bent on a wrong course, it haunts them until they are recalled to duty. Or it stimulates them to the performance of duties they are neglecting or performing sluggishly. Thus understood, we may see that in this promise God compares Himself as it were to a shepherd, who puts his sheep before him; or to a schoolmaster who will have his scholars in sight, that so he may the better keep them in order. Thus understood, we see our duty. It is to give reverent heed to the Word of God as proclaimed to us by His ministers. Food, however choice, is no blessing to us unless it be eaten and digested; and the Word of God is no blessing to us, except there be an ear to hearken to it, a spiritual taste to relish it, and a heart to close and comply with it. Well is it with those who imitate Lydia (Acts 16:14). But neglect of God’s word shuts against us even the throne of grace (Proverbs 28:9). To those who disregard what they know to be the voice of God, there comes a time when they discover that the greatest of all calamities is to have their voice disregarded by Him (Proverbs 1:24-26). II. But the promise may be that of an additional blessing, the inward motions and suggestions of the Holy Spirit. His voice may be called “a word behind us,” because— 1. Of its secresy (Job 4:12). 2. Because it follows us always, as constantly as our shadow. Parallels to this promise we find in 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27; John 14:26; John 16:13. III. This voice His people hear when they are about to wander, or have wandered from the way of righteousness. From that way it is easy to de part; but God loves His people, and cannot abide to see them miscarry, and therefore He counsels them. “This is the way, walk ye in it,” is sometimes a word of correction and reformation, in case of error; sometimes a word of instruction and direction, in case of ignorance; sometimes a word of strengthening and confirmation, in case of unsettledness. In all these respects God’s people hear the “word behind them,” sometimes giving them very gracious hints concerning the affairs of this present life, but more frequently concerning the spiritual life. Those who wait upon God shall not lack counsels concerning the manner in which they are to serve Him. He answers the prayers of His people (Psalms 25:4-5; Psalms 86:11; Psalms 143:8). What a great comfort and encouragement we have here! If we really desire to serve God amid all the labyrinths and uncertainties of this present life, we shall be safe, for He will guide us. IV. But how may we know whether the word behind us is the voice of God, and not merely one of our own fancies, or a suggestion of Satan’s? There are several touchstones by which every “word” may and should be tested. 1. The word within is to be compared with the word without. Every suggestion is to be examined by the rule of Scripture. God never speaks in the conscience contrary to what He speaks there, for He is unchangeable and cannot contradict Himself (Isaiah 8:20). 2. God’s “words” are orderly and regular; they keep men within the compass of their callings, and the place in which God has set them. They incite us not to forsake our duty, but to be faithful in it. 3. They are ordinarily mild, gentle, seasonable; they are not ordinarily raptures, but such as leave a man in a right apprehension of what he does, and capable of reflection upon it. 4. They are discernible also from their effects, and the ends to which they tend. All the hints and motions of God’s Spirit tend to make us better, and to carry us nearer to Himself in one way or another. Honestly using these tests, we shall learn promptly and surely to discern the voice of God’s Spirit when He says to us, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” V. From all this two duties plainly arise. 1. Thankfulness. A faithful monitor is a very great advantage; it is so betwixt man and man, and we should bless God that He condescends to be this to us. 2. Obedience. To His infallible, loving counsel we should give prompt heed, especially as He not only points out the way, but is always ready to help us to walk in it; and the way in which He would have us go is the only one that leads to true happiness and lasting peace. Disobedience exposes us to manifold dangers, such as (1.) God’s future silence; when His counsels are repeatedly rejected, He will cease to speak. What a terrible calamity (1 Samuel 28:5). (2.) Those who hearken not to the voice of God in them are often given up to Satan, and their own corruptions bear sway within them (Psalms 81:11-12).—Thomas Horton, D.D.: 100 Select Sermons, pp. 298–304. I. Our need of the guidance here promised. We are ignorant of the way to true happiness, and we have not always daylight. The path is narrow, and is sometimes very intricate. It lies through an enemy’s country. Many as wise as we have lost their way, and, after years of sorrow, have perished miserably. We need this guidance in youth, in manhood, in old age, even unto death (P. D. 952, 2388). II. Some of the means by which God guides His people. The promise in our text suggests a traveller in doubt as to the course he should take, pausing perplexed at cross roads, and in danger of choosing a wrong one, when a friendly voice behind him is heard, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” God thus speaks to His people. 1. By His providences. Afflictions are often monitions and instructions (H. E. I., 66–70). 2. By His Word. It clearly marks the path to heaven. 3. By our conscience (H. E. I., 1291, 1304, 1308–1312). 4. By His Spirit; by whom conscience is quickened, our understanding cleared of delusions, our attention fixed on the happy career of the righteous, and the disastrous end of the wicked. III. What is needed to enable us to profit by this promise. 1. A prayerful spirit (Isaiah 30:19). 2. A studious eye that will look for the waymarks, especially for the footprints of Jesus. 3. A listening ear. 4. An obedient habit of mind (1 Samuel 15:22; P. D., 1656). Disregard of the Guiding Voice will involve us in present disaster and misery, and in eternal woe. Heedfulness of it will ensure for us present safety and peace, and eternal blessedness.—Samuel Thodey. RIVERS OF WATERSIsa_30:25-26. And there shall be upon every high mountain, &c.These are symbols of the blessings God will confer upon His people when He returns to them in mercy. These are vivid presentations of two characteristics of these blessings, their copiousness and their universality. 1. To express their the prophet speaks not of streams merely, but of rivers; “rivers and streams of water;” and declares that they shall be poured forth, not merely as the light from the sun, but as if the light of seven days were concentrated in one [1138] 2. To express at once their copiousness and their , He declares that the rivers and streams shall run on the hills and mountains, yea, upon every hill and mountain [1141] The idea of universality is involved also in the figure of sunlight [1144][1138] We can conceive of nothing more bright, pervading, and universal than the light of the sun. At its rising the whole face of nature is displayed, every object in brought out to view; the grandest or loveliest features of the scene are presented to us in all their extent and magnificence, while the most delicate tints of the smallest flower are seen in all their softest shades and richest hues. Still this glorious object in its full splendour, the sun itself is too dim, too dull, too feeble to represent the grace and love of our God; it must be multiplied sevenfold. And even then it but indistinctly shadows forth the unspeakable mercy of the everlasting God.—Packer. [1141] “Rivers and streams of waters.” But where is their current? Upon every high mountain and upon every high hill. Now, there can be no rivers and streams on the summit of the mountain range, nor upon the high hill-top. Rivers and streams are fed from these lofty elevations; they take their rise amid these towering heights, but they do not find a channel there. Thus you see that to typify the effluence of the Holy Spirit, these flowing waters of the text are described as being in unusual localities, to intimate that the blessings will be in such abundance and profusion as to outrun expectation and surpass all experience. And this not in some highly favoured regions only, but the blessing shall be universal, even upon every high mountain and upon every high hill.—Packer. [1144] This, like the air, cannot be excluded; it penetrates the gloomiest caverns, can enter even through a cranny. So there is no soul out of reach of the all-pervading Spirit. Those that are inaccessible to man can be reached, and enriched, and blessed by the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost.—Packer. Have these promises been fulfilled? Yes. 1. When the Gospel was given to the world. Its messengers were sent forth into every land, and it is a small thing to say that the light it gave was sevenfold that which the most enlightened of the heathen had possessed. 2. In the experience of every believing soul. The Gospel reaches many who seem utterly beyond any saving influence; and when it does really reach a man, is received into his heart. It gives him a light of more than sevenfold brightness and value as compared with the best of the lights he before possessed—reason and conscience [1147] 3. It is fulfilled in our own day in the wide diffusion of the Gospel and the remarkable increase of religious knowledge. God’s Word is being carried into every land, and the children in our daily and Sabbath schools have a fuller acquaintance with Scripture than many men and women of the last generation. There is to be a yet more complete fulfilment of these promises in that glorious era of which we speak as the Millennium [1150][1147] When we attempt to compare the boasted light of natural reason with the light which the Spirit alone can impart, it is not simply that the former is as the light of the moon, and the latter as the light of the sun; but the one is as Egyptian darkness, and the other as the splendour of the meridian sun, without even one small fleecy cloud intervening. Jesus Christ is the light of life (2 Corinthians 4:6). All that we can know of God, of His attributes and perfections, of His plans and purposes, He has revealed unto us by His Son. To those who are in Christ all is light, and harmony, and peace; to those who are without Christ all is gloom, and confusion, and terror. By faith in Him we see that all God’s dealings wear an aspect of mercy, love, and wisdom. Corrections are inflicted for our profit; disappointments are sent to wean us from the unsatisfying, perishing things of time and sense. Surely, in this respect, the promise in the text is made good to the believer; he enjoys sevenfold light in his soul compared to that which he had in the days when he knew not the true God and Jesus Christ, whom He had sent.—Packer. [1150] But these mercies will be preceded by the convulsions of the moral earthquake. The very terms in which the promise is couched convey the idea of trial and suffering. There is a breach which the Lord binds up, and there is the stroke of a wound to he healed, implying previous violence.—Packer. It rests with ourselves to determine whether the fulfilment of these promises shall be to us a blessing [1153]John Packer: Warnings and Consolations. pp. 256–271. [1153] What shall the universality and copiousness of the “rivers and streams of water” profit us, if we will not drink of them? In the natural world a man would be nothing benefited, though the light of the sun was augmented sevenfold, if he studiously closed and sealed every opening by which it entered his dwelling, or if he placed an impervious bandage tightly over his eyes whenever he went abroad (John 12:36).—Packer. [See also Outlines, RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACE, Isaiah 32:2, and RIVERS, Isaiah 33:21. GROWING LIGHTIsa_30:26. Moreover, the light of the moon, &c.These words, doubtless, look forward to the restoration of Israel. But there are spiritual truths implied in them, which are of present and immediate application. We have here different kinds of light; different degrees of the same light; and also the seasons when such increase of light is vouchsafed. I. THE LIGHT OF THE MOON. It is a real light, but it is reflected light. It does not come to us direct from the sun, but is thrown first upon the moon, and from her it comes to us. Hence its peculiarities. It is a dim light; it does not warm and quicken; it does not make things grow and vegetate. It is a waning light; sometimes it is full, but it soon begins to decline, and for a season it is wholly withdrawn. It is a light which never makes day; even at its fullest, it is still night; men occasionally walk and work in it, but usually they rest and sleep. Why do I notice these things, which are obvious to all on a moment’s reflection? Because I believe there is important Divine truth hidden under them. All Nature is a prefiguring or shadowing forth of grace and truth (H. E. I. 5, 6). We have been describing the religious knowledge of not a few. It is moonlight; it does not come to them direct from Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, the source of all true light; it is hearsay; they have learned it from their fellow-men. It is not experimental, and hence its deficiencies. It is a vague, dim knowledge; they see nothing clearly, neither sin nor salvation, neither Christ nor themselves, neither law nor gospel, neither grace nor glory. It is a cold, heartless knowledge; it does not warm, quicken, stir their affections, influence their wills. It is a waning knowledge; sometimes they seem full of it—after a stirring sermon, or when they are in the company of frank, lively Christians—but a short time passes and it is all gone, as if it had never been. It never makes them children of the day, it never arouses them from the sleep of sin and worldliness, nor sends them forth to work for God and for eternity. Such is this moonlight knowledge. Still it would be something if it led those who have it to Christ, the true Light. The people of Sychar had the moonlight when the woman on whom the Sun had just arisen came and cast a portion of her light upon them. But they did not rest on this; they went out of the city and saw and heard for themselves, and so many believed and were saved. But this is what many fail to do in revival times. The Lord has visited His people, has refreshed and saved them; and others speak freely of the good they have received, sing gladly their new songs, and are for the time stirred and affected. But it is only moonlight; they have never come to Him who changes not; and so when the warmth and stir of the revival passes they fall back, and perhaps become worse than before. Not a few are still in the moonlight, and are satisfied with it. You hear about Christ, perhaps can talk about Him, but this is not salvation (H. E. 1. 3148). II. THE LIGHT OF THE SUN. This comes immediately from the sun, and hence its excellence. It is a clear, bright light, and so things afar off and near at hand are distinctly seen. It is a warm light; there is heat in it; it thaws and chases away the winter; it makes spring and summer; it causes all things to grow and vegetate. It is an awakening light; it makes day, and men arise and go to their work, and wild creatures and evil-doers retire. It is a constant light. The sun never waxes or wanes; he is ever the same. True, there are wintry days, dark, dreary days, but still the sun is there, shining through the clouds, and shining them away, and soon breaking forth again in his glory. Is this the character of your religious knowledge? [Work out the details of the comparison.] III. DEGREES OF LIGHT. “The light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.” Here there is only a change of degree. There is no new luminary; it is still the sun, but it is far more intense and continuous. We can conceive what would be the effect of this in the natural world. Things now invisible from their minuteness or indistinctly seen from their distance would then be clearly revealed, and fruits and flowers which cannot at present be reared in our climate would then be common and indigenous among us. There can be a sevenfold Divine light and Divine warmth. Christ has it to give. He will one day give it to all His people, and the weak shall be as David, and David as the angel of the Lord. Even now He grants it to those who seek Him with the whole heart. The patriarchs, prophets, apostles had it. Nor are these peculiar, exceptional cases. I believe there is more of it than we are aware of, and probably there would be more if we did not straighten and hinder the Lord by our want of desire and expectation. IV. THE TIMES WHEN THIS IS . “In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” This evidently looks forward to the time when the long alienation between Israel and their God will be healed. But is He the God of the Jews only? Nay, of the Gentiles also. There are two opposite errors into which men fall on the reading of these promises. Some see only the Jew in them; others do not see the Jew in them at all. But there is room for both in those green pastures. Even now there are fulfilments of this promise in its truest, highest sense. Even now the light of the moon becomes as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun as that of seven days. It is so, for instance, often at conversion; it is a passing from darkness into marvellous light. It is often so when the backslider returns. Look at David in the 51st psalm, what light he has got! It is so often in times of sore affliction. Then the exceeding great and precious promises come out into view, as darkness shows us worlds of light we never saw by day (Psalms 94:12). It is so at death, when the soul leaves its cage and soars away into heavenly light and liberty. It will be so when the Lord comes on the resurrection morn. And once more, oh! the light there will be when the Lamb opens the books and makes every mystery plain! (H. E. I. 3127, 3128).—John Milne: Gatherings from a Ministry, pp. 114–122). THE EARTHLY SONG AND THE VOICEIsa_30:29-33. Ye shall have a song … and the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, &c.The fulfilment of this prophecy is recorded in Isaiah 37:36. The Assyrian power, hitherto unopposed in its march of conquest, sustained a severe check when it assailed Jerusalem. The great deliverance is here foretold. Inside the walls there would be song and gladness; outside, swift destruction. “The holy solemnity” was probably the Passover which Hezekiah and his people observed; and the “song” in that case would be the Paschal Hymn, comprising Psalms 113-118. There is a tradition that Sennacherib’s army was destroyed on the night of the passover; and thus while the people were recalling their great national deliverance, a further and somewhat similar divine interposition was about to be made in their behalf. Mark how grandly, as if in response to the songs and gladness of the passover night, the voice of Jehovah comes in. It is impossible not to see the connection between the two voices. Songs of praise and gladness have still an echo in heaven, and call forth a divine response to quell the church’s foes. Look, then, at the two voices, the human and the divine, in relation to each other. 1. A voice of confidence on man’s part responded to by a voice of power on God’s part. It showed no small faith in Hezekiah and his people to observe the passover in the circumstances. How could the little kingdom of Judah oppose the mighty conqueror? How could Jerusalem stand out against the assailants encamped in such numbers around its walls? God was their defence. To Him in this emergency they raised their songs of confidence. Nothing could more appropriately express their faith than the passover hymn. That night reminded them of the rescue from Egypt, and would inspire them with confidence in God. They were on the eve of another great deliverance, and their song was well fitted to prepare them for it, containing such passages as these, Psalms 115:1-11; Psalms 118:6-13. Nor was their confidence disappointed. Without any human help, God overthrew their besiegers, but it was the song of faith that called forth the powerful voice of God. When faith appeals to God, the appeal is heard on high (Exodus 14:13; Psalms 46:10). Two prisoners once prayed and sang praises to God at midnight. Their testimony for Christ had been silenced, but from the dark dungeon the song of confidence rose to heaven. “And the Lord caused His glorious voice to be heard,” an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, and God gave His two witnesses an opportunity of bringing the Gospel to bear upon hardened hearts. Do you wish to see the arm of the Lord revealed? then sing your song of faith. Does the Church in these days sit powerless, sad, and despairing through the gloomy night of unbelief and prevailing ungodliness? Let her know that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. In the darkest night of seeming failure she has her God-given song, and if only she can sing it in spite of all that is black and threatening in her prospects, “the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm” in rebuking scepticism and indifference, in softening hard hearts, and in making friends of foes. 2. A song of gladness and joy in God responded to by a voice of complacent affection. All the Jewish feasts were occasions of gladness, and the passover must have been so, when we consider the event it commemorated, the communion with God to which it invited, and the future salvation it foreshadowed. The paschal hymn resounds with notes of gladness, e.g., Psalms 118:14-15; Psalms 118:24. If our song of joy in God is hearty and sincere, we may expect a corresponding response. If we rejoice in God, He will rejoice over us (Zephaniah 3:17; Isaiah 31:4-5.) 3. A song of self-dedication answered by a voice of recognition. The song breathes the spirit of consecration to God’s service (Psalms 116:12-19). Do we thus consciously and spontaneously lay ourselves on the altar as living sacrifices? If we own God, God will own us. The destruction of Sennacherib’s hosts was a proof to all the world that God owned Israel as His peculiar people. You, too, will have the token of divine ownership. For your sake God will rebuke the devourer. In response to your song of dedication, “the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard,” giving success to your efforts and enterprises, blessing you and making you a blessing. 4. A song of security calling forth a voice of preservation. Within the walls the people marched in procession “to the mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel.” That rock of ages was their defence. They felt secure in God’s faithful keeping (Psalms 115:17-18; Psalms 118:16-18). Have you entered into this element of the paschal song? You shall hear God’s protecting voice, and see the acts of His preserving care. However strong the foes that muster against you, they shall not prevail, for all the divine resources are engaged for your support (Colossians 3:3). 5. A song of thanksgiving for past mercies answered by a voice that commanded new mercies. This element was very prominent in the Passover observances, and it enters largely into the Lord’s Supper, called on this account the Eucharist. How can we remember Christ without thankfulness and praise? When He took the bread and the cup He “gave thanks,” and He and His disciples sang the paschal hymn. What strains of high thanksgiving it contains! It begins with praise (Psalms 113:1-2). It recalls the Exodus (Psalms 114) It rises to a grateful recognition of God’s goodness (Psalms 116:7-8; Psalms 116:17). When such a song rises from human lips, God will give fresh occasions for thankfulness. Let the subject teach us the importance of sacred song. Prayer and preaching are divinely appointed means of grace and instruction, but we cannot dispense with song. God fights for His people, but it is with the accompaniment of tabrets and harps (Isaiah 30:32).—William Guthrie, M.A. TOPHET OF OLDIsa_30:33. For Tophet is ordained of old, &c.Some of us have often admired the expression, “Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men;” implying that the law of persuasion should be the law of the Christian pulpit. Some would alarm men, some would bitterly rail, and others thunder at them; as though the human heart could never be prevailed upon to capitulate, but must always be taken by storm. Paul shows us the more excellent way. When he proclaims “the terrors of the Lord,” it is “to persuade men;” to persuade them to escape the ruin and to accept the remedy. Observe, he does not hide them, for the truth must be told, sin must be condemned, the wicked must be warned. I. Let us examine the local allusion and literal meaning of this verse. “This allusion to Tophet is the earliest which appears in the Scriptures. Additional particulars appear in the history of Josiah’s reformation (2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31). The prophet Isaiah here represents Tophet as a place prepared for the burning of the Assyrian king. Made deep and large, with fire and wood in abundance, prepared for the king, and he being thrown into it, the breath of the Lord kindles it into fearful conflagration. This is, of course, a figurative description, Tophet being made the central point in the figure because it was a well-known place, a valley just outside the city, the valley of Hinnom, used for burning all the offal and filth of the city of Jerusalem.” Isaiah was commissioned to utter this prophecy of the overthrow and consuming of the Assyrian army, in order to inspirit Hezekiah and the people against the threatened invasion. “Tophet is ordained of old” as that fiery place which would consume the dead bodies of these unjust invaders. Hence the Chaldee paraphrase says, “It was called the valley of the carcases and of the ashes or of the dead bodies for this reason, because the dead bodies of the camp of the Assyrians fell there;” to which Josephus gives testimony when he relates that the place was called the Assyrian camp. What force these recollections would give to our Lord’s threatenings of hell to the Jews who saw the smoke of this valley always rising before their eyes (compare Isaiah 66:24 with Mark 9:43-48). II. Note some of those solemn and awakening truths suggested by this verse. 1. The same record which provides for the security of the Church, provides for the final overthrow of its enemies. This was the time of Jacob’s extremity; he was saved, and his enemies consumed. 2. In the enjoyment of our highest privileges, we are surrounded by the most solemn terrors. Tophet lay not only near, but at the very foot of Mount Zion. From the heights of Zion might be seen the smoke, the fire, and the worm in the valley of Tophet! A dreadful thought this! Hell is set full in our view when worshipping in Zion (1 Peter 4:17-18). Bunyan says, “So I saw a man may go by profession to heaven’s gate and yet be cast away.” Our Lord (Luke 13:25). 3. While no combination of power can shield the wicked, the believer has always a source of safety and a song of joy.—Samuel Thodey. THE ONLY Isa_31:1-3. Woe to the rebellious children, &c.These words were spoken by the prophet at a time when the Jewish nation was in great and imminent danger. They were addrest to the rulers of the nation, who were endeavouring to ward off the danger: and their purpose is to rebuke those rulers for the measures they were taking with that view, by entering into alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in the hope that he would deliver them out of it. But we should make a great mistake if we imagine that there is nothing in them that concerns our duty as individuals. God’s reproofs of nations are such as we may all take home to our hearts, ponder, and learn from; for they contain principles of righteousness which, like the sun which shines at once upon half the world and ourselves, are intended for the guidance both of nations and of individuals. Of this truth a striking example is afforded by our text. Its object is to rebuke the Jewish rulers for the line of policy which they were taking with the view of defending their country from her enemies. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was marching against Judah, with the intent of conquering it, and reducing the people to slavery, as Israel had already been conquered and enslaved a few years before by Shalmaneser. The danger was very great. What was King Hezekiah to do? How was Judah to stand against Assyria? If you were to ask any of the politicians who are wise in the wisdom of this world, they would all say, there could be no question about the matter; that the only way of saving Judah was to obtain the alliance and aid of some powerful nation, whose succour might render her more nearly a match for the armies of the invader. This is exactly what the rulers of Judah set about doing. They entered into an alliance with the king of Egypt, with the view of gaining assistance from him, which might enable them to cope with Sennacherib in the field. This is just what a statesman, who plumed himself on his wisdom in these days, would do. Yet it is for doing this very thing that the prophet Isaiah in the text reproves and denounces woe against them. Their conduct, therefore, must have been sinful. Let us try to discover in what their sin lay. 1. They were making use of human means alone, to ward off the danger which threatened. It is not sinful to use such means; the sin lies in fancying they can help us without the blessing of God, and in not seeking that. This was what Isaiah denounced, and what we do. When any danger threatens us, we forthwith take counsel—of ourselves, or of our friends, forgetting that all our counsel in the first instance ought to be taken of God, by searching His law with the purpose of discerning what He wills us to do, and by praying Him to enlighten our understandings, that we may be enabled to discern His will. So too we are ever seeking to cover ourselves with a covering, to find some protection or other whereby we may be preserved from danger: only the covering we should cover ourselves with is the covering of the Spirit of God. We should make Him our shield and buckler; and then we need not fear what man can do unto us. Our unwillingness to take counsel of God can only proceed from an evil heart of unbelief [1156] and it is as unwise as it is undutiful. None but God’s counsel is infallible, and only His covering is sure. But we choose to have a covering of our own making, and send up mists and clouds to hide the covering of God’s Spirit from us, thus “adding sin to sin.” [1156] From that unbelief which loses sight of and forgets the Ruler and Lawgiver of the world, and which is prone to worship whatever dazzles the senses and flatters our carnal nature. What should we say if a child, in a time of doubt or danger, would not run to ask its parents what to do, but were to run away from its parents and ask a stranger, or were to ask its own ignorance, or its own whims, or the ignorance of its playfellows—yea, were to ask its toys? Surely such conduct would be-speak a loveless, undutiful heart, and a silliness such as could only be excused during the faint early dawn of the mind. So is it a proof of a loveless, undutiful heart not to seek counsel of God; nor is such conduct less unwise than undutiful. For what do we want in a counsellor except wisdom and foresight—wisdom to know the principles and laws of things, and foresight to discern their consequences? Now, neither of these faculties can we find in any earthly counsellor, except in a very low degree. For, not to speak of the numberless accidents which warp and bias our own judgments and those of our fellow-men, and lead them awry, even at best man’s understanding, unless so far as it is enlightened from above by a knowledge of heavenly laws, can only reckon up what is wont to be, without any insight into what must be; and his eyes are ever so hoodwinkt by the present that he cannot even look forward into to-morrow. Whereas everything that God ordains must be right and true, and must stand fast for ever, even after heaven and earth have past away. He knows what we ought to do, and He will bear us through in doing it. Yet we choose rather to be led by the blind than by the Seeing.… Herein the very heathens condemn us. For they, though they know not the true God, yet believed there were powers in the heavens far wiser and longer-sighted than man; and so believing, they acted accordingly. Rightfully distrusting themselves, they sought to ascertain the will and purpose of those powers by searching it out according to the means whereby they imagined it would be revealed.—J. C. Hare. 2. Observe, the princes of Judah were not merely taking counsel of man, instead of God, and covering with a covering which was not of the Spirit of God: but the arm they were trusting to was the arm of Egypt. Now Egypt had from the first been the deadly enemy of the Israelites, and of their God. Egypt was the source from which all manner of idolatrous abominations flowed in upon them: out of Egypt they had been called; and they were no longer. Therefore the prophet goes on to forbid their seeking help from Egypt, and to predict that the help of Egypt would end in their confusion. If we are guilty of their sin, we shall not escape their woe. When trials come upon men to-day, they are apt to listen to Satan’s assurance that in that particular emergency he can help them better than God can. They listen; they sin, and the one sin leads to other sins; and ere long they are ruined (H. E. I., 173–175). Still it is wo to those who take counsel of anything earthly! In times of difficulty it is of God alone that we must seek and take counsel. He alone can give us such counsel as will never fail us even in this life: and the wisdom of His counsel, which we now see only through a glass darkly, will become brighter than the sun at noon, when the veil of this world is drawn away from before it.—Julius Charles Hare, M.A.: Sermons Preacht in Herstmonceaux Church, pp. 305–323. THE OF THE DIVINE NATUREIsa_31:3. “The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit.” Among the sins to which the ancient Israelites were addicted, one of the most prevailing was a disposition, in seasons of invasion or calamity, to place confidence in the power of surrounding nations, and to seek the assistance of their sovereigns, instead of trusting in the living God. Egypt, being the largest monarchy in their immediate neighbourhood, was frequently their refuge in times of distress and difficulty. Remonstrance (Isaiah 31:1-2). In the text an important and infinite disparity between God and man, which rendered the Egyptian monarch infinitely inferior to Him in the qualities which entitle to confidence and trust. The spirituality of the Supreme Being is the contrast. I. The spirituality of the Deity is intimately connected with the possession of that infinite, unlimited power which renders Him the proper object of entire confidence. There is a prejudice in favour of matter and against spirit, as if the former were possessed of greater force than the latter. It arises from our mistaking secondary and remote effects for causes, instead of ascending to God the supreme cause. Thus we think of the elements of nature and of mechanical forces. We have no power of operating on the objects immediately around us, but by means of our bodies. But it is mind alone which is the seat of power. The power by which all changes are effected through the instrumentality of the body resides immediately in the mind. It is that mysterious principle called Will. Whatever motions the mind wills instantly take place. This is an illustration of the control which the Deity exercises over the universe. The Divine Being has only to will the most important changes and they are instantly accomplished. It is impossible to give any account of innumerable changes continually taking place in the visible world, without tracing them up to mind. II. The spirituality of God stands in close and intimate connection with His Invisibility. 1 Timothy 6:15-16. Were He the object of sight, He must be limited. He cannot, therefore, be figured out by any art or skill of man (Acts 17:24-29; Deuteronomy 4:15; Exodus 20:4-5). Hence the great impiety of those who have attempted to paint and figure out the persons of the Trinity. The necessary effect of any attempt to represent the Deity to the human senses, by pictures or images, must be to degrade, to an incalculable degree, our conceptions of Him. Hence images of angels, the Virgin Mary, and saints of inferior character. III. The spirituality of God is inseparably connected with His Immensity and Omnipresence (Jeremiah 23:23-24; Psalms 139:7-12). 1. It is necessary that matter should have some figure. But figure is circumscribed within a certain outline. To conceive of the Divine Being as material would involve absurdity. 2. If matter were unlimited there would be no possibility of motion. 3. If the Divine Being were material, He would render impossible the co-existence of created beings. Two portions of matter cannot occupy the same space. But the infinite Spirit is present with every part of His creation. IV. The spirituality of God enables His infinite Wisdom. This seems a necessary property of that Being who is present to all His creatures at all times. His infinite acquaintance with His creatures is a necessary consequence of His presence. Every one is as much within His survey at one moment as at another. We judge of men’s character by their actions, He by their motives. And His judgment is always according to truth. V. The spirituality of God establishes an intimate relation between Him and all His intelligent creatures. Their dependence on Him is absolute; their subjection to Him constant and incessant; but in a special manner is He the Father of spirits. The body has a tendency to separate us from God, by the dissimilarity of its nature; the soul unites us to Him by those principles and faculties which are congenial to His own. To estrange ourselves from God is to be guilty of a most enormous kind of offence: it is forgetting our proper parent, the author of our existence. To love Him, to seek union with Him, is to return to our proper original. VI. The spirituality of God renders Him capable of being the satisfying Portion, the Supreme Good, of all intelligent beings. He is the source and spring of all happiness (Lamentations 3:24-25; Psalms 73:25-26). 1. That which constitutes the felicity of the mind must be something out of it. Whoever retires into his own mind for happiness will be miserable. God is qualified to be the everlasting and inexhaustible spring of happiness. 2. He who can always confer happiness on another being must be superior to that being. To be the source of happiness is the prerogative of God. 3. That in which the happiness of a rational and mental creature consists, must be congenial to the nature of that creature. 4. That which forms the principle of our felicity must be something that is capable of communicating itself to us. God, as He is a Spirit, is capable of communicating Himself to the spirits of His rational creatures. These communications will constitute the felicity of heaven. Even while they continue on earth, it is the privilege of the faithful to enjoy union with the Father of spirits through His Son. . 1. Let us raise ourselves, in contemplating the Divine Being, above what is sensible, visible, and corporeal. 2. Since God is a Spirit, there must be an everlasting connection established between Him and us, on which will depend our destiny for ever. Hence Jesus Christ has come. What movements are in your minds towards this great object?—Robert Hall: Works, vol. vi., pages 1–32. A CALL TO THE Isa_31:6. Turn ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. Had mankind adhered to the divine idea, no such word as this would have been necessary. Divine communications would have consisted probably of counsels, directions, predictions, progressive revelations of truth. The demand that man turn shows that he has gone astray. All divine communications suppose the existence of sin and the need of salvation. Happily for us, they show the way in which salvation may be obtained. The parts of the human race are as the whole. The people God distinguished by separating them from the nations, with special connection to Himself, followed the universal tendency to wander from Him. They forsook His law. When trouble came, they sought help anywhere. At the time of this prophecy they were looking to Egypt instead of to the Lord. The prophet remonstrates, and invites them to make a friend of God against Assyria. The text may be addressed to sinners now. Here is— I. A SERIOUS . God was the King of Israel. Departure from His laws was a national revolt. Man’s revolt from God consists in— 1. Disaffection. When love to the sovereign departs, the way is prepared for any act of hostility circumstances may favour. The disaffection of man to God is inbred. From the original fall man derives a mysterious tendency to depart from God (H.E.I., 3390–3397). Human nature dislikes the divine holiness; dislike of the divine holiness is the root from which grow men’s evil deeds. So deep is the revolt that man has no desire to return. 2. Disobedience. You may say it is natural to sin, and we cannot be held responsible for it. Do you judge of, and deal with your fellow-men in that way as to their conduct to you? If they injure, defraud you, do you say they have a natural inclination to fraud and wrongdoing, and therefore are not responsible? When a son who has been carefully trained develops tendencies and inclinations to evil, attaches himself to bad companions, &c., do you exonerate him from blame because it is his nature? You say he ought to have resisted the evil inclinations and cultivated such as were good. You are right. But why should there be a difference when the object of the wrongdoing is God? The dislike of God’s holiness inherent in human nature develops itself in the indulgence of sinful passions and disobedience to God’s commands. Does the fact that it was your nature free you from responsibility? Are you not possessed of reason and conscience? Do not these constitute responsibility? Is not the fact that you decline the help God offers for the subjugation of evil sufficient to throw on you the entire blame of your continued revolt? 3. Distrust. A large part of the revolt of ancient Israel from God consisted in distrust. When man withdraws his love from God and abandons himself to disobedience, he is sure to lose faith. You will soon cease to trust the friend whom you persistently wrong and disregard. Is not this the explanation of much of the unbelief among men? They are unhappy in their severance from God, yet unwilling to return. Then they expunge from their beliefs His declarations concerning sin and its punishment. Truth after truth disappears. Then Himself disappears. They persuade themselves that there is no need of Him, then that He does not exist. The wish is father to the thought. Because the heart and life have revolted from Him, the intellect labours to sweep Him out of the world which He has made. II. AN EARNEST CALL. “Turn ye unto Him.” From the folly of the intellect; from the perversity of the heart; from the disobedience of the life in which your revolt has manifested itself. God is. He is a living person, with all the feelings of one, as well as a supreme ruler clothed with governmental authority. He is worth turning to. 2. In the gospel, He invites you to repent, to turn. It is a complete change of your heart and life. You can examine and reflect upon the truth. You can consider the righteousness of His claim. You can consider the motive that is furnished by His offer of a free pardon and a full salvation procured for you by the death of His Song of Solomon 3. Do you feel yourself weak? He will help you to turn. 4. Turn from the wrong path to the right one. (1.) Turn to the trust which He encourages. Bring your sin and need to Jesus. (2.) Turn to the obedience He demands. There must be a complete surrender. All sin must be relinquished, even the dearest. Choose the way of holiness. (3.) Turn to the love He deserves. It comes indeed into the heart with submission and faith. 5. Think of the danger of continued revolt; of the wrongfulness of revolt; of the blessedness of return.—J. Rawlinson. THE FIERY ORDEAL OF THE CHURCHIsa_31:9. The Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. There is a variety of purposes for which fire is used. One of them was of old for the sacrifice, the burnt-offering; another was for incense, to keep it always smoking. Furnaces were used by the workers in metals. I. THE FIRE. “Whose fire is in Zion.” Without the sacred fire there would have been no burnt-offering, no clouds of incense; and therefore God commanded that it should be kept ever burning. In this sense, the fire is the emblem of life divine, the Holy Spirit’s work. May it be for ever burning! Where it burns strongly, what clouds of incense of praise and prayer ascend to heaven! II. THE FURNACE. “Whose furnace is in Jerusalem.” It is there for the purpose of accomplishing God’s designs with regard to His people. A furnace is nothing without fuel, and the fuel may be of various kinds. God heats His furnace with different kinds of fuel—sometimes with bodily afflictions, sometimes with losses of various kinds, sometimes with bereavements, sometimes with persecutions, sometimes with all these combined. Oh, the vast importance of viewing every trial of a temporal kind as sent on purpose to constitute a little fuel for God’s furnace! God is doing three things with His furnace. He is melting, He is manifesting, He is making useful. 1. He is melting. We are so hard and stubborn, so full of dross, that nothing less than the fire will serve (Isaiah 1:25). 2. He is manifesting. The fire tests both us [1159] and our work (1 Corinthians 3:13). In this way God manifests the difference between His people and the false professor, and shows who are His own (Zechariah 13:9). 3. He is making useful. Take a lesson from the very vessels you use at table every day; they would have been of no use at all, had they not passed through the fire. [1159] Upon one occasion, like the prophet Jeremiah, I visited the potter’s house. I admired his ingenuity and the beauty of his work on the wheels. But after a little while, I found there was really no reliance to be put on the results of his labour and ingenuity. When put into the furnace, some of the vessels were marred and rendered good for nothing; they cracked and went to pieces. Did not the potter shape them aright? Did he not make them of the same clay? Did he not take the same pains with them? Then what was the defect? They would not stand fire.—Irons. Conclusion. The trials of God’s people tend (1) to exercise and develop their spiritual excellence; (2.) To demonstrate the Divine love and faithfulness; (3.) To prepare them for the enjoyment of Himself at last [1162]Joseph Irons: Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. 7:109–120. [1162] H. E. I., 116–142. THE OF CHRISTIsa_32:2. “A man shall be as an hiding-place,” &c.These figures all coincide in setting forth one great and blessed truth—the truth that in Christ there is suitable and complete relief under every circumstance of distress: in distress arising— 1. from temporal sufferings; 2. from conviction of sin; 3. from strong temptation; 4. from the near approach of death.—John Watt, B.D.: Sermons, pp. 92–108. Jesus Christ—I. The refuge from all dangers; II. The fruition of all desires; III. The rest and refreshment in all trials.—A. Maclaren, B.A.: Sermons, Third Series, p. 135. This prediction, uttered in the days of Ahaz, had a primary reference to Hezekiah, and to the relief from wicked magistrates which would be experienced in his reign. But its ultimate reference was to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are three separate figures, very striking to an Eastern ear, which admit of distinct illustration:— I. “A hiding—place from the wind and a covert from the tempest.” [1165] This is but one figure, for the latter clause, as is common in Eastern poetry, is only the echo of the former. Jesus is found to be the best hiding-place and covert:— 1. From the winds and tempests of affliction. 2. From the tempest of an agitated conscience. 3. He is the only hiding-place from the tempest of divine wrath. [1165] We arose with the sun, and went out to saddle our dromedaries, when we found to our great surprise that their heads were buried in the sand; and it was not possible for us to draw them out. We called the Bedouins of the tribe to our aid, who informed us that the instinct of the camels led them to conceal their heads thus, in order to escape the simoom; that their doing so was an infallible presage of that terrible tempest of the desert, which would not be long in breaking loose; and that we could not proceed on the journey without meeting a certain death. The camels, who perceive the approach of this fearful storm two or three hours before it bursts, turn themselves to the side opposed to the wind, and dig into the sand. It is impossible to make them stir from that position either to eat or drink during the whole tempest, were it to last for several days. Providence has endowed them with this instinct of preservation, which never deceives them. When we learned with what we were threatened, we partook the general consternation, and hastened to take all the precautions which they pointed out to us. It is not sufficient to put the horses under shelter; it is requisite also to cover their heads and stop up their ears, otherwise they will be suffocated by the whirlwinds of fine impalpable sand, which the storm sweeps furiously before it. The men collect under their tents, block up the crevices with the greatest care, and provide a supply of water, which they keep within reach; they then lie down on the ground, their heads covered with the mashlas, and thus remain all the time that the tornado continues. The camp was thrown into the greatest hustle, each bent on providing safety for his cattle, and afterwards withdrawing precipitately under his tent. We had scarcely got our beautiful Negde mares under cover ere the tempest burst. Impetuous blasts of wind hurled clouds of red and burning sand in eddies, and overthrew all upon whom their fury fell; or, heaping up hills, they buried all that had strength to resist being carried away. If, at this period, any part of the body be exposed, the flesh is scorched as if a hot iron had touched it. The water, which was intended to cool us, began to boil, and the temperature of the tent exceeded that of a Turkish bath. The hurricane blew in all its fury for six hours, and gradually subsided during six more; an hour longer, and I believe we had all been stifled. When we ventured to leave the tents, a frightful spectacle presented itself; five children, two women, and a man were lying dead on the still burning sand, and several Bedouins had their faces blackened and entirely calcined, as if by a blast from a fiery furnace. When the wind of the simoom strikes an unfortunate wretch on the head, the blood gushes in streams from his mouth and nostrils, his face swells, becomes black, and he shortly dies of suffocation.—Lamartine: Travels in the East, p. 213. “A hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest.” Soon Red Sea and all were lost in a sand-storm, which lasted the whole day. Imagine all distant objects entirely lost to view,—the sheets of sand fleeting along the surface of the desert like streams of water; the whole air filled, though invisibly, with a tempest of sand, driving in your face like sleet. Imagine the caravan toiling against. this—the Bedouins each with his shawl thrown completely over his head, half of the riders sitting backwards,—the camels, meantime, thus virtually left without guidance, though, from time to time, throwing their long necks sideways to avoid the blast, yet moving straight onwards with a painful sense of duty truly edifying to behold.… Through the tempest, this roaring and driving tempest, which sometimes made me think that this must be the real meaning of ‘a howling wilderness,’ we rode on the whole day.—Dean Stanley: Sinai and Palestine, pp. 68, 69.II. “As rivers of water in a dry place,”—that is, Jesus conveys satisfaction and refreshment to those who can find them nowhere else. He alone satisfies the heart’s thirst— 1. for happiness; 2. for consolation; 3. for reconciliation with God. III. “As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” [1168] Such a retreat does our Redeemer afford to those who are fainting under the labours and discouragements of this wearisome life (Isaiah 1-4, Jeremiah 31:25). 1. Let us thank God for such a Saviour—the very Saviour we need. 2. Let us abide in Him—we always need Him.—E. Griffin, D.D.: Fifty-nine Plain Practical Sermons, pp. 261–270. [1168] I was reading, a day or two ago, one of our last books of travels in the wilderness of the Exodus, in which the writer told how, after toiling for hours under a scorching sun, over the hot white marly flat, seeing nothing but a beetle or two on the way, and finding no shelter anywhere from the pitiless beating of the sunshine, the three travellers came at last to a little Retem bush only a few feet high, and flung themselves down and tried to hide at least their heads from those ‘sunbeams like swords,’ even beneath its ragged shade. And my text tells of a great rock, with blue dimness in its shadow, with haply a fern or or two in the moist places of its crevices, where there is rest and a man can lie down and be cool, while all outside is burning sun, and burning sand, and dancing mirage.—A. Madaren. I. There underlies this prophecy a very sad, a very true conception of human life. The three promises imply three diverse aspects of man’s need and misery. The “covert” and the “hiding-place” imply tempest and storm and danger; the “rivers of water” imply drought and thirst; “the shadow of a great rock” implies lassitude and languor, fatigue and weariness. Sad this is, but how true! Do we not need a “covert” from the tempests of adverse circumstances, of temptations, of God’s anger kindled by our sins! II. There shines through these words a mysterious hope—the hope that one of ourselves shall deliver us from all this evil in life. “A man,” &c. Such an expectation seems to be right in the teeth of all experience, and far too high pitched even to be fulfilled. It appears to demand in him who should bring it to pass powers which are more than human, and which must in some inexplicable way be wide as the range of humanity and enduring as the succession of the ages. All experience seems to teach that no human arm or heart can be to another soul what these words promise, and what we need. III. This mysterious hope is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That which seemed impossible is real. The forebodings of experience have not fathomed the powers of Divine Love. There is a man, our brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, who can be to all human souls the adequate object of their perfect trust, the abiding home of their deepest love, the unfailing supply for their profoundest wants. Behind His protection they are safe, by His grace they are satisfied, beneath His shelter they have rest.—A. Maclaren, B.A.: Sermons, Third Series, pp. 136–147. I. We have here AN OF [1171] 1. It was an instrument of consolation to those who first heard it. The prophecy in which it occurs was given in the time of Ahaz, when justice was perverted, and the government, which should have been for the protection of the people, was organised for their oppression. Terrible are the sufferings of men at such a time, and precious was the hope which this prophecy held out of “a man”—a ruler—who should be a defence and blessing to the poor of the nation. 2. It was an instrument of consolation to devout men in all the centuries which intervened between its utterance and the coming of Christ. In due time Hezekiah ascended the throne, and in him this prophecy had a partial fulfilment. But he passed away, and Israel needed such “a man” as much as ever. Devout men learned to look for him in the Messiah for whom they and their fathers had waited. In the midst of national and personal humiliation and sufferings, they were sustained and cheered by the hope of His advent. 3. In due time He appeared. Whether in Him this prophecy was completely or only partially fulfilled, let any reader of the Gospels testify. And since the days when Christ went about Judæa, solacing human woes, and ministering to human necessities, this declaration has been still more full of consolation to generation after generation down to our own day. It has taught men to whom to flee in their distresses, and fleeing to Him they have found that it was with no vain hope that it had cheered them. When you think what it has been to men ever since it was uttered, can you help looking upon it with love? [1171] When I was at Nuremberg, among the scenes of interest, I visited the tower where are preserved some of the instruments of torture which were used both by the Inquisition and the Municipality in the Middle Ages. As one looked at them, the heart grew sick at the thought of the pain which by means of them had been inflicted upon countless victims; and as instruments by which human beings had been tortured, they were hateful. On the other hand, when one thinks what this verse has been to countless human souls, what consolation and courage it has ministered to those who were sick at heart in many generations, it is impossible not to look upon it with love. II. OF THIS OF ALL MEN HAVE NEED. There are some portions of Scripture which have only a limited interest, because they are for special classes (e.g., kings, subjects, parents, children, &c.;) but this is a portion for every one. The needs of which it speaks will be felt by all men; and all men, at some time or other, will long for the blessings which it promises. Hence—1. It should be stored up in the memory of the young. [1174] 2. The aged should count it one of their chief treasures. [1177][1174] It is one of a large number of passages which I like to think of as Scripture lamps. Starting at mid-day from a railway terminus, you wonder to see that the lamps in the carriages are lighted; but very soon the train plunges into a tunnel, and you perceive that they were not lighted a moment too soon. So with these lamps of Scripture: get them hung up in your soul at the outset of your journey in life. Sooner than you think you will find yourself in some dark tunnel of trial. It will be too late then to think of furnishing yourself with them. Blessed are those then in whom they are brightly shining! [1177] It is not to be expected that the young will fully appreciate it. They have not had the experience necessary to enable them to do so. At the outset of a voyage, passengers are apt to think most about those things in a ship which are comparatively unimportant—the size of their berths, the elegant decorations of the cabin, &c.; but before it is ended, especially if the voyage is a stormy one, they come to think more about the staunchness of the vessel, the strength of the rigging, the seamanship of the captain, rather than of his fitness or unfitness for a drawing-room. So in dealing with the Bible: at the outset of life, we are apt to give our whole attention to things comparatively unimportant, such as the possibility of reconciling the first chapter of Genesis with the teaching of modern science, &c.; but, by and by, trouble teaches us to value the Scriptures as our only sure guide amidst life’s moral perplexities, as our only true comforter amidst life’s sorrows. It is trouble that teaches us that the promises are “precious promises;” and therefore I may fairly expect that the promise of our text will be prized by the aged. III. TO THE PRESENT AND VALUE OF THIS OF THERE ARE OF LIVING . The declarations of our text are very beautiful, but the important question is, Are they true? Is Christ to His people all that He is here said to be? 1. Our text says that Christ is a refuge for His people. “As a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.” Remember what kind of storms sometimes sweep across the Eastern deserts. [See outline: The Christian’s Refuge, section I.] As you have pursued the pilgrimage of human life, have any such storms burst upon you?—the storm of adversity? of persecution? of an awakened conscience? of temptations? The worst storms are those which rage within a man! In such storms where did you find shelter? what did you find Christ to be to you? 2. Our text says that Christ will satisfy the thirst of His people. Picture the scene at Rephidim. To the multitudes who had almost died of thirst, how welcome were the streams that burst from the smitten rock! All men thirst for happiness; the distressed for consolation, the penitent for reconciliation with God. In these respects, has Christ been to you “as rivers of water in a dry place?” 3. Our text says that Christ will give rest to His people. [1180][1180] One day—one of the most beautiful and happy days I have ever known—I and some friends visited the Valley of Rocks, at Lynton, in North Devon. We had selected for our dining-place the shaded side of one of the largest of the rocks which have made that valley famous. Just as we were finishing our repast, an aged gentleman approached us, and asked to be permitted to share our resting-place. “I should not have intruded upon you,” he said, “but I am very weary.” Instantly my text recurred to my memory, and I saw somewhat of its power and beauty: “As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” In such a land, on such a day, how welcome is the sight of a great rock! How sweet and refreshing to rest in its cooling shade! Amid the toils and troubles of life we often need rest and refreshment. Have you found them in Christ? Are the declarations of our text true? IV. Every truth is a call to duty. TO WHAT DUTIES DOES OUR TEXT CALL US? If we have had a personal experience of the truth of its declarations, it says— 1. PRAISE GOD. Would not a storm-driven traveller give thanks for “a covert,” the thirst-consumed for “rivers of water,” the faint and weary for “the shadow of a great rock?” Let us remember what Christ has been to us, and give “thanks unto God for His unspeakable gift!” 2. TAKE COURAGE, Usually as years increase troubles multiply: but what Christ has been to you in the past, He will be in the future—an all-sufficient Saviour! 3. To those who have not yet had a personal experience of the truth of its declarations, my text says, COME TO JESUS. Its promises are invitations. Is not a well of water in itself an invitation to a thirsty man? You need all that the text promises; and in the experience of millions of men living now, you have abundant evidence that its promises are worthy of your trust. Familiarise yourself with the “hiding-place” before the tempests of life burst upon you, that in the day of storm you may know whither to flee. Blessed are they who have made the Man of whom our text speaks their friend. According to His word (Matthew 28), He is with them “always,” “as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” THE ’S REFUGE(For Christmas Day.) Isaiah 32:2. A man shall be as an hiding place, &c.This is a very remarkable prophecy and promise, and at first sight most strikingly at variance with almost every other declaration of the Word of God, e.g., Isaiah 2:22; Psalms 146:3; Psalms 62:8-9; Jeremiah 17:5. “A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind!” A poor, weak, helpless mortal, unable to protect himself from the wind and tempest, shall he be our refuge? Shall God’s own Word command us to leave the living Fountain, and betake ourselves in our necessities to the broken cisterns of earth? Strange inconsistency, astonishing contradiction to every other portion of God’s word? But who is this Man? He of whom it is also written (Zechariah 13:7; Philippians 2:6); and who is thus spoken of by the Spirit of God Himself, when predicting the event of this day (Isaiah 9:6). It is the Lord Jesus Christ, then, who reveals Himself in the words before us under two striking similitudes; the first of which regards His people’s safety, and the second their consolations. I. As regards their safety: “hiding place from the wind, covert from the tempest.” Picture to yourself one of those scenes which Eastern travellers paint, when they describe the passage of a caravan across some dreary desert, where, throughout the long day’s journey, there is no house, no rock, no tree to afford a moment’s shade or shelter. The wind suddenly rises, the lightning glares, and in the distance are beheld gigantic columns of sand, raised and kept together in such vast masses by the whirlwind that drives them towards the poor bewildered travellers, who behold in them at once their destruction and their grave. In vain do they attempt to fly; as vain were all thoughts of resistance. Before the shortest prayer is finished, that multitude that was just now full of life and animation, is hushed in silence; every heart has ceased to beat; the simoom of the desert has passed over them, and the place they occupied is scarcely to be distinguished from the surrounding plain. This is no flight of the imagination, but a simple statement of a fact of not unfrequent occurrence. Now imagine in such a scene with what feelings these alarmed and flying travellers would greet “a hiding-place” and “a covert.” If a rock of adamant, a barrier which neither sand, nor wind, nor tempest could beat down or overleap, should suddenly spring up between them and those swiftly advancing columns of death, what would be their feelings of joy, their thoughts of gratitude, their language of praise! Who can imagine the heartfelt cry of thanksgiving to God which would arise from that vast multitude at so complete, so merciful, so unhoped-for a deliverance? With such feelings should we “behold the Man” of whom I speak to-day. We stood in as great a danger. Our sins had raised a tempest of the wrath of God, against which the whole created host of heaven would in vain have attempted to erect a barrier. But our Lord has wrought a deliverance for us as much needed, as unexpected, as complete. He has interposed between us and the mighty “wind,” the appalling “tempest,” which justly threatened our destruction. 1. Let us who have found shelter in Christ rejoice in Him, and be glad this day because of the quietness we enjoy. Let those who are still outside the great “Hiding-Place,” the wondrous “Covert” which God’s mercy has provided, remember that an unapplied Saviour is no Saviour. Their peril has been in no sense lessened by His advent. In the gladness of this day they can have no share. II. His people’s consolation. “As rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Before we had symbols of safety; here we have symbols of consolation. 1. God’s people often feel that this world is “a dry and barren place, and thirst for consolation and succour.” That which they thirst for, they may find in Christ. He is not merely a river, but (so abundant are His consolations) “rivers of water” to them that are fainting under the trials, anxieties, or distresses of the world. But it is not enough that the river is running at your feet; you must know it is there, you must drink of its waters, or they will not assuage their thirst. In Hagar sitting down in utter hopelessness and helplessness, when near her there was an abundant supply of water for herself and her child (Genesis 21:15-19), we have an emblem of too many distressed and sorrowful Christians. “Rivers of water” are flowing past you: arise, and drink! (Revelation 22:17). 2. God’s people are often faint and weary as they pursue their earthly pilgrimage. But during every stage of it they may “renew their strength,” and so be enabled to persevere until at length “they stand in Zion before God,” for Christ is “as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Don’t be satisfied with just coming within the range of the shadow of the Rock; there are in the Rock recesses where you may find a complete shelter and a sweeter rest. Enter into them. Cultivate a closer fellowship with Christ. So in every stage of your journey you shall have not only strength, but joy (Isaiah 35:10).—H. Blunt, A.M.: Posthumous Sermons, pp. 23–42. The “Man” here referred to is the Divine Redeemer—the one theme of the Bible. “Hiding-place” and “covert” express substantially the same idea—shelter, defence, safety, deliverance both from actual and impending evil. Jesus Christ in this broad and comprehensive sense is the Refuge of His people. Fleeing to Him, men find protection, &c. I. Christ is a refuge in the day of earthly disappointment. Human life full of disappointments. Few of our anticipations of good realised. Our fondest and most sacredly cherished hopes blighted. The world deceives men: it is not what it seems to be, it does not satisfy the desires it awakens. The god of this world is the master spirit of lying and deception, and he so manages the shifting scenes as to keep up the deception until the last. So with (a) the man of business, (b) those who aspire to earthly honour, fame, power, (c) the student, (d) the pleasure-seeker. To these children of disappointment, Christ is a refuge; He has Himself felt the ills of life (Hebrews 4:15-16). There is a “hiding-place” where the fury of life’s storms never comes; the God of mercy offers eternal life in the Gospel. Forsaken, disheartened, disappointed men may still be accepted of Christ, and find peace and rest in Him. II. Christ is a Refuge in time of affliction. This is a world of sorrow and suffering; men turn from it in disgust and anguish to seek relief elsewhere, or to weep life away in sadness and darkness. Now Christ alone is available in just such an hour. When the world turns its back upon us, there is a Friend who sticketh closer than a brother—one born for adversity—a shield and a deliverer in the day of affliction. We may not be able to explain the philosophy of the thing, but the soul that looks to Christ is so sustained as to rejoice in tribulation, and the heaviest burden is lightened and made a blessing. III. Christ is a Refuge in the day of trial It pleases the Lord to make full proof of His people. He puts their love, fidelity, and integrity to the test. God tries (a) our faith, (b) hope, (c) patience, (d) principles. And in His day of fiery trial our only safety is in the “hiding-place” of Divine mercy—we need the “covert” of the Almighty wings. None but Christ is able to give the soul confidence in such days and hours. IV. Christ is a Refuge in the day of fear. Sin is darkness, and hence wherever there is sin there is gloom and fear. The wicked man is a slave to fear, and even the Christian at times suffers greatly because of it. The remedy for this gloomy experience is in Christ; and there is a power in the Gospel to lift the soul into a region of perpetual sunshine. In Christian experience, peace, joy, and hope are the ministering angels (Habakkuk 3:17-18). V. Christ is a Refuge from the torments of an accusing conscience. The day of self-convicted guilt always a day of memorable experiences. Conscience upbraids, justice demands satisfaction; the soul is ready to sink into hell. Whose arm can save in such an hour? where shall he seek refuge? In that hour none but Christ can save. VI. Christ is a Refuge in the day of final wrath. The wrath to come—the just, final, and eternal wrath of God—a reality, a fixed fact in thought and experience. Jesus Christ is a refuge from this impending evil. The Cross lifted up on Calvary has received the thunder; God and the believer in Jesus Christ are reconciled. What, then, have they to fear whose life is hid in Christ? Death cannot harm, the judgment-day need not terrify. Glorious Refuge! it never fails—is never shut against the penitent soul—has never been shaken—and will yet resist the fire and deluge of the great day of wrath. This is the Ark, and they are eternally safe who are therein.—J. M. Sherwood: National Preacher, 1859, p. 217. RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACEIsa_32:2. As rivers of water in a dry place. The surface sense of this passage may refer to Hezekiah and to other good kings who were a means of great blessing to the declining kingdom of Judah; but its declarations are too full of meaning to be applied solely or primarily to any mere man. They are never fully understood until they are applied to Christ, the true King of righteousness, who confers the highest blessings upon His people. In Him there is a fulness and variety of blessing such as the varied metaphors of this passage fail to set forth. He is the true Man of whom Isaiah speaks; the man in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and who therefore can be, and is, “as rivers of water in a dry place.” I. THE . This implies, 1. Great excellence of blessing. How valuable is a river to the land through which it flows! So Christ is the source and the sustenance of the fertility, fruitfulness, and beauty of His people. 2. Abundance of blessing. Think of the vast floods that flow through the Amazon, the Ganges, the Indus, the Orinoco. So in Christ there is grace sufficient for all mankind. 3. Freshness of blessing [1183] 4. Freeness of blessing. Though individuals may claim peculiar rights in rivers, all creatures drink of them freely, the dog as well as the swan. So may all, however vile, partake of the grace that is in Christ. 5. Constancy of blessing. Pools and cisterns dry up, but the river goes on for ever. So it is with Jesus; the grace to pardon and the power to heal are not spasmodic powers in Him, they abide in Him unabated for evermore. [1183] In a river we see not only excellence and abundance, but freshness. A pool is the same thing over again, and gradually it becomes a stagnant pond, breeding corrupt life and pestilential gases. A river is always the same, yet never the same; it is ever in its place, yet always moving on. Filled to the brim with living water, even as in ages long gone by, and yet flowing fresh from the spring, it is an ancient novelty. We call our own beautiful river, “Father Thames,” yet he wears no furrows on his brows, but leaps in all the freshness of youth. You shall live by the banks of a river for years, and yet each morning its stream shall be as fresh as though its fountain had been unsealed but an hour ago when the birds began to awake the morning and the sun to sip the dews. Is it not so with our Lord Jesus Christ! Is He not evermore as bright and fresh as when first you met with Him?—Spurgeon. II. A SPECIAL which the text mentions. “Rivers of water in a dry place.” Only the residents in a tropical country can fully appreciate that phrase. But Christ came to such a place when He came to our race. So He does when with His salvation He visits the individual soul. Were it not for Him, the souls, even of His people, under the influence of wealth or of poverty, of the cares or of the pleasures of life, would be always dry. But He refreshes, sustains, and fertilises those who otherwise would utterly faint and fail. III. LESSONS. 1. See the goings out of God’s heart to man, and man’s way of communing with God. God’s heart is an infinite ocean of goodness, and it flows forth to us through Jesus Christ, not in streams and driblets, but in rivers of grace and mercy. These streams we cannot purchase or merit, we have only to receive them; when we drink of the stream, we partake of God. 2. See what a misery it is that men should be perishing and dying of soul thirst when there are these rivers so near. Some have never heard of them; therefore help to the utmost the Missionary Society. Others who have heard of them are smitten with a strange insanity that leads them to turn away from them. 3. Let us learn where, if we are suffering from spiritual drought and barrenness, the blame lies. It cannot lie in Christ. 4. If Christ is ready to be to us as rivers, drink of Him, all of you [1186] Live near Him. Live in Him [1189]C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1243. [1186] Is Christ a river? then drink of Him, all of you. To be carried along on the surface of Christianity, like a man in a boat, is not enough, you must drink or die. Many are influenced by the externals of religion, but Christ is not in them; they are on the water, but the water is not in them; and if they continue as they are they will be lost. A man may be in a boat on a river and yet die of thirst if he refuses to drink; and so you may be carried along and excited by a revival, but unless you receive the Lord Jesus into your soul by faith, you will perish after all.—Spurgeon. [1189] If Christ be like a river, let us be like the fishes, live in it. The fish is an ancient Christian emblem for Jesus and His people. I sat under a beech-tree some months ago in the New Forest; I gazed op into it, measured it, and marked the architecture of its branches, but suddenly I saw a little squirrel leap from bough to bough, and I thought, “After all, this beech-tree is far more to you than to me, for you live in it. It delights me, it instructs me, and it affords me shade, but you live in it and upon it.” So we know something about rivers, and they are very useful to us, but to the fish the river is its element, its life, its all. So, my brethren, let us not merely read about Christ, and think of Him, and speak of Him, but let us live on Him, and in Him, as the squirrel in the tree and the fish in the river. Live by Him, and live for Him: you will do both if you live in Him.—Spurgeon. [See also Outlines, RIVERS OF WATERS, Isaiah 30:25-26, and RIVERS, Isaiah 33:21.COMFORT IN CHRISTIsa_32:2. As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. This chapter begins with a prophecy of the Messiah, and of the happiness which the godly should enjoy under His reign (Isaiah 32:1). True as well as beautiful are its descriptions of Christ. I. To the children of God this world is often “a weary land.” 1. Because of the labours they have to undergo. This is a laborious world (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Employment is in itself a blessing; it was provided for man in Eden; but every day the sun sets upon millions who are faint and weary, who are overwrought, and for whom there will be no sufficient rest until they lie down in the grave. To God’s children it is a special cause of weariness that they are compelled to devote so much time in labouring for “the meat which perisheth,” and that they have so little time for meditation and for communion with God. 2. Because of the troubles to which they are exposed (Job 5:7). Troubles attend every stage and condition of life. They are national, domestic, personal. The pains and evils of life commonly increase as its length is protracted. And there, is nothing more wearisome than troubles. Many who can endure labour cannot endure trouble. This makes the heart stoop, and weakens the mind as well as the body. A troublesome world must be a wearisome world. 3. Because of the perplexities by which they are harassed. This is a dark world. What is past, what is present, as well as what is to come, lies involved in darkness. Life is full of mystery. Strange and unexpected events are continually happening, which disappoint the hopes and frustrate the designs of the wisest. Providence often baffles the interpretation and tries the faith even of the most devout. Wickedness is often triumphant, and virtue trampled under foot. Good men are often tired of living in a world which subjects them to continual anxiety and suspense. 4. Because of the sin by which they are surrounded. The moral atmosphere in which they live is uncongenial The practices and principles with which they are daily brought into contact fill them with disgust, with indignation, and with grief (2 Peter 2:7-8; Psalms 119:139; Psalms 119:156; Psalms 119:158; Acts 17:16; Ezekiel 9:4). II. Whensoever God’s children are weary of the world, they may find comfort in Christ. They may always find comfort. 1. In the compassion of Christ. He knows what it is to be faint and weary. He knows the heart of a pilgrim and stranger. And He has the tenderest compassion for His friends in distress or want. He is as pitiful to-day as He was when He tabernacled on earth. He feels all that His followers feel (Acts 9:2; Hebrews 4:14-16). 2. In the intercession of Christ. As He prayed for Peter (Luke 12:32) and for all His disciples before His crucifixion (John 17), so He still makes intercession for His followers according to their necessities. And His intercession is always prevalent (John 11:42). 3. In the strength of Christ. Weakness is the cause of weariness, and the weary may always find the strength they want in Christ (Philippians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). 4. In the government of Christ. He sits as King in Zion. He has absolute control over the darkness, tumults, and confusions of the world. He governs all things for the benefit of His Church. Nothing can hurt it (Zechariah 2:8; Isaiah 27:3; Psalms 2:1-5; Psalms 2:9). 5. In the promises of Christ. He has promised to give them peace even in this world (John 14:27; John 16:33; John 14:2-3). These are great and precious promises, because they are sure promises. .—Since the friends of Christ, when they are weary of the world, may always find comfort in Him— 1. They should not regard the things which make them weary of it as curses but as blessings. It is a good thing to have our hold of the world loosened. It is a good thing to be driven to Christ. All their trials and sufferings are suited to prepare them to enjoy more peace and rest in Christ, than they could otherwise enjoy. When a man finds a covert in a great storm, he finds more pleasure in it than he does on a fine fair day. So Christians enjoy more real satisfaction and happiness in adversity than in prosperity, because while prosperity leads them to the enjoyment of the world, adversity leads to the enjoyment of Christ. 2. They enjoy more happiness even in this life than sinners do. Sinners often seem happier than saints, but theirs is a loud and transient mirth, whereas God’s people have a deep and lasting joy. Autumn is oftener a pleasanter season than spring, but it deepens into the gloom and vigour of winter; whereas after the storms of March and the rain of April come the bright joyous days of summer. The life of the sinner is at best an autumn life, with autumn prospects, but the life of God’s children is a spring life. And even here and now they (and they only) are filled with that peace of God which passeth all understanding, affords joy in sorrow, and gives rest to the weary. 3. They ought never to be heard murmuring or complaining under any troubles or afflictions in which they may be involved. This world is full of murmuring; and when God’s people complain, it is highly offensive to God (Psalms 106:25-26). But why should they complain? (Hebrews 12:11). And they have a present refuge, even Christ, in whom they may find “strong consolation.” 4. They ought never to be found depressed with anxiety as to the future (Philippians 4:6-7).—Dr. Emmons: Works, vol. iii. 352–365. Isa_32:8. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand. This prophecy relates to the time when the kingdom of Judah would relinquish its foolish dependence on Egypt. The king would reign in righteousness. Men and things would be called by their true names. Selfish injustice to the poor would contrast with considerate helpfulness. When generosity begins to be exercised on a large scale, the standard is raised. The raising of the standard tends to the general enlargement of the scale of benevolence. Our subject is Christian liberality. I. THE BY WHICH IT IS . 1. Sympathy. It is the opposite of the disposition to act on the assumption that a man’s own interest and happiness is the main end of his existence. It is the disposition that looks out to others, imagines their case, feels for them, desires their happiness. Difference of race, nationality, church, opinion sinks to nothing in its presence. It asks, What is the need? Neither temporal nor spiritual need exhausts it. Spiritual need is the chief. It desires the salvation of all men. And when compassion for men’s souls is tenderest, compassion for their temporal sufferings is usually also tenderest. The heart is often larger than the purse; but the purse-strings will not be closed. Our hospitals and other institutions for the relief of suffering and distress owe their origin and support mainly to Christian sympathy. 2. Ingenuity. “Deviseth liberal things.” Many contribute to benevolent objects when solicited, but never originate anything in such a direction. There should be a thoughtful, holy solicitude to know what is needed, and how much of it we are able to do. Those act a useful part who discover for themselves and suggest to others suitable and feasible methods of usefulness. There should also be conscientious thoughtfulness as to the proportion to be established between what God gives to us and what we give to Him in return. As Jacob (Genesis 28:20-22). 3. Action. Liberality does not terminate in feeling and thought (James 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17-18). It does not devise methods of usefulness and leave them to be carried out by others. The good Samaritan did not look at the man who had been robbed and half-killed on the road and pass on (Luke 10:33; Luke 10:37). The woman who brought the alabaster box of ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus showed her love to Him more than if she had spoken a thousand endearing words. 4. Willingness. No selfish churl strikes out new plans of usefulness. Such as exists he unwillingly helps, if he helps them at all. According to the Christian idea, no amount of mere giving which does not come from the willing heart is accepted as liberality. The voluntary principle is alone recognised as the principle of liberality. And voluntaryism means willinghood (2 Corinthians 8:12). 5. Continuance. Not by one generous act, nor by such an act occasionally, can the title of liberality be won. Excitable persons impulsively promise, but reflection brings them to their true selves; and they either break the promise or fulfil it grudgingly. Some undertake Christian work; for a time do it; perhaps do it well; but after a time weary of its inconvenience, sacrifice, and slow results. Now the liberal man “stands by” his liberal things. The other reading is, “adheres” to them. Continuance in the race reaches the goal. II. THE SOIL IN WHICH IT IS . It is engendered and thrives in the soil of Christianity. For it is in accordance with— 1. Its Spirit. It is the spirit of love. The man who drinks most into the spirit of Christianity will be most likely to feel such benevolent interest in humanity as will take practical shapes. It tends to the overthrow of selfishness. It fosters the spirit of self-sacrifice. 2. Its Precepts. We are commanded to stretch forth the helping hand to those in need. We are to extend the kingdom of Christ. Gifts and offerings in some form are demanded by the two great dispensations; by the Gospel no less than by the Law. He who lives for himself, giving forth nothing, or giving with grudging hand, has yet to learn the first principles of Christian obedience. 3. Its Examples. The newly formed Church in Jerusalem. Contributions throughout the churches afterwards for impoverished Christians there. Above all the example of Christ. Donot suppose that liberality obtains no recognition. 1. It becomes a source of pleasure. Let any one put this to the test. And the pleasure is in proportion to the sacrifice it costs (Acts 20:35). 2. It is returned in blessing (Proverbs 3:9-10). We cannot explain how this comes about, because we cannot explain the way of God’s Providence. Everything is in His hands. Can bless or blast your affairs. It certainly brings spiritual blessing. Exercises, develops, improves faith, love, self-denial. The indwelling Spirit of God is manifested in larger measure. Conscience approves. 3. It will obtain the final recognition. It is all recorded. Nothing forgotten, however little. “Cup of cold water.” “Ye have done it unto me.” Let us strive for that commendation of Jesus, and for His commendation now, such as that He gave to the widow who gave her mites, and to the woman who did what she could.—J. Rawlinson. A CALL TO THE Isa_32:11. Be troubled, ye careless ones [1192][1192] See outlines on chap. Isaiah 1:3, p. 7–12. I. Who are the careless ones in our own day? 1. Those who neglect the Bible. Its main object is to arouse the attention of sinners. Claims and deserves attention. That man is indifferent to the welfare of his country who never examines the principles of its constitution, the character of its laws, &c. So he who neglects the Bible can never be regarded as a serious man. He is careless on the most momentous of all subjects. 2. Those who neglect prayer. All who have any proper feeling towards God must regard this as a solemn duty. Nature teaches its necessity and importance, the Scriptures enjoin it with great earnestness (Luke 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). 3. Those who neglect the Sabbath. This “made for man,” appointed for his convenience and spiritual good. An institution of unspeakable importance as regards eternity—in fact, no religion without it. 4. Those who neglect the institutions of the sanctuary. Those anxious to know “what they must do to be saved” always prize the preaching of the Gospel. On the other hand, as the interest in religion declines, so will be our indifference to the means of grace. See you one who makes his attendance on God’s house a matter of convenience, who avails himself of any trifling excuse to be absent, &c., there is a careless one. So also with those who are so absorbed in the pursuits of this life, so as to have neither leisure nor disposition to attend the place of prayer. 5. In a word, those are careless ones who live in impenitence and unbelief. Repentance and faith in Christ. The great interest of the soul cannot be secured without these, and no man can be said to take heed to the things that belong to his peace, without obeying Christ’s commands concerning them. II. Why such ought to be troubled. Those who are indifferent are disposed to remain so—carelessness perpetuates itself. Still there are reasons why such should be troubled. 1. The fact that you are careless is a ground of alarm. Carelessness, an evidence of our ignorance of the true condition of the soul in the sight of God. Something truly frightful in false security where the danger is real and great. With such this fancied security is the most alarming symptom. The sinner suffering from a disease which no human skill can remove—in danger of eternal death. How fearful then the indifference, how appalling the apathy of such! 2. This indifference indicates a state of mind in which every blessing will be abused, and every warning neglected. A habit of body that would render everything received for nourishment or for medicine useless would be dreadful; what, then, of that moral disease which perverts every gift and makes the diversified means which God employs accomplish nothing for our good? 3. You ought to be troubled when you reflect what it is you are careless about, viz., your salvation. The man who is indifferent about his health, or regardless of his temporal interest, is unwise; what, then, of one who hazards the salvation of his soul by neglect? Salvation is offered in Christ—indifference is unbelief. Why so eager after the acquisition of wealth, and indifferent about the true riches? 4. Another cause of alarm is the exposure of your present position. Neglect of the Gospel ensures destruction (Hebrews 2:3). This apathy a crime for which no amiableness or morality can atone. 5. No more powerful means will be employed to awaken you to the concerns of your soul. God disclaims any responsibility for your loss (Isaiah 5:4; Matthew 23:37). Ministers have preached, Christian friends have entreated, the Holy Spirit has been sent down, and still you are careless. The very heathen will rise up in judgment. If one rising from the dead would not make those hear who had Moses and the prophets, what shall awaken those who have Christ and the apostles? 6. This carelessness is induced, it is not natural. A long process of hardening the heart is gone through before such a state of apathy is reached. But once ours, it has all the force of habit, and is not easily broken up (Matthew 11:21). This indifference is voluntary (Acts 24:25). Felix might have taken a different course. No iron necessity binds men to the fatal course they take, but a perverse will and an unbelieving heart. 7. This carelessness is a state of mind that provokes God to withdraw His Spirit. Deeply criminal. No apathy in heaven, there ought to be none on earth. Must it not offend God, to say that He has failed to reveal Himself in a way to interest His creatures? And yet men can be interested in a novel while the Gospel is neglected. Under the old dispensation He said, “My people would not hearken to My voice, so I gave them up to their hearts’ lust.” What of those who then reject the ?Song of Solomon 8. This indifference will ultimately be broken up, and will aggravate condemnation a thousandfold. Though retribution sleep, it must come and will not tarry. The Jews were spared forty years after the Saviour had wept over their doomed city. So with the sinner; there comes a time when he can be indifferent no longer; the realities of judgment and eternity produce a conviction which will go on deepening for ever. How it will embitter the soul then to dwell upon this carelessness of the past. Recollection itself a source of misery. (Luke 16:25). What words can express the anguish of a soul thus reminded of lost opportunities, &c.? Throw off this lethargy. From this moment seek the Lord with your whole heart, and call upon Him while He is near. Why run the desperate hazard of having to do all this on a dying bed?—Mark Tucker, D.D.: National Preacher, vol. vii. p. 138. THE OF SUCCESSIsa_32:13-15. Upon the land of my people, &c. This chapter commences with a prophecy of the appearance and the kingdom of Christ. But instead of finishing the painting of that beautiful scene, with what might be anticipated as the effect of this appearance, Isaiah proceeds, in our text, to paint a scene of great desolation and barrenness. So, when our Saviour came, the effect of His appearance was by no means such as might have been expected; after gathering a few out of the Jewish nation, and thus planting the first Christian Church, He retired from the nation, on account of its impenitence and unbelief; and the land is still abandoned to desolation and barrenness. That barrenness, and the spiritual barrenness and blindness of that despised people, will continue until the arrival of the important event predicted in the last verse. Though the immediate bearing of these words is upon the state and prospects of the Jewish people, yet they may be considered as assigning the reason why the nations of the earth continue in so wretched a state, with respect to things spiritual and divine, as they now exhibit; and as directing our expectations, and regulating our confidence, respecting the final termination of this state of things. The momentous truth taught in this passage is, that the ultimate success of missions depends upon the communication of the Spirit. That the Spirit of God is afforded at present to the Church is evident from its existence; for, since the Church is entirely a spiritual structure, raised and preserved by that Divine Spirit, if it had been utterly withdrawn the Church would have been annihilated. But the especial time here announced has not yet arrived; the Spirit is not “poured from on high” in that plenitude and variety of gifts which may reasonably be expected. I. That the success of missions depends upon the outpouring of the Spirit of God, appears to be manifest, 1. from the Scriptures (text: chap. Isaiah 41:19-20; Zechariah 4:6; Zechariah 12:10; Joe 2:28-32, with Acts 2:16-18; Ezekiel 39:29.) 2. From the record concerning the Great Captain of our salvation, He did not enter upon His work until He was anointed by the Spirit of God (Luke 4:18-19). 3. From the experience of the apostles. Until the effusion of the Spirit from on high, on the day of Pentecost, they were not qualified for their work in the nations to which they were sent. 4. From the testimony of the apostles. All their successes they attributed to a Divine agency (Acts 11:21; Acts 14:27; Acts 16:14; 1 Corinthians 3:5-7, &c.) 5. From the testimony of those who have had the greatest success in preaching the Gospel in heathen as well as in Christian lands [1195] 6. From the records of their most eminent successes [1198] 7. From the nature of the work to be accomplished. Considering the state of man, it is impossible to suppose that anything less than a divine power can change the heart [1201][1195] Brainerd, Schwartz, and Eliot, and those who in every age have had the most success in turning men to righteousness, have been the first to declare that they were nothing. They, of all men, most ardently implored, and most entirely depended upon, the agency we are now contemplating; and their success appears to have been more in proportion to their earnest solicitude in seeking this blessing, than to any other cause.—Hall. [1198] Look at the history of those who have been the most successful missionaries to the heathen, and see whether you cannot trace certain results for which you cannot account on any other hypothesis than that most momentous one of a divine influence, at certain periods, accompanying their labours. In the history of Brainerd and Eliot, and others, you perceive that for a considerable time there seem to have been the same efforts employed, the same doctrines taught, the same earnest and zealous prayers, and the same watchfulness over their own hearts, and yet no saving effect produced on others: all still remained barren; no desirable movement of the heart was excited; and this continued for a long period. Such was the state of things when Brainerd first undertook, the mission to the Indians; but, after a considerable time, while he was propounding only the same doctrines, and using only the same means, the Spirit of God put forth its energy, and divine communication was imparted at one season “like a rushing, mighty wind,” at others “like the dew and the rain from heaven,” softening and thus opening the heart which had resisted the entrance of sacred truth, and causing the tear of genuine penitence to steal down the cheek. Nobody could doubt that there was some one greater than a missionary there;—that the Spirit of God had changed the barren soil to sacred ground, and bad wetted it, “like Gideon’s fleece, with the dews of heaven.” And so it is, my brethren, that every person who has had any long acquaintance with the Christian ministry, is aware that there are certain periods of barrenness and certain periods for bearing fruit. The same talents, whether great or small, may be brought into action; but there shall be some seasons in which efforts, in no way special, shall be crowned with extraordinary success.—Hall. [1201] Were it the design of God merely to build a foundation already laid, or to repair a dilapidated edifice, one might talk of the efficacy of human suasion; but when that which is to be done is to create a new principle, to pour new life into the soul, to give “a new heart,” to plant new seeds in a soil where all has been barrenness and desolation, to turn waters into new channels, to effect a total change of heart and character,—what can accomplish all this but an almighty power? Human suasion can operate only on principles which already exist. When Demosthenes, with his powerful eloquence, excited the Athenians to combat, he only called into action, by a skilful grouping of motives, and an appropriate exercise of his genius, principles already existing, but which had lain dormant. He created nothing new; he transformed them not into new creatures, but only roused and stimulated those principles which had animated the bosoms of nations in resisting tyranny in every age. But when the apostles went forth to preach faith in Christ, they proposed to make a change in the mind and heart of man to which there was no natural tendency; they required a creature “dead in trespasses and sins” to awake to Christ; they proposed to convert him into a devoted servant, a subject most loyal, affectionate, and ardent; and how was it possible that mere human art or force could accomplish such changes as these? The Gospel is the instrument of God, and wonderfully fitted by Him for His work; but even it is nothing more than an instrument; and when it is successful and baffles every human effort exerted against it, it is because it is wielded by an omnipotent arm.—Hall. H.E.I., 1400–1405, 3432–3442, 4106–4113. II. There are two reasons why we are in danger of forgetting our dependence on the Spirit of God. 1. We cannot arrange the time and manner in which the divine agency will be exerted; and we are called upon to exert ourselves in much the same way as though there were no such doctrine existing in our creed, and no such expectation existing in our minds. Consequently, even while strenuously attending to our duty, we are very apt to lose sight of that mysterious divine agency on which the success of all our efforts must depend, and to direct our attention exclusively to the apparatus we are setting in motion. 2. This is an invisible power, and is manifest to us only in its effects; whereas our own actions and plans are objects of distinct observation. It is one thing to believe that there is an agency of the Spirit, and quite another thing to have a deep and practical persuasion of it, and to regulate all our actions and expectations in dependence on it. III. Some practical results which should follow from our belief that the success of missions depends on the agency of the Divine Spirit. 1. In attempting the work of the evangelisation of the heathen, we ought to renounce all expectations of success founded on our own strength or resources. 2. In connection with every attempt for the conversion of the heathen, there should be earnest prayer. In every period of the world, a spirit of prayer for this great object has been the precursor of real success. 3. In the manner in which we prosecute this work, we should be exceedingly careful not to grieve the Spirit of God. There must be nothing in our conduct or temper opposed to the simplicity and purity of the Christian dispensation. Our mission must not be made the instrument of ostentation and gratification, or of amusing the public by a display of gaudy eloquence. All rivalry between different societies that has not for its end the knowledge and service of God, is offensive in His sight. Let us guard against the least disposition to depreciate or hide in silence the success of others; which shall lead us to look coolly on the most splendid acts of missionary labour, unless they emanate from ourselves, or bring honour to our party. 4. Our dependence for the men and the means wherewith to carry on this great work, must rest absolutely and exclusively on God. Whensoever He puts forth the influence of His Spirit, some of His servants will devote themselves to the work, and others of them will gladly contribute to it of their wealth (Isaiah 60:5-7). 5. The doctrine of the text teaches us to regulate our confidence with respect to the success of every particular mission, at the same time that it animates that confidence in regard to the final success of the success itself. 6. If success in any field of effort does not reward our toil, instead of charging God with any arbitrarily withholding of the help of His Spirit, let us examine the instruments wherewith we are endeavouring to effect so great and important a charge, and see if there be not in them something unworthy of the enterprise, and keeps back the needed blessing. 7. However success may seem to delay, let us acquiesce, without repining, in the dispensations of God; and let us point our views forward to a future period, that will certainly come, when the Spirit will be poured from on high, and when the Redeemer will take to Him His great power, and reign universally in the hearts of men.—Robert Hall: Works, vol. vi. pp. 158–180. As regards the final and universal triumphs of the Gospel, believers cannot entertain a doubt. Glorious things are spoken of Zion, &c. We are explicitly assured that the kingdoms of this world shall one day become the kingdoms of Christ. But what is to secure this? Our hope hangs upon one thing—the promise of the Spirit. Every past conquest has been the effect of union and communion with the Comforter; and our own ability for the enterprises of the future must be derived from the same source. The chapter begins with a cheering account of the approach of a brighter day following a season of gloom and depression, which is to be terminated finally and only by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high. So always. Large as are our resources, we were never more dependent on help from heaven than now. Without special Divine aid we can do nothing. I. The Spirit of God must be with us, or we shall not use the right means for converting the world. Our work is a vast one, but we are not left in uncertainty as to the way in which it is to be accomplished. The Gospel made for man. Sending the knowledge of Christ abroad through the nations is the appointed method of saving men. (a) More faith is needed in God’s instrumentality. The cause may seem unequal to the effect, but a Divine unseen agency accompanies it, and difficulties must pass away. (b) No part of our business to make experiments for the relief of human woe or guilt; or dig channels for our compassion other than those in which the Saviour’s flowed. Calvary our sole expedient, &c. (c) We need to keep to the means by which all this is accomplished without deviation or faltering. A downward tendency in the best of men, even when engaged in the holiest of work, which nothing but a constantly exerted influence from God can effectually counteract. Charters, subscriptions, pledges will not do it. (d) Must not lay our strength out on extraneous matter. Our true service only performed when relying on Divine aid. II. Unless the Holy Spirit be with us, we shall never prosecute our work with proper energy. An enterprise like ours cannot be expected to flourish unless it takes fast hold on the hearts and sympathies of its friends. It is a cause of too much import to be carried on lukewarmly. One of the main purposes of the Church, her own self-extension. How shall we get up to this state of feeling, this standard of action? Never! until we have more of the Spirit of God. Again, half our strength has to be expended in trying to keep our enterprise up to lines already reached. We seem at times to be merely stationary, and this side by side often with great secular prosperity. Why this falling off? And that as contrasting with the success of primitive believers? They seem to have carried with them a never-failing assurance, that where they planted and watered, God would give the increase. The Church can never come up to this standard until the Spirit is more copiously poured upon us from on high. We are shut up to this single resource. III. That the Spirit must be given us, or we shall never see our efforts crowned with success. Something in a simple dependence on Divine help which imparts to our labours a character so earnest and decided as betokens a favourable result. We work best ourselves when we feel that God is working in us and by us. Nothing so nerves the arm and strengthens the heart as confidence in Him. So Luther, Whitfield, Paul wrought. Nothing else will keep zeal alive in the Church. Hence arises (a) Our encouragement. Faith in the efficacy of the Gospel preached under the influence of the Holy Ghost is to be the mainspring of all our efforts. The Spirit is to take of the things of Christ and show them to men. We can only be straitened on that side. (b) Our duty. All converging to a single point—prayer.—David Magie, D.D.: National Preacher, vol. xxi. p. 221. Let it be supposed that the invader and the conqueror have been in our land. Cultivation has disappeared, impoverishment and neglect reign over its once fertile and well-cared-for fields. The city, formerly the centre of life and activity, depopulated and desolated. Its factories dilapidated, its exchange a ruin, its streets overgrown with grass. Such was the ruin the prophet saw about to befall his country. How long would it continue? Until God should pour His Spirit upon the people, so as to turn them from their iniquities. When the moral scene changed, the material scene would also. Prosperity would return. The city would again be populated; the country resume its beauty and fertility; the wilderness would be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. It is a picture of the world’s moral desolation without the Gospel; of the time when the power of the Gospel shall be displayed; and of the happy state of the world in that day of its power. Three topics are presented in the text; the necessity, the certainty, and the condition of the world’s salvation. I. ITS . It is a fallen world. Scepticism at present criticises the Christian representation of the moral state of human nature as too low, while its standard is too high. Whatever may be said of the latter part of the indictment, the former part must be denied. The alienation of the human heart from God; its aversion to His holiness; the depth of its pollution, as evinced in the crimes and vices which disfigure the face of society, and are too patent to be refined away. With all the restraining influences around us, we have enough at our hand to justify the representation that man is morally fallen and desolated. Add to this the idolatry, with its attendant cruelty and impurity, prevalent over so large a proportion of the human family. And to this the extreme and manifold wickedness of men in history. The Christian representation of the state of human nature is fully justified. There is universal sin. There is need of mercy, change, conversion. Not merely the adoption, by large masses of men, for various reasons, of new religious names and forms. It is a personal conversion. Men need the change one by one. II. ITS . We should despair of the world’s conversion if our vision were limited to its existing state. We should pronounce it as hopeless as the attempt to tear up the everlasting mountains from their roots, or to drive the ocean from its bed. But we are not thus limited. We are not at liberty thus to limit our vision. In the Word of God we find it declared that the redeeming dominion of Christ shall be co-extensive with the globe. Plain statements sometimes, gorgeous imagery at other times, utterly inexplicable except in this way. Including these in our vision, we have nothing to do with the difficulties, but only with the great duty of their destruction. Include in the vision the words of Christ. His declarations and commands before leaving the world contemplate the universal diffusion of His salvation. And we must include His work. The expenditure will bear some relation to the result. It cost the death of the incarnate Son of God. That the event is long delayed proves nothing when we remember how long the world had to wait for His coming. III. ITS . The moral desolation will continue until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high. The Gospel only saves as the Spirit makes it efficacious. The human heart and will are opposed to the entrance of the truth. Not only evidence but influence is required. It is essentially a spiritual work, and only the Holy Spirit is equal to it. It is a work in hearts opposed to God, and His power can alone produce the willingness which is the very essence of the saving change. Every time we pray for the conversion of sinners and for the coming of God’s kingdom, we practically acknowledge the necessity of the Spirit’s work. The universal necessity is the necessity of the individual case. The world’s conversion is pictured out in the conversion of every sinner. The power of the Spirit is the security for the fulfilment of the word (Joe 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21; Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 3:6-8; 1 Corinthians 2:4-5; 1 Corinthians 3:6-7). From the text, then, we may learn two or three lessons relative to the work of Christ’s Church in the world. 1. That all such work should be conducted in humble dependence on the Holy Spirit. Such dependence does not supersede labour, any more than the consciousness that the sun and the air and other mysterious influences of nature are necessary, supersedes the husbandman’s labour. 2. That it should be conducted in a spirit of prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Whatever God promises to His Church, it is warranted to ask in prayer. Prayer is the condition, on the Church’s part, on which the promise is suspended. In that wonderful passage of Ezekiel where the Spirit is promised in His cleansing and renewing power, the condition is expressly named (Ezekiel 36:37). While the hundred and twenty disciples were gathered together praying, the Holy Ghost fell upon them. How often does the great missionary apostle ask those who have been brought to Christ to pray for him in his continued work among those who have not. 3. That all Christian effort should be conducted, therefore, in expectation of the outpouring of the Spirit. Do we not dishonour Him when we fail to believe in the Spirit’s work as a living reality—when we do not expect prayerful work for Christ to be followed by proportionate success! “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high,” all is desolation; when the Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, all shall be beauty.—John Rawlinson. THE MORAL Isa_32:15. Until the Spirit be poured upon us, &c.This chapter contains three distinct and important topics: the great and inestimable blessings resulting from the reign of Christ; a denunciation of the divine judgments on an ungrateful and rebellious people, and especially on the supine and careless women of Judea; and an assurance of more auspicious days. I. The mind of man resembles a moral wilderness. This was not the case originally. In paradise all was moral attraction and glory. But, in consequence of man’s apostasy from God, his powers have been withered, and his divine beauty has been defaced. The mind of man is a moral wilderness— 1. As it is a seat of sterility and desolation. 2. As, till it is transformed, it is of little use, because its best powers are not consecrated to God. 3. As it is the soil where noxious and destructive plants exist and flourish. II. The means appointed for the cultivation of the mind of man are to be diligently employed, because, 1. These means are unfolded to us in the Gospel. 2. God requires us to employ them. 3. The divine sanction and encouragement have been given to those who have diligently used them (H. E. I., 3424–3465). III. The best and most powerful means will be unavailing without the agency and influences of the Spirit. IV. But with the influence of the Holy Spirit, a great moral transformation will be effected. 1. There will be a scene of cultivation; the wilderness will be converted into a fruitful field; enclosed, cleansed, irrigated, carefully tilled; presenting a beautiful appearance to the eye, and refreshed with the dews and rains of heaven. 2. There will be a scene of fertility; as a field, it will be rich in the variety and luxuriance of its produce; all the graces of the Holy Spirit will be fully and beautifully exemplified. 3. There will be a scene of grandeur. The fruitful field will be counted for a forest. A fine forest is a majestic and striking feature in a landscape. There is dignity, magnitude, elevation; all these moral characteristics are found in the mind on which the Spirit has been poured out. The saints will grow in grace, and increase with all the increase of God. V. Learn from this subject, 1. The importance of honouring the Spirit by reverence, worship, obedience, confidence. 2. The necessity of waiting for the Spirit. Though He tarry, yet we are perseveringly to wait. 3. The duty of praying for the Spirit, and of expressing unfeigned gratitude for every communication of His grace.—G. Clayton: The Pulpit, vol. xvii. p. 190. PEACE THE WORK OF Isa_32:17. The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. A large part of the book of Isaiah is taken up in setting forth the glories and the blessedness of Christ’s kingdom. Sometimes this is done by grand images drawn from all that is brightest in the outward world (Isaiah 30:26). Sometimes the great change to be wrought in mankind is spoken of under the figure of a like change in the beasts of the field (Isaiah 11:6-9). Again, in other places, as in the text and the adjoining verses, the description puts on more of a moral and spiritual character, and declares how God will be glorified in the hearts and lives of men (Isaiah 32:15-17). On reading these descriptions of a time when the world is to be full of peace and blessedness, we can hardly help wishing we were in such a world. But that time is not yet come. Many places may we find, where all seem to be bent on hurting and destroying one another. But the sun himself, with his all-piercing eye, though he beholds every dwelling of man, cannot see a single village which is the abode of peace and quietness and assurance for ever. Nor has he in all his journeys seen such a state of things. Did the prophet, then, see falsely? Was the vision which he saw a lying vision? Not so. If the “work,” the effect, is wanting, it is that the cause is wanting. Did righteousness prevail upon the earth, there peace would also prevail. Wherever we find anything like true righteousness, and according to the degree of the likeness, we also find peace. Whatsoever is done to promote righteousness will also promote peace. “The work of righteousness shall be peace.” The words have a sweet sound; but when we think of the whole meaning that lies wrapt up in them, they may well strike us with awe. For while they declare that righteousness shall produce peace, they at the same time imply that nothing but righteousness shall or can. How, then, can peace ever abide upon earth, or dwell in the heart of man? Another disturbing recollection is, that when it has pleased the all-righteous God to show forth His righteousness, as in the days of Noah, the work of that righteousness was not peace, but horror, and desolation, and destruction. Even when the ministers and executors of earthly righteousness pass through a land, they do not bring peace to the culprits whom they visit. How, then, can the perfect righteousness of God bring peace to the sinful race of man? There is but one way, a way purposed by God in the counsels of His unfathomable wisdom, the way whereby He vouchsafes to bestow His own righteousness upon man, to the end that He may make man partaker of His peace. Here some may object, that righteousness, with its sternness and terrors, does not seem to be, of all virtues and graces, the one best fitted to be the parent of peace. Rather, they may say, is peace the work of mercy: for that mercy alone can produce peace, at least in sinners; wherefore we are wont to pray God to grant us pardon and peace. This is true. Unless mercy be shown to sinners, they can never enjoy peace. Yet, unless mercy go along with righteousness, mercy cannot produce peace. If mercy allowed the sinners to abide in their sins, they would still be under the sentence which declares that there is no peace to the wicked [1204] Christ will never give peace alone. He will only give it along with righteousness,—first righteousness and then peace. Unless He had been the Lord our Righteousness, He could not have been the Prince of Peace. Therefore they who will not receive His righteousness, cannot receive His peace. To them He brings no peace, but a sword. [1204] We may see this in human things. When a parent does not uphold order and law in his family, there will be no peace in that family. When a government does not uphold order and law in a nation, there will be no peace in that nation. They are to be upheld mercifully indeed; but still they are to be upheld. Now in man both are imperfect, both his righteousness and his mercy; and therefore they are ever jarring. Sometimes he will lean to the one, sometimes to the other; and so neither produces the, work of peace. But in God both are at one: neither shall hinder, neither can give way to the other. Sooner shall the heavens split, like a breaking wave, into foam, and melt away, than the slightest shadow of anything that is not perfectly righteous shall pass over the righteousness of God. Accordingly it could only be when perfect mercy and perfect truth met together, that righteousness and mercy could kiss each other. And thus alone shall any ever enjoy perfect peace, when they have received the full forgiveness of their sins from the perfect mercy of God, and are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Even in heaven there can be no peace, except it be the work of righteousness.—Hare. But although the course of this world has never been answerable to the magnificent visions of ancient prophecy, still in some measure the prophecies have been fulfilled. To the godly, to all who believe in Christ and love Him, to all who desire to serve and obey Him, He has indeed brought peace; and even amid the endless tumults and troubles and jarrings of the world, they feel that He has done so. They feel that He has set them at peace with God, by making them partakers of that righteousness, of which peace is the work. Moreover, there is hardly one of our Lord’s commandments which does not tend, in proportion as we obey it, to fill our hearts with peace, which does not dry up one source or other of disquieting, harassing care [1207][1207] When He teaches us that the eye of God is ever watching over us, and the hand of God ever providing over us,—when He commands us to pray to God with confidence as to our heavenly Father, and to make all our wants and wishes known to Him,—hereby, if we give heed to His bidding, He at once hushes all those never-ending, still-beginning anxieties, which are the thorns and thistles planted by the curse in the human heart. When He teaches us to love our neighbours, and to forgive, nay, to love our enemies, He roots up all the causes which destroy peace and breed quarrels between man and man. Every passion that we subdue is so much gain to our peace; for every passion is a peacebreaker. Covetousness, ambition, lust, drunkenness, vanity, pride are peacebreakers. All these passions set us at variance with neighbours; all of them set us at variance with ourselves. Whereas, contentment, temperance, sobriety, chastity, modesty, meekness are peacemakers.—Hare. We may now perceive why there is so little peace in the world. It is because there is so little righteousness. The effect cannot exist without the cause. The one simple commandment, “Love thy neighbour as thyself,” were it followed through all the branching duties into which it spreads, would turn the earth into a garden of peace. “For the wicked,” God has said, “there is no peace.” But light is sown for the righteous, the light of joy and peace. The true disciple of Christ, he who has sought to be clothed in Christ’s righteousness, will always enjoy peace, even here on earth. He will enjoy it in every condition of life. In riches, in poverty, in health, in sickness, in every outward circumstance of life, in the hour of death, the godly, and they alone, enjoy peace: in the day of judgment they, and they alone, will enjoy peace. And the peace they will have enjoyed till then will only have been a poor faint foretaste of the peace into which they will then enter, of the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, and in the full enjoyment of which they will live thenceforward through eternity.—Julius Charles Hare, M.A.: Sermons Preacht in Herstmonceux Church, pp. 325–346. The Bible is the revelation of a gracious remedy for evil. Points out rightful claims of the divine government. Charges the human race with disregard of those claims. Man is guilty of unrighteousness. There is universal sin. It is in man’s nature. It constitutes a moral disqualification for return. God’s remedial plan comprehends the provision of pardoning mercy, and of regenerating mercy. The former is found in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which constitutes a righteous ground on which the penal consequences of sin may be remitted. The latter, in this no less wonderful work of the Holy Spirit by which the sinner’s disposition undergoes a change that makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus. Let it be supposed that this is the universal experience: instead of unrighteousness, the righteousness that springs from such contact with Christ by His Spirit universally prevails. It is a change of which we do not despair. We are taught to expect it. Thus the text will be universally fulfilled. I. . One of the most awful facts of human history is the extent to which war has marked its track. In the causes of all wars unrighteousness is found. But if the supposition we have made were a reality, wars would become impossible. Nations and their rulers would repress the desire to possess themselves of what is not their own. If different interests induced different opinions between them, wise and righteous arbitration would prevent their imbruing their hands in each other’s blood. There would be “quietness and security for ever” (Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 11:6-9). II. . 1. Would the scenes witnessed in our streets, and the revelations of police courts continue, if all men were characterised by the righteousness contemplated in our text? Because men are unrighteous, they encroach upon each other. The religion of Christ can be ill spared. Where its influence prevails, society is better, happier, more peaceful, more secure than elsewhere. 2. Think of the family. In the home all exhibit their true selves. Selfishness and injustice may render it a place of incessant strife. But our Christian homes, even where allowance has been made for infirmities and peculiarities, are usually pervaded by an atmosphere of peace and love. The influences that surround them produce mutual forbearance and studiousness of others, restrain the harder and develop the softer passions. Just in the measure in which the subduing influences of Christian character prevail will our homes be secure from strife and discomfort. 3. Think of the Church. There are divisions in the Church, it is said. But there is less alienation of heart than is commonly supposed. The common Christian’s sentiments override the separated denominations. So within the churches. Not many, in proportion to the whole, are divided. Animosity, as arising from difference of opinion, is restrained by Christian love. And if all were perfectly Christian, there would be none. III. . 1. There is peace with God. Because there is reconciliation in Christ. 2. There is peace within. The storms of distress and fear raised by the sense of sin are allayed by the cross. The discomfort of unsettled life—purposes is terminated by a decision with which the soul is satisfied. Its peace is enhanced by converse with heaven. It is abiding peace. The peace in all aspects continues as long as the righteousness. The holiness of heaven, and therefore its peaceful rest, will continue for ever. Have we this righteousness? Have we it in heart, in sympathy, in life? If not, we are on the side of unrighteousness. We are insecure. We need to be born again. O seek to possess and extend it.—J. Rawlinson. THE Isa_32:18. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation [1210][1210] See OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, Isaiah 33:20. No doubt “the peaceable habitation” is found in moral dispositions created within by Divine grace. Here is, 1st. The Chamber of Holiness. Oh, the sweet tranquillity of a holy life! 2. Here is the hallowed Chamber of Resignation to the Divine will. If the soul is, by Divine grace, able to be still in the midst of temptation, it will also be still in the midst of personal trial. 3. Here is Trust in God’s providence. This is the observatory, and like all observatories, it is high and clear. Other observatories boast that from them you may see the stars in the day-time; but from this, you may see the sun in the night-time.—E. Paxton Hood: Dark Sayings on a Harp, pp. 361–368. Isa_32:20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. Two explanations of this description of agricultural life. The first refers it to the practice of literally sowing on the waters. In some parts of the East, particularly in the sowing of rice, the time chosen is when the rivers overflow their banks. Cattle are turned into the wet land to tread it and prepare it for the seed, which is then cast upon the water. It subsides into the ground and yields a quick harvest. If this is the allusion, the corresponding passage will be Ecclesiastes 11:1. The other explanation refers it to the sowing of seed in soil that is well watered by its proximity to some river, and to such a state of security that the oxen and asses may be turned upon the land to feed at large, without fences to limit their excursions. Either way the general idea is the same. It is the close of the beautiful description of peaceful prosperity after the return from captivity. The land would be cultivated in security, the harvests gathered in peace; a splendid contrast to the desolation of a country which has been the seat of war. We apply the text to the privilege of labouring for the production of a moral harvest in human souls by the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is— I. AN ANALOGY BETWEEN THE AND THE . Our present subject is not our own spiritual culture, although that is of supreme importance and the primary qualification for the cultivation of other souls. We are always sowing seed, the fruit of which is in our character and destiny, in time and eternity (Galatians 6:7-8). The analogy between the moral and material husbandry is very obvious (1 Corinthians 3:6-9; 1 Corinthians 9:10-11; James 3:18; Matthew 13:3-32). This is the great work committed to the Church. We are to tell the story of God’s love; to make known the ruin; to proclaim the salvation; to persuade men. Now, this supposes several things:— 1. Opportunity. By the restoration of Israel to their own land, they would have the opportunity of which they had been long deprived. There have been times when endeavours to teach God’s word was prohibited. In some lands it is so still. There are persons who will not hear. There are classes and circles, higher and lower, which are inaccessible to you. None of us is responsible for sowing the seed when there is no opportunity. But in so far as opportunity exists, or can be made, it behoves all to avail themselves of it to the full extent of their power. Mothers have the opportunity with their children. Sunday-school teachers. Doors opening in heathen lands. 2. Capacity. To sow a field requires some knowledge of the kind of work. City men would make sorry work. So the spiritual sowing requires some capacity. Two mistakes may be made. There is the mistake of those who think any kind of work will do; and of those who estimate the requirements so highly and their own power so humbly that they never venture anything. The latter deterrent operates largely. It falls in with the love of ease. It is sometimes said that the extension of popular education demands a higher class of Sunday-school teachers, for instance, than sufficed some time ago. Many Christians think their own education inadequate. It is a mistake. If we cannot realise our ideal, let us do our best. Besides, experience does not show that boys and girls are ahead of teachers of average intelligence. And spiritual earnestness is a greater qualification than even intellectual endowment. Capacity for Christian work, like any other, perhaps more than any other, increases by exercise. 3. Interest. He who would succeed must be interested in his work. He who dislikes it or is indifferent to its results will not do it well Commonly what was undertaken merely as an occupation, or for advantage, becomes a pleasure. The various labours of the husbandman interest him. And this is essential to the spiritual sower. There must be a disposition for the work. It presents attractions only to such as are in sympathy with its great ends. There must be sincere belief of the truth, thorough conviction of its necessity to man, and a benevolent desire for the widest dissemination of its blessings. Working in this spirit, your interest in it will constantly deepen. By the prospect of harvest you will be animated. With the heart in the work and the love of Christ in the heart, the sowing time will be full of spiritual interest. 4. Diligence. “All waters.” This suggests earnestness, energy, promptitude. Throw all your energy into this work. The husbandman watches everything that bears on his husbandry. Business men spare no pains in working out their arrangements. We must be equally diligent. II. THE OF BEING ENGAGED IN THE . 1. In the work itself. It becomes a pleasure. Knowledge and experience of the truth increase by communication, as seed by being sown. Spiritual enjoyment is deepened. Christian character grows. Many can say the sowing days are the happiest. 2. In the consciousness of usefulness. It is not labour in vain. Assured that we shall reap if we faint not. Already there are signs. Evil is prevented. One and another are being trained to goodness. The future career of those among whom you sow will be influenced in the most valuable way. Some will have their passage to the grave helped. The future world will be brightened to them, as well as the present. 3. In the Master’s approbation. As the work goes on, the consciousness of this is a blessedness. And when this world is left behind, His “well done.” Address— 1. Those who are sowing, with words of encouragement. 2. Those who ought to be, with words of exhortation.—J. Rawlinson. THE USE OF Isa_32:20. Blessed are they that sow beside all waters, &c.I. We may use the language of the text as a warning against the neglect of the least opportunity of usefulness to others. The prophet pronounces a blessing upon those who are prepared to scatter seed, not only where there is a probable prospect of a rich harvest, but upon whatsoever soil God shall bring them in contact with. It is not only by the waters that are sweet and sparkling that the sowing is to be carried on, but beside the floods that seem likely to overwhelm. We are to maintain a lively sense of our obligation to do good unto all men as we have opportunity. Even those who are alive to the reality of the effect which one man’s life and conversation may have upon another, nay, who are desirous to be useful to their brethren in Christ, are under a great temptation to be ruled by predilections for or against particular persons, and to regard some as too proud, too insincere, too thoughtless to reward their labour. Or their affections are so absorbed in one or two individuals, united with them by blood or friendship, that they are rendered comparatively indifferent about the influence they may exert upon others. But whether we choose or no, our power for good or evil extends over all who come within our shadow, and we should neglect no opportunity to make it a power for good (H. E. I. 1857–65, 4596). II. We should not neglect any opportunity of securing benefit for ourselves. Every period of existence is to be spent unto God. Swift and resistless the waters of life glide on. But beside them all, the Christian sows his good seed. Equally in youth, middle age, and in advancing years, whatsoever his hand finds to do, he does it heartily, as unto the Lord; and in each he reaps a harvest according to his sowing in that which preceded it. Blessed through eternity will he be who sowed wisely and liberally beside all the waters of life.—J. R. Woodford, M.A.: Sermons preached in Bristol, pp. 228–243. It should be the ambition of us all to be useful. The difference between one man who lives a useful, and another who lives a useless life, is simply this—the one improves his opportunities for doing good and making others happy, while he ministers to his own well-being; and the other lives only for himself, and reaps the barren harvest of his selfishness. Life comes but once to each of us, and blessed are they who, bearing this ever in mind, are careful to “sow beside all waters.” I. Those who wish to be useful should never forget the many favourable opportunities for sowing seed on the clear and untroubled waters of childhood. II. Another opportunity for scattering precious seed is on the troubled waters of strife (Matthew 5:9). III. Another, on the stagnant and muddy waters of doubt and unbelief. It often happens that the Christian is obliged to listen to the vapid and senseless discourse of those who seek to bring the religion of the Son of God into contempt, and if he would be prepared for such occasions of seed-sowing, he ought to be a diligent student of the Word of God, and of such works as will give him a right understanding of it. IV. There will be times when words of comfort may be spoken to bewildered souls about to embark on “the narrow sea” which divides this world from the next.—John N. Norton: Golden Truths, pp. 73–81. Isa_33:1. Woe to thee that spoilest, &c.Dr. Geikie says: As a nation the Assyrians are branded as treacherous, untruthful, and lawless (Nahum 3:1; Jonah 3:8). No treaty could bind them; might was right; and when interest seemed to demand it, they “regarded no man” (Isaiah 33:8). Their pride was that of a race which looked on all others as their natural inferiors (Zephaniah 2:15; Ezekiel 31:10-11; Isaiah 10:7-14; Isaiah 37:24-28). [1213][1213] Some time before the return of the Assyrians, Hezekiah had sought to deprecate the wrath of Sennacherib, of which terrible rumours had reached him from Lachish. For this end he had sent ambassadors, in the hope that they might possibly convince the great king that no treachery was intended, and save the country from a second invasion, or possibly even obtain favourable terms for Lachish itself. The embassy had found him at the city, which was soon after taken by storm, and delivered to the tender mercies of the soldiery. A slab from his palace at Nineveh, now in the British Museum, shows him in state “receiving plunder of the town of Lachish.” He sits on a throne before his tent, two arrows in one hand and his bow in the other, while prisoners are being brought before him, an officer, attended by a guard, stating the facts respecting them. Two eunuchs stand with feather flaps to wave over him for coolness, and to keep away the flies. Two horses, ready for his use, are behind, soldiers with tall lances attending them. The front rank of prisoners before him kneel to implore mercy, and behind them is a long file of their unfortunate companions. Some whose fate has already been decided have been led a short way off and killed; others may be spared as slaves. A chariot with two horses stands near—perhaps that of Sennacherib—and numerous fruit-trees over the whole slab show the fruitfulness of the country. A strong force of horse and foot on the right of the picture guards the king.—Geikie. The text brings before us the doctrine of an overruling Providence. We see an overruling Providence at work— 1. In meting out punishment to the wicked (H. E. I. 4604, 4612). 2. In accomplishing a just retribution. The Assyrian is paid back by the Babylonian (Revelation 13:10); Jacob’s treachery is returned to him in his son’s deceit (1 Timothy 5:24; P. D. 2995). 3. In bringing good out of evil. Wicked men overreach themselves; the devil is outwitted. The short-sighted vengeance of man becomes an instrument of perfecting the higher nature of the people of God, whom they oppress; the fire of man’s wrath is transformed into the refining fire of Divine purification (Malachi 3:3).—J. Macrae Simcock. THE SAINT’S IN THE TIME OF TROUBLEIsa_33:2. O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee: be Thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. Like its predecessor, this prophecy belongs to the time of distress and fear incident on the threatened Assyrian invasion. Dependence on Egypt had failed. So had Hezekiah’s present to the invader. He had accepted the present, but had still pressed on. The south of Judah was covered with his soldiers. Isaiah lifts up this prayer for his country. An example to Christians to interest themselves in the politics of their country, and to include them in their prayers. We have never known the terrible presence of an invader; but there is always occasion for appeal to the divine Governor and Helper. It is no mark of spirituality of mind to exclude national affairs from thought, as belonging to a sphere that has nothing to do with God or with prayer. The prophet’s eye saw, in the immediate future, the frustration of the invader’s plans. The God of Israel would interpose. The invasion was unjust; the negotiations had been conducted deceitfully by the enemy; ruin would fall on his head (Isaiah 33:1). But the certainty of deliverance was no reason for the relaxation of effort, or for abstinence from prayer. God’s promise is the encouragement and directory of prayer. Therefore he cries, “O Lord, be gracious unto us,” &c. The prayer of the text is applicable to any time of trouble in the personal experience of any Christian. It is a time that may come to any one. It should enter into our calculations about the future, however exempt from it at present. It should be prepared for, as for old age, or death. We never know when it bangs over us, nor in what form. To all it comes occasionally; to some frequently; to some constantly; to some severely. Often from quarters whence least expected. Things and persons most precious to us are sometimes the occasion of bitterest grief. The common lot. We can only really prepare for it by the possession of resources which it cannot diminish. This is one of the points at which Christians have so largely the advantage over others. God is always with them, and always accessible. Our text represents the saint’s attitude in “the time of trouble.” He cries to God and waits on God. He cries as he waits, and waits as he cries. I. HE CRIES TO GOD. How precious to have a friend so interested in you that anything you say about your trouble will find an interested listener. It is a relief to speak to such a friend. Many of God’s people find this relief every day. Many a trouble can be told to none but Him who keeps every secret and sympathises with every distress (P. D. 462, 463). What do we need in the time of trouble? It is all in this prayer: GOD HIMSELF. Each petition resolves itself into something that God is, and is to us. 1. His Graciousness. The root of everything must be the divine disposition. He might be malevolent, unpitying, unmerciful. There might be a cause of separation sufficient to prevent any favourable access to Him. In the case of multitudes there is such a cause. Many live without God, ignore Him, disregard His authority, yet in the time of trouble imagine they may fly to Him, in the face of His word, which says until sin is abandoned there can be no friendship with Him. He has provided a gracious way of reconciliation. The first step we must take is the coming to Him through the Saviour for the mercy that obliterates all past transgressions. In many cases the time of trouble is sent as the means of leading us to the Saviour. To be assured of His gracious disposition while He permits the trouble, goes far towards the comfort of the troubled heart. He loves you although you are under discipline. The sun shines in full splendour although it is hidden behind a cloud. We may wait patiently for the trouble to pass away, so long as we can confidently ask the Lord to be gracious unto us. 2. His Strength. “Be Thou their arm every morning.” The time of trouble reveals our weakness. Mental energy, courage, bodily power often succumb under the pressure of heavy trouble. We realise the value of a strength beyond our own. It is better to pass through “the time of trouble” with God for our arm every morning, than to be exempt from trouble and left without Him. Paul groaned under the pain of his thorn in the flesh and besought the Lord thrice to take it away. But Christ’s assurance, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness,” together with his experience of its sufficiency, made him glory in his infirmity. We need the arm of God for defence against the enemy; to lean upon when ready to faint; to strengthen us for the work that may be necessary to our extrication from trouble. 3. His Salvation. From some troubles salvation cannot be in the shape of restoration of the previously existing state of things. The young man loses his precious wife and child; and in their grave it seems that every interest for him is buried. They cannot be restored. But God’s salvation can come to him in the form of a richer spiritual experience, a deeper acquaintance with His word and way, a completer consecration to His service, and a larger inflowing of divine consolation than he could have known without it. But there are some troubles from which salvation comes by their cessation: sicknesses, and business reverses. They are severe while they continue. But deliverance comes. In some cases greater prosperity is realised than formerly, to which, in God’s wonder-working Providence, the trouble was necessary. Joseph in Egypt Job. The trouble may have been severe temptation. If saved, you are the stronger for it. Cry to God in trouble. Let it be the time of special prayer. II. HE WAITS ON GOD. “We have waited for Thee.” This ever accompanies true prayer. The believer looks for the blessing he has asked. It implies, 1. Faith. That God hears. Faith has a very close relation to prayer. 2. Expectation. There may be degrees of confidence, but there must be more or less of expectancy. The sailor’s mother watches at the window for the ship in which her son is coming. 3. Patience. Wait God’s time. Until His end is accomplished. Thus let the Church wait for the coming of Christ, which will be full salvation. May we know by experience the blessedness of knowing God in time of trouble! Blessed is the people that is in such a case. Come and enjoy this blessedness. Decide for the Lord Jesus Christ. The world is insufficient. Renounce it.—J. Rawlinson. THE OF (Sunday School Anniversary.) Isaiah 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation. Primarily these words seem to have been spoken of Hezekiah, of the happiness and security which the Jews experienced under his reign,—a reign which was evidently blessed of God to their good; but, like many other predictions, it has a larger application. It refers to the kingdom of the Messiah; to the blessings resulting from the reign of Christ over His redeemed people (chap. Isaiah 32:1-2). The declaration is, that in the time of the Messiah there should be a diffusion of knowledge so wide and efficacious that society should be rendered stable and tranquil by it; that this wisdom and knowledge should produce salvation, or deliverance from temporal and spiritual calamities; and that this salvation should be a strong one. This has been already in part fulfilled; but only in part. Christianity introduced religious light; and that light became the parent of every other kind of useful and excellent knowledge. So little opposition is there between Christianity and true science, that all the most important discoveries of a scientific nature, all the knowledge whence nations derive power and refinement, have occurred in Christian nations, and Christian nations only. It is now generally agreed that it is only from the diffusion of wisdom and knowledge that we can expect settled and tranquil times. But we must remember that there is no real connection between mere scientific knowledge and moral influence. The proposition which I shall endeavour to establish is, that no moral influence is exerted, except by the truths revealed to us in the Scriptures; and that whatever effects are produced by knowledge of any other kind, those effects do not constitute a real moral improvement, either of society or of individuals. I. I APPEAL TO THE OF . The Bible is favourable to knowledge. Every Jewish parent was commanded to teach his children diligently the laws and statutes which God had given, and the historical circumstances with which they were connected; that so they might be, in the sight of all the nations, a wise and understanding people. The New Testament likewise commands all believers diligently to study the facts and doctrines of their faith. Neither the Mosaic nor the Christian religion was founded in ignorance. But throughout the Old Testament, where any moral influence is ascribed to wisdom, it is the true knowledge of God that is to be understood, and that only. So in the New Testament, so far from finding any intimation that mere knowledge, of any and every kind, is sufficient to exert a moral influence on the heart and mind, we find passages in which it is represented as operating to the hindrance of salvation (Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 1:21; Colossians 2:8). II. I APPEAL TO REASON. Reason shows— 1. That religious knowledge tends to produce moral results. This is the natural effects of the truths it presents to the mind, and of the standard of duty which it holds up before us. 2. That all kinds of knowledge which exert no power upon the conscience must leave the life unreformed. He who expects a moral result from mere worldly knowledge, looks for an effect without a cause; as well might he expect a man to become a skilful botanist by studying astronomy. To improve the morals you must give moral instruction; and this is what no branch of science even professes to do. We take nothing from the just value of science by confining it to its proper objects. One science only can improve your morals, even that divine philosophy which describes, with authority, the manner of life to which God, your Sovereign and Judge, requires you to conform. III. I APPEAL TO . Reason shows that between religious knowledge and morality there is a connection, and that between morality and any other knowledge there is no connection whatever [1216] And this is also the testimony of experience in all times and countries [1219][1216] What connection is there between the knowledge of mechanics and morality? What moral duty have you impressed on the conscience when you have taught a man to make a table? So with the knowledge of numbers, or of language, whether ancient or modern. In none of these sciences is there any principle that can connect itself with moral feeling.—Watson. [1219] The Gospel was first preached, beyond the limits of the Jewish church, to a very refined, but to a very immoral people. Even with what they had learned from tradition, the wisest among them—I may not even except Socrates—could contemplate with perfect indifference, and even practise, the most abominable vices. The same results are found in our own day. Wherever infidelity prevails, we witness the decay and destruction of moral principle. We find, perhaps, some exceptions in Christian countries; but let us see how they are produced, and we shall find that they prove the rule. They proceed from awe of public opinion; from a feeling of shame with regard to personal honour and character. But what provides that standard whose elevated purity men thus practically acknowledge, even while they reject its source? It is this book, it is the faithful preaching of the Gospel, which so keeps up the standard of public opinion that even infidels are obliged to acknowledge its authority. Even among our peasants who have been carefully instructed in religious truth—men without a single ray of science—we find the practice of all the Christian virtues; whilst, too often, we see the brightest beams of human philosophy gilding and giving splendour to baseness and corruption.—Watson. .— 1. Morality must have a religious basis. Man must be taught not only what is right, but why it is right; and he must be shown that he is bound to do it. The term “duty” refers not merely to the action which is to be done, but to the obligations to do it. Take away the morality of the Bible from that with which God has connected it, and you make it powerless. Moral influence and power come only from the whole truth of God. 2. The whole truth of God is used by the Holy Spirit as an instrument to effect moral reformations, and that truth only. We have here another most important reason for looking for the advancement of morality from the diffusion of such truth only [1222] 3. Religious truth benefits only those who make it their earnest study. It does not operate necessarily. The Bible must be diligently read, with much prayer that its teachings may be applied to your conscience; that they may be in you a good seed sown in good ground. 4. The duty of parents is thus made plain. 5. We see also the true aim and the extreme value of Sunday schools.—Richard Watson: Works, vol. ix. pp. 458–471. [1222] Along with the truth of God there goes an accompanying influence. The words that are spoken to you are “spirit and life:” this is because the illuminations of the Holy Ghost go along with them. We may not overlook the fallen state of man; he is dead in trespasses and sins. The very law is weak through the flesh; it gives direction, but it cannot give life. The Spirit must convince men of sin and righteousness; and if He be removed, the Agent is taken away by whom only our moral renovation can be effected. Now, this blessed, this mighty Spirit only works on our hearts in connection with His own revealed truth; it is not with human science that He works for the amendment of our principles and tempers.—Watson. I. What constitutes “stability of times?” 1. Civil order and subjection to law. 2. A regular flow of commerce, and employment for the several orders of men. 3. Freedom from war, defensive or aggressive. II. What influence has the “wisdom and knowledge” of Christianity on “the stability of times?” 1. The principles and rules of Christianity are those of practical “wisdom and knowledge,” and must, if acted on, give “stability of times.” Look at its instructions in relation to civil government (Romans 13:1-2; Romans 13:6-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-3); to the domestic and social duties of life (Colossians 3:18 to Colossians 4:1; 1 Timothy 6:1); to integrity, industry, and love of our fellow-men (Romans 13:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:2). Universal conformity to such precepts would produce universal harmony, industry, and confidence. With equal clearness it denounces oppression, insubordination, and war. Were these injunctions and prohibitions heeded, a new era of settled prosperity would begin (H. E. I. 1124–1132, 1134). 2. Christianity gives “stability of times” by the intellectual wisdom and knowledge it imparts. What a contrast in this respect between Christian and heathen nations! Christianity promotes intellectual strength by the grandeur of the subjects which it brings before the mind, by the freedom it enjoins in the exercise of every right, and by the rules it gives for the government of nations and the guidance of individuals. All its instructions are those of wisdom and mental strength. Moreover it enlarges the conceptions of those who receive it, by leading them to strive to promote the welfare of the whole world. 3. By its sanctifying influence. The real causes of peace and permanent prosperity are moral; and the very tendency of Christianity is to promote civil order, integrity, industry, and benevolent conduct (H. E. I. 4164–4166). 4. By leading men to that obedience to the laws of God which brings down upon them His blessing. From all this it follows, 1. That it is the wisdom of every nation that has the knowledge of Christianity to retain and improve it, and to guard against its corruption and abuse. Whatever diminishes its purity weakens its practical influence. 2. That we should gratefully acknowledge how much we owe to God for “the wisdom and knowledge” which He has imparted to us. Let us trace our prosperity to its true cause. 3. That national ruin will be the result, if we reject “the wisdom and knowledge” God has vouchsafed to us. 4. That every one who seeks for himself the “wisdom and knowledge” of the Bible is a patriot. He adds, in his own personal religion, to the stability and wealth of the nation. 5. That true patriotism will lead us to value and support those institutions which exist for the diffusion of the Gospel in our own and other lands.—John Johnson, M.A.: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 156–177. I. Wisdom and knowledge both resemble and differ from each other, and should be carefully distinguished. Many have great knowledge and no wisdom. Some have wisdom and little knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge digested and turned to account; knowledge is the food swallowed; wisdom is the food changed into chyle and blood, and sent through the system. Knowledge is often a mere chaotic mass; wisdom is that mass reduced to order. Knowledge may remain inactive in the memory and understanding; wisdom is the same turned to practice and incarnated in life. Many men possess great knowledge, but hold it in unrighteousness; hold it along with folly, indolence, and a host of other counterbalancing elements. The wise man may err like others; but his general conduct and the general course of his mind are well regulated. “Wisdom is profitable to direct.” Knowledge puffeth up; but wisdom is too calm and moderate, too wide in its views, and too sober in its spirit to be often found in alliance with undue self-esteem. The man of knowledge resembles Dr. Kippis, of whom Hall said that he put so many books in his head that his brains could not move. In a mind like Burke’s, the more books that were heaped upon the fiery and fertile brain the better; it turned them into flame (H. E. I. 3091, 3092, 3112–3120). II. Knowledge and wisdom, when combined, give stability to persons, states, and churches.1. To individual character. Knowledge is being increased at a wonderful ratio. The learned man of a century ago would now be thought a sciolist. But there have been many drawbacks: many incapable of grasping all kinds of knowledge are not incapable of pretending that they have grasped them; hence the desire of intermeddling with all knowledge becomes pre-eminent folly, and hence generally the preference given to men of showy attainments, glib talk, and immodest assurance, above those of solid strength and genuine insight. And it is the same, too often, in the Church. In reference to this, let the words of the wise man be pondered: “With all thy getting, get understanding.” Even though our knowledge be less wide, let it be accurate. Let us ballast knowledge with common-sense; let our piety be manly; let our attitude be that of calm but constant progress. And let our motto be, “The greatest of these is charity.” Such a combination of knowledge and wisdom would give, as nothing else can, stability to individual character (H. E. I. 3075–3078). 2. In reference to states and kingdoms. Here, too, knowledge must meet with wisdom ere genuine stability can be secured. This was manifested in the last French and German war. Indeed, the whole history of France shows the evil of knowledge being separated from wisdom. We see this in its brilliant, but rash and dangerous science; in its literature—splendid in form, inferior in substance; in its raging love for display and thirst for war; in its popular idols—Henry IV., Mirabeau, Voltaire, and Napoleon—all men as full of ability as they were destitute of true wisdom. 3. The Church. The whole Bible has been taken to pieces. All the conceivable knowledge on the subject has been amassed. Now, here comes in the place for the exercise of wisdom. Let us not leap to conclusions; let us rather ask: “Where does wisdom dwell, and where is the place of understanding?” There is at present a divorce between knowledge and wisdom in spiritual matters; and seldom were manly morality and true religion in a feebler condition than in some quarters. There are noise and sound enough and to spare; but there is a lack of stability,—no progress at once in piety and intelligence (H. E. I. 3153–3155). Out of that gulf into which one-sidedness has plunged us, all-sidedness, broad charity, and wisdom can alone deliver us. Let us pray that these may abound, and introduce a period when wisdom and knowledge, walking hand in hand, shall be the stability of a better and nobler era!—George Gilfillan: The Study and the Pulpit, New Series, vol. iv. pp. 9–11. These were the words of comfort by which Hezekiah was prepared to meet the invasion of the conquering Assyrians. In other times Judah fled for protection into the arms of Egypt. They thereby incurred God’s displeasure, and were invariably overtaken by the calamities from which they sought refuge. Hezekiah put his trust in Jehovah, and was not disappointed. The text contains, at the same time. a general principle, viz., that wisdom (or practical religion) and knowledge are the best elements of the stability of any people. As patriots let us carefully consider it. I. Christianity promotes wisdom and knowledge.1. Christianity promotes wisdom. (1.) The God whom the Bible reveals is the fit object of reverence and love. It reveals the Divine attributes in forms the most fitted to fill the soul with solemn awe and reverence. It ascribes to Him eternal and unchangeable love, and reveals that love in forms of ineffable grace and mercy. It does not efface any of the more awful attributes of Godhead, or merge them in a perverted view of the parental relation; nor does it degrade His more amiable attributes into the tenderness, or rather weakness, which loses sight of the criminal’s guilt in the consideration of his misery—the world’s conception of the Divine! That character, however, is not enough to rekindle the flame of piety in a fallen world (James 2:19). But (2.) Christianity provides, in the great facts through which it conveys the knowledge of God, the means of reducing men to contrition and restoring them to hope. The Gospel is adapted to convert the soul. How? In its adaptation the element of hope occupies no mean place. Any scheme of regeneration must contain a provision of mercy. By its mode of opening the door of hope, it impresses sinfulness on the mind; it moves to repentance, and inspires obedience on the ground of conscious obligation to Divine grace. The tendency of the doctrine of the cross is no doubtful matter (Romans 1:16). 2. Christianity promotes knowledge. It points out the only true way to the knowledge of God; but further it promotes general knowledge. (1.) Revealing God, it makes known the highest truths; and, making known the highest truths, it promotes and facilitates inquiry into every other. The uncovered heavens reflect their light on all earthly things. (2.) By the healing power which it applies to the heart and conscience, it fits the soul for vigorous and healthful action. The Christian can have no reason to dread the advances of knowledge—he may tremble for the temporary evils resulting from philosophy, falsely so called [1225][1225] I fear it is incontrovertible that what is denominated polite literature, the grand school in which taste acquires its laws and refined perceptions, and in which are formed, much more than under any higher, austerer discipline, the moral sentiments, is, for the far greater part, hostile to the religion of Christ; partly by introducing insensibly a certain order of opinions unconsonant, or, at least, not identical with the principles of that religion, and still more by training the feelings to a habit alien from its spirit. And in this assertion I do not refer to writers palpably irreligious, who have laboured and intended to seduce the passions into vice, or the judgment into the rejection of Divine truth, but to the general community of those elegant and ingenious authors who are read and admired by the Christian world, held essential to a liberal education, and to the progressive accomplishment of the mind in subsequent life, and studied often without an apprehension, or even a thought, of their injuring the views and temper of spirits advancing, with the New Testament for their chief instructor and guide, into another world.—John Foster. II. By promoting wisdom and knowledge, Christianity establishes a people.1. It purifies and elevates society. (1.) It is an acknowledged fact that the Gospel makes man unfit for a state of slavery. It may teach submission to the bond, but it will create a moral influence whose fire will melt his chains. (2.) The Gospel civilises the savage. It produces dissatisfaction with his abjectness, and creates the desire and imparts the means of rising in the scale of intelligence. 2. If Christianity thus elevates, how much more will it establish! If it imparts life, how much more will it maintain it! If it gives existence, how much more will it give it the elements of perpetuity! But what are the means of the stability of a nation? (1.) Religion. This is the foundation of all others. An irreligious and wicked nation has the elements of misery and dissolution within itself; a righteous nation, like a righteous individual, may be afflicted, but, as in the one case, so in the other, “all things work together for good.” Knowledge has an indirect influence. Galileo could sacrifice truth and honour to escape imprisonment; the tale of Bacon’s moral weaknesses is a humbling page of human history; but the diffusion of knowledge tends to correct a taste for low and sensual habits. (2.) Virtue. Religion produces the best morals; here the connection is direct and immediate. The Gospel provides an authoritative principle—wanting elsewhere—which responds to its moral precepts, and renders it a matter of moral necessity to give a ready and cheerful obedience. (3.) Freedom. The foundation of this is in the virtue which Christianity creates and promotes. If the ark of God were in danger, we might well tremble for the ark of liberty; religious degeneracy endangers the existence of freedom. (4.) Good order. This follows, as the natural and necessary consequence from the promotion of virtue and freedom. .—British society, with all its boasted civilisation, is only in a state of childhood; it speaks as a child and it acts as a child. We expect better days, not as the result of a natural and inherent tendency to progress and improvement, but as the result of the operation of Divine principles implanted in the midst of us, under the blessing of a favourable Providence. That we may put forth our strength to accomplish this change, we must have an adequate impression of existing evils and of our obligation to apply a remedy. Christianity is the lever by which we can raise man (Ephesians 5:14).—John Kennedy, D.D.: Weekly Christian Teacher, vol. iii. pp. 760–764, 777–781. GOD HIS OWN ELECTIsa_33:7-12 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without, &c.I. A PICTURE OF . The picture has two distinct points of interest— 1. Man (Isaiah 33:7). Desolation receives nowhere so strong and pathetic expression as in the strong cries and tears of a man. The purer and nobler the man, so much the more affecting is it to hear his despairing cry and look upon his tears. The child cannot bear to see his father weep, because his father is to him the ideal man. Eliakim’s grief, on returning from the interview with Rabshakeh, would be more grievous to Hezekiah than Shebna’s. Peter’s repentant tears were bitter; but by the cry of the Christ, “Eloi! lama sabacthani?” and His tears at the grave of Lazarus, we are much more affected. 2. Nature (Isaiah 33:8-9). The world is partly bright and beautiful, because noble men of God dwell in it; Nature reflects and interprets man. The Assyrian invader weighed heavily on Jewish hearts (Isaiah 36:22, Isaiah 37:1) and the Jewish land. II. THE OF WRONG. “Now will I rise, saith the Lord,” &c. 1. God rules the world in the interests of His people. “Now will I rise.” Democrats are fond of saying, “The Queen may reign, but she does not govern;” but the reins of government are firmly held by the great I Amos 2. God’s interposition comes at the right moment: “Now will I rise.” Man’s extremity is often God’s opportunity; because not until his case is desperate, will he cast himself unreservedly upon God. So man often retards the arrival of the right moment. Meanwhile the innocent (comparatively) suffer for the guilty, the good for the bad, the just for the unjust. If it is the teaching of Scripture that God’s people are “the salt of the earth,” preserving it from destruction, it is no less the doctrine of the Bible that untold sorrows are to the righteous because they dwell on the earth with the wicked. The Isaiahs and Hezekiahs of the world feel something of the weight of the world’s sin. But there is always a “thus far and no farther.” “Now will I rise, saith the Lord.” III. THE . Cf. Luke 18:8; Isaiah 42:1. The greater wickedness is employed by God to be the scourge of the less, until its own time comes to be scattered as chaff, and destroyed as fire destroys (Isaiah 33:11-12). To one whose “eyes are in his head,” it is sad to hear the ambassador of Sennacherib saying, “The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it.” In the midst of this judgment of God—in which the righteous suffer most—meted out instrumentally by wicked hands, we do well to remember the words of Christ: “Knowest thou not, said Pilate to Him, that I have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above.” Note that where the avenging is pictured in this passage, the two sides spoken of in the former part of it—man and nature—are summed up in the terrible destruction of the human. So terrible is this, that a burning world is lost sight of! The first picture of desolation is as nothing to the second; and the woe is seen to reach its intensity in this regard.—J. Macrae Simcock. A BLESSED LIFEIsa_33:15-17. He that walketh righteously, &c.This is a gleam of bright sunshine after a heavy storm. It describes a truly happy, holy life, such as we may all attain, and may all well desire to be ours. 1. It is a gracious life. This is not specially mentioned here. We have only what is outward and visible described. But this always implies an inward hidden life. When we see such a great, green, spreading, fruitful tree of righteousness as this, we may always assuredly conclude that, deep in the heart out of sight, there must be a great, strong, living Lebanon-root of faith and love (Titus 2:12). This is the secret or source of all that follows (H. E. I. 2840, 2841, 4092–4095). 2. It is an upright life. “He that walketh righteously.” A man’s “walk” is his whole conduct in all the positions and relations in which he stands. All that this man does is conformed to the law of God and the example of Christ (Luke 1:6). “He speaketh uprightly.” Most important (James 3:2; James 1:26; P. D. 3384, 3394). “He despiseth the gain of oppressions.” He will not take advantage of his neighbour’s distress; will not be hard upon him when his back is at the wall; will not abuse his ignorance or simplicity by charging more than a commodity is worth. “He shaketh his hands from holding of bribes.” He abhors such temptations. Judas, from an awakened conscience, horror-struck at what he had done, cast the blood-money which he had received on the ground; but this man, from a clear, enlightened conscience, at peace with God, casts from him all that would offend the Lord. “He stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood.” There is a killing of character by slander and insinuation, but he will have none of it (P. D. 3108). “He shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.” He is like God; he cannot look upon sin. He hates it; can find no amusement in it; knows its tendency and its fearful end. Through the unguarded eye comes ruin (Joshua 7:21; 2 Samuel 11:2). Pictures and descriptions of evil often destroy. Have we not here a beautiful, noble character? and yet this is what believing in Christ and walking in His footsteps will always produce. But there must be the root, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, else the outward life, however fair and seemly, will be only a make-believe, a wretched caricature, that will break down in the time of trial, and be rejected in the day of the Lord. 3. It is a heavenly life. “He shall dwell on high.” His heart is set on things above (Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 3:1-3; Philippians 3:20). He has already come to Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem: he really dwells on high (H. E. I. 2766–2779). 4. It is a safe life. His real all is above, beyond the reach of chance and change. He is still beset by foes, but he is safe. “His place of defence is the munitions of rocks” (Psalms 18:2-3, &c.) 5. It is a well-supplied life. “His bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure” (Psalms 34:10). But man needs more than bread to eat and raiment to put on; like the Master, the servant has meat to eat of which the world knows not (Psalms 4:6-7; Psalms 53:5-6). He has growing light, increasing life, fuller assurance, and fresh Ebenezers from day to day. 6. It is a hopeful life. “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty.” There is a blessed beginning of the fulfilment of this promise now (John 14:21-23; H. E. I. 974, 975). “They shall behold the land that is very far off.” To Christ’s friends things to come are revealed by the Holy Ghost. They see Jesus, already crowned with glory and honour, and fairer than the sons of men. Like the patriarchs, they see the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Like Moses, they gaze the landscape over and gird their loins; they take courage and press on (H. E. I. 2771–2779). Such a life leads to a blessed death. The two go together. We cannot have the one without the other. Balaam thought he could, but it was in vain. Such a life prepares for a happy meeting with the Lord, if He should come while we are still present on the earth (Matthew 24:46).—John Milne: Gatherings from a Ministry, pp. 325–331. THE OF THE SERVANT OF GODIsa_33:16. He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure. This is part of the answer to the question proposed in Isaiah 33:14. The overthrow of Asshur has been predicted; but the judgment of Asshur is a lesson for Israel as well as for the heathens. For the sinners in Jerusalem, there is no abiding in the presence of the Almighty. They must repent. “God is a consuming fire.” His furnace was in Jerusalem. Therefore they inquire, “Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” The prophet answers their question in Isaiah 33:15. It is the description of a God-fearing man from the Old Testament point of view. Because of the predominating religion of his heart, he avoids the sins of his times. A Christian, in like manner, renounces sin, and, so far as the world’s principles and practices are sinful, sets himself against the world. Instead of being afraid of the Divine anger, as sinners and hypocrites are, he dwells in blessed security, with God for his Friend (Isaiah 33:16). Three things distinguish him from the unbelieving world: elevation, provision, and security. I. . “He shall dwell on high.” Leaving out of view the temporal advantages that sometimes accrue from true religion as being only incidental, let us look at the elevation it secures with regard to— 1. Thought. Christianity directs the mind to the most elevated themes, fosters the habit of thought upon them, and through them refines and elevates the mind itself. When a man is converted he generally becomes interested in topics beyond the requirements of his daily life. Mind is awakened. Mental activity is required. In any number of uneducated men, some Christians and some not, the Christian section will probably be the more intelligent and thoughtful. If an educated man is converted, the influence is equally marked. His previous attainments remain, and his mind receives a new impetus from the world of spiritual thought now discovered. He thinks of God, Christ, redemption, holy influences on men from on high, the invisible, heaven, eternity. The mind cannot fail to be uplifted by contact with such themes as these. 2. Character. Doubtless much excellence exists among men apart from personal religion. The civil, social, and commercial virtues are often exemplified by men who make no pretension to religion. Even in these respects the best man without it would be better with it. But we must rise higher. Men never rise above their ideal. The ideal of a man without religion does not rise above his obligations to man; but the ideal of a man in Christ is to be like Christ. It comprehends all dispositions, sympathies, duties that either look God ward or manward. It is Divine perfection. It is not yet realised; but the entertaining and striving towards it will lift him to a loftier moral altitude than if his ideal were lower; when all allowance has been made for human imperfection, it remains true that the Christian is “the highest style of man.” 3. Relationship. Believers are closely connected with Christ, their Saviour, their Head, their Elder Brother. They are “united to Him,” “in Him.” Terms are employed that give the idea, not, indeed, of personal identity, but of such close relationship that whatever concerns Him concerns them, and whatever glorification. He attains they are to share. Through Him they are “the children of God,” and heirs of the celestial inheritance. Is it possible for relationship to be loftier? 4. Companionship. The man is known by his chosen associates. The young man that keeps low company makes it plain that his tastes are low. Fine natures can only enjoy congenial society. When a man becomes a Christian, he seeks the society of Christians. And not only are his human companionships superior to those he previously courted, he enjoys a Divine companionship which is the supremest dignity. “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Is it not dwelling “on high” to have free access at all times to the King of kings? 5. Influence. God has made us kings of men. The time is coming when the principles we hold shall, by our means, pervade the mass of humanity. Already, in a thousand quiet ways, in families, in schools, in churches, in populations, the influence of individual Christian men is felt to be good and gracious as far as it extends. Christian fathers and mothers will live in the recollection of their children and their children’s children when the memory of the wicked shall rot (H. E. I. 1089–1095). 6. Destiny. He is to be crowned and enthroned in the abiding glory. “He shall dwell on high” (H. E. I. 1073–1076, 1106, 1112–1119). II. . “Bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure.” His wants shall be supplied in his elevation. All necessary temporal supplies and spiritual provision. Christ the bread of life. III. . “His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks.” There is an enemy who would gladly attack and overcome him; but he has retired to a place of perfect safety. Inaccessible to the adversary. Will endeavour to dislodge you by various means; such as: 1. Temptation, which assumes many forms. Grows out of everything. Keep before you the lofty ideal; constant effort, watchfulness, government of thought and desires, Divine aid. 2. Trouble. It becomes temptation. It tries faith. Cry to God. 3. Death. It is the last enemy. Christ, our defence, will triumph. What a privilege to be a Christian! For what would you exchange it? Not the world’s sins, pleasures, possessions.—J. Rawlinson. THE OF THE GODLYIsa_33:17. Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off. The literal application of this prophecy is generally supposed to have reference to the deliverance of the Jews from the Assyrian army. They would then have the joy of seeing Hezekiah in his goodly apparel, and, freed from the presence of the invader, would be left at liberty to enjoy their own pleasant and goodly land. The deliverance was accomplished (2 Chronicles 32:21). But there is another application of the text—to the beatific vision of the King of kings in the heavenly land. Let us then consider— I. THE BEFORE THE OF GOD. “Thine eyes,” &c. The prospect respects— 1. The vision of Christ. Christ is King. Of Him Melchisedec, David, and Solomon were types (Psalms 2:6, &c.; John 18:36; Hebrews 2:9; Revelation 1:5; 1 Timothy 6:10). Patriarchs and prophets saw Him in human form. The Jews saw Him in His humiliation, as “a man of sorrows,” &c. The apostles and disciples saw Him in His risen glory. John saw Him in the vision of Patmos (Revelation 1:13, &c.) Hereafter all His people shall see Him “in His beauty,” in all His regal splendour and magnificence. They shall see Him clearly, fully, eternally. 2. The vision of heaven. “The land,” &c. Of heaven Canaan was a type. It was a land of beauty and abundance; of freedom, after the slavery of Egypt; of triumph, after warfare; of rest, after the toils of the desert. Its crowning distinction was the Temple, which God filled with His presence and glory. But heaven is all temple. II. THE OF ITS . “Thine eyes shall,” &c. 1. This was contemplated by Christ in our redemption. He designed our emancipation from the dominion of sin, our deliverance from this present evil world, and also our elevation to His glorious kingdom (Hebrews 2:10; John 17:24). 2. This is repeatedly the subject of the Divine promises (Luke 22:29; Luke 12:32; John 14:2-3, &c.) 3. To this tends the work of grace in all its influences on the soul. See what our calling is (1 Peter 5:10); to what we are begotten (1 Peter 1:3-4); why we are sanctified (Revelation 3:4). 4. A goodly number are now enjoying the fulfilment of these promises (Revelation 7:9; Revelation 7:14). 5. The glory and joy of Christ would not be complete without the eternal salvation of His people (Isaiah 53:11). III. THE FOR ITS . Nothing is necessary in the way of merit, price, or self-righteousness. But if we would see the King, we must make Him the object of our believing, affectionate regard now. 2. If we would see “the land,” &c., we must seek and labour for its attainment (Hebrews 11:16; Hebrews 4:10).—Jabez Burns, D.D.: Pulpit Cyclopædia, vol. ii. pp. 154–157). THE BEAUTY OF CHRIST’S Isa_33:17. Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty. There is a difference between the worthiness and the beauty of a character. A poetic beauty adorns the worth of Christ’s character. WHAT ARE THE OF THE OF CHRIST? I. Sensibility. This is a word to be preferred to sensitiveness, for it includes sensitiveness; it has the passive quality of sensitiveness with activity of soul in addition exercised upon the impressions received. The more perfect the manhood, the more perfect is this sensibility. The total absence of it is the essence of vulgarity. The presence of it in its several degrees endows its possessor, according to the proportion of it, with what Chaucer meant by “gentilness.” (1.) It does not seem wrong to say that there was in Christ the sensibility to natural beauty. He also, like us, wished and sought that Nature should send “its own deep quiet to restore His heart.” We find His common teaching employed about the vineyard and the wandering sheep, the whitening corn and the living well, the summer rain and the wintry flood and storm. (2.) Still higher in Him was an intense sensibility to human feeling. He saw Nathaniel coming to Him, and in a moment frankly granted the meed of praise (John 1:47); when the malefactor on the cross appealed to Him, Christ saw at once that the fountain of a noble life had begun to flow (Luke 23:43). It was the same with bodies of men as with men; He wove into one instrument of work the various characters of the Apostles; day by day He held together vast multitudes by feeling their hearts within His own; He shamed and confuted His enemies by an instinct of their objections and their whispers; men, women, and children ran to Him, as a child to its mother. How did the sensibility of Christ become active?— 1. As sympathy with Nature. There are many who never employ either intellect or imagination on the impressions which they receive. Remaining passive, they only permit the tide of the world’s beauty to flow in and out of their mind; they do nothing with it. In Wordsworth, each feeling took form as a poem. As Christ walked silently along, He lifted up His eyes and saw the fields whitening already to harvest; and immediately He seized on the impression and expressed it in words. It marks a beautiful character to be so rapidly and delicately impressed; but the beauty becomes vital beauty when, through sympathy with and love of what is felt, one becomes himself creative of new thought. Sometimes such sympathy is shown through the imagination, as when Christ, seeing the cornfield by the shore of the lake while He was teaching, looked on the whole career of the field, and combined impressions taken up by the imagination into the Parable of the Sower. Sensibility becoming sympathy is discriminating. Praise without distinctiveness is wearisome. We find perfect discrimination in the illustrations Christ drew from Nature. How exquisite the passage beginning, “Consider the lilies!” This distinctiveness appears still more in the choice of places for certain moods of mind,—the temptation in the wilderness, the hill-side for prayer. In all this, Christ recognises natural religion as His own, and bids us believe in its beauty, and add it to the spiritual. 2. As sympathy with human feeling. Examples of this are numerous. His tenderness stayed Him on the wayside to satisfy the mother’s heart and to bless the children; touched by the widow’s weeping, He gave her back her son. “Jesus wept” even at the moment when He was about to give back the lost, because those He loved were weeping. How discriminating the sympathy which gave to Martha and Mary their several meed of praise! How unspeakably beautiful the words, “Woman, behold thy son!” Friend, “behold thy mother!” This, then, is loveliness of character. Remember, we have no right to boast of our sensibility to the feelings of others; nay, it is hateful in us till we lift it into the beauty of sympathising action. Remember, too, its wise discrimination. Christ, while feeling with all the world, sanctified distinctiveness in friendship and love. II. Simplicity. Milton tells us that poetry must be “simple.” The beautiful character must also possess this quality. But by simplicity is not meant here the simplicity of Christ’s teaching. What is meant is the quality in His character which corresponds to that which we call simplicity in poetry; and that which is simplicity in art is purity in a perfect character. The beauty of Christ’s purity was first in this, that those who saw it saw in it the glory of moral victory. His purity was not the beauty of innocence in a child; it was purity which had been subject to the storm, which had known evil and overcome it. And from this purity, so tried and victorious, arose two other elements of moral beauty—perfect justice and perfect mercy. Innocence cannot be just, nor is the untempted saint fit to judge; but Christ is able to be just and yet merciful, because He is entirely pure. III. Passion, defined as the power of intense feeling capable of perfect expression. Milton tells us that poetry must be “passionate.” We may transfer it directly to character as an element of beauty. It was intense feeling of the weakness and sin of man, and intense joy in His Father’s power to redeem, that produced the story of the “Prodigal Son.” “Come unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” How that goes home! How deep the passion which generalised that want into a single sentence! It is a beauty of character, whether seen in words or action, which passes into and assumes the diadem of sublimity. Christ’s words to the Pharisees have all the marks of indignation and none of the marks of anger. Passion and energy limited by temperance imply repose of character. Activity in repose, calm in the heart of passion, these things are of the essence of beauty. And in Him in whom we have found the King in His beauty, this peacefulness was profound. This is the final touch of beauty, which gathers into itself and harmonises all the others, and hence no words are so beautiful as those in which Christ bestows it as His dying legacy on men, “Peace I leave with you,” and repeats it as His resurrection gift, “Peace be unto you.” All moral and spiritual loveliness lies in knowing what He meant when He said, “Come unto Me … and I will give you rest.”—Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, M.A.: Christ in Modern Life (Three Sermons, pp. 89–131). OF THE CHURCH OF CHRISTIsa_33:20. Look upon Zion, &c.It is probable that when this prophecy was delivered the city of Jerusalem was threatened with an immediate siege; but Jehovah engages to defend it from the attacks of its enemies, the Assyrians, and to render it at once quiet and secure. But yet the text appears to have a direct reference to the privileges and stability of the Gospel Church, for Jerusalem, after this period, was never long preserved from hostile invasions; therefore our attention is turned from it to that glorious city against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. (See pp. 228, 229.) I. The Church of Christ is “the city of our solemnities.” Jerusalem was thus described because of the solemn assemblies that were there held, the solemn feasts that were there celebrated, and the solemn sacrifices which were there offered. And it is in the Church that individual believers come together, and unite in the enjoyment of divine grace, and in the presentation of “sacrifices” with which “God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:15-16) [1228][1228] As the earth’s loftiest peaks rise not in their snows on some isolated hill that stands like a lonely pyramid on a level plain, but where the mountains, as in the Alps, or Andes, or Himalayan range, are grouped and massed together, so the saint’s most heavenly happiness is not attained in solitude, nor even amid domestic scenes, but where religious life exists in its social character.—Guthrie. II. The Church of Christ is “a quiet habitation” [1231] All genuine believers dwell in it, and peace is at once the bequest of Christ (John 14:27) and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). [1231] See THE , chap. Isaiah 32:18, page 368. III. The Church of Christ is “a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.” “A tabernacle” in contrast with the superior glories of the New Jerusalem in heaven. A tabernacle, because it may often change its place, as in fact it has already done. But it shall never be “taken down” in the sense of being destroyed (H. E. I. 1246–1251). IV. Such a contemplation of Zion as our text calls for will awaken— 1. In angels complacency and delight; 2. In sinners astonishment at its wondrous preservation, in spite of all their efforts to destroy it, and desire to share in its privileges; and 3. In Christians wonder, love, and praise.—Thomas Spencer: Twenty-one Sermons, pp. 196–206. RIVERSIsa_33:21. But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. The prophet here speaks for the encouragement of God’s Church; and he appears to overstep the boundaries of time, and gives a glimpse of the blessedness and safety of the Church triumphant. In our interpretation let us take a large view, and refer, as the course of thought may require, both to the Church militant and the Church triumphant. And let it be deeply impressed on the mind that the promises of God can be realised only by those who belong to the true Israel. I. THE TITLE . “The glorious Lord.” God is glorious in His own perfections, and as the source of all the glory and beauty in this and every other world. Our knowledge of God is gathered from His manifestations in nature and revelation. How resplendent in glory is the Being thus revealed to us! Especially we may say, with immediate reference to our subject, He is glorious in the vastness of His resources. In the summer the streams of the Holy Land were either entirely dried up, and converted into hot lanes of glaring sands, or reduced to narrow streamlets. But no summer’s heat can dry up the broad streams of Divine love and mercy. God is glorious in the abundant nature of His supplies, and in His willingness to make ample provision for His Church. II. THE BLESSED . “The glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.” That is, all that such rivers and streams are to a country, God would be to His people. 1. Broad rivers and streams give beauty to the land scape. All beauty is from God, and is a revelation of Him; but especially is it true that He is the source of all the moral beauty of His people. 2. Broad rivers give fertility and prosperity. In such a highly cultivated country as England, where great droughts are unknown, we have no opportunity of properly observing the fertilising influence of a broad river. But remember what the Nile is to Egypt. So does God enrich and fertilise the soul, causing it to bring forth “the fruits of righteousness.” 3. Broad rivers afford protection. Babylon had its Euphrates, which was a source of power. “Hundred-gated Thebes,” celebrated by Homer, also had its river. Almost all great modern cities are built on the banks of rivers. But Jerusalem had no great river running through it. In fact, it was badly supplied with water. Large cisterns were constructed in which to catch and preserve the rain that came down plentifully in its season. The prophet makes use of this fact for the encouragement of the Church. The glorious Lord will be unto it as broad rivers and streams. He is the sure defence of His people. III. THE MARK OF DIVINE HERE . “Wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.” Earthly blessings have attendant evils; heavenly blessings alone are pure and perfect. Rivers may prove a source of weakness as well as of strength to a nation [1234] But along the broad rivers of Divine blessing no foe shall advance to assail God’s people. The presence of God at once confers blessings and averts evils.—W. Burrows, B.A. [1234] Rivers are highly important as the outlets and inlets of commercial enterprise; but the merchant ship, though richly laden, may carry the seeds of physical and moral disease, and inflict untold injury. Rivers give security to the cities built on their banks, but they may also prove the means of destruction. Cyrus made use of the Euphrates when besieging Babylon, and thus captured the city. The strength of Babylon became its weakness. The same river that bears on its tidal waves the merchant ship laden with the precious products of distant lands may also bring the war-ship laden with the instruments of destruction and death. But the city of our solemnities is secure. No mischief can come to us along the broad river of Almighty grace.—Burrows. [See also outlines, Rivers of Waters, Isaiah 30:25-26, and Rivers of Water in a Dry Place, Isaiah 32:2. THE ; OR, WITH THE REGAL AND OF GOD [1237][1237] See H. E. I., 374–399. Isaiah 33:22. For the Lord is our Judge; the Lord is our Lawgiver, &c.There are here two propositions, the one affirming that Jehovah sustains a certain relationship to us, the other declaring that in that relationship, and therefore in a manner perfectly consistent with it, He will save us. The same thing substantially is repeatedly asserted in the Scriptures. The very prophet in whose writings these words occur elsewhere speaks thus in God’s name: “There is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside” (Isaiah 45:21); “I bring near my righteousness, my salvation shall not tarry” (Isaiah 46:13); “My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth” (Isaiah 51:5). All this has been translated into New Testament language in that remarkable utterance of Paul’s, “Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26). Let us endeavour to unfold the harmony of salvation with the law, the justice, and the royalty of God. I. Let us look at the relationship indicated by the three terms Judge, Lawgiver, and King. We say relationship, for although the words are three, the thing is substantially one, each term giving us only a modification of the same idea. The judge is the king on the bench, the lawgiver is the king writing the statute-book, and the king is the judge and lawgiver on the throne of government. The three things so run into each other that it is difficult to keep them distinct, each of the three terms brings before us one distinct phasis of the governmental relationship which God sustains towards us. The judge is set to see that the guilty shall not escape, and that the innocent shall not be punished; the lawgiver has to secure that the majesty of the law is upheld, and its authority recognised; and the king has to take care that the best interests of his subjects as a whole are not interfered with but advanced. Now it is here affirmed that Jehovah stands to us in this threefold relation, and that as a judge He saves us criminals, as a lawgiver He forgives us law-breakers, as a king He pardons us rebels. We are not denying that God is willing and anxious to show Himself as a father, even to sinners. Our affirmation is, that now, when man has sinned, if God is to be to him precisely as he was before, if the liberty of God’s son is to be enjoyed by him, then some means must be taken to secure that in all this no dishonour shall be put upon the law of God, no blot be made upon His judicial character, and no peril result to His throne or to the interests of His holy subjects. II. The means by which God the Judge, Lawgiver, and King saves man. If we take the Scriptures for our guide, the answer will not be difficult to discover, for we are there uniformly taught that God seeks to save us through a substitute. At first this principle was revealed through animal sacrifices, then through the more definite offerings of the Mosaic institute, and then through the still more definite teachings of the inspired prophets. The high priest laid his hand upon the head of his victim, confessed over it all his iniquities and all the sins of all the people, and it was to bear their iniquity. But in the remarkable oracle contained in Isaiah 53 the very same phraseology is used in reference to the expected Messiah; for we are there told that God “hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all,” that “He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities,” and that “He shall bear our iniquities.” To this corresponds the language of the New Testament; for when John the Baptist pointed out the Messiah, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh (beareth) away the sins of the world;” and Jesus Himself declared that “the Son of man came to give His life a ransom for many,” and that “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” And in perfect harmony with all this are the utterances of the Apostles. It seems perfectly clear that the principle of substitution is the very thread round which all the other declarations of the Scripture crystallise. The Bible, from its beginning to its close, is “dipped in blood;” the atoning death of Christ is the foundation on which its whole system rests, and if that be rejected, the whole book must go with it as a dead and worthless thing. III. Is this arrangement in harmony with the regal and judicial character of God? Gathering up the scattered statements of the Word of God into one systematic treatment of this subject, it seems clear that the following things need to be secured in order that substitution may harmonise with and subserve the ends of justice:— 1. That the substitute shall be himself free from all taint of sin, and be a voluntary victim. Christ was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners” as He was God-Man, and did not need to put Himself under the law except He had chosen to be the sinner’s friend. He is thus qualified to be our substitute. And there was no compulsion. “Lo, I come! I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” 2. That the sacrifice he offers be of such value as to preserve the majesty of the law, and cover the case of those for whom it was designed. The sacrifice offered must be something which the person making it can call his own property; and it must be something which is in itself adequate to the end contemplated. This is precisely what we have in the case of Christ. He could say His life was His own, for He was God as well as man. Again, it was such a sacrifice as met the case, for it was offered in the person of a Divine Man. As God-man, He infinitely transcends all other men, and therefore, when standing as a substitute, His personal dignity and worth give infinite value to His substitution. 3. That the persons set free thereby should be so changed in character that their after conduct shall not in any way interfere with or interrupt the happiness of God’s other holy children and subjects. This is secured in connection with Christ’s work; for when, by the eye of faith, the love of Jesus is seen as manifested on the cross, its power is such that it constrains the sinner to live to Him who loved him and gave Himself for him. The criminal who is pardoned through faith in the substitution of Christ is also reformed, and no detriment results from his deliverance to the other citizens of Jehovah’s empire. 4. That the substitute himself have such compensation given him, that in the end he shall not lose, but rather gain, through the sacrifice he has made. Even although a substitute should willingly offer himself, it would be injustice to allow him to suffer if no adequate return could be made for it. Christ received as the reward of His sufferings that which is by Himself admitted and declared to be a thoroughly satisfactory recompense for the sacrifice he made. As He sees of the travail of His soul, He is satisfied. 5. That the substitute be accepted by both parties. That He is accepted by God is evident from the resurrection of Christ from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and He becomes accepted by the sinner when he believes in Jesus. Christ is not my substitute until I accept Him as such. Two remarks in conclusion:— 1. It follows that Jesus Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour. His work is such that any sinner choosing to avail himself of it may be saved through it. 2. It also follows that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour; for if all these requirements needed to be satisfied, who is there that can meet them but Himself?—W. M. Taylor, D.D.: Life Truths, pp. 1–20. THE SHIP(A Sermon to Seamen.) Isaiah 33:23. Thy tacklings are loosed, &c.Seas, rivers, and ships have for ages afforded the world the mainstay of commerce. Not only so; the imagery of many of our best books would have been very much the poorer had not visions and dreams of the sea been present to the writers. Isaiah makes good use of these. In Isaiah 33:21 he says, “The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams,” &c. Jerusalem was badly off, compared with Babylon and other cities, in that it had neither sea nor river, but only a small rivulet. Large and deep rivers near great towns have their advantages and disadvantages in time of war. The prophet here says that God would be to Jerusalem a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein no ship of war should be allowed to approach to injure His people. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in seas or war-ships (Isaiah 33:22). Jerusalem, at this time, was in danger from a great power, and in the text that power, Assyria, is compared to a ship whose “tacklings are loosed,” &c. A sad plight surely for a ship to be in! But not only great powers like Assyria are, in reality, in a bad way, as abettors of wickedness, but individuals also, like the disabled vessel spoken of by the prophet; for, 1. A wicked man is like a ship whose tacklings are loosed. The tackle of a ship is of immense service in many ways; but a ship whose tackle has got loosed from her masts is not fit for a voyage. No seaman would dream of sailing in such a ship. Every rope must be in its right place and securely fixed. But how many men are out on the voyage of life, with the gear of mind and heart all loose! In fine weather, even, they make no real headway; in storms they are in peril of being cast away. They are at the mercy of every wind that blows; for, 2. A wicked man is like a ship whose masts will not stand upright. The tackle of a ship is of service in strengthening its masts. But men are out voyaging on the sea of life: they would fain stand upright, but they cannot; for their thoughts and feelings are not made use of to sustain them in an upright life; they sway under the blast; the crash of ruin is always impending. 3. A wicked man is like a ship without sails. On a mast, unstrengthened by good tackle, it is worse than useless to attempt to spread a sail. But without sails to catch the heaven-sent breezes, how shall the distant haven be reached? Even men of some moral ballast are at best like poor toilers at the oars. The port is a long way off, and they need sails—wings filled with spiritual energies—to carry them onward over miles of sea day by day. 4. A wicked man is like a dismantled ship which plunderers attack. “Then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.” How poor sailors are plundered by the weakest of mankind and womankind! .—Sin, iniquity, that is, in-equity, is at the root of the godless man’s loose thoughts and passions, tottering steps and wingless spirit. The ship wants a thorough overhauling; nay, it wants remaking (John 3:3). We should be homeward-bound for the kingdom of God; but it is vain to dream of reaching port as an unseaworthy vessel.—J. Macrae Simcock. NO THEREIsa_33:24. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. In a besieged city, from watching, anxiety, and scarcity of food, there is usually considerable sickness. When an epidemic disease is prevalent, sickness becomes the general experience. There is in any large population always a considerable amount of sickness, more or less serious. Nor is it confined to the city. In the country it is much the same. At the best it is only somewhat less. Medical men are everywhere required. Sanitary arrangements, temperate habits, and medical skill may diminish the extent and alleviate the severity of sickness, but they cannot uproot it. When, therefore, we read of a city in which there shall be no sickness, our thoughts turn from earth to heaven. The text is a beautifully poetic representation of the termination of the conscious weakness that rested on Jerusalem while the Assyrian army lay before it. But there is a sense in which the words may be literally understood. We believe in “the holy city, the new Jerusalem.” Let us meditate on that new condition of our life. I. Sickness is weakness. We give the name to all states of the body other than sound and perfect health. How numerous! Our condition here is one of constant liability to it. At every period of life we are exposed to it. It may be borne to us by the air we breathe; taken with the food we eat and the water we drink; received by contact with our fellows; lurk secretly in some part of our body unsuspected; develop itself from the slight cold, the result of carelessness, or in spite of the utmost thoughtfulness; it may attack the youth as well as the old man, those who boast the fulness of their strength as well as those who know themselves to be less firmly built. But it always supposes weakness. Under the name of weakness it holds its victim with a firm grasp. While he persuades himself that he has conquered, it secretly spreads through every vein, and eventually lays him prostrate. The strongest man becomes powerless when sickness holds him in its grasp. As he is too weak to throw off the weakness, he is too weak to perform the tasks which at other times he performs with perfect ease. The student, the mechanic, the merchant. Visit some sick-bed and your confidence of perpetual strength will depart. Sickness is humiliating because it is weakening. It is often attended with pain. Pain increases weakness. In the grasp of pain the sufferer may be held for days, with no power of resistance, no prospect of relief. Have you not sometimes thought what a contrast it would be if you could be entirely free from sickness and from liability to it? We may indulge the thought. That will be the condition of the resurrection body in the celestial city. It will be fashioned like to the body of Christ’s glory (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). As Christ on the cross endured the last sickness and pain He was ever to know, so shall all His followers rise, as He did, to a life from which sickness and pain are for ever excluded. Are you one with Him? Then in pain, weariness, languor, sickness, let all impatience be subdued as you remember that it is only a little longer. “Neither shall there be any more pain.” II. Sickness is sorrow. Sorrow because of lost time and business, fear that the end of life is near, the leaving behind not only all pleasant earthly things and persons, but especially those dependent on the patient’s life, to whom his loss may be ruin. Not to the patient only is it a time of sorrow. Enter the house. All is gloom. Rooms darkened. The family tread softly and speak under their breath, as if every sound would not only disturb the sufferer, but be out of harmony with their own feelings. It is the little one that has come home sick from school (2 Kings 4:19). His mother takes him on her knee. Soon she perceives the signs of one of the sicknesses that are the terror of childhood. Medical aid is procured. The sickness deepens. Every one watches with aching heart, for the child is a universal favourite. And if he is taken, oh, what distress! Or it is the young man who has grown to maturity. He is active in business. His father, under the burden of advancing years, is gradually devolving responsibility on him, that he may himself enjoy a few years’ rest after a life of hard and anxious work. But sickness comes. It passes by those you would expect it to strike. It singles out the young and strong. Gradually that fine young man wastes away. Day and night the mother, whose advancing years and infirmities demand the attention, watches over him with a breaking heart. All is done that strong affection can inspire. It is vain. Oh! what sorrow through these months! And when the end comes, what tongue can describe the agony? We wonder if it will ever cease to be true that “man was made to mourn.” Thank God we can entertain the prospect of the complete cessation of sorrow. “Neither sorrow.” “Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” For “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.” III. Sickness is the prelude to death. It usually precedes. Any sickness may end in it. Death changes everything: the body different; the soul different. But there shall be no more death. There will be the perpetuated life of paradise regained; for there will be the tree of life; there will be the resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). IV. Sickness, sorrow, and death are the fruit of sin. Does not Scripture thus trace them? There was no sickness before sin. Sin was the seed. The heavenly city is free from sin. There is perfect holiness. It is the completion of the redeeming work of Christ from sin, sorrow, death. The seed which bears sickness is taken out of the soil. Shall we dwell in that city of immortal health? Are we travelling towards it? If not, we cannot reach it. Jesus is the way. Come to Him (Revelation 21:27). It is a prepared place for a prepared people.—J. Rawlinson. FROM (Sermon to the Young.) Isaiah 33:24. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. Our sun-dial is not that of Hezekiah: its shadow has no backward movement; the last enemy must soon challenge the traveller to pay the tax imposed on his pilgrimage. When all the pains and illnesses of the flesh are over, there remaineth a place purchased, prepared, and furnished for the children of God, and in which “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.” Where is this healthy spot? Not in any place in this country; not in the world of which our land is so favoured a portion. To be able always to say, “I am not sick,” is one of the privileges of heaven alone. I. THE EVILS AND OF . Sickness is certainly not a pleasant thing—necessary, profitable, if you please, but not pleasant. It cannot be pleasant; for it is the punishment for sin. Angels are never sick, because they are of that world of which the inhabitant shall not say, “I am sick.” Sickness helps to crumble us into death; diseases are Death’s servants. Death sends them out in their different liveries as his couriers and forerunners; they apprise sinners that their Master is coming into their country, passing by that way, will perhaps “stand at their door and knock,” warning each to be ready to leave all and follow death, as Peter said he and his fellow-apostles had done for Christ (H. E. I. 1561). 1. Bodily pain often accompanies sickness. This is sometimes felt in so grievous and dreadful a degree that the sufferer wishes and prays for death to be relieved from his agonies. When David was tried in this way he said, “The pains of hell gat hold upon me”—a strong expression, meaning very excruciating pains. Who can tell but those who have felt them what sufferings belong to the burning fever, the tormenting headache, &c.? The curious machine is out of order; the wheels grind and grate against each other; “the harp with a thousand strings is out of tune and full of discords.” The very means taken for recovery often, for a time at least, increase pain and suffering. We admire the wisdom which God has given to man to discover the healing virtues concealed in Nature’s works. But most of these, excellent in their effects, are nauseous to the taste. It seems as if Providence had ordained this on purpose that everything should conspire in sickness to make it a suffering, uncomfortable time, in order the more deeply to impress on us the salutary lessons it is intended to teach us. 2. The interruption it causes to the active duties of life. Health is the one thing needful, not only to the enjoyment of life, but to the vigorous and successful discharge of its duties. 3. One might mention a third evil, viz., the trouble one gives in sickness to those around us, only you might be ready to cry out, “We cannot allow this to be either a trouble or an evil; what sister or affectionate brother would think this a trouble?” But often the sufferer feels it keenly. II. THE PROFITS AND OF . Begin by thanking Jesus Christ that sickness is not a punishment and nothing else—not a certainty and foretaste of hell. His sacrifice has taken away its sting; it bears the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. It withdraws us from the world. We follow too hotly and incessantly the things of the world. Some years ago a satire was written upon us called “The World Without Souls,” and the author, without exaggerating, nearly proved that most of us live as if we thought this was really to be the case. .—So improve the sickness of earth as to make it the path to the health of heaven. In health often look back to the time of sickness: consider what were then your feelings, your fears, your good resolutions. Have you kept your word? Have you done your part? Is the Great Physician paid? He seeks not gold, but the coin of gratitude, love, and obedience. Every sickness should urge us to secure the country without pain; to win the new heavens and the new earth in which Christ’s redeemed people shall be crowned with unfading youth and unbroken health.—George Clark, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 59–68. THE OF ZIONIsa_34:8. For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, &c.The Lord has always been mindful of His Church. He is pledged to her defence against the world, and against the world-spirit which often intrudes within her pale. Chapter 34 contains a description of the effects of the Divine vengeance in the typical case of Edom; chapter 35 describes the flourishing state of the Church consequent upon the execution of the Divine judgments. I. There is a parallel between God’s dealings with individuals and society. Such a parallel may be presumed to exist, inasmuch as any society is made up of individuals; and God cares equally for the single and the corporate life. Taking the mass of men, evil dispositions lead to evil deeds, and these to habits, before they are turned to the service of God. God intervenes in the way of judgment; times of judgment are appointed them, foreshadowing a future day of the Lord’s vengeance. 1. Individual judgments. God’s controversy with Jacob at Peniel, when Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint, was but the climax of the Divine vengeance in respect of his sinful past, and became the turning-point of his life. Not only are bad men changed in this way, but good men are made better (Isaiah 38:12-14; Lamentations 3:3-21; Job 10:16-20; H. E. I. 56–59, 66–70, 116). God strikes, that human nature may be laid bare in its depths, and a thorough work of regeneration accomplished, proceeding from within outward. Afflictions do not always soften; but they do so often enough to form a large part of the method of the Divine vengeance. 2. Social and national judgments. Jacob became Israel, and Israel the Church of God, the representative of God on earth, even as Edom, of which Esau, the godless, was the ancestor, is regarded in Scripture as the representative of the world-power. Edom was emphatically the troubler of Israel. Its judgments—prophetic of greater in the future—were sent by the Defender of Zion— (1.) To make manifest its sin; (2.) To show the theocratic character of Israel. But the Edom, or world-spirit, was in Israel herself; hence the judgments of the Church. The idea of the theocracy was interfered with when Israel wished a king, like the other nations (1 Samuel 8:6-7). That could only be entertained by Jehovah if kings held their right to rule direct from Himself. And so He raised up David and David’s line (1 Samuel 16:1-13; Genesis 49:8). Hence the institution and perpetuation of the prophetic line—Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, &c.—to assert and maintain the idea of the theocracy. With a grander display of the Divine power this tale has been re-told under the Christian dispensation. Social and national crises are still brought about, in the wise judgment of God, first, to make manifest the sins of communities and nations; and, second, to direct men to the Church of Christ. In times of the Church’s unfaithfulness, apostles, truly apostolic men, reformers, &c., interfere. II. Antagonism between the Church and the world must end in the defeat and subjugation of the world. Jehovah is the defender of the cause of Zion through the ages. He has espoused the cause of holiness against ungodliness. His people may be dispersed, but the Church does not die out. From the lowest ebb it returns to the flow. The blood of its martyrs becomes seed. Its opponents turn ever feebler. This is seen in their more spasmodic efforts. Its benign influence has extended far; ever larger numbers are being brought under its yoke. The world fights every inch of the ground; but— III. The great day is surely coming. 1. There must come a complete manifestation of the Church’s inherent glory. (1.) This manifestation will take place by displays of Divine vengeance on the enemies of Zion. This method of the ancient time has not become obsolete. (2.) The manifestation will not be short-lived, but continue, so that destruction may be succeeded by a realised state of salvation. (3.) Last of all, there shall be seen the triumph of the Church, when Church and world shall be conterminous, and fulness of blessing be enjoyed. (Chapter 35 still awaits its largest fulfilment.) .— 1. We have a Gospel of terror to preach to the world—a Gospel of terror, for the Divine vengeance is informed by the greatest heart of love. Is the Church, as some say, becoming less powerful in our time? Let the question at least provoke searchings of heart. God still sends judgments upon unfaithful Churches. 2. Remember, in times of darkness and trial, that the Lord has the deepest interest in His Church. It cannot disappear from the world; but be alive to removing from it causes of weakness. 3. Let us encourage one another in the hope of a time when the Church’s glory shall be fully manifested, when the time of recompenses for the long controversy of Zion shall arrive. Let us work in the Church so as to help to bring about the glad time coming.—J. Macrae Simcock. THE OF GOD’S Isa_34:16-17. Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord, &c.The text occurs midway between a series of predicted judgments pronounced on Edom as the representative of the wicked world, and another series of blessings foretold concerning the Church of God, but it is evidently retrospective. While a minute verification of these predictions of vengeance might form a solid, convincing argument for the validity of trust in the Bible as the rule of faith and practice, there is another and more general way of regarding the text. Search into a certain book is enjoined because it is the Book of JEHOVAH. Human faith finds its ultimate basis in God Himself. The certainty of the Divine judgments may therefore be inferred from— I. THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE BEING. If the Bible be not merely a revelation from God, but a revelation of God, too much attention cannot be paid to those aspects of the Divine nature afforded by it which man may apprehend although he cannot comprehend them. “Canst thou by searching find out God?” &c. No; but enough may be learned of God to make us sure that it is madness to disobey Him or trifle with His commands. 1. The long-hidden Name of God. Proper names were made very expressive among the Jews. The name JEHOVAH was sacred above all others; they treated it with a superstitious reverence, not daring to pronounce it, &c. Doubtless they referred with awe to the time and circumstances of its communication to Moses (Exodus 6:1-2). And so may we in thinking of the Divine judgments. JEHOVAH, it is said, “remembered His covenant,” and was about to redeem the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt “with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments” (Exodus 6:1-8). JEHOVAH: what does the Name mean? Being—unconditioned, absolute, immutable, eternal Being. If, then, God changes not, but is JEHOVAH, to sin against Him is inevitably to call down judgment; for JEHOVAH’S will must be done on earth as it is in heaven. 2. Some of the attributes by the use of which we try to compass the Divine nature. (1.) God is just. But sin, in all its forms, is a crying injustice, and affronts God so that the Divine majesty must assert itself in punishment. (2.) God is good. But sin, as selfishness, is radically opposed to goodness in God, who has might, as well as right, on His side, and, therefore, pursues selfishness to its last resort. (3.) God is holy. Separateness from all sin distinguishes Him in the midst of His relations to man. How, then, can sinners go unpunished? (H. E. I. 2281, 2282, 4478–4479, 4603–4610). II. THE OF DIVINE LAW. Law is a transcript of the Divine nature; the Divine character or handwriting making Him known to us; the far-reaching Hand of the Eternal. God reveals Himself in its sanctions, reward, and punishment. To obey is to reap reward; to disobey is to be laid hold of instantly by the outraged majesty of law. There is no human way of escape. Visible judgment may be deferred, but the Divine law is cognisant of all transgression. In the matter of the first sin, the formerly existing potentiality of punishment became an actually. The character of the Divine law may be seen— 1. In the physical world. The designer of a ship or bridge diverges from mathematical truth only to produce disaster. 2. In Providence. 3. In the Word of God. .—If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? The Divine judgments cannot be evaded. “God is love;” but what love! God is “a consuming fire;” not sentimentally weak; not given to winking at transgression. 4. God’s grace magnifies His name and law. He condemned Christ as the Sin-Bearer to death. Thank God! the sinner may be pardoned, but the impenitent are surely handed over to punishment.—J. Macrae Simcock. Isa_35:1-2; Isaiah 35:7. The wilderness and the solitary place, &c.Chapters 34, 35, form one prediction, first announcing the doom of Edom, and then taking us into a new sphere where all is light, beauty, and gladness; a prediction which had a fulfilment in the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem, which they set above their chiefest joy. But the prophecy is one of those in which the co-called secondary meaning is, in truth, the primary; the spiritual takes precedence of the natural, and the fulfilment is to be looked for, not in a remnant of Israel returning to the land of their fathers, but in these grand Gospel times, in which humanity, cursed and bloated by sin, is blessed, saved, and dignified by the influences that stream from the Cross of Calvary. I. The sad condition of the localities on which the Gospel is intended to operate.How suggestive the descriptive symbols: a “wilderness,” a “solitary place,” “parched ground,” a “habitation of dragons.” The desolation turns mainly on the absence of water. No other similes could so vividly depict moral barrenness and death. The unregenerate heart is desolate, weary, solitary. Moreover, it is “a habitation of dragons,” a foul serpent-brood of uncontrolled passions. This true of the world as well as of the individual. Think of the great unreclaimed wastes of heathendom. Can civilisation renew them? It has been tried and found wanting [1240] Only the Water of Life, gushing from the smitten Rock, can give moral life. [1240] The civilisation of Greece and Rome did not affect anything in the way of changing spiritual death into spiritual life. The utmost which it succeeded in effecting was to cover the frightful corruption of death with a more beautiful funeral pall—to hide the naked hideousness of sin behind a veil spangled with silver, and gold, and precious stones. But death was there none the less, and sin of such a kind that the foulest impurities of the most degraded heathen could not exceed the impurities of Athens and of Rome. The old lesson is being taught us, if we would but learn it, in our own day. It is not civilisation that can change the moral desolation of France, of Spain, of Austria. It is not civilisation, as understood by men of science and doctrinaire philosophers, that can change the moral wilderness existing in our large cities, and in much of our rural population. It will only do what it did in Greece; it will merely cover the ghastliness of death with a more decent covering.—Kay. II. The effects produced by the kingdom of Jesus [1243][1243] See outlines on pp. 364, 365. Even we can appreciate the value of water and the beauty of its effects. But to Orientals water is a matter of life and death. Hence as an emblem it is employed to bring before the mind the blessed and joy-giving results of the kingdom of Christ. Note these results as they are brought before us in our text. 1. Gladness. “The wilderness and the solitary place,” &c. Music of Nature after copious rains following on scorching heat. This an emblem of the joy brought to human hearts by the Gospel. The wilderness state one of sorrow; the river of the water of life running through the heart makes it glad. This is seen in cases where sin and terror are cast out of the heart by the love of God. How this result has been manifested in modern times in nations converted from idolatry to Christianity (H. E. I. 1134). 2. Fertility. “It shall blossom,” &c. The desert is barren. The Gospel changes moral wilderness into fruitful gardens; the individual, the nation. 3. Beauty. Think first of a part of the earth’s surface parched, desert, and barren, and then of it as a garden covered with the fairest flowers. The first and most striking impression made upon the mind by such a transformation would not be so much that of fertility as of surpassing beauty. So with this moral transformation. Contrast the state of a country before with its condition after having received the Gospel (H. E. I. 1126, 1127). Look at the annals of missionary effort: Madagascar, Samoa, the Fiji Islands, &c. The same change occurs in individual character. 4. Glory and majesty. “The glory of Lebanon,” &c. Symbols of all that is glorious and majestic. To live by the power of Jesus the secret of a noble life. Alliance with heaven raises men to regal dignity. The Gospel elevates the character and dignifies the pursuits of men. Our lower pursuits are ennobled by a Christian aim, whilst the higher life has the very glory of God resting on it. 5. A vision that extends into the Holy of holies. “They shall see the glory of Jehovah,” &c. Only in Christ can we see this. He is the glory of God. The Shekinah is seen above the blood-besprinkled mercy-seat.—John Kay in the Modern Scottish Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 133–143 [1246][1246] The civilisation of Greece and Rome did not affect anything in the way of changing spiritual death into spiritual life. The utmost which it succeeded in effecting was to cover the frightful corruption of death with a more beautiful funeral pall—to hide the naked hideousness of sin behind a veil spangled with silver, and gold, and precious stones. But death was there none the less, and sin of such a kind that the foulest impurities of the most degraded heathen could not exceed the impurities of Athens and of Rome. The old lesson is being taught us, if we would but learn it, in our own day. It is not civilisation that can change the moral desolation of France, of Spain, of Austria. It is not civilisation, as understood by men of science and doctrinaire philosophers, that can change the moral wilderness existing in our large cities, and in much of our rural population. It will only do what it did in Greece; it will merely cover the ghastliness of death with a more decent covering.—Kay. This chapter is an anticipation of the great prophecy of the restoration (40–66) The firm confidence in God, the boundless hopefulness, the glowing visions of the future, the vigour and joyousness that spread so broad a splendour over that famous Scripture are here in a brief compendium. It has been assigned to the state of Judah under Hezekiah, to the return from the exile, to the Christian dispensation, to a future condition of Palestine, to some future state of the Church or of the world, as well as to some other occasions. Two plain facts are before us— 1. At no period of Jewish history was there any approach to a perfect realisation of the magnificent promises of this and allied predictions. 2. God has already given to us so substantial a foretaste of the blessings here promised, that we may rest assured that the one satisfying fulfilment of the prophecy will be in the triumph of the kingdom of heaven through the power of the Gospel of Christ. Let us look at the picture in the light of its growing fulfilment. I. THE OLD SCENE OF THE GARDEN. We are not independent of things around us. Christianity has a transforming influence over our earthly surroundings. It is the most beneficent factor in material civilisation, the truest patron of art, science, literature, commerce (H. E. I. 1124–1131, 1134). But behind this lies a deeper truth. By transforming our hearts the Gospel changes all things to us. This transforming influence is shown in various relations. 1. The wilderness of old bad things is cleared, and gives place to new and better things. The axe must come before the plough. 2. The solitary place and the desert. It is not all weeds and bushes. The task of fertilising the desert with irrigation not less difficult than that of clearing the wilderness. (1.) So there are souls that seem to have lost all soil for spiritual life. (2.) Then there are deserts of ruin, the remains of old withered hopes and joys and loves. II. THE NEW OF THE GARDEN. 1. Life. This is the first and most important thing. Christ, the one Saviour of society, was the greatest of iconoclasts. But He was also the greatest founder, originator, constructor. He sows seed, gives increase, brings life. 2. Beauty. The desert blossoms as the rose. The garden is not to be solely utilitarian. The Church is the bride of Christ, and as such she is to be adorned with every grace. 3. Gladness. Life and beauty bring joy. The Church not a prison-house of melancholy devotion. 4. Varied accessories. The garden will not only produce its own seedlings, but plants from all quarters are to be carried into it. Lebanon gives his cedars; Carmel his woods for the lower slopes; Sharon his far-famed rose. Christians are heirs of all things. “All things are yours.” In conclusion, observe two important points:— 1. This wonderful transformation will be brought about by the power of God (Isaiah 35:4). We have tried long enough to reform the world by merely human agency. The Hebrew prophets promised Divine help. Christ fulfils that promise. He comes with life-giving power. Seek Him in faith and obedience. 2. All this is a picture of the future. Christ has done much for the weary world. But the old promises are as yet fulfilled in but a small part. The Hebrews set the golden age not in the past, but in the future. We too must assume their attitude of faith, and hope, and patience (H. E. I. 3421). Are we ready to cry, “Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?” Let us remember that God has all eternity to work with. Meanwhile, let us do what we can to convert our little corner of the vast wilderness into some beginnings of the garden of the Lord.—W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Clerical World, i. 231. FOR THE TIMIDIsa_35:3-4. Strengthen ye the weak hands, &c.The Christian ministry addresses itself to men of various character in various states. It must be adapted to all. Sometimes warning and denunciation, sometimes tenderness, but always love. The text is addressed to the officers and leading men of Jerusalem in a time of general alarm. The prophet declares that the power of the enemy shall be broken, and that instead of desolation there shall be gladness. The timid and weak were to be encouraged. God’s strength is made perfect in man’s weakness. I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS MESSAGE IS . “The weak hands,”—“the feeble knees,”—“them that are of a fearful heart.” Timidity has paralysed them. After a desolating war the nation might thus lose heart. A timid woman who sees insuperable difficulty always in the way. A man in a storm at sea lies lamenting that he ventured on the waters. Some characters shrink from every touch. They are well-intentioned, but their faint hearts bar every effort; and they pass through life purposing and projecting, but never accomplishing anything (H. E. I. 2053, 2054). This timid and feeble disposition may be manifested in spiritual as well as in other things. For instance— 1. In relation to Christian experience. It is the privilege of believers in Christ to know their salvation. But many fail to attain it. They do not doubt His sufficiency, but their own interest in it. They fear their sins are not forgiven, their spiritual experience not genuine. Sometimes this is the result of a tendency to view every subject in its darker aspects. Sometimes it is the result of disease. Sometimes of unwatchfulness, negligence, and sin. Sometimes of defective conceptions of the Gospel. Sometimes of a microscopic self-scrutiny which exposes failings and defects with severe faithfulness. The victim of such fears is like one who wishes to reach the city but is never sure that he is in the right way. 2. In relation to Christian enterprise. Christians are not converted merely for their own safety. There is a work to do. Sinful habits, dispositions, tempers to be overcome. The dark mass of humanity to be brightened. The Gospel is to be carried to the destitute. This work requires the gifts and opportunities in the hands of Christians. But the weak and faint-hearted tremble at every undertaking. To them the missionary enterprise is a hopeless expenditure of money and life. The time for useful labour in the Church never arrives. If it is commenced, it is abandoned when difficulties present themselves. These weak brethren do nothing themselves and repress the plans and efforts of bolder and more enterprising Christians (H. E. I. 2057, 2058). Among your fears let there be the fear lest by your fears you should hinder the cause of Christ! II. ITS NATURE AND IMPORT. It is intended to strengthen and confirm the feeble. God’s messengers are to speak words by which faith and courage may be reanimated. They contain— 1. An assurance of deliverance. The deliverance of the Jewish people included the punishment of their enemies. God saves in a way suitable to each case. If your own resources are inadequate, the Divine resources are equal to the emergency. He will save you from your spiritual fears. Has He not sent His Son? Has not Jesus died? Does He not intercede? Does not His Spirit work? His willingness to save is equal to His ability. What wondrous love to man in the work of redemption! Do you fear that you will be eventually rejected, or that you will fail in the service to which He calls you? (John 6:37; Matthew 28:20). The message is addressed to your faith. It reminds you of God’s power and grace in Christ. It casts you on the all-sufficiency of God. 2. A rebuke of fear. “Fear not.” Hope is the opposite of fear and the accompaniment of courage. The fear of the unaccustomed sailor is dissipated when the captain announces that the storm is passing away. The little child alone in a dark room is afraid, although she knows not why. But the mother comes and says there is nothing to fear; there is no fear where she is. So let God’s presence and promise drive away all fear respecting our spiritual condition and our Christian work (P. D. 1248, 1257, 1258). 3. An incitement to labour. “Be strong.” When God’s work calls, we must neither yield to fear nor indolence. The father leads his child to the post of duty where his life-work must be done. He sees something of the complicated work of the manufactory, and fears that he will never be equal to it. His father says, “Be a man; face your work, and strength for it will come.” So God says, “Be strong.” Here is work in the Church and the world. You are weak. Use the strength He gives. It will grow by use. “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” “Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” Thus God sends the message of encouragement. Weak hands are strengthened. Feeble knees are confirmed. Fearful hearts are rendered courageous. And His encouragement is necessary to comfort in the Christian life, performance of duty, endurance of suffering and reproach. And it helps to recommend the Gospel.—J. Rawlinson. Presumption and fear are the Scylla and Charybdis of the Christian life, and it requires Divine guidance, together with all our own watchfulness, to steer safely between them. On the one hand, many are inclined to indulge in vain confidence, and take to themselves the Christian name and hope when not entitled to them; and on the other, many are fearful and disposed to shrink back from duties and privileges which really belong to them. It demands much wisdom on the part of a pastor so to speak as not to encourage false hopes, nor discourage weak and timid piety, especially in reference to a public profession of religion. My object is, to suit the case of those who are well entitled to hope for the Divine mercy through Christ Jesus, but are disquieting themselves, or are disquieted by the enemy, with needless fears. In meeting their wants I will state, and reply to, the reasoning by which I know that many disturb their own peace. 1. “I cannot indulge the hope that I am a Christian, because I have never passed through the same religious exercises and experiences that others profess to have felt and enjoyed.” It is not necessary to dwell at large upon this difficulty. God has brought many sons to glory, but no two of them have been led thither in precisely the same way, or have been exercised with precisely the same feelings. If, in the main, our experiences correspond with the Word of God in the great points of faith and love, it need not disquiet us though we never heard of another case exactly like our own (H. E. I. 1410–1429). 2. “If I were truly a child of God, sin would not prevail against me as I find it does.” Answer:—Sin is never perfectly subdued in our hearts as long as we remain upon earth. Some boast of having attained to sinless perfection, but they seem to be labouring under a sort of hallucination, like that of one in an insane asylum, amid his straw and rags, who fancies himself a king, when he is indeed but a poor pitiable object. “The righteous falleth seven times a day,” &c. Read St. Paul’s experience in the last part of the 7th of Romans and be encouraged thereby (H. E. I. 329, 1057, 2313, 2861, 4571–4573). 3. “I find that sin not only prevails against me, but I seem to be worse than when I first strove against it; my heart appears to grow more wicked, my corruptions stronger, and my strength to resist to be less.” Answer:—To perceive more of our sin than usual does not always prove that we are more sinful, but often the reverse, just as when one cleanses a room, though the air is filled with dust floating in the sunbeams, there is no more of it actually there than before, and there will soon be less of it as the operation goes on. We do not know the strength of our evil passions until we begin to oppose them. It is also undoubtedly true that when one is making a special effort to lead a Christian life, that then he is especially tempted and hindered, and that the motions of sin are then more violent. And further than this, when any are endeavouring to break away from the dominion of Satan, then he assails them with his most powerful temptations (H. E. I. 1060–1062, 1066–1068, 2524, 2525). 4. Another class of disquieted ones affirm that they cannot hope they are true Christians, because they seem to love everything else more than God. But in estimating our love to God compared with our love to earthly things, we are not to conclude that we love that most which most excites our affections. It has been well remarked “that a man may be more moved when he sees a friend that has long been absent, and seem to regard him more for the moment than he does his own wife and children, and yet none would think that the friend was loved the most;” so neither must we conclude because when we are abroad in the world we find our affections vehemently stirred towards its various objects, that therefore they are supreme in our hearts. We should judge of our comparative affection by asking ourselves soberly which of the two objects we should prefer to part with (H. E. I. 3365, 3366, 4188, 4189). 5. “A person may in appearance be like a Christian, and yet be really destitute of any true piety.” Answer:—Fear is usually the best remedy against the thing feared, and none are farther from the danger of making a false profession than those who are most afraid of it (H. E. I. 339, 2050–2053). 6. Some again have fears that they are not true Christians, because they come so far short of the attainments of some eminent Christians of their acquaintance. We reply that the worst part of the character of those exalted saints may not be known to us, or they may not have our hindrances, or they may have been long in growing up to that state, while we are only, as it were, babes in Christ (H. E. I. 2508–2526). 7. Another class say that they cannot think any real Christian ever was so tempted and distressed with evil thoughts as they are. We reply, Job was tempted to curse God, and Christ Himself to worship Satan. We may have very wicked thoughts entering our minds, but if we strive against them and they are painful to us, they are no evidence against us. Christ had thoughts as vile as these suggested to Him, but He remained sinless (H. E. I. 4767–4779). 8. Another class say that they have doctrinal difficulties, that certain things in the Bible do not appear clear to them, and they fear to make any public confession of Christ till these things are made plain. We reply that the best way to solve doctrinal difficulties is to engage in practical duties. Any one perplexed upon points of doctrine should read but little on those points, but engage earnestly in all acts of obedience which the Bible enjoins, praying fervently and humbly to be guided into all truth. One day’s labour in the field of charity, or one step onward in the path of known duty, will bring more light into the soul upon disputed points than weeks of speculation and controversy (H. E. I. 590–596, 1797). It would be endless to recount all the ways in which doubts and fears assail us. Their name is legion, and our prayer should be that Christ would command them to come out of the man who is troubled with them, and to enter no more into him.—W. E. Lewis, (404) D.D.: Plain Sermons for the Christian Year. THE HEALER AND JOY-GIVERIsa_35:5-6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, &c.This beautiful prophecy is not exhausted by the first fulfilment of the promise which immediately precedes. However great the political deliverance, it did not include the literal giving of sight to the blind or hearing to the deaf. Nor is it only poetic imagery. It points to something in the time of the Messiah, to whose manifestation the scheme of Old Testament history and prophecy is subordinate. We find in this text— I. THE CHRIST IMPARTS. 1. We find in the life of Christ a literal fulfilment of the text, which compels us to regard it as fulfilled in Him (Matthew 20:30-34; Mark 7:32-35; John 5:5-9, &c.) Now these are historical facts. Useless to say they are miracles, therefore incredible, because a miracle is impossible. Who taught you that a miracle is impossible?. You are assuming what you are bound to prove. The testimony of the writers of this history is worth as much as that of any other historical writers (H. E. I. 3527–3529). Many things have occurred in the world the like of which we have never seen. Moreover, the power of God must be taken into account in deciding whether a thing is possible or not. Is it not astounding presumption for a man to measure Divine power by his own; to say, because neither himself nor any man at present can work a miracle, therefore God cannot and never has? After all the argument, he fact remains. 2. We find that the coming of Christ is identified with improvements in the general character and condition of mankind, such as may be shadowed forth in these physical blessings. Where Christianity comes, the intellectual, moral, and material standard rises. Savage peoples become civilised; civilised nations reach a higher plane. The influence of personal Christianity commonly improves the social position of the individual. 3. But beyond this we find that the coming of Christ is identified with the bestowment of spiritual blessings and the effectuation of spiritual changes as remarkable as the miracles it wrought in the physical region. The spiritual disease of sin, analogous to the physical diseases it has caused, is cured by the Gospel. Take a case. One thoroughly imbued with hatred to Christ. Not content with simple indifference to Him, or rejection of His claims, he throws all the energy of an unusually energetic nature into the active measures that were adopted for the suppression of His cause. But the saving power of Christ finds him in a way unexpected and unusual. He surrenders on the spot, and puts himself under the command of Christ to do whatsoever He wills. He becomes a missionary of the cross. He is sent to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” And this case is a type of multitudes whose spiritual diseases have been healed, some of them the most virulent and malignant. It is a work within their souls, which the power of God alone can effect. It is a change of the heart’s deepest principles and affections under the influence of spiritual considerations only. It is a moral revolution. The blind eyes are opened to the glory of Christ’s truth. The deaf ear listens to His voice. The dumb tongue is eloquent of His salvation, and sings His praise. And the lame man gladly walks in the way of His commandments. II. THE JOY HE CREATES. Gladness runs through the text. Leaping and singing are expressions of joy. The blessings of salvation find the soul in the condition of a traveller in the sandy desert, weary, footsore, lame, and silent, who unexpectedly finds a springing well, and begins to talk, and sing, and leap for joy. Joy arises in the heart— 1. From the supply of a conscious need. Imagine the joy of those whom Christ healed, when the blind saw the light and became interested in the objects around him, when the deaf heard the sound of the human voice, when the dumb was able to make himself understood, when the lame recovered the use of his limbs. What joy was brought into many a home! And when He comes to the heart with His forgiving, cleansing, healing love, what gladness He brings! It is the beginning of days. It is the enjoyment of life. Christians have sources of happiness of which the world knows nothing. “Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory” (H. E. I. 3041). 2. From the manifestation of a compassionate Saviour. His healing miracles illustrate His character. Beneficence, tender sympathy with human suffering, love to man marked His steps. It brought Him down from heaven. It nailed Him to the cross. And He is still the same. He is personally interested in His people (H. E. I. 952–957). He is the object of Divine love, and therefore joy. 3. From the satisfaction of settled faith. Faith connects the soul with Him. But it is often assailed. It needs support even where it exists. The disciples sometimes wavered, then some new confirmation was afforded. John the Baptist in prison doubted, therefore received the message (Matthew 11:4-6). Jesus used His miracles in evidence. Nor must we surrender their evidential power. And there is the confirmatory evidence of experience. This is always fresh. 1. This subject calls for grateful love. Give evidence of your cure by getting the spirit of Christ’s compassionate love, and by being His instruments for the cure of others. 2. You too are still in the power of the disease; come to Him for healing.—J. Rawlinson. THE CURSE DONE AWAYIsa_35:5-6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, &c.The years of fulfilment linger, and faith is weak and faint. The picture of hopeless helplessness is painted in the context (Isaiah 35:3-4). If we fail, God’s promise cannot (Isaiah 35:1-2). The transformation of the desert, the planting of Eden there, and the coming of God with vengeance and recompense are one. They signify one vast display of gracious power. It is no abstract salvation that we wait and hope for, but a Saviour. The text describes the blessings of Messiah’s kingdom. I. “Is not this poetry?” Yes, but is poetry the opposite of truth? Have not prophets ever been poets? Is not poetry the sweetest or strongest or sublimest expression of man’s noblest conceptions of truth? This poem of Isaiah is an expression of God’s realities. The poetry, the prophecy has its answering reality in history. The age of Christ spake back to it, and both speak on to us. Nothing shall be wanting to complete the scene. The glorious in nature shall but typify the more glorious in man’s body, mind, morals, and spiritual satisfaction and joy. II. Spiritual and physical evil are intimately connected. 1. They are cause and effect. The physical is the sign of the spiritual. Something radical was wrong before the wrong things could come. This doctrine is philosophic as well as biblical. 2. It is not meant that any and every special personal affliction is the result of any given or particular personal transgression. A man is not blind because he or his parents are sinners, but because of sin. We are living in a violated order. III. The cessation of physical evil can only follow the cure of evil that is spiritual. God’s life, God’s health, God’s gladness must be poured into the dumb before his tongue can sing. The spirit of the blind must be thrilled with a heavenly vision before his eye can open on the outer world. God must come and save before the cripple can bound as the deer. 1. Man’s sin must be cured, then his sorrow. The miracles of healing in the Gospels teach us this. We can never overlook the moral element in them. It was when Christ saw faith He said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 13:58). 2. Health and soundness could not be given to mankind by a mere miracle power apart from spiritual considerations. No mere almightiness could effect it. Pentecostal gifts, if repeated, would probably produce similar signs and wonders; still miracles can never be more than periodic and intermittent The progressive life of the Spirit of God must achieve in the race what they in the individual only foretoken. Physical healing must keep pace with moral. The body must protest against sin. 3. Any philanthropy springing from other hope lacks truth and wisdom, and must fail. It proceeds upon a mistaken conception of human nature. It only deals with symptoms. All true philanthropy must begin at the Cross. The Cross is the sign that God has come for vengeance and for recompense. .—Learn counsel and courage. 1. Counsel as to life’s mysteries, burdens, sufferings, and sorrows. 2. Courage to endure them, and strive with them in manful faith and hope. (1.) Broken health, pains, malformations, insanities, idiocies, and all bodily and mental degeneracies and anomalies are the dreadful issue of spiritual depravity and alienation from the life of God. (2.) Sin’s destined Victor is in the combat, and with His own shield and spear will take the throne. The world in which He reigns will be a world where evil is not, but good is all in all.—William Hubbard: Christian World Pulpit, xvi. 232. VISIONS FOR Isa_35:7. And the parched ground shall become a pool. Read for “parched ground” mirage [1249] and it suggests the inquiry, what would be the feelings of a wearied traveller if the mirage he was vainly pursuing should suddenly become a pool? It would be new life to him; if the vision became a reality, it would be enough. But it is not only the traveller in southern deserts beneath the burning sky that sees visions of beauty floating before his gaze. Countless thousands thirst for something better and nobler than they have. So it has been from the beginning; and 2500 years ago the prophet declared that in the days of the Messiah the soul’s desires should be satisfied, that that which had been only a vision should become a reality, the mirage should become a pool. [1249] The word sharab, “parched ground,” A.V., more exactly “looming sand-waste,” refers to the mirage, of which it is the Arabic name. The vain shadows of the world, which deceive and never satisfy, are to be replaced by the enduring joys of the kingdom of God.—Birks. Some years ago we were riding over a desert in intense and almost distressing heat. We could but lie still and endure it. We turned our eyes to the south, and, lo! in the horizon there suddenly appeared a beautiful lake, which appeared studded with islands of palms! But it was only appearance, there was no water; and had we been perishing from thirst, the beautiful vision would but have mocked our need.—Clemance. No one can imagine, without actual experience, the delight and eager expectation (when the vision first is seen), or the intense and bitter disappointment which the appearance of a mirage occasions to travellers, specially when their supply of water is spent. “Still the same burning sun! No cloud in heaven! The hot air quivers, and the sultry mist Floats o’er the desert, with a show Of distant waters mocking their distress.” —Kitto. The primary sense of sharab, giving the key to both applications, is the dazzling, vibrating, noonday heat. Thence it is here taken as a name for its effect, or the mirage in the desert caused by the intense meridian rarefaction and refraction. It is a well-known delusive appearance, arising from the motions of the heated atmosphere, taking great varieties of form, but especially suggesting pictures of grove and fountain scenery—lakes, rivers, green valleys, waving trees, cool and sequestered shades, with every image most grateful to the imagination of the wearied traveller. These often seem so vivid as to be mistaken for realities. The very common use of the same word (sarab) by the Arabian poets, in this mirage sense, makes certain the real meaning here. It gives it, too, a glorious significance of which our translation, though etymologically correct, and, to a certain extent, quite plausible, falls far short. It should be rendered: “The mirage shall become a lake (a real lake, not a mere mockery of one), and the thirsty land springs of water.” For the expressive meaning of the word rendered “thirsty land,” see Deuteronomy 8:15—“that great and terrible wilderness.” So Gesenius, very happily: Et desertum aquœ speciem referens commutabitur in lacum—in veram. aquam. (And the desert having the appearance of water shall be changed into a lake—into true water.) The spiritual idea which the passage, thus interpreted, suggests is most striking, whilst at the same time commending itself as having a solid basis, and far removed from the character of an arbitrary sentimentalism. It has a substantial philological support, and comes so directly from the peculiar word employed, that we are compelled to regard it as entering into the prophet’s conception. “The shadows are gone, truth has come.” Mohammed seems to have, in some way, caught a spark from the prophetic inspiration, when he represents the righteous saying this, as they lift up their heads in the morning of the resurrection. In the Arabic, as in the Hebrew, the power comes from the graphic mode which both languages possess, in so high a degree, of picturing the future in the present, and even in the past. “Joy and triumph are overtaking them, sorrow and sighing have fled away.” This is not the land of reality. The idea comes down from the pilgrim language of the patriarchs, who so pathetically declared themselves to be but “travellers and sojourners upon the earth.” They were looking for “the better country,” the real home, the “city which hath foundations,” firm and everlasting. Something of the same idea, and from the same early source, perhaps, may be traced in the most ancient Arabian poets who lived before the days of Mohammed. From them he most probably borrowed the strikingly similar figure we find in the Koran (Sura xxiv. 29), entitled “Light.” It has the same word (sharab), and in other respects is immediately suggestive of the passage in Isaiah: “As for the unbelieving, their works are like the sarab, the mirage of the plain. The thirsty traveller thinks there is water there; but lo, he comes and finds it nothing.” The latter parts remind us of the description in Job 6:17, which may be cited, too, as one of the examples of its Arabian imagery. It is a picture of the thirsty traveller sustained by the hope of finding the refreshing wady stream; but instead of the imagined reality, nothing meets the eye but the dried-up bed whose waters have vanished, “gone up to tohu,” the formless void, as the Hebrew so graphically expresses it “What time they shrink deserted of their springs, As quenched in heat they vanish from their place; ’Tis then their wonted ways are turned aside: Their streams are lost, gone up in emptiness. The caravans of Tema loo for them; The companies of Sheba hope in vain; Confounded are they where they once did trust; They reach the spot and stand in helpless maze.” Another very striking passage, where the same word is used, may be found in the Koran (Sura lxxviii. 20): “When the hills are set in motion, and become like the sarab”—the vanishing mirage. It is a description of the day of judgment, when the world will be found to have been a sarab, a departing dream. Or it may represent its exceeding transitoriness, like that other name ajalun, the rolling, hastening, passing world, which the Koran and the early Arabian poets give to this present mundane system as compared with the reality of Paradise. Hence the word sarab becomes a common or proverbial expression, pro reevanida, for anything light, transient, and unsubstantial. There is a beautiful allusion to it in the very ancient poem of Lebid (Moallaka de Lebid, De Sacy’s ed., p. 294). See also the account of the phenomenon as given by Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii. ch. 50. It differs, however, from the picture usually presented by the Arabian poets, in that the appearances are those of animals and wild beasts, rather than of rivers and fountains. The particular kind of phantoms, however, would depend very much on the kind of imagination possessed by the travellers, and the circumstances by which it was excited. It is, in any way, an apt representation of a delusive world, whether in its images of terror or of attraction. That the word is thus frequently used in the Arabic, and that it corresponds well to its ancient Hebrew etymology, is sufficient to warrant us in thus interpreting the idea the prophet so impressively sets forth.—Tayler Lewis. I. Past prediction has become actual fact: in Christ ideal visions have become realities. 1. In bygone days some nobler souls dreamed dreams of a perfect human character. The “Phædo” of Plato is an illustration of this. But the dream remained a dream until Jesus of Nazareth lived among men. In Him all excellences that were scattered were localised, focussed, centralised; and in Him we see of what nobleness our nature is capable. 2. The yearning of some is for truth, pure truth, stripped of all human accretions and confusions. How earnestly search has been made for it! In this search philosophy and theology have been traversed and ransacked. But it is to be found only in Christ. He Himself declared, not vainly, “I am the truth.” In Him are “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” 3. In others, conscience is the most active faculty. Sin is to them a burden and a torment. They yearn for peace of conscience. No suffering seems to them too great if this can be attained. But they never find it until they seek it in Christ. Coming to Him, they are filled with “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” The vision has become a reality; the reality goes beyond the vision. 4. There are others led on by visions of a strong virtue and a noble life. They struggle against their passions and the allurements of the world. But alas! how numerous and lamentable are their defects! They never learn the secret of victory until they come to Christ; but when they have done this, presently they find that with truth they can say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” 5. Happiness. Who has not had visions of it? Who has not sought it?. But, alas! the confession to which we are all brought is that of Solomon: “Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!” And yet even this thirst is satisfied in Christ—profoundly, exultantly satisfied. In Him we find a happiness that breaks forth in song, and triumphs over the pains and sorrows of this mortal life. The mirage has become a pool. II. Actual fact is present prediction; in Christ ideal vision will become realities. The soul still thirsts— 1. For perfect purity; 2. For perfect rest from the carking cares of earth, and infinite calm in Jesus’ love; 3. For the perfect communion of saints. In vision John saw all this in the new Jerusalem; and to all who are Christ’s indeed they shall all become realities (1 Corinthians 2:9). 1. Let those to whom the prediction of our text has been fulfilled tell the glad news to others. 2. As for those who have had these visions all their lives, but up to this moment have been utterly disappointed, (1) let them learn from the experience of others, who tell them they never knew truth and happiness until they sought them in Christ; (2) let them listen to the voice of Christ, who promises to give them rest; (3) let them be sure that until they do come to Christ, the parched ground will never become a pool. The soul needs more than the vision, however bright and beautiful it may be; it needs the reality, and the reality can be found only in Christ.—Clement Clemance, D.D. THE EXILES’ RETURNIsa_35:8-10. And an highway shall be there, &c.The chapter of which these words are a part testifies of Christ. The prophet, while foretelling in it the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, is enabled to look forward to a more spiritual and much greater deliverance. With the eye of faith he sees the kingdom of the Messiah established in the earth, and beholds Him open a new and blessed road by which a multitude of the enslaved and perishing escape from their miseries and are led to His kingdom. This prophecy calls upon us to consider— 1. The travellers of whom it speaks; 2. The way along which they are journeying; 3. The home to which it is leading them.—Charles Bradley: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 127, 128. Whatever primary reference this prophecy might have to the return of the tribes from captivity, it is evident that all its interesting and beautiful descriptions can only be fully realised in the blessedness and glory of the Gospel dispensation. Consider it as spiritually referring to the Gospel way of salvation. I. THE WAY ITSELF. A religious course is often spoken of as a way (Proverbs 15:21; Jeremiah 21:8; Matthew 7:14). The way of which our text speaks is described— 1. As a highway. It is not a secluded private path, but a public highway opened by the authority of the King of kings; a way designed for the general accommodation of the human race, and leading to the metropolis of the universe. 2. It is a holy way. 3. It is a plain way. Not a way requiring extensive philosophical knowledge or deep metaphysical research to comprehend it. Ali the Gospel requirements and duties are plain. 4. It is a safe way [1255] Satan may try to allure us from it, but he cannot interrupt us while walking in it. [1255] This is important in our own country, where there are no ferocious animals lying in wait to destroy; but it was peculiarly important in Judæa and the countries adjoining it. Many parts of these are said to have been infested with beasts of prey, which frequently rushed from their places of concealment upon the passing traveller, and rendered even the public roads exceedingly dangerous. Hence the prophet says of the way to heaven through Christ, that “no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon; it shall not be found there.” Not that we are to conclude that the redeemed have no foes to combat, and no difficulties to surmount in their course. Like the Israelites returning from Babylon, they have to pass through an enemy’s country in their journey to Zion. But He who has redeemed them accompanies them in their pilgrimage; and though they are called to struggle and fight, He gives them the victory, and renders their path as safe as though there were no dangers near it, nor any to hurt and destroy.—Bradley. II. THE OF ITS . “The redeemed,” &c. 1. Once they were slaves. Slaves of sin and Satan. 2. They have been redeemed. By the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Redeemed to God; redeemed from sin, the power of Satan, and the wrath to come. 3. They are now the Lord’s freemen. Now sons, members of the Divine family; sharers of the Divine goodness and peace; and they bear a holy resemblance to their Elder Brother. III. HOW THEY TRAVEL ALONG IT. “They shall return and come to Zion with songs.” 1. They sing the praises of their great Deliverer (Revelation 1:5-6). 2. They sing on account of the deliverance itself. 3. They sing on account of the joys of their present experience. 4. They sing on account of their glorious prospects. IV. THE TO WHICH IT LEADS THEM. 1. They shall be crowned with joy. 2. They shall possess a perfect fulness of felicity. 3. Their felicity shall be uninterrupted and eternal.—Jabez Burns, D.D.: Four Hundred Sketches and Skeletons of Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 160–163. THE ROAD TO THE CITYIsa_35:8-10. And a highway shall be there, &c.Human life is a journey—a journey to the grave. The Christian life is a journey—a journey to a better country. Abraham journeyed to the land of Canaan; Israel in the wilderness; their descendants on the return from Babylon (Ezra 8:31). If you would reach your destination, it is necessary to know and traverse the way. I. It is a way easily known. Some are difficult to find. They are crossed and intersected so often, and so imperfectly supplied with guiding-posts, that mistakes are almost inevitable. This is a way in which “the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err.” Serious mistake is almost impossible. You have a directory so clear that reference to it settles every question. God’s Word is the guide of life. He may read who runs. It is true there are difficulties in the Bible. But there are no difficulties in the ascertainment of the way of life. The road the child travels to his home is quite plain and easy, yet he may be ignorant of the means by which it was made, the materials of which it is constructed, the sources whence they were obtained, the engineering appliances by which they are bound together, the quarters from which the cost was defrayed. At present he has no information, or it is beyond his comprehension. Thus in the Bible there are many things difficult and beyond the present knowledge of the student. They diminish with advancing knowledge and thought. And even if they remain, they do not affect the matters on which certainty is necessary. The way of forgiveness through the Saviour’s death is written with the clearness of a sunbeam. The rule of life in its application to all circumstances is so clearly laid down that all cases in the court of conscience find an easy settlement; where there is a disposition to follow it, no practical difficulty exists. It is like the pillar of cloud and fire which infallibly guided the children of Israel in the wilderness. II. It is a purified way. “The unclean shall not pass over it.” It is a holy way. The text fastens attention on those who traverse the road as giving it its character. They are holy persons in the company of holy persons. What is holiness? It is separation, setting apart, purity, always with reference to God. 1. Its meaning is not covered by morality. That term is ordinarily met by the performance of the duties that arise between man and man. 2. Nor is the meaning of the term “holy” covered by humanity. We hear much of what is called “the religion of humanity,” which means a benevolent desire for the well-being of mankind. Like morality, it is to be commended as far as it goes. It is, indeed, a step in advance of morality. It is a man’s worldly interest to practise its virtues. Humanity rises higher. It looks beyond self. In proportion as a man looks out from himself to the well-being of others, he is ennobled. Holiness includes them both, but they do not necessarily include holiness. They terminate in man, whereas holiness is in immediate relation to God. It is the separation of a man’s nature from all sin against God, and is consecration to Him. God brings a sinner under the power of His grace, and a saint emerges. The love of God in Christ, which pardons him, so influences his nature that he comes into sympathy with God, and desires to be like Him. He makes the divine will the rule of his life. He is born anew. He is holy in heart. His growing practical obedience to the Divine authority is his walk in the way of holiness. Those who have not experienced such a change cannot walk in it. They tire. Holiness of heart precedes holiness of life (H. E. I. 2813–2817). III. It is a pleasant way. There are pilgrim songs. The walk through the country may be so pleasant that nothing is thought of its difficulty or its fatigue. The way of holiness is rendered pleasant by congenial companions, by Divine thoughts, by heavenly communings. There are difficulties. The way is sometimes steep; here and there are formidable obstructions. There are temptations to weariness and abandonment of the way. Yet the difficulties are not insurmountable. They disappear before the traveller’s sanctified determination. The ability of anything to give pleasure depends on our feeling in relation to it. Especially in things of a moral nature. The regenerated nature of a Christian makes every step of his progress a source of pleasure. Christians are the happiest of men, partly because happiness is not sought as their main end (H. E. I. 1080–1084, 4161–4163). And it is safe as it is pleasant. All pleasant paths are not safe. Some pleasant ones are extremely perilous. The Lord of the way has cleared it of dangers. “He will keep the feet of His saints.” “No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon.” IV. It is a completed way. Some roads lead to nothing. They abruptly terminate, and you must retrace your steps. This is continued to the destination. “They shall come to Zion.” As the Jews reached the earthly Jerusalem we shall arrive in heaven. The holy city a fit termination of the holy way. Are you in the way? Keep in it. Turn not aside. Advance toward your destination. Anticipate arrival. Are you not in the way? Consider whither you are going. Renounce the world. Enter the road. Do not say it is hard. Do not say you cannot encounter the difficulties. God will help.—J. Rawlinson. There are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one. 1. The road of the text is the King’s highway. It spans all the chasms of human wretchedness; it tunnels all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it is wide and strong enough to hold all the millions of the human race. The King sent His Son to build the road. He put head, and hand, and heart to it, and after it was completed cried, “It is finished.” 2. It is spoken of as a clean road. “The unclean shall not pass over it” (Proverbs 14:12; Hebrews 12:14). 3. A plain road. “The way faring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” The pardon is plain. The peace is plain (1 Timothy 1:15). If you are saved, it will be as a little child (Matthew 18:3). 4. A safe road. “No lion shall be there,” &c. His soul is safe. His reputation is safe (Psalms 125:2). 5. A pleasant road. God gives a bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it (Romans 8:28; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 6:28; Proverbs 3:33; 1 Corinthians 10:13). He enables him to be glad with a great joy (Psalms 27:1; Revelation 7:14; Revelation 7:16-17; Exodus 15:1). 6. What is its terminus? “The ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion.” Zion was the King’s palace, a mountain fastness, impregnable. Heaven is the fastness of the universe. And Jesus is there!—T. De Wilt Talmage in 412, D.D.: Christian Age, vol. ix. pp. 3–5. THE OF HEAVENIsa_35:10. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, &c.“Zion,” literally speaking, was the proper name of the city where David dwelt (2 Samuel 5:7). But the name was also given to the ancient Jewish polity in church and state (Psalms 102:13; Psalms 102:16), to the Gospel Church, with all the spiritual blessings of the Christian dispensation (Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:6-7); and also to the Church in glory, or the heavenly state of final and complete happiness with God and Christ for ever (Hebrews 12:22, &c.) We may therefore regard this text as revealing the general features of the happiness of heaven. I. To whom does the hope of heaven belong? To “the ransomed of the Lord,” whom He has delivered from bondage and is bringing back from exile (H. E. I. 2730, 2829–2832). II. How do those who attain to heaven come there? Triumphantly, “with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” This is said perhaps with allusion to the ovations of victorious chiefs, or to troops coming home from hard-fought fields and the privations even of a successful campaign, crowned with garlands and waving palms, singing some martial air, and approaching their homes and families with shouts of gratulation. III. What do the redeemed realise when they reach heaven? “They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” In heaven— 1. There will be an en· tire cessation of every occasion of grief (H. E. I. 1629; P. D. 1753, 1767). 2. There will no longer be any possibility of falling. What a blessed peace will spring from this fact! In this world the sincerest believers, like pilots steering into port through narrow and winding channels beset with sunken rocks and hidden shoals, must work out daily their own salvation with fear and trembling (1 Corinthians 9:27). But in heaven the spirits of the just are “made perfect,” and, like God Himself, “cannot be tempted of evil.” 3. We shall meet again with our long-lost loved ones, never more to part (Revelation 7:15-17; P. D. 2996–2998). 4. The companionship of saints and angels. The best and purest friendships here are often marred by the blots and blemishes of good men; but there will be no jarring in the exalted fellowships of heaven. 5. The possession of Christ and the beatific vision of God for ever (1 Peter 1:8; Isaiah 33:7).—R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 128–149. THE OF SORROWIsa_35:10. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, &c.I. “They shall obtain joy and gladness,” &c.—this is undoubtedly the distinctive and ineradicable hope of human nature. Is that hope a glorious, and perhaps in its effects a beneficent, delusion never to be realised? Or is it the earnest of a reality far greater than its highest imagination can conceive? The question receives contradictory answers from the two conflicting voices within the soul, as from time to time one or other gains a temporary predominance. But the Christian revelation allows no doubt on this matter for a moment, and yet it does not bid us shut our eyes to the darker phases of actual life. The picture drawn in this chapter deals with every sphere of human life. It begins with the outward: it tells how the “desert shall rejoice,” &c.; it turns, then, to the lower nature of man himself—“the eyes of the blind shall be opened,” &c.; lastly, it speaks to the spirit of man: the light of God shows a “highway through the desert of life” on which “the redeemed can walk” safely; and at the end there is a heavenly Zion of perfection, to which the “ransomed of the Lord shall come with songs,” &c. II. When did the prophet look to see his vision fulfilled? He may well have thought first of the all but present deliverance from the gigantic power of Assyria by the redeeming arm of the Lord. Some such shadow of fulfilment there may have been, in the last gleam of unclouded prosperity which ever fell upon Judah, before its sun set in the great captivity: such shadows of fulfilment may have been felt in the history of man again and again. Isaiah unquestionably looked on to the kingdom of the Messiah as the one ideal of a perfect manifestation of God and a perfect exaltation of man. Such fulfilment Christ claimed for Himself; but it is in the actual manifestation of the kingdom of Christ on earth that the prophetic picture is realised in its fulness. III. If the kingdom of Christ is what it proclaims itself to be, it must necessarily be, as on the Mount He proclaimed it, a kingdom of blessing. What are the two great sources of the sorrow which broods over life? 1. Over our bodily life, and the world of nature which subserves it, there is the blight of pain and suffering. 2. Spiritual evil—the blindness, weakness, sin of man himself. How does the Gospel profess to face and scatter both? By the revelation of the Cross it hallows doubly the law of suffering and death, by overruling it to good for ourselves, and by making it a condition and a means of helping the redemption of others. The Gospel deals still more decisively with the burden of sin: in this lies the essence of its redemption. “God is in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.… We pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” This is its first message; but it is not all: “Sin,” it goes on to say, “shall not have dominion over you.” “Ye are sanctified in Christ Jesus.” IV. But is that promise actually realised? We answer boldly, Yes. It must be remembered that by the very nature of the case the kingdom of Christ is seen by us, as yet, only in the first stages of its conflict against the powers of evil. What it can offer, as yet, is a true but only imperfect earnest of the future. In all the three phases of this prophecy, Christ asserted its power to bless the whole world. He held the reins of the forces of Nature; lifted the burden of disease and resisted death; brought in the new life of His grace. He had joy, like no other joy, amid His continuous conflict with evil; and to those who were His, He gave peace in proportion as they entered into His spirit. The last conflict was but for a moment, the chill of dreariness before the dawn. “Then,” amidst some fear, and awe, and perplexity, “were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” It is, thank God! a matter of daily Christian experience, that, just in proportion as we are really Christ’s, the promise is realised again and again to us. There is joy in nature, and a deeper joy and peace in communion with God. Sometimes we feel that these things are the only reality in a fleeting and unsubstantial world around us. But this reality is yet imperfect; sorrow and sighing are rather kept at bay than driven away; but we have a sure and certain hope of a perfect future. Without the realisation of His peace in the present, without the sure and certain hope of the future, one hardly sees how man can care to live; one dares not think how he can die.—Canon Barry, D.D.: Christian Age, vol. xx. pp. 81–83. MODERN , AND THEIR TO TERRIFY GOD’S PEOPLE INTO A HUMBLE Isa_36:4. What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?Sennacherib is surprised at the attitude of resistance taken by Hezekiah, and sends an embassy to dissuade him from his mad project. When they appear outside the walls, some officers of Hezekiah’s court come out to confer with them, and Rabshakeh opens upon them with the taunting question, “What confidence,” &c. The proud king of Assyria had another end beyond that of conquest. His aim was to show that Jehovah was on a level with the gods of the nations. This was, therefore, a religious war. Every country he subdued was another god overcome, and if only Jerusalem were taken, his triumph would be complete. The situation here described is an image of the Christian faith assailed by modern unbelief. The forces of infidelity have become bold and insolent. The Bible is subjected to the hostile criticism of men who would rejoice to see it overthrown. Unbelief is marshalling her forces against the citadel of revealed truth. She has on her side some prominent leaders of modern thought, and employs both press and lecture room for accomplishing her destructive designs. If she can only get the Christian faith out of the way, the world will be her own. Our modern Rabshakehs are hurling against us the taunting question, “What confidence,” &c.I. What is this confidence of ours which is so assailedThe question implies that we have a confidence. Our opponents admit it, though to them it is inexplicable. They are forced to bear testimony to a strange but courageous faith by which we are supported in life and death. Jerusalem had nothing to rest on but God’s presence and promise. Their king had encouraged them with the noble words of 2 Chronicles 32:7-8. Here is the secret of the confidence which so surprised the Assyrian king; and on the same ground do we take our stand against the opposing hosts of unbelief. God’s presence and faithfulness are the bulwarks behind which we may safely entrench ourselves. We have believed God’s Word and have taken shelter in Christ (Philippians 3:3). On His exalted throne He is directing the Church’s energies, restraining her enemies, and giving success to her enterprises. II. What assaults are made upon our confidence?They correspond to those by which Rabshakeh tried to subvert Hezekiah’s confidence. He puts the question in a contemptuous tone, and then proceeds to answer it, and to show that the confidence cherished had no solid basis. 1. He points to the slenderness of Hezekiah’s resources (Isaiah 36:5-6; Isaiah 36:8-9). “The Egyptians can no more be relied on than the frail reeds that grow on the banks of their Nile. No help can come from abroad; and see how weak you are in yourselves. If you can find riders, I will supply 2000 horses.” How could such a puny kingdom withstand the power of Assyria with its magnificent military equipment? So unbelief tries to undermine faith, not knowing that God’s strength is perfected in human weakness. Cardinal Cajetan tried to browbeat Luther,—“Do you think that your electors will take up arms for you? I tell you, no; and where then will you be?” The brave answer was, “Then, as now, in the hands of God.” 2. Rabshakeh tries to close the door of Divine help (Isaiah 36:7). “How can you expect support from a God whose worship you have suppressed?” But this was a needful reform, for these rural places of worship had degenerated into scenes of idolatry. So the enemies of the faith in our day try to make capital out of the changes and reforms that have taken place. They point to our ecclesiastical divisions and theological controversies as an argument against us. “How can that be true about which there is so much diversity of opinion? How can Divine help be expected to defend the Christian faith, when there are so many sects and parties, disestablishment agitations, and ecclesiastical rivalries?” We answer that there is a unity among all who love the Lord Jesus, and however much we may deplore the need of change and reform, we are not to be deterred from effecting them by any fear of God’s displeasure. It can never offend God to maintain His truth and worship in all their purity (H. E. I. 1372–1374). 3. Another reason for surrender is urged in Isaiah 36:10, where the Assyrian claims to be commissioned by God to destroy the land. This was only a piece of bluster intended to alarm Jerusalem. It has its counterpart in our day in those men of science, who come to us in the name of God with the truths they have discovered, and throw them in our face as inconsistent with faith in the Scriptures. But there can be no real disagreement between science and revelation. We are not going to open our gates to arrogant scientists who claim that their department embraces everything; to materialists who tell us that our heaven is six feet below the ground. Let science keep to its legitimate sphere. It was a good remark made by Professor Ball to a lady who put to him some questions about comets, to each of which he replied, “I do not know.” “Then,” she said, “may I ask what is the use of your science?” “To let me know, madam,” he replied, “that I cannot know some things” (H. E. I. 538, 539). 4. Rabshakeh presses a surrender in view of the hardships the people would have to endure. He threatens them with famine and thirst, and (Isaiah 36:16-17) promises them ease and plenty if they will but suppress the sentiment of patriotism, abandon their confidence, and give up their city into his hands. This is an old and well-used device to make the believer cower in the face of trials and privations. But the men of faith are proof against such selfish considerations. They will fight the Lord’s battles at whatever cost; for however hard their outward lot may be, they have inward joys which more than counterbalance the loss of all things. 5. The last argument which Rabshakeh employed is this (Isaiah 36:18-20): Other gods were unable to defend their worshippers against his victorious march, and why should the Lord be able to defend Jerusalem? This was his last thrust, and was intended to bring home to the people the utter baselessness of their confidence. This reasoning is not unlike the patronising tone in which infidels speak of the Christian religion, as one of the many superstitions, all well enough for their day, but now effete, or destined to perish before the advance of intelligence; as one of those venerable systems, all of which are now losing their hold on the intellect and heart. III. Why should we still hold to our Christian confidence in spite of these attempts to overthrow it?The agnosticism and infidelity which in our time are so loud and pretentious are only systems of negation; they have no substitute for that which they endeavour to destroy. If we allow them to rob us of our faith, we are spiritually bankrupt, for these destructive agencies have nothing to satisfy the heart and conscience. Never let us lower our flag for all their threats and boastful arrogance. Perhaps the best way to deal with them is that which was followed by Hezekiah’s officers (Isaiah 36:21; Matthew 7:6). IV. What will be the end of all the assaults made upon the Christian faith?We know what came of the boastful insolence of Rabshakeh. Not only did he fail to unhinge the confidence of Hezekiah, but he brought upon himself confusion and defeat. God answered his blasphemies. God employs the hostile efforts of unbelief to confirm us in our confidence. What our enemies intend for the subversion of the truth only places it on a more solid basis. Christianity can never suffer from the most rigid investigation, for this only reveals its immovable strength. We throw back on our opponents their own question, “What confidence have you, what light in the dark lonesome hour of death?” Oh, the strange “credulity of unbelief,” which accepts the most glaring fallacies, whose reason is clouded by a proud and insolent defiance of God! We have nothing to fear, then, from the boastful Rabshakehs of our day. The assaults to which our faith is now subjected are nothing new. Old weapons are refurbished, old stratagems resorted to; but it has survived attacks as clever as those now made upon it (H. E. I. 1165). .—Let me put to you the question in a different tone with all affection and anxiety for your spiritual welfare. It is good to have our position assailed that we may see its strength (H. E. I. 1138–1139). Is yours a confidence that can resist the thrusts and subtle reasonings and plausible solicitations of the world? The best answer you can give to the insolence of unbelief is to hold your peace, and go quietly forward in resolute faith and persistent well-doing, giving not the answer of the lip, but of the life—a life nourished, strengthened, and beautified by faith in Christ.—William Guthrie, M.A. IN WHOM ART THOU ?Isaiah 36:5.… Now on whom dost thou trust?The question is important in ordinary life, but it is overwhelmingly so in spiritual things. I. A LITTTE BUNDLE OF ANSWERS. 1. “I do not know that I have thought about the matter; I have left the matter of dying, and of eternity, and of judgment out of my consideration.” How foolish! There are more gates to death than you dream of. Have not you walked with dying men? Suppose you were sure of a long life, why delay being happy? Christ says of the rich man in hell, “He lift up his eyes.” He might and should have done so before, but he said, “Tell my brethren.” 2. “I thank God I am about as good as most people.” Company in being ruined will not decrease, but rather increase the catastrophe. You are trusting in yourself. But is conscience quiet? Only the absolutely perfect man can be saved by his own works. 3. “I trust in my priest.” Has any priest grace to spare for you? You are, or may be, as much a priest as any man can be; Christians are “a royal priesthood.” 4. “Well, God is merciful.” You are trusting in the mercy of God; but, as you state it, you are trusting in what you will never find. If you go to God out of Christ, you will find Him to be a consuming fire; instead of mercy you shall receive justice (H. E. I. 2316–2317, 2349–2350). 5. “Well, I do not say that I can trust to my works, but I am a good-hearted man.” There is much truth in the saying, “If it is bad at the top, it is worse at the bottom; and if it is not good on the surface, it will never pay for getting at it” (Jeremiah 17:9; H. E. I. 2669–2680). II. THE ’S ANSWER. I trust a triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I trust to the Father’s choosing me; to the Son, as my Redeemer, Intercessor, my resurrection, and life; to the Holy Spirit, to save me from my inbred sins, to sanctify me wholly. To some men this does not look like a real trust. “We cannot see God; how do we know all this about the Trinity?” Cannot you trust in a thousand things you have never seen or heard? You have never seen electricity nor gravity. Those that have trusted in God find Him to be as real as if they could see Him. “Can we prove that God interferes to help His people?” Yes, He hears prayer. A Christian is sometimes asked whether he has a right to trust God. He has God’s promise to help him. “Is He worthy to be trusted?” He has proved Himself faithful and true. The Christian commends God to others in saying that he feels he can rest upon Him for the future. III. SOME WORDS OF ADVICE TO THOSE WHO ARE . 1. Drive out all unbelief. With such a God to trust to, let us trust with all our might. It is an insult to Him to doubt Him. The devil calls God a liar, but it is hard if a man’s own child is to think ill of his father. We are verily guilty in speaking hard things of our God. 2. Seek the Holy Spirit’s help. We have often said we would not doubt again, yet we have Let us ask to be strengthened. We often forget that the Author of our faith must be the Finisher of it also. 3. Try to bring others to trust where we have trusted (John 1:40-42; John 1:45). 4. Love Him who thus gives Himself to be trusted by us. The sister graces ever live together. Show your love. 4. We must prove our faith by our works. Let us do more for God. “No day without a deed.” Cease working and you will soon cease believing.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol xi. pp. 469–480. ’S PRUDENT SILENCEIsa_36:21. But they held their peace, &c.Dr. Geikie says of Hezekiah, “Ready for war when necessary, and alike brave and skilful in its conduct, he was more inclined to the gentle arts of peace.” Among these “gentle arts” should be reckoned his cultivated gift of prudence. Prudence is undervalued by some, as not taking rank among the higher virtues, and even sometimes decried as essentially selfish. But prudence guards the life of the highest virtue, and thus becomes of almost equal importance with it. Prudence is short for “providence;” “the provident man,” as the phrase is used, shows prudence in one direction, and is praised for it. Greater praise is surely due to the all-round prudent man. Prudence in man is, in one aspect, but the counterpart of providence in God, and those who are given to esteem it lightly are not pious, like Hezekiah, but already doubters of, and disbelievers in, the general and special providence of God, or likely to become so (P. D. 2914). It is prudent to be silent— 1. When the judgment, based upon the knowledge of available facts, dictates silence as sound policy. Silence may, and often does, imply something quite different from a wisely calculated policy; it may indicate abject fear, cowardice, indifference. All silence is not “golden;” sometimes the basest metal goes to its composition. The order to be silent, whether addressed by Hezekiah to his ambassadors, or to the people generally, or to both, may be conjectured to have sprung from the king’s desperate case. But even if we leave out this element, enough remains to justify the command, “Answer him not.” It may be presumed that the messenger of the “great king,” “dressed in a little brief authority,” conducted himself as Hezekiah foresaw he would, outdoing Sennacherib himself in blasphemy and all impiety. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself.” Hezekiah did this in the most literal sense, and his command to all concerned was to hide the spirit of their mind behind a veil of silence. Such prudence, then, is more than foresight, it is foresight connecting itself with a certain course of action as the wisest or best possible in certain given circumstances (P.D. 3086, 3089). How rare is such prudence! Not from evil intent, but through want of thought, do many persist in running their heads against adamant. Available knowledge is neglected, and judgment, where there is any in such a case, is adrift and mistaken. 2. When the deepest feelings are agitated so as to be beyond immediate control. Hezekiah’s ambassadors obeyed their orders until Rabshakeh uttered words the effect of which upon the people there was good reason to dread (Isaiah 36:10); then they broke in, carried on a great wave of impulse (Isaiah 36:11); but only to make the blasphemer more arrogantly insolent. Feeling, like fire, is a good servant but a bad master; it is blind, and blindly seeks its own objects. Only in the most highly educated moral natures can it ever be expected to flow in proper channels; but in none should it be intrusted with the reins of government. “I will keep my mouth with a bridle,” said the Psalmist, “while the wicked is before me” (cf. James 1:19-20; James 1:26). 3. When wise counsel is at hand (Isaiah 37:1-2). “Hezekiah went into the house of the Lord;” “and he sent Eliakim unto Isaiah the prophet.” There is a kind of piety which disdains human aid, because each man may go direct to God. This may not have wrought so much harm in the world as the Romish doctrine of mediators, but it is equally mistaken. Blessed is the man who knows of a prophet—a brother-man of spiritual insight, moral integrity, and Christian courtesy—before whom he can lay his case! Thrice blessed he who, knowing such an one, can hold his peace until he has sought and obtained the Heaven—provided help! God may well hold us insincere if we go to Him and neglect His servants’ aid. .—Let us hear and understand the words of the preacher: “There is a time to keep silence,” as well as “a time to speak.” We are lacking in silence and reserve. Silence is a glorious temple, but in it there are few worshippers. Be it ours to wait and worship there! The worshippers find the very walls translucent, the rays of heaven descend in unbroken brightness there. Silence is the birthplace of the world’s progress, and from the rays of truth that flash into it are born the grand visions of the prophets of God, and kingly purposes too; and from these are forged the weapons with which men shall sweep away the hindrances to all wisdom.—J. Macrae Simcock. A FOOLISH KING AND A WISE ONEIsa_37:1. And it came to pass, &c.The message to which our text refers was sent by a foolish king to a wise one. Look at them both. I. THE FOOLISH KING. Sennacherib. Ignorant of God, he fell into various follies. 1. Pride and arrogance. Unaware that he was but an instruments in the hand of God (chap. Isaiah 10:5-7), he imagined that his triumphs were due entirely to his military genius and the power under his control. Blind as to the true nature of his past career, he looked into the future with boastful confidence; he had no doubt that he would go on conquering and to conquer. His proud survey of the past and this arrogant outlook into the future are follies repeated by many men much smaller than Sennacherib. But every wise man will remember that he owes all his past successes to God (Deuteronomy 8:10-18), and that all his future is absolutely in the hand of God (James 4:13-15). 2. Blasphemous undervaluing of the power of God (Isaiah 37:18-20). He therefore imagines that God’s people are in his hand. On this account he presents to them a curious reason why they should surrender (chap, Isaiah 36:16-17). He promises them a quiet possession of their own vines, which they possessed already but for his disturbance; and in the same breath he adds, “Until I come and take you away;” and then, to soften that sentence, he promises to take them to a land like their own. He promises them no more, after all, than they had already on the safe tenure of their own laws. This reason for surrender was either a mockery of men whom he believed incapable of resisting him, or an indication of the mental weakness into which pride was betraying him. Ere long there was a terrible demonstration of his folly (Isaiah 37:36, P. D. 3413), an appalling fulfilment of the prediction concerning him (Isaiah 10:12-19). II. THE WISE KING. Hezekiah. His disposition does not appear to more advantage in any passage of life, nor his conduct exhibit lessons more generally useful, than in the circumstances to which our text alludes. A message is brought from a proud invader; threats mixed with blasphemies are sounded in his ears; a force far superior to his own draws near to his city. In his extremity he sought help, not from man, but from God. In drawing near to God, he testifies his penitence for his own sins and the sins of the people by rending his garments and covering himself with sackcloth, the usual tokens of sorrow in the East; his faith and hope by resorting to the house of God, his accustomed place of prayer. Observe the wisdom of the order of his procedure. 1. He began with demonstrations of repentance. He knew well that without repentance there could be no hope towards God. (1.) This is the true order for individuals (H. E. I. 145–147). (2.) For the Church of God. 2. Beginning with repentance’, he could cherish hope (Isaiah 37:2-4). Why? He felt that the Lord would not permit Sennacherib’s words to pass unpunished; and that, if the sins of the people did not operate to prevent it, help would surely be sent him. But he spoke with caution, “it may be,” &c. The best reasons may be found for what we call “delays” in providential helps. There was room for expectation that help would be given, room for prayer that it might be given, but no room for overweening confidence that it must be so. With his hope there was mingled submission to the will of God, and that doubtless helped to win for his prayer a favourable hearing. .—This narrative presents us with the results, on the one hand, of pride and arrogance; and on the other, of repentance and an humbled spirit. In times of extremity let us not entertain hope without an humble and repentant suit to God; and when that ground of penitence is laid for its support, let us not dismiss our confidence. God is always able to help His people. Like Hezekiah, then, to Him let us resort in every time of trouble, whether it be a time of public danger or of domestic affliction.—J. H. Pott: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 282–299. THE LETTER BEFORE THE LORDIsa_37:14. And Hezekiah received the letter, &c.The letter was an insolent cartel of defiance from the Assyrian king Sennacherib, full as much of blasphemous defiance against God as of insolence to God’s servant. It represents the conflict between Assyria and Judah as being a struggle between the gods of one nation and the God of the other. The point of it is: “Don’t let the God in whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of Assyria. Thou hast seen what Assyria has done to all lands, and is thy God any better than theirs?” So the king of Judah, very simple and child-like, picks up the piece of blasphemy and goes up to the temple and spreads it out before God. A very naïve piece of unconscious symbolism! The meaning of it comes out in the prayer that follows: “Open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see,” &c. It is for Thee to act. That is the essential meaning of Hezekiah’s action. I. It was an appeal to God’s knowledge. For his comfort it was necessary to make this appeal. That which influences and agitates us, we need in some way to spread before the Lord. When some great anxiety strikes its talons deep into our hearts, we need to have the truth made clear to ourselves. The Eyes up yonder see all about it. A plain old piece of commonplace, but, oh! there is a deep, unutterable consolation when a man realises this. “Thy Father which is in secret, seeth in secret.” II. It was an appeal to God’s honour. His prayer was this in effect: “Hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to reproach the living God. I say nothing about myself, but it is Thine honour that is threatened. If this insolent braggart does the thing which he threatens, then it will be said, ‘Forasmuch as this Jehovah was not able to save His people, therefore He let them perish;’ those who worship other gods will say, ‘Jehovah is a name without meaning’—Thy name, which is above every name!” If a man has not got something like that in his prayers, they are poor prayers. With all humility, yet with all self-confidence, ask Him, not so much to deliver you, as to be true to His character and His promises, to be self-consistent with all that He has been; and let us feel, as we have a right to feel, that if any human soul, that ever in the faintest, poorest, humblest manner put out a trembling hand of confidence towards His great hand to grasp it, was suffered to go down and perish, there is a blight and blot on the fair fame of God before the whole creation which nothing can obliterate. But the feeblest cry shall be answered, the feeblest faith rewarded! Let us grasp the thought that not only for our own poor selves—though, blessed be God, He does take our happiness for a worthy object—but because His honour and fair fame are so inextricably wound with our well-being, He must answer the cries of His people (Ezekiel 36:22-24). III. Let us take out of the story, not only what we ought to do when we go to God in prayer, but the kind of things we ought to take to Him. Every difficulty, danger, trial, temptation, or blasphemy by which His name is polluted, should be at once spread out before the Lord. But most of all the common things of everyday life! The small boy, whom one of our writers tells of, who used to pray that he might have strength given him to learn his Latin declension, had a better understanding of prayer than the men of the world can understand (H. E. I. 3756, 3757). IV. Another lesson: If you have not been in the habit of going to the House of God at other times, it will be a hard job to find your way there when your eyes are blinded with tears, and your hearts heavy with anxiety. Hezekiah had cultivated a habit of trusting God and referring everything to Him; so he went straight into the Temple as by instinct, where he could have found his way in the dark, and spread this letter before the Lord as a matter of course. It is a poor thing when a man’s religion is like a waterproof coat, that is only good to wear when it rains, and has to be taken off when the weather improves a little! If you want to get the blessedness of fellowship with God and help from Him in the dark days, learn the road to the Temple in sunshine and gladness, and do not wait for the bellow of the pitiless storm and darkness upon the path, before you go up to the Temple of God (H. E. I. 3877–3879). V. What do we get by this habit of spreading out everything before God? 1. Valuable counsel. I do not know anything that has such a power of clearing a man’s way, scattering mists, removing misconceptions, letting us see the true nature of some dazzling specious temptations, as the habit of turning to prayer. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the thing that perplexes us is that the steadiness of the hand that holds the microscope is affected by the beating of the heart and the passionate desires and wishes, and so there is nothing defined and clear; it is all a haze. Firmness of hand, clearness of vision, come in prayer to the man who is accustomed to take the harassing “letter” and spread it out before the Lord (H. E. I. 3741–3743). 2. A very accurate and easily applied test. I do not wonder that so many of us do not like to pray about our plans and about our anxieties; it is either because the plans have no God in them, or the anxieties have no faith. Anything we cannot pray about, we had better not touch. Any anxiety that is not substantial enough to bear lifting and laying before God, ought never to trouble us. Test your lives, your thoughts, your affairs, your purposes by this. Will they stand carriage to the Temple? If not, the sooner you get rid of them the better. And then, “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God; and,” in spite of all the blatant Sennacheribs who have poured out their insolent blasphemies, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”—Alexander Maclaren, in Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, pp. 81–85. A KING’S PRAYERIsa_37:15-20. And Hezekiah prayed, &c.I. Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah as the God of his nation. “O Lord God of Israel.” 1. The nation bore the name of one of its progenitors, who “as a prince had prevailed with God.” The name Israel had been more generally applied to the northern kingdom, which had already been overthrown, but Hezekiah claims it for the remnant that was left. When he uttered that name, did he wish to remind himself of Jacob’s power in prayer, or of God’s special interest in His nation? Perhaps both. God had chosen, defended, saved it. Names which recall Divine deliverance may encourage us in prayer. 2. His nation was Jehovah’s peculiar dwelling-place: “Which dwelleth between the cherubim.” The Shekinah, symbol of the Divine presence, shone forth from between those weird figures on either side of the mercy-seat. Hezekiah’s reference to this peculiar Divine manifestation was intended to suggest that God would protect His own dwelling-place. This is true. God’s dwelling-place is always safe, whether it be a nation—a man—a church (H. E. I. 1246–1251). II. In his prayer Hezekiah recognises the sole supremacy of Jehovah. “Thou art the God,” &c., “and have cast their gods into the fire,” &c. Polytheism prevailed in the nations surrounding Judæa. Sennacherib had spoken of Jehovah as if He were the God merely of the Jews, and in his ignorance supposed that Hezekiah had offended Him by removing the “high places.” Hezekiah asserted— 1. That Jehovah was the only true God. 2. That He exercised supreme control over all the kingdoms of the earth. III. He appealed to Jehovah as the Maker of heaven and earth. In the sublime acknowledgment these truths are involved:— 1. That He is eternal (H. E. I. 2253; P. D. 1492, 1518). 2. That He is separate from, all His works. He is immanent in them, but independent of them (P. D. 1519). 3. That He is omnipotent. He who made the universe must be almighty (H. E. I. 2270; P. D. 1509). 4. That He has all things under His control (H. E. I. 4023). This conception of God afforded solid ground for Hezekiah’s faith. Before the greatness of Jehovah the might of His enemies sank into nothingness. Large conceptions of God will ever give large expectations in prayer. The more we widen our views of God, the more confidence we shall have in Him in trouble. IV. Hezekiah prayed with great earnestness. “Lord, bow down Thine ear,” &c. “Now, therefore, O Lord, our God, I beseech Thee.” Fervent desires lead invariably to ardent expressions. Cold prayers are no prayers. Earnestness is needed, not to lead God to observe our condition, nor to create in Him a disposition to help us, but— 1. That the strength of our desires may be revealed. 2. That we may be raised from the low condition of formal devotion. 3. That we may have all the spiritual culture which the outcries of real need may impart. 4. That we may be prepared to receive deliverances thankfully (H. E. I. 3831–3838, 3893). V. Hezekiah recognised the greatness of the deliverance which he sought. “Of a truth, Lord,” &c. Other kingdoms had fallen; why not his? Only that his hope was in God. No human ingenuity or might could deliver him. Men must be brought to see that their need of deliverance is great. Sometimes they are brought to see this by temporal emergencies. Such crises teach us more of God than years of ordinary living (H. E. I. 117–121). Spiritual deliverances must come from God alone. The soul is a besieged city. The forces of Diabolus are around Mansoul. Its Sennacherib is mighty. The deliverance which it needs is great. To recognise the greatness of the deliverance we need will— 1. Deepen our sense of our own helplessness. 2. Stimulate the exercise of great faith. 3. Prepare us for the manifestation of God’s great delivering hand. VI. Hezekiah associated the glory of Jehovah with the deliverance which he sought. The reproaches that had been cast upon him had been cast upon God. The deliverance of Jerusalem would manifest God’s sole supremacy in the earth—“that all the kingdoms,” &c. No prayers are so powerful as those which seek God’s glory, for that is the real and ultimate good of humanity. Many prayers will not bear this test; they are earthly, narrow, selfish (P. D. 2842). Hezekiah’s prayer prevailed. The besieging army was destroyed; whether, as Kingsley suggests, “by a stream of poisonous vapours such as often comes forth out of the ground during earthquakes and eruptions of burning mountains, and kills all men and animals that breathe it,” or by a pestilence, or by the simoom, we cannot tell. But it was God’s delivering hand put forth in answer to Hezekiah’s faith and prayer— 1. That His people might learn to put their trust in Him; and 2. That all the earth might know that none can defy His power and prosper.—W. Osborne Lilley: The Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i. pp. 521–524. A PRAYERIsa_37:20. Now, therefore, O Lord our God, save us, &c.The conclusion of Hezekiah’s prayer. Sennacherib had accomplished the conquest of several countries, notwithstanding the protection of their gods. He declared that the God whom Hezekiah trusted would also be unable to deliver him. What could the king do better than spread the letter before the Lord, cry for help, and make the reproach of the Almighty’s power the principal plea? God’s honour was at stake. If Jerusalem was saved, it would be a demonstration of God’s exclusive divinity to all the nations around. The result was that the angel of the Lord destroyed the Assyrian camp, so that Sennacherib returned to Nineveh. It is one of the most remarkable answers to prayer. This is pre-eminently a Christian prayer—that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that the Lord is God alone. It is the end toward which all Christian desire and effort is directed. We will consider it in this view, and notice— I. THE WHICH IS DESIRED. It is that all mankind may believe in the one true God. Most of the nations of ancient times believed in a multiplicity of divinities, as the inhabitants of India do now. But many of these peoples were devoted to some one god in particular, who was supposed to take their country under his protection. The gods were local. They did not exclude each other. In time of war the question, so far as the gods were concerned, was not which nation was protected by the true God, but which god was the strongest. The spirit of Judaism was entirely antagonistic to this. The unity of God was its great doctrine. It was not missionary; it was a silent protest. So far as they were faithful to the teaching they had received, the belief of the Jewish people was, that while the Divine Being stood in special covenant relations to them, He was the exclusive Divine Being; that until the nations should become acquainted with Him they had no God at all. Christianity occupies a similar position, only the position is extended. When it commenced its career, it made itself felt, not as a silent protest, but as an active aggressive agency which aimed at the overthrow of all idolatry. It assumed the position that all the religions of the earth are false, while it is the only religion for man. From that position it has not descended. To do so would be to efface itself, therefore it cannot accept the modern paganism. It cannot take its place as one of the many forms, perhaps the most enlightened, in which the religious sentiment is expressed. It cannot accept the courtesies of “thoughtful men” on these terms. It must be all or nothing. It is the channel through which the one God has revealed Himself as the redeeming God. The consummation desiderated by the Christian Church is that all the nations of the earth may be brought to the knowledge of Him as thus revealed. II. THE REASON WHY IT IS DESIRED. 1. Because it is essential to the Divine honour. God is not regardless of His glory. He might have remained alone; but He chose to call into existence creatures able to contemplate His glory. Before them He has set His works. He wishes to live in their thoughts and affections, not merely as a distant object of awful contemplation, but as one enshrined in their heart’s love. He desires to be so real to them as that they shall connect Him with all the events of history and all the experience of life. But this cannot be, if He is unknown or regarded as one of many. The honour of the sovereign cannot be divided; neither can the honour of God. It is something by itself. He is jealous of it. So are His people. They are anxious that He receive His proper honour from all the world. 2. Because it is necessary to religious worship. Some religious worship enters into the life of mankind everywhere. But it cannot be indifferent whether it shall be offered to the only Being capable of receiving it, or to nothing. The notion entertained of the object of worship regulates the nature of worship. Contrast heathen with Christian worship. An unknown God cannot be satisfactorily worshipped. The God of Christianity can be the object of a worship that is real so far as the worshipper is concerned, and acceptable to Him to whom it is presented. 3. Because it affects the experience of life. A man’s thoughts respecting God must affect his life at every point. He may not believe in any. He may believe in many. He may believe in one. He will be influenced in relation to the duties, the trials, and the difficulties of life. Is not the ideal of possible excellence for humanity higher under the influence of the Christian than under any other form of belief or unbelief respecting God? In the inevitable sorrows of life, is it not a very different thing to be ignorant of God from what it is to know Him as one who sympathises with the sufferer, and whose hand will remove the suffering when it has accomplished its appointed work? The knowledge of God is the most practical of all knowledge. It moulds our life, character, experience, conduct, at every point. 4. Because it secures the salvation of the soul (John 17:3). There must be an experimental acquaintance with Him. It is realised in the friendship with Him that comes through faith in Christ. It is an abiding spiritual life, gradually unfolding into eternal life. III. THE MEANS BY WHICH IT WILL BE . The prayer contemplates Divine action as evidence. “Save us from His hand.” According to the reasoning of the time this would be the proof. Reasoning from facts still the most satisfactory. Thus we may reason— 1. From creation. The wisdom and power displayed are the wisdom and power of One. 2. From redemption. God has interposed for many. He has actually saved many. Every conversion strengthens this argument. 3. From the preservation of the living Church. In spite of persecution, infidelity, lapse of time. We may therefore make it a plea for the bestowment of saving blessings, as Hezekiah did. Do you believe in Him? Live as you believe. Think what would be the effect if all did so. Tell it to the heathen. Pray for them in praying for yourself.—J. Rawlinson. THE CHURCH A OF THE JEWISHIsa_37:31. And the remnant that is escaped, &c.When the power and splendour of the family of David were failing, the prophets foretold that the kingdom of the saints should one time be restored. Has this promise yet been fulfilled or not and if fulfilled, in what sense? There are other prophecies parallel to the text, e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 34:23; Isaiah 41:14-15; Isaiah 62:1-2. That these and a number of other prophecies are fulfilled in the Christian dispensation is plain from the express assertions of inspired persons (Acts 15:13-17). This explains the language of Moses, in which the perpetual obligation of the law is asserted, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,” &c.; and after punishment, return of prosperity was promised, on condition of returning to the law (Deuteronomy 4:30; Deuteronomy 11:22-25). Consider one or two difficulties— 1. It may be said that the prophecies have not been, and never will be, fulfilled in the letter, because they contain expressions and statements which do not admit, or certainly have not, a literal meaning. But the use of figures in a composition is not enough to make it figurative as a whole; we constantly use figures of speech whenever we speak, although the main course of our conversation is to be taken literally. Now this will apply to the language of the prophets. The words “David,” “Israel,” “Jerusalem,” and the like, are not so much figures as proper names which have a figurative origin, or words which, having first had a confined sense, come, as language proceeds, to have a wide one. All these words convey a literal truth in their substance. 2. It may be asked whether it is possible to consider the Christian Church, which is so different from the Jewish, a continuation of it. It may be argued that Christ founded His Church as a new thing in the earth. Observe— (1.) That the chosen people had in former ages gone through many vicissitudes, many transformations, before the revolution which followed on Christ’s coming. They had been shepherds, slaves; the place of God’s presence had moved about; they had been governed by a lawgiver, by judges, by kings, by priests. The change when Christ came from a local into a catholic form, was not abrupt, but gradual; what was first a dispersion became a diffusion. And let it be observed, a change in externals was anticipated as regards the city of God in the Old Testament. “Thou shalt be called by a new name,” says the prophet (chap. Isaiah 62:4). (2.) It may be objected that the change was internal, not external only; it became a Church of Gentiles, instead of a Church of Jews. But changes of this kind had occurred before, e.g., the change which destroyed the substantive existence of the ten tribes; in an earlier age, only two of those who left Egypt with Moses entered the promised land. The line of continuity, surely, was not less definite when the Church became Christian. The sacred writers show themselves aware of this peculiarity in the mode in which God’s purposes are carried on from age to age. They are frequent in speaking of a “remnant” as alone inheriting the promises (Romans 11:2-5; Isaiah 1:9; Ezekiel 11:13; Jeremiah 40:15; Haggai 1:14; Joe 2:32; Micah 5:8; Zechariah 8:12). There was no substitution of a new Church for an old; it was but a manifestation of the old law of “the remnant,” by which the many were called and the few chosen. We may consider, then, the word “remnant,” so constantly used in Scripture, to be the token of identity of the Church, in the mind of her Divine Creator, before and after the coming of Christ. Paul expressly inculcates that the promises made to Israel are really accomplished, without any evasion, in the Divine protection accorded to Christians. To conclude:— 1. Whether we can clear up these points or no, they are not greater than the difficulties which attend on other confessedly fulfilled and very chief and notable prophecies, as that of the dispersion of the Jews. They were threatened with the evils which have befallen them, supposing they did not keep their law; whereas in the event the punishment has come upon them apparently for keeping it; because they would not change the law for the Gospel, therefore have they been scattered through the nations. In this it is implied that in rejecting the Gospel they in some way or other rejected their law, or that the Gospel is the continuation or development of the law. In a similar way are the prophecies concerning the elect remnant fulfilled in the history of the Christian Church. 2. If the prophecies in their substance certainly have had a literal fulfilment, then this will follow, viz., that the very appearance of separation and contrast does but make it more necessary that there should be some great real agreement and inward unity between one and the other, whether we can discover what it is or not on account of which they are called one. All Scripture has its difficulties; but let us not, on account of what is difficult, neglect what is clear. Perchance, if we had learnt from it what we can learn by our own private study, we should be more patient of learning from others those further truths which, though in Scripture, we cannot learn from it ourselves.—John Henry Newman: Sermons on Subjects of the Day, pp. 180–198. ’S PRAYERIsa_38:1-19 In this narrative there are three points of difficulty and many points of instruction. I. THREE POINTS OF . 1. Why was Hezekiah afraid to die? Answer: (1.) Even to a Christian man, death is an event of unutterable solemnity, for which he feels it necessary to make the most serious preparation, and which he would not like to have occur to him suddenly. (2.) Hezekiah had not that clear view of the future which has been granted to us (Isaiah 38:18; 2 Timothy 1:10). (3.) His kingdom was threatened by a powerful enemy, and the important reforms which he had been prosecuting were incomplete; and even good men are apt to forget that God can raise up others to do His work more efficiently than they have done it. (4.) At that time he had no child, and that he should die childless appeared inconsistent with God’s promise to David (1 Kings 2:4). Probably it was a recollection of this promise that prompted his reference to his integrity (Isaiah 38:3). In those words there is no boastfulness; they are an appeal to the Divine faithfulness. On all these accounts a prolongation of his life seemed to Hezekiah desirable, and he sought it from God in prayer. 2. When we compare Isaiah 38:1; Isaiah 38:5, do we not find an astonishing reversal of a Divine decree altogether inconsistent with the doctrine of God’s unchangeableness? No. “The same decree that says, ‘Nineveh shall be destroyed,’ means, ‘If Nineveh repent, it shall not be destroyed.’ He that finds good reason to say, ‘Hezekiah shall die,’ yet still means, ‘If the quickened devotion of Hezekiah importune Me for life, it shall be protracted.’ And the same God that had decreed this addition of fifteen years had decreed to stir up the spirit of Hezekiah to that vehement and weeping importunity which should obtain it” (Bishop Hall). 3. What was the nature of the sign given to confirm Hezekiah’s faith? For a discussion of this point, see note [1258][1258] “And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.”—2 Kings 20:11. How was this wonderful result secured? Did God arrest the earth as it revolved on its axis, and wheel it round in the opposite direction? No one who considers what would be the natural result of such a proceeding, and what a stupendous series of miracles would have been needed to have prevented the destruction of all life upon the earth, will think so for a moment, especially when a course much simpler, and equally efficacious, is suggested by the very words of the different narratives. Isaiah indeed says, “So the SUN returned ten degrees” (Isaiah 38:8). But his record of what seemed to occur must be interpreted by what God had promised to do: “Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” And in the narrative in the Book of Kings it is the shadow and not the sun that is spoken of throughout. To reverse the shadow in the dial it needed nothing more than a miraculous refraction of the light; and we believe that this is what occurred, not because it was an easier thing for God to do, but because it is in harmony with all that He does to believe that when two courses were open to Him, one exceedingly simple and one exceedingly complex, He would choose the simple course. God never wastes power. The extraordinary results produced by the refraction of light are familiar to all who have given any attention to natural philosophy. The atmosphere refracts the sun’s rays so as to bring him in sight, on every clear day, before he rises on the horizon, and to keep him in view for some minutes after he is really below it. Contradictory as it may sound, on almost any summer evening you may see the sun at least five minutes after he is set. It is entirely owing to refraction that we have any morning or evening twilight. That the rays of the sun can be so refracted as to cause him to be seen where he actually is not is thus a matter of daily experience. And there are some extraordinary cases on record. Kepler, the great astronomer, mentions that some “Hollanders, who wintered in Nova Zembla in the year 1596, were surprised to find that, after a continual night of three months, the sun began to rise about seventeen days sooner than he should have done.” This can only be accounted for by a miracle, or by an extraordinary refraction of the sun’s rays passing through the cold dense air in that climate. In 1703 again, the prior of the monastery at Metz, in Lothringen, and many others, observed that the shadow of a sundial went back an hour and a half. It is thus abundantly plain that the result related could have been secured by a refraction of the light, a common occurrence in Nature, The miracle consisted in its happening at that particular moment; just as in the case of the fish that Peter caught which contained money. Many fish containing money have been caught; but here was the miracle—that this fish was caught at the very time which Christ had indicated. In like manner the miraculous element in the regression of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz was its occurring just at the very time at which it was needed to verify the prophet’s word and strengthen the monarch’s faith. II. MANY POINTS OF . 1. Sickness and death are the common lot of mankind. Kings are liable to them as well as beggars (H. E. I. 1536, 1537). 2. In the extremity of suffering, when all human help is vain, the righteous can turn to God. Pitiable would have been Hezekiah’s case, monarch though he was, if he could only have “turned his face to the wall.” 3. In every extremity, the most powerful of all remedies is prayer (H. E. I. 3720–3724). 4. How promptly God sometimes answers prayer (2 Kings 20:4). 5. God answers prayer instrumentally. In this case He did it by suggesting a simple remedy (Isaiah 38:21), which perhaps the court physicians had thought it beneath their dignity to employ. 6. Those who have been restored from dangerous illness should make public acknowledgment; of God’s goodness. 7. How great are our privileges in possessing the Gospel, through which “life and immortality are brought to light,” and death stripped of its terror! In the market-place of Mayence stands a statue of Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, on the base of which there is this honourable inscription:—“The knowledge which was once the exclusive possession of princes and philosophers he has put within the reach of the common people.” A similar statue might be erected to the honour of our Saviour, who has made those views of the future life which cheered only a few of the noblest saints (such as David in Psalms 23:6) the common heritage of the whole Church. No true believer can now be so much afraid of death as Hezekiah was (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). IN OF DEATHIsa_38:2-3. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, &c.The causes of Hezekiah’s reluctance to die may be gathered from his circumstances. [See Outline: Hezekiah’s Prayer, p. 426. That ungodly men should be terrified at death is what might be expected (P. D. 684); but reluctance to die is not confined to them (H. E. I. 1570). I. The Christian has naturally a feeling of repugnance at the very thought of the disruption of the union between soul and body. What precedes death, the stroke itself, and its consequences, all excite feelings of dread (P. D. 741, 761). II. True believers may feel reluctant to die because of the doubts which they entertain with respect to their eternal state. After death is the judgment. Their fears may proceed from various causes. From constitutional temperament, increased by a relaxed state of the nervous system; from the prevalence of unbelief, the imperfection of knowledge and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; from the powerful agency of the god of this world in producing them. A last desperate effort is made to overthrow faith. While these prevail, recovery from bodily distress is felt to be a mercy of no ordinary kind (H. E. I. 323). III. Religion may be in a declining state in them, and a consciousness of this may render the prospect of death distressing to them. The progress of the Christian is not uniform. If, while in a backward state, he is called to die, conscience is awakened, and he is thrown into alarm (Matthew 25:1-13). IV. The prospect of death may be distressing, because the believer will then be deprived of all opportunity of honouring God in this world. This was one reason for Hezekiah’s unwillingness to die. He was in the prime of life. Believers, at a like time, may pray to live in order to be useful in the Church and world. The prayer proceeds from a right principle—a desire to honour God. It seems hard for the minister of Christ, after a long course of laborious preparation, to be smitten down to die before he has well begun the great work of preaching. The philanthropist, like Howard, feels a bitterness in the stroke. The Christian parent also. In these and like circumstances a rare strength of faith is called for. V. God may see good to withhold from true believers the comforts of religion under bodily distress and in their dying moments. To what is the difference in the measure of comfort enjoyed on a deathbed to be ascribed? The sovereignty of God must here be admitted. Objection against it here applies equally in other circumstances. The Divine reasons may be inscrutable to man, although assuredly dictated by infinite wisdom. The newly converted may die joyfully; the veteran Christian may have much less comfort. But generally the faithful life will end, at least, in a peaceful death (H. E. I. 1264). Would you meet death without terror? 1. Improve by faith that righteousness which Christ wrought out in our nature. 2. See to it that your hearts are changed by the Spirit of God. 3. Devote yourselves unreservedly and unweariedly to the cultivation of holiness in heart and life. The longer we are here, we are the more prone to set our hearts upon the world as if it were our rest. It is from this tendency that the aged Christian sometimes feels as great a reluctance to depart as the Christian in the morning of life (Colossians 3:2).—James Anderson: Scottish Christian Herald, iii. 569. THE OF HUMAN LIFE(A Funeral Sermon.) Isaiah 38:10. I am deprived of the residue of my years. Briefly narrate the facts of Hezekiah’s illness. The words of the text naturally suggest this general observation, that God deprives many of the human race of the residue of their years. I. WHEN GOD ANT OF MANKIND OF THE RESIDUE OF THEIR YEARS. 1. When He calls them out of the world before they have reached the limits of life which are to be found in Scripture (Psalms 90:10). Hezekiah undoubtedly numbered his years according to this standard when he spoke (at forty years of age) of being deprived of the residue of his years. 2. When He calls them out of the world before they have reached the bounds of life fixed by Providence. Though the Scriptures limit life to seventy or eighty years, yet Providence often extends it to a longer period, even to a century. Many aged persons enjoy a large measure of health, strength, and activity; should any of these be suddenly cut down by disease or accident, they would be deprived of the residue of their years which they had anticipated, according to the course of Divine providence in fixing the limits of life to the aged. 3. Even those who die before they have reached the bounds of life which are imposed by the laws of Nature, may be said to be deprived of the residue of their days. Nature sets bounds to every kind of life in this world, not excepting human life. What the natural limit of human life is we cannot tell, but from the fact that some have survived for over a century and a half, we may infer that God has deprived the vast majority of the human race of the residue of their years, and has not allowed even one in a million to reach the bounds of life which Nature has set. II. WHY GOD THUS THE LIVES OF MEN AND CUTS OFF THEIR YEARS. 1. Sometimes it is to teach the living that He is not dependent upon them in the least degree. Though He can and does employ them in His service, yet He can lay them aside whenever He pleases, and carry on His designs without their assistance. Let eminent and useful men like Hezekiah remember this, that they may not yield to the temptation of pride (H. E. I. 2218–2219). 2. In order to teach mankind their constant and absolute dependence upon Himself. This they are extremely inclined to forget, and their forgetfulness arises in a great measure from the consideration of the general bounds of life which Scripture, Providence, and Nature have set. To these well-known periods they naturally extend their views, desires, and expectations. But to make them sensible that they still live, move, and have their being in Himself, God continually deprives one and another, and much the largest portion of mankind, of the residue of their years. 3. To teach the living the necessity of being continually prepared for another life (H. E. I. 1543–1546). 4. To teach the living the importance of faithfully improving life as long as they enjoy it. All men are naturally slothful and strongly inclined to postpone present duties to a more convenient season. The best and most industrious of men need the sharp spur of the possibility of sudden death, and of being called away before their work is complete. When God cuts down the active and useful in the midst of their days, He warns us most solemnly (Ecclesiastes 9:10; H. E. I. 1562–1566). 5. God sometimes cuts short the days of the wicked to prevent their doing evil in time to come (Psalms 55:23; Proverbs 10:27; Ecclesiastes 7:17). 6. God sometimes shortens the lives of His faithful servants to prevent their seeing and suffering public calamities. It seems to have been in mercy to Hezekiah that God added only fifteen years to his life; had fifty years been added (and then at death he would only have been ninety), he would have been involved in the dreadful evils which were coming upon both his family and his kingdom (Isaiah 57:1). .— 1. If God does not always deprive men of the residue of their years, there is a propriety in praying for the lives of the aged as well as for the lives of the young. Even the oldest persons living, though labouring under pains, infirmities, and diseases which seem to indicate the near approach of death, may yet pray for the removal or mitigation of their disorders, and for a longer space of life. Life is a blessing, and to pray for its continuance is a duty. 2. If God so often deprives men of the residue of their years, it is extremely unreasonable and dangerous to flatter ourselves with the hope of living a great while in the world. What ground have we to expect that our days will be greatly prolonged; that we shall escape all the dangers and diseases which have proved so fatal to others, and live as long as man can live according to the course of nature? This expectation is as dangerous as it is absurd. It encourages the wicked to continue in sin. It is the strangest and most fatal error that mankind ever embraced (James 4:14; Matthew 22:44). 3. Since God deprives so many of the residue of their years, we ought to beware of placing too much dependence upon the lives of others, as well as of our own. Others are as liable to leave us as we are to leave them (Psalms 146:3-5). 4. If God so often deprives men of the residue of their years, then long life is a great as well as a distinguishing favour. It is a talent capable of being improved to the highest public and private advantage. We should desire it for the sake of having greater opportunity of getting good, and still more of doing good. Had Hezekiah, Joseph, Joshua, Caleb, and David died in early manhood, how little comparatively they could have done for Israel! Since good men are to be rewarded according to their works, the longer they are permitted to live, the greater opportunity they enjoy of promoting their own future blessedness. 5. If God always has wise and good reasons for depriving men of the residue of their years, then it is as reasonable to submit to His providence in one instance of mortality as another. He knows all the disappointment which a strong man feels in being cut down in the midst of his days, all acute sorrow that is caused by an untimely death, and He sympathises with it all. He never afflicts willingly, nor grieves the children of men; He takes no pleasure in giving anxiety and distress to the dying, nor in desolating the hearts of the living; and when He does either, it is for a reason that is infinitely wise and infinitely kind. It behoves us then to say with Job: (Isaiah 13:15, or Isaiah 1:21).—Dr. Emmons: Works, vol. iii. pp. 79–92. A CRY FOR HELPIsa_38:14. O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. This prayer ascended from a sick-bed. State Hezekiah’s circumstances. From many sick-beds it still ascends. 1. From the sick-bed of the Christian who is distressed by thoughts of what may befall his wife and children after his removal from them. 2. From the sick-bed of the Christian who perceives that the world has been gaining much on his heart. Overtaken in the very strength and flower of his days by a sudden and dangerous illness, he sees that in the midst of the bustle and business of an honest calling he has been gradually drawn off from a life of watchfulness and prayer, and that, while keeping the forms of godliness, he has lost much of its power. Death apparently at hand, his soul starts up alarmed. 3. From the sick-bed of the worldly man, who at length perceives his guilt and danger. His awakened conscience fills him with distress and fear (H. E. I. 1334–1339), and the approach of death terrifies him (H. E. I. 1567). Show how graciously God deals with all these suppliants when they sincerely call upon Him.—Richard Monks: Sermons, pp. 230–249. A good prayer:— 1. For the young man entering upon the duties of life. Surrounded by the snares of the world, exposed to many temptations, and having in himself no strength or wisdom to deal with them aright. 2. For the young man entering upon his Christian course. Experimentally sensible of the deceitfulness of the heart, and conscious that there is one ever watchful, ever willing to encourage him in evil (H. E. I. 1061). 3. For the Christian perplexed in the path of duty. 4. For the Christian on his dying bed (H. E. I. 1570–1593).—H. Montagu Villiers, M.A.; Sermons, pp. 194–211. Hezekiah’s prayer reminds us of man’s need of a Divine Helper. We need some one who can undertake to be our guide through life; to sustain us under the sorrows of life; to strengthen us against the temptations of life; to effect reconciliation between us and a justly offended God; to succour us in death; to welcome us to heaven, and to assign us our place in it.—Horace Monod. THE OF CHRISTIsa_38:14. Undertake for me. I. That man needs a surety. This is evident from several considerations. Man— 1. Is an insolvent debtor; 2. a captive; 3. a criminal; 4. helpless and mortal. II. That a surety has been provided (Hebrews 7:22; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24). Christ was constituted a surety; not for God to us, but for us to God. He undertook to do for us, and in us, what we could not do for ourselves. Is man a debtor? Christ has paid the debt. Is man a captive? Christ came to set the captive free. Is man a criminal? Christ has endured the curse (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Is man helpless and mortal? Christ has provided everlasting strength (2 Corinthians 12:9). III. That there must be a believing application made to that Surety. We must put in claim for share in the suretyship of Christ—must say in faith, “Lord, undertake for me; be surety for me.” IV. The effects of such application. These are many and most important. In case of Hezekiah several are mentioned. God had sent him an alarming message. He wept and called upon God. His prayer was answered. A sign was given. During his sickness and after his recovery he had great exercises of soul He thought of death (Isaiah 38:10); was annoyed because he was about to be cut off from the worship of God (Isaiah 38:11), and that by a premature death (Isaiah 38:12). But was there not a remedy? Yes. What? A believing application to the Lord as surety. “O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.” And what was the consequence? The whole tone of his thoughts was changed. He now recognises God’s hand in the dispensation (Isaiah 38:15); sees these things to be good for his soul (Isaiah 38:16); believes his recovery certain—realises the forgiveness of sin—is enabled to praise God (Isaiah 38:19); can now resolve to teach his children about God’s truth, and determine with them to bless and magnify God for ever (Isaiah 38:19-20). Thus the realisation of God as surety, and a believing application to Him for help, proved the turning-point for good in Hezekiah’s experience. .— 1. In the way of warning. (1.) Not to depend on ourselves for salvation. (2.) Not to neglect the means of grace. 2. In the way of encouragement. (1.) Jesus Christ is surety for all who believe in Him. (2.) All who are oppressed in body or soul may and should, by God’s grace, believe in Jesus as their surety.—T. Oliver: The Study and the Pulpit, New Series, 1876, pp. 419–421. ’S (A New-Year Motto.) Isaiah 38:15-20. I shall go softly all my years, &c.This resolution grows out of that singular experience of sickness and recovery recorded in the preceding verses. It furnishes an excellent motto for the year. Our translation is somewhat defective, but if we substitute “on” for “in” the correct sense will be clear. The meaning is that the recovered king would walk through the fifteen years that were added to his life in salutary remembrance of his dangerous illness, and of the goodness of God in prolonging his days on earth. The memory of that trouble and of the mercy that rescued him would put a staff in his hand to make his walk more devoted, circumspect, and consistent. Understood thus, the words are applicable to all. Some of you may be able to trace a close resemblance between your experience and that of Hezekiah. Like him, you may have escaped from a well-nigh fatal illness. But all of us can look back on similar periods—on mercies received and dangers averted—and in recollection of them we may say, “I shall go softly all my years on the bitterness of my soul.” I do not know any better commentary on these words than the opening stanza of Tennyson’s In Memoriam:— “Men may rise on stepping-stonesOf their dead selves to higher things.”A good New Year’s motto, which harmonises so sweetly with it. Our past experiences, our dead selves, may be made stepping-stones on which we may climb to a clearer vision and a loftier devotion. What, then, was the nature of that pathway of life which this good king engaged to pursue? What was the prospect which opened up before him? 1. A walk of humble dependence on God. This element in the resolution is distinctly expressed. In Isaiah 38:15-16, God’s Word and acts are viewed as the real supports of life. Looking above all secondary causes and natural agencies, the king acknowledges God as the source and giver of life. This is a great lesson, and one which an experience like that of Hezekiah can teach. It seems to us a natural thing to live on; we count on continued health and long life till some sickness lays us low, and we are brought to feel as we never felt before that our times are in God’s hand. But whether we have passed through a dangerous illness or not, the resolution befits us all. Let us remember that God sustains and orders our lives. It was, indeed, a singular position in which Hezekiah was placed. He knew precisely how long he would live. The duration of our pilgrimage is just as fixed as his was, only we do not know it (P. D. 2252). The thread of our life is in God’s hand. Thus was Hezekiah taught to “go softly.” His soul had passed through “great bitterness,” and he shall bear it in mind, and his rescue from it deepen his dependence on God. 2. A walk of usefulness. It was on this plea that he had prayed for the prolongation of his life (Isaiah 38:3). He had rendered valuable service and had borne a consistent testimony. The convalescent king saw a prospect of further work for God on earth. He who a short time before this seemed about to leave his kingdom in confusion without an heir to the throne is now able to say, “The father of the children shall make known thy truth.” Does it not become us to ask, Why is my life prolonged? Why have I been permitted to enter on a new year? Is it not for this reason, among others, that we may become increasingly serviceable in advancing the cause of truth? Better far that life should terminate than that we should live to no purpose, for every year adds to our responsibilities. Advance, then, into this year resolved that, God sparing you, you will live more useful lives (H. E. I. 3228–3251; P. D. 2269). 3. A walk of thankfulness (Isaiah 38:19-20). How thankful this convalescent was for his restoration to health, and all the more so because to him, as to other saints of his age, the grave seemed dark and gloomy (Isaiah 38:18). It needed the Gospel of Christ’s resurrection to dispel the darkness and the gloom. This psalm is itself a proof of Hezekiah’s thankful spirit, and perhaps the 118th Psalm is another production of his pen, containing as it does words of hope suitable to this period of his history (Psalms 118:17-18). Are we too resolved that our remaining years shall be years of thanksgiving, our lives a psalm of praise? 4. This fifteen years’ walk was to be a walk of peace (Isaiah 38:17). The meaning here is that the affliction was sent with a view to his obtaining a more settled and abiding peace; it teaches us, as nothing else can, the secret of inward peace. What are the sources of dispeace? One of them is found— (1.) In our earthly strivings and ambitions. “There is no peace to the wicked.” He is constantly on the rack of avaricious struggles, unsatisfied longings, sensual desires. Affliction can show us the utter vanity of earthly things. How poor the world looks as seen from within the curtains of a dying bed! The sufferer who has come back from the gates of death is able to estimate earthly things at their right value. He ceases from the low ambitions and carnal desires that once raged within him. 2. Bodily pain and weakness is another cause of unrest. An experience of this bitterness brings peace when the patient is restored to health. We set greater value on a blessing which we have lost and regained. One of our poets describes a convalescent gathering strength, and coming forth after long confinement to look upon the scenes of Nature— “The common earth and air and skiesTo him are opening paradise!”To have such feelings we must have known affliction. For the enjoyment of this peace we must have tasted “great bitterness.” 3. But the greatest source of dispeace is unpardoned sin (Isaiah 38:17). How complete is the forgiveness of sin as thus expressed! What a peace is enjoyed when guilt is removed and God’s love shed abroad in our hearts! (H. E. I. 1893, 1894; P. D. 2675, 2677). What more do we need to make this year a happy one than to set forward with this resolution? We cannot break away from the past. We are now what it has made us. Our “dead selves” make our living present selves. From our trials and sorrows we may gain supports for nobler endeavour. “I shall go softly,” meekly, submissively, prayerfully, “on the bitterness of my soul.” Do you wish some spring, some impulse to send you forward thus in life’s pathway? Think of some bitterness in your past experience, some Marah which the Lord sweetened for you, some trouble from which He rescued you when you lay on the brink of death, or under the feeling of Divine desertion, or under the accusations of a troubled conscience, and make that “dead self” a support for the path before you.”—William Guthrie, M.A. THE OF BELIEFIsa_38:15. I shall go softly all my years, &c.In the case of Hezekiah, belief was restored by a great shock which brought him into contact with reality. He had been living, as many of us live, a pleasant, prosperous life, till he had really grown to believe that this world and its interests were the only things worth caring for. His treasures, his art collections, the beauty of his palace, made him love his life and dream that it was not a dream. God appeared to him not as to Adam, in the cool of the day, but as He came to Job, in the whirlwind and the eclipse, and Hezekiah knew that he had been living in a vain show. The answer of his soul was quick and sad, “By these things men live, O Lord;” these are the blows which teach men what life really is. Many are prosperous, happy, and at ease. It will be wise for these to remember that thoughtless prosperity weakens the fibre of the soul (H. E. I. 3997–4014). The blow which sobered Hezekiah was a common one. It did nothing more than bring him face to face with death. The process whereby his dependence on God was restored was uncomplicated. But there are far worse shocks than this, and recovery from them into a godlike life is long and dreadful. 1. One of these is the advent of irrecoverable disease—protracted weakness or protracted pain. Then we ask what we have done: we curse our day. But our misfortune brings round us the ministering of human tenderness: slowly the soul becomes alive to love; and through the benign influence of human love the first step towards the restoration of belief has been made, the soil is prepared for the work of the Spirit of God. Then the Gospel story attracts and softens the sufferer’s heart. Afterwards he reads that Christ’s suffering brought redemption unto man, and begins to realise how he can fill up what is behindhand of the sufferings of Christ. This is not only the restoration of belief—it is the victory of life. 2. More dreadful than protracted disease is that shipwreck which comes of dishonoured love— “When all desire at last, and all regret,Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain,What shall assuage the unforgotten pain,And teach the unforgetful to forget?”For some there is no remedy but death. Others live on in a devouring memory. And the memory poisons all belief in God. But there are many who recover, and emerge into peace and joy. Can we at all trace how this may be? Lapse of time does part of the work. It does not touch the memory of love. The pain of having a gift thrown aside has passed; the sweetness of having given remains. When we thought ourselves farthest from God, we were unconsciously nearest to Him. And so we are saved, faith is restored. Like Christ, we can say, “Father, forgive them, for they knew not what they did.” 3. Many are conscious, in later life, that their early faith has passed away. It was unquestioning, enthusiastic. It depended much on those we loved. Religious feelings which had been without us and not within, slowly and necessarily died away. Becoming more and more liberal, we also became more and more unbelieving, and at last realised that our soul was empty. Are we to settle down into that? It is suicide, not sacrifice, which abjures immortality and prefers annihilation. Our past belief was borrowed too much from others. Resolve to accept of no direction which will free you from the invigorating pain of effort. Free yourself from the cant of infidelity. It boasts of love, it boasts of liberality. Its church is narrower than our strictest sect. Bring yourself into the relation of a child to a father. We need to come to our second self, which is a child—to possess a childhood of feeling in the midst of manhood.—Stopford A. Brooke: Christ in Modern Life, pp. 380–392. A GREAT Isa_38:17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. The text forms part of a king’s song on recovering from a severe illness. “When we are raised from deep distress, our God deserves a song.” But it points beyond temporal deliverance to salvation from the power and punishment of sin. I. THE SINNER’S . In “the pit of corruption.” This description suggests— 1. Loathsomeness. It is a fit simile of the world in which the unconverted live. It is not a quagmire, but a pit; not a dry pit, but one full of corruption—filth, death, worms. To God, “glorious in holiness,” every man in the pit of corruption must be loathsome. He may be educated, loving, philanthropic, and worldly wise, but being dead in trespasses and sins, he is fit only for being buried out of the sight of God and stood men. 2. Helplessness. A man in a pit is helpless, like Joseph. No man ever yet got out of the pit of corruption by his Latin, his logic, or his mother wit. It is not for him to postpone the date of a deliverance once vouchsafed. 3. Increasing danger. Men never mend in the pit. II. THE SINNER’S HELPER. “Thou,” &c. In vain does the sinner look within himself or to his fellow-men for help, but God gives it. Every saint praises God for his salvation: “Thou,” &c. Note, 1. The freeness of God’s redeeming love. There is nothing in a man wallowing in a pit of corruption to draw out love. Where it is shown, it is a free gift. 2. The fulness of that love. “Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.” Some wink at our sins, others cast them into our teeth on all occasions. God does neither. He abhors sin, but when He forgives the sinner, He forgets the sin (Jeremiah 50:20; Romans 8:33; Psalms 32:2; H. E. I. 2322–2337). III. THE SINNER’S DUTY. He is not to lie quiet, but to cry for a deliverer. Wishing, hoping, thinking will not do. The crying, to be effectual, must be made now. Now God says, “My arm is not shortened,” &c. (Isaiah 59:1). When once gone, to all your cries His reply will be, “Because Ï called,” &c. (Proverbs 1:24-26). Why will you die? Bring forth your strong reasons against salvation.—M.: Christian Witness, 18:392–393. OF SINIsa_38:17. For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. This is part of the song which Hezekiah wrote when he had recovered from his sickness. He had betaken himself to prayer. The nation, threatened with invasion from the powerful kingdom of Assyria, could ill afford to lose its head. His prayer was heard. The prophet was sent with a new message. The Divine hand was visible, although ordinary means were employed. This the king fully recognised (Isaiah 38:20). God’s mercies should not be forgotten when the occasion has passed. The king sees the connection of his disease with sin, and the removal of disease with the removal of his sins. From the text we observe that the forgiveness of sin is necessary, possible, complete, knowable. I. Forgiveness of sin is necessary. Scripture traces suffering to sin. The fact of sin is prominent in the history of mankind. Its universality is the groundwork of the revelation of its remedy. It is written on the conscience. However oblivious of the fact in health and prosperity, men in sickness and disaster usually think of their sins as the remote or immediate cause. It is sometimes God’s way of awakening attention (H. E. I. 56–89). Until sin is forgiven, it is before the face of God (Psalms 90:8; Hebrews 4:13). The accountability of man would be an unmeaning phrase if it did not involve the idea that an account is taken of his actions. They are all noted, good and bad, and tested by the Divine standard. Every man’s are before the face of the Supreme Ruler, and Judge for the purpose of being dealt with. This is his case until it is changed by the exercise of forgiveness. It is useless to ignore the need of forgiveness under the impression that we can, in some way, remove the stain. However much good a man may do, the fact of sin remains; and so long as he is under a law which requires unsinning obedience, the good cannot be set against the bad in the hope that the former will wipe the latter away. Forgiveness of the past is the first necessity. II. Forgiveness of sin is possible. The Gospel builds on the groundwork laid. It provides and makes known a way by which forgiveness may be obtained. It is not by the enactment of a law obedience to which will have this effect. Law brings the sinfulness into clear relief and renders escape impossible. Nor is it by the declaration of a general amnesty, which would virtually neutralise the law and its penalties. Nor is it by an exercise of the Divine sovereignty in the way of mercy to all men, nor even to the penitent, simply as such. God’s way of forgiveness provides for the exercise of mercy by the satisfaction of the claims of righteousness. For its manifestation He prepared during long ages of teaching. In due time He sent His Son (Galatians 4:4-5). The interposition of Christ renders forgiveness possible. It includes His taking the sinner’s obligations on Himself (Colossians 1:14). This is the Divinely appointed way of forgiveness. It satisfies all the requirements of the case. It provides an adequate Mediator. It provides forgiveness on honourable terms. It is, so far as the sinner is concerned, a free forgiveness. It imposes no impossible condition. It says to the sinner under the burden of sin and guilt, satisfaction of the law, which is impossible to him, is no longer demanded, because it has been rendered by His great Substitute. It simply calls upon him to believe, repenting of his sins. If you see your sinfulness, if your soul is troubled by it, if you are anxious to obtain mercy, the Gospel bids you come to Jesus, and come at once. It assures a present, immediate, free pardon. III. Forgiveness of sin is complete. “Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.” They were previously before the face of God. They are now taken thence and cast behind His back. You do that with a thing you have done with and intend to see no more. It is a most expressive representation of the Divine forgiveness. It attracts attention to its completeness. “All his sins,” without exception or reservation, have been cast out of sight. They will never be produced against him. This is complete forgiveness. We can realise it better by comparison with the forgiveness exercised by men. Man’s forgiveness is often very poor. “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.” “I forgive, but I shall have no more to do with that man.” Many do not even pretend to forgive. But God forgives, completely, fully (H. E. I. 2328–2348). IV. Forgiveness of sin is knowable. The text is the language of assurance. Hezekiah inferred it from his recovery. We may be certified— 1. By the written Word. 2. By consciousness of the Spirit’s work in us—repentance, faith, love, surrender. 3. By the moral effects. Put all these together (H. E. I. 309, 310, 324, &c.) Do you possess assurance? Your experience— 1. Illustrates the Divine character: “merciful and gracious.” Its most attractive light. 2. Produces grateful love. The greatest boon has won the heart. 3. Invites to holy obedience. Appeals to what is best. 4. Suggests evangelic action. Tell others. Seek the salvation of the worst. Are you not forgiven? Perhaps indifferent. Perhaps desirous, but hesitating. Perhaps procrastinating. Do not trifle. Do not neglect. Do not delay. Be reconciled to God.—J. Rawlinson. THE SONG OF (Sermon to the Young.) Isaiah 38:18-19. For the grave cannot praise Thee, &c.This is part of Hezekiah’s song of praise to God. He was very ill. A good man, yet rather afraid of death; certainly very anxious to live. When we are strong and full of life, it is easy to talk of braving all worldly sorrows; but when the time comes for us to prove our words, many who are now in heaven have said, “Spare me a little before I go hence and be no more seen.” In what affecting terms did Hezekiah bewail his sickness! “I said, in the cutting off my days, … I shall not see the Lord,” in His holy sanctuary on earth; “I shall behold man no more;” never again behold the human face divine, never meet again the welcoming smile of child or friend. God heard Hezekiah’s prayer, took pity upon him, turned back the sundial of his life fifteen years. The good king rejoiced in this gift of lengthened life: “The grave cannot praise Thee.” &c. Let us follow out this rejoicing of the king, this setting forth the advantages of the living above the dead. 1. The living are in possession of the time which is given to make reconciliation with God and secure an everlasting interest. We are all by nature strangers to God, enemies to Him in our mind and inclination. We are defiled and guilty creatures; this is the hour of cleansing, whilst the fountain stands open in which our sins may be washed away (2 Corinthians 6:2). We are by nature utterly unfit for heaven; this is the day of repentance as well as of pardon. At the summons of death we must go, whether prepared or unprepared, holy or unholy, hoping or despairing. While your hearts were unholy, your death, had it happened, must have been dreadful. Let those who have improved this gift of life to make their reconciliation with God highly value it, and magnify its important advantages with all the gratitude and zeal of the king of Judah. 2. Life is a precious and golden gift, because it affords a field for increasing in good works. We are required to be “zealous of good works.” Zealous; not to touch a good work as if we were afraid of burning our fingers. Such works “are good and profitable to men.” The days and years of life should be numbered by the multitude of good works, as by the revolutions of the earth. Lost and wasted time should not come into the account of life. Ah! if we reckoned thus, what a shrinking and contracting would take place! A Roman emperor, a heathen, used to say, “I have lost a day,” if he had not done any good action in it. How many are there who live to no purpose at all, whom the world will not miss when they are gone! How many live to wicked purposes, and the world is glad to get rid of them! Some are mere cumberers of the ground; they bear the Christian name, but how different from Christ! “The night cometh,” said He, “in which no man can work.” “Ye are the light of the world,” said Christ to His disciples, and how dark would this earth be were there no disciples of Christ upon it! “Ye are,” said He, “the salt of the earth;” if the salt were gone, what corruption of manners, what filthy communications, what odious practices would overspread and defile society! One child of God in a family is like the ark in the house of Obed-Edom, of which we read, “The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom,” &c.; or like Joseph in Potiphar’s house, of whom we read, “The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake,” &c. We may follow up this idea, and say if one child of God is so great a blessing in a family, many may bless and save whole cities and nations. We find this to have actually been the case from what is said of Noah, Daniel, and Job. God said three thousand years ago, “Righteousness exalteth a nation,” and it is equally certain that wickedness overthroweth it. In all the Old Testament history, we see how He ascribes prosperity to the keeping of His commandments, and ruin to the breaking of them. We cannot suppose that it is in any way different now; that the Ruler of the Universe is in slumber, or, being awake, has altered the rules of His government. Life, and especially youthful life, is the time for good works and good actions; not one can be done in the grave. .—Let young persons value life. It has been said that we “take no note of time save from its loss;” let not this be said of you. It is the gift of time that alone places you in a position to profit by all other gifts. Make good use of life; of this its pleasant morning: be obedient, be diligent, love each other, avoid quarrelling and evil words. Live so that the end will conduct you to a world where, though time will be no longer, life will continue for ever.—George Clark, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 239–246. PRAISE FOR (Last Sunday of the Year.) Isaiah 38:19. The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day. Such was Hezekiah’s burst of thankfulness when God heard his prayer, and gave him fifteen years more of life. While the danger lasted, he was surprised into more of alarm than became his place and character; but now, marvellously spared, he calls upon the living everywhere to praise God for His goodness. His case, he feels, was theirs too. All men alike live upon God’s bounty, and are debtors to His patience. He guards them from evil,—sends them good things, without which life must be presently extinguished,—renews their being, and makes it over to them by a fresh grant, not only when the closing year reminds us of the gift, but at each day’s working time. Therefore Hezekiah is not satisfied with a solitary strain of thanksgiving. He looks round upon a world teeming with animated, intelligent beings, and in every brother whom God hath made and kept alive he finds one who should bring in his tribute of praise. He wants a chorus of rejoicing worshippers. 1. This season naturally makes us thoughtful. We think of what life has been to us lately, and. what it might have been. We have nearly passed another stage on our journey to the grave, and we miss some who began it with us. We stand, like unwounded soldiers on the battlefield with the dead and the dying all round them. This is all God’s doing. He who gives life sustains it. If to have lived on be deemed a blessing, and praise for the boon be due anywhere, it can only be to Him whose providential government of the world is like an hourly repetition of the creative power which called it out of nothing. 2. But is life worth having? Is prolonged life a blessing, and may we fairly require men to be grateful for it? This is assumed by Hezekiah. Life and praise may go well together, because to so great a degree life and happiness go together. Not always. Some are so unhappy that they cry out under their burden, and almost wish, for a moment, for deliverance at any cost. But the settled feeling of men’s minds is the other way. To almost all of them life is the hoarded treasure which they will guard at any price. They will put up with the worst they have to bear before they will accept release on the terms of being banished straightway to the unknown world. The reason is, that by the side of this harvest of woe, of which they reap a few ears now and then, there groweth a harvest of blessing, of which they are constant reapers (P. D. 2282, 2256). 3. Remember the “common mercies” of which through another year we have been partakers. Our very senses are so many curious inlets by which pleasures, more or less vivid, come thronging in from the wide world around us. Continued health. Senses and faculties marvellously kept from injury. The happiness of our homes; specially to be remembered at this season. When we call upon the living to praise God, we have much more to show for the demand than the bare fact that God lets them live. He lets most of them live happily. He causes their cup to run over with blessings. He does all this, in spite of forgetfulness and disobedience on their part that would wear out any other love but His (H. E. I. 2307–2309). Praise God for the “common mercies” of another year. 4. While we live we are on mercy ground. That is the special mercy beyond all our common mercies. Life, while it lasts, connects us with all that is blessed and glorious in the scheme of salvation. While we are here, “there is but a step between us and death;” but while we are here, too, the door stands wide open through which we may pass into the presence-chamber of our King. While you are here, if you will make Christ your friend, sin may be cast out, and the blessed Spirit of truth become your daily Teacher, and your future years be all rich in blessing and bright with hope. Praise God for the prolongation to you of this great opportunity, and embrace it now! Let the new year find you serving Christ. 5. Living saints, as well as spared sinners, should praise God for His preserving mercy. They have had fresh opportunities for serving God and for growth in grace. They have no right eousness of their own wherein to stand before God, and never will have; but talents improved and laid out for God will bring a blessing. He is too bountiful a Master to let any of His servants work for nought. Heaven itself is not alike to all, though it shall be satisfying to the meanest child in God’s family. The disciple whom Jesus specially loved leant on His bosom at the Last Supper; and at the marriage-supper, when all the guests shall be assembled from many lands, they who have attained to the goodliest stature in their days of conflict shall sit nearest to the King, and wear the brightest crowns (H. E. I. 2751–2753, 3288; P. D. 412, 1752). Every year is a fresh sowing time for a more abundant harvest. 6. Some among you have special reasons for saying with Hezekiah, “The living,” &c. (1.) This strain belongs to the aged man or woman, who has already lived beyond the allotted term of human life. In your feebleness, God has carried you through another stage. Beyond your expectation, perhaps, you have seen another Christmas. Many are the mercies of one year, but when they come to be multiplied by near fourscore, what an array we have then! Praise the Lord! (2.) Some before me, while the year was running out, thought they should never see the end of it. Like Hezekiah, you prayed for life when death seemed to be close upon you. God restored your life to you. What have you done since to show yourself grateful for that mercy? Have a care that your mercies do not make your case worse. If they do not melt, they harden. 7. If the living should praise God, how largely is He defrauded of His due! We are surrounded with living men. Each one of these has a fresh grant of life with each day’s sun-rising. What a tide of praise should be going up unceasingly to His throne! Do we find the world so full of praise? Alas! no; if praise be the sign of life, we seem to be walking among the tombs. God is forgotten in His own world. While common friends are thanked for trifling favours, the Giver of mercies, repeated with every breath, is to many of us an unheeded stranger.—John Hampden Gurney, M.A.: Sermons, chiefly on Old Testament Histories, pp. 297–312. ’S AND Isa_39:1-2. At that time Merodach-baladan, &c.A study of the character of Hezekiah is profoundly instructive. The sacred writers impartially present him to us in his strength and in his weakness. I. IN HIS . He was in the full sense of the word a good king (2 Kings 18:3; 2 Kings 18:5). He was conspicuous— 1. For his religious zeal. Though, politically, it was a hazardous thing to do, he utterly abolished idolatry in his kingdom. 2. For his religious wisdom (2 Kings 18:4) [1267] 3. For his strong faith. This was shown especially in his conduct in the matter of the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. When we consider these things, we may well understand the high praise given to Hezekiah; certainly there were few kings like him; perhaps none who exhibited a ripeness of religious knowledge and a strength of character so remarkably superior to the times in which he lived. [1267] Amongst other idolatrous forms of worship which he destroyed, he broke in pieces the brazen serpent which Moses had made in the wilderness (2 Kings 18:4). Many men would have been ready to destroy all the heathen forms of idolatry; they would have made no peace with Baal, or Dagon, or any other gods of the nations, but they would have hesitated to destroy a relic of the life of Israel in the wilderness; they would have thought it sacrilegious to break up an image which Moses himself had made, and they would have reasoned that the religious feelings of the people were so entwined about this memorial of their early days, that it would do more harm than good to violate their feelings, and take away that which excited in their minds religious thoughts. If a king of Judah had so argued, it would not have been right to confound him with the mere rabble of idolaters. If Hezekiah had destroyed all other forms of idolatry and left this remaining, we could easily have found an excuse for his conduct; but forasmuch as he took a higher view of his duty, we are bound to give him credit for that higher view, and to remark his spiritual discernment. Hezekiah was not deceived by any flimsy arguments about the sacred nature of the relic which the people adored; it was a cause of idolatry, that was enough. It had been sacred once. In the wilderness, when it was held up as an object upon which the people might gaze, it would have been a sacrilege to mutilate it; but now it was but “a piece of brass,” and if that piece of brass be the centre of a system of idolatry, there is but one safe course, and that is to destroy it.—Goodwin. II. IN HIS . The weakness of his character was displayed— 1. When the king of Babylon sent messengers and a present to him to congratulate him on his recovery from his illness. Then he must needs take them over his house and his armoury, and parade before them all the strength of his dominions (2 Kings 20:12-13). It was natural and right that he should be pleased with the conduct of the king of Babylon; it was gratifying to him personally; it augured well for the future, as concerning his kingdom, that he should be on good terms with the king of Babylon, now rising into power; but it was unworthy of him to lose his self-possession in the manner described. (1.) He was evidently overcome for the nonce by silly feelings of vanity. He seems to have thought that inasmuch as the king of Babylon had considered him worthy of the compliment of sending to him, he on his part must show that he was indeed a very magnificent king, as the king of Babylon had no doubt heard that he was. (2.) His vanity caused him to forget how little service his armoury and his treasures had been to him in the hour of peril (H. E. I. 3998, 4000, 4001, 4011). (3.) His vanity caused him to forego an opportunity of honouring God and of instructing his neighbours in Divine truth [1270] Doubtless it was his failure in duty in this respect that brought upon him so severe a rebuke (Isaiah 39:3-7). 2. The weakness of his character had already manifested itself in his couduct during his illness. In the prospect of death his strength of mind quite broke down (ch. 38.) But there was a difference: in the other case he acted unworthily of his knowledge; in this case he was weak because he was, compared with ourselves, weak in religious privileges. He looked to his grave with such melancholy feelings because he could not clearly see a life beyond it. The answer of the great riddle of humanity had been guessed by many before Christ, but His resurrection made the truth clear (2 Timothy 1:10; H. E. I. 3415). If it were not for the light which our Lord has thrown into the grave, we should mourn like Hezekiah, and our eyes would fail as did his. Having more light than he had, it is our duty to live a nobler life than he did, and not to be cowards in prospect of death (H. E. I. 1570–1643).—Harvey Goodwin, M.A.: Plain Parish Sermons, Third Series, pp. 78–92. [1270] If his purpose was to impress upon the Babylonians the greatness of his strength, the story of the destruction of Sennacherib would have answered his purpose much better. If Hezekiah had taken the ambassadors to the Temple, and told them how he had spread Sennacherib’s letter before the invisible presence of his God in that holy house, and how he had prayed that the designs of his enemy might be brought to nought, and how that eventually the Assyrians had all either perished or fled, the men of Babylon would have been far more impressed with the power of Hezekiah, believing as they would that he was under the protection of an unseen Hand, than they possibly could be by the mere vulgar display of treasures and armour, which their own country could show in abundance, and which was the very thing calculated to excite their desire of plunder.—Goodwin. HOME LIFE AND Isa_39:4. What have they seen in Thy house?State briefly the circumstances that gave rise to this question. It evidently suggests to Hezekiah that he has not made the best use of the visit of the Babylonians. He might have turned it to greater account than the gratification of his vanity by displaying his treasures. Instead of magnifying the greatness and glory of God, and thus lifting the minds of his visitors to the highest themes, he had only held out a bait to their covetous desires, and tempted them to steal the treasures so vainly displayed. This was to be the result of his folly (Isaiah 39:6). This is how we miss the great opportunities of our life. There come to us golden seasons when we might bear valuable testimony for God; but we have some petty, personal desires of our own to carry out, and they pass away unimproved. Then comes the prophetic message, borne by our own conscience, that the plan we adopted to gratify our improper desires will only lead us to confusion and unhappiness. The extent to which Hezekiah came under the censure of God in this matter we shall not now further consider. We shall extend the application of this question to the matter of home life and home influence. So it has a bearing on all of us. “What have they seen in thy house?” I. It should be seen that our home is the common centre of attraction for all the family (P. D. 1828–1830, 1836). II. In the home each member of the family should be seen faithfully discharging the duties of his or her relationship to it; husbands, wives, fathers, &c. III. It should be seen that every Christian gift and grace is carefully cultivated. “For Christ’s sake,” should be the motto of the whole family. In all they do, every member of it should seek to display love such as He manifested when He dwelt among us: His love was patient, magnanimous, sympathetic. This is the way to make the humblest home happy (P. D. 1823, 1834, 1838, 1839). CLOSING .— 1. If we do not thus exhibit Christianity at home, it may be questioned whether we possess it at all (H. E. I. 2994). 2. If others know that there is no practical Christianity displayed by us at home, they will rightly set but little value upon our religious performances abroad. 3. It is from the culture of home life that our hopes are to spring with regard to the national life. In the home lurk the disorders that disturb society. The true way to bring those disorders to an end is to endeavour to make the homes of our land the nurseries of every Christian grace and virtue. 4. Let us aim at the accomplishment of the needful national reforms, by each of us doing what we can to make our own home all that it ought to be.—William Manning. TRIEDIsa_39:8. Then said Hezekiah, &c.In the narrative connected with the text we find much in Hezekiah to be avoided and much worthy of imitation. I. We find Hezekiah in great affliction. He had recently escaped from great public and national calamity; he is speedily involved in private and personal suffering (Isaiah 38:1). “He was sick,” and Isaiah was sent to prepare him for death. He was greatly alarmed at the approach of death (Isaiah 38:9-14). How different from St. Paul (Philippians 1:23). He lived in a dark and imperfect dispensation; few then had clear views of the world to come (2 Timothy 1:10). Hezekiah’s faith failed him greatly, and he clung to life with pertinacity. II. In his trouble he sought the Lord (Isaiah 38:2-3). He made solemn vows of what he would do if spared (Isaiah 38:15). When partially restored, he renewed his vows (Isaiah 38:19). Thus believers in every kind of trouble should seek comfort of God in earnest prayer; nor is it improper then solemnly to give ourselves to God, and renew our vows. We are encouraged to do this by the speed with which a gracious answer was sent to Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:4-5). Isaiah was hardly gone out from pronouncing the judgment when he was sent back with a message of mercy (2 Kings 20:4-5). How wonderfully compassionate is God to His feeble people! Their poor, trembling prayers, uttered in fear and doubting, are heard and answered. He not only hears prayer, but answers directly (Daniel 9:20-23). III. We find him speedily forgetful of the mercy he had received. Ambassadors arrive at his court. Whence and for what purpose? (Isaiah 39:1-2). What an opportunity for him to redeem his vows, and to proclaim the power and goodness of God to these heathens! Alas! he shows them all his riches, &c., but of God and His temple He says nothing. Flattered and betrayed by the world (Isaiah 39:3-4), what a heart his and ours must be! How could this be? We are told (2 Chronicles 32:31) that such is man when left to himself! We are never in greater danger than after seasons of great mercy and special providences (H. E. I. 4902–4904). IV. He humbly received the rebuke that was sent to him (text). Here the habit of his mind appeared: he had fallen into the sin of vanity, but humility and resignation to the will of God, especially to His afflictive dispensations, were his usual characteristics. A clear evidence of true godliness, meekly and cheerfully to submit to fatherly correctives. Aaron (Leviticus 10:1-3), Eli (1 Samuel 3:18), the bereaved mother (2 Kings 4:26), David (Psalms 119:75). LESSONS.— 1. Let us cultivate humility, watchfulness, and jealousy of ourselves (H. E. I. 4883, 4901). 2. Let us not be disconsolate because we are conscious of weakness and unworthiness. The errors and failings of the best of men are left on record, not to extenuate our sins, but to save us from despair. They were men of like passions with ourselves—the same infirmities and corruptions—yet God bore with them, and saved them out of all their distresses. Let us therefore “hope to the end,” and “patiently continue in well-doing,” believing that we shall be “more than conquerors through Him who hath loved us” (H. E. I. 1117, 2376).—F. Close, A.M.: Fifty-two Sketches of Sermons, pp. 52–55. UNDER GOD’S REBUKEIsa_39:8. Then said Hezekiah, &c.I. THE REBUKE. The character of Hezekiah is well known. One of the very best of the kings of Judah (2 Kings 18:3-7). Nevertheless even in this excellent man there were moral weaknesses which were displayed when his physical malady was removed. The arrival of the Babylonian ambassadors excited within him hopes of political advantages arising from alliance with the idolatrous king whom they represented, and in order to impress the envoys with a sense of his importance, he made an ostentatious display of his wealth (Isaiah 39:2). This displeased the Lord. Why? 1. Because Hezekiah let slip a favourable opportunity of making known to the heathen the glory and the goodness of the God of Israel [1273] 2. Because his ostentation made it plain that pride was usurping the throne of his heart (2 Chronicles 32:26). [1273] If, instead of showing them his treasures, he had related to these idolatrous Chaldeans, who were worshippers of the sun, the account of his marvellous cure, and especially the miracle by which the shadow was made to go ten degrees backward on the dial, he might have been the means of bringing them to the knowledge of the true God who made the heavens, and of convincing them that He was master even of that glorious luminary, which they ignorantly adored instead of its Creator.—Bather. But this was not the habitual frame of Hezekiah’s mind; he was a good man, and therefore God lovingly chastened him. If it had been the wicked Ahab who had done this deed, the Lord might possibly have taken no notice of it; He might have left that idolatrous sinner to have followed his own devices. But seeing this evil spirit begin to show itself in a pious and humble man, the Lord mercifully and savingly interposed to check it in the beginning (Isaiah 39:3-7). II. THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS . Sharp as was the rebuke sent him by Isaiah, Hezekiah so received it as to give a rare example of pious and cheerful resignation (text). Both parts of his reply are remarkable. 1. “Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.” None but a child of God could have used this language in sincerity, under such trying circumstances. But he has such faith in God, that although it is impossible for him to foresee what wickedness his posterity would commit, he knows that the decree will be found to be righteous (1 Samuel 3:18). But doubtless he meant something more than submission to God’s sovereignty; he meant to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord to himself, of which this very rebuke was a new manifestation (H. E. I. 190–196,162–165). 2. “He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.” That is, God hath been pleased to inform me that my children are to be carried into captivity and to suffer much affliction; but in my grief for this, I must not forget to thank Him for His tender mercies to myself. He has declared that I shall have peace, and this is far more than I deserve. .— 1. We may learn what exceeding sinfulness and immense danger there often is in sins which we are apt to pass over as trifles, and hardly to notice in ourselves (H. E. I. 4897, 4898, 4516). 2. Remark an inestimable privilege of the children of God’s love: they may fall into the very same troubles as their ungodly neighbours, but in the one case calamity is the angry lash of the law, in the other it is the faithful rebuke of an anxious Father. 3. From the history of God’s dealings with Hezekiah we may infer what must be the wisest wish for any man to make, viz., that God would take us into His holy keeping and choose our inheritance for us. If we were left to determine for ourselves, some would choose one thing, and some another. Yet “sorrow is better than laughter;” and the history of Hezekiah is a proof of it (H. E. I. 211, 3986, 3998–4001). 4. If sin have brought rebuke upon you, search and try your ways, that you may see what your transgression and weakness is; and then accept the chastening of the Lord as a token of His love (H. H. I. 144–147). 5. Whatsoever may have befallen you, remember always that the mercies which remain are far greater than you deserve; and that in the day of prosperity, no less than in the evil day, there is need for perseverance and watchfulness (H. E. I. 4888–4890).—Archdeacon Bather: Sermons on Old Testament Histories, pp. 275–285. COMFORT FOR THE Isaiah 40:1-5. Comfort ye, &c.IT is generally agreed that these last twenty-six chapters relate to the restoration of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. They are the Gospel of the Old Testament. This is their value to us. Put into the briefest words, the ideas contained in the first five verses of this chapter are—That a glorious change awaits the exiles, consisting of a new and generous manifestation of Jehovah’s presence, for which His people are exhorted to prepare. The prophet is commanded to speak words of comfort to those captives from Jerusalem—to assure them that her warfare, her time of slavery, is about to end; that her sins are pardoned, abundantly expiated by her sufferings; that her God is coming to deliver her from the oppressor; and that she must prepare the way for His coming, as heralds ride before a conquering king. The comforting announcement which the prophet was to make to Jerusalem was— 1. That her affliction had become full, and had therefore come to an end. 2. Her iniquity is atoned for and the justice of God is satisfied. 3. The third clause repeats the substance of the previous ones with greater emphasis and in a fuller tone. The double punishment which she had endured is not to be taken in a judicial sense, in which case God would appear over-rigid, and therefore unjust. The compassion of God regarded what His justice had been obliged to inflict upon Jerusalem as superabundant. But this is only the negative side of the consolation. What positive salvation is to be expected? “Hark, the voice of one crying!” The summons proceeds in a commanding tone: “Let every valley be exalted,” &c. Spiritually interpreted, the command points to the encouragement of those that are cast down, the humiliation of the self-righteous and self-secure, the changing of dishonesty into simplicity, and of haughtiness into submission. Israel is to take care that God shall find them in such an inward and outward state as shall enable Him to fulfil His purpose. “And the glory of Jehovah,” &c. When the way is prepared for the coming One, the glory of the God of salvation will be unveiled; and this revelation is made for the sake of Israel, but not secretly or exclusively, for “all flesh” will come to see the salvation of God. “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,” is the confirmation of the foregoing prophecy. Suffering endured through a long period, comfort promised, the elements of that comfort and the preparation for receiving it—these are the chief thoughts and main topics of the passage. I. We all have to suffer, and to suffer for our own sins and for the sins of one another, in one way or another, and in a greater or less degree. It is part of the mystery of the world that some lives, even in the morning of their days, are overhung with dark clouds of sorrow. With how many is life a continual struggle with feeble health; in others, mental cares, cares of business, anxieties; in others, pangs suffered over sins committed and things left undone. II. The Old and New Testaments say that there is Divine comfort for the sorrowful sufferers. This teaching casts a new light upon human grief. It puts to shame all ancient and modern philosophy. The Divine Physician uses suffering as a medicine (Psalms 119:67; Psalms 119:71). 1. We feel ourselves drawn into the true path of life. 2. Then the comfort of another message begins to be felt—that our iniquity is pardoned. 3. Then His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. III. God is coming over the desert of our lives to reveal His glory to us (Isaiah 40:5). IV. But, for coming into the possession of this privilege, we must prepare the way of the Lord (Isaiah 40:4; Matthew 3:2). The conditions of comfort are here laid down. Christian comfort comes by raising up the whole soul of a man; by bringing down every proud thought; by straightening every crooked course; by chastening and refining all that is rugged in character or conduct. It is thus we prepare ourselves for the incoming of God.—Charles Short: Sermons, pp. 255–269. THE AND THE (Autumn Sermons.) Isaiah 40:6-8. All flesh is grass, &c. [1315][1315] The very affecting images of Scripture which compare the short-lived existence of man to the decay of the vegetable creation are scarcely understood in this country. The verlure is perpetual in England. It is difficult to discover a time when it can be said, “The grass withereth.” But let a traveller visit the beautiful plain of Smyrna, or any other part of the East, in the month of May, and revisit it toward the end of June, and he will perceive the force and beauty of these allusions. In May, an appearance of fresh verdure and of rich luxuriance everywhere meets the eye; the face of Nature is adorned with a carpet of flowers and herbage of the most elegant kind. But a month or six weeks subsequently, how changed is the entire scene! The beauty is gone, the grass is withered, the flower is faded; a brown and dusty desert has taken the place of a delicious garden. It is, doubtless, to this rapid transformation of Nature that the Scriptures compare the fate of man.—Hartley: Researches in Greece, p. 237. We are witnessing one of the last phases of that wonderful life which Nature unfolds before us each year with ever-new beauty. To most men it is a sad phase. Why? Not because we are entering upon the rugged season of the year. They know that the discomforts of winter are transient; and winter brings its own pleasures. The feeling finds its source in that intuitive faculty in man which enables him to interpret the spiritual significance in Nature, and which tells him that in the withering and falling leaf, decomposing and resolving itself into its first elements,—in the dry and flowerless stalk and the harsh brown grass, he sees the type of his own mortality (P. D. 248, 2222). The decay of autumn suggesting the thought of decay in human life, suggests also very forcibly the thought of immortality. Never does the longing to live for ever so take possession of my soul as when all about me is telling me that life is transitory. When life is fullest and most satisfying, death is most unwelcome; and when decay and death draw nigh, we long with quickened desire for life. There are two elements in all things earthly—the transitory and the permanent. Nature has a real life which survives when she sheds what have been the visible tokens of her life. The things which seem most alive in Nature are the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits; but these are the things that perish soonest. The real life lies deeper—hidden from human eyes; and that endures. It is so with man. There is somewhat that is real and abiding; there is somewhat that is only temporary—the foliage in which the real expresses itself to-day, and which it will cast aside to-morrow. And so we find the sacred poet thinking upon the transitoriness of life, reassuring himself with the thought that there is nevertheless somewhat that is real and abiding. “All flesh is grass,” &c. There are lives which all of us can live which will have more than a transitory significance; deeds within the power of us all which will be immortal; things which may be acquired by us which neither time nor accident can wrest from us. I. Our good deeds will live for ever. Our acts of kindness, generosity, helpfulness are immortal because they are Divine. There is a threefold immortality— 1. Acts that lessen life’s burdensomeness and diminish the temptations to sin have far-reaching consequences to others. By these personal ministries, often humble and obscure, we are shaping immortal lives. Our good deeds will live in other souls (P. D. 1006, 2302, 2443, 3205). 2. You cannot do another good without doing yourself good in the deed; you are building your own character, and that will show your work upon it unto eternity (H. E. I. 720; P. D. 3609). 3. Our good deeds become immortal by their life in the thought of God (Hebrews 6:10; Acts 10:31; H. E. I. 451, 1726; P. D. 2012). II. Our pure affections will live for ever (P. D. 749–2351). The leaves fall and mingle with the sod, the flower droops and withers, and earth ere long will lie sepulchred beneath the snow; but in the providence of God the spring will come, and earth will wake to a fresh and radiant life. And so, also, when our earthly plans are broken, our accumulations scattered, and our bodies crumble into dust, the soul with all its fulness of love and all its trophies of service shall live on in the immortality of God.—George P. Gilman.God’s comparisons are striking, His contrasts sharp. Could the perishability of creation and the imperishability of its uncreated Author be put more vividly before our eyes than by likening the one to a worn-out garment, ready to drop apart, while the other stands out untouched by time, and with years that have no end? (Psalms 102:26-27). In this passage from ancient prophecy, how the fleeting is made a background on which to set the fixed! Over against Nature’s decaying growth are put Revelation’s verities that eternally abide. “The grass withereth,” &c. I. We have symbolised a changing world. While the decay of vegetation which the season brings needs not be, and ought not to be, a ghastly or gloomy thing [1318] it is a symbol of change, a reminder of the evanescence of all material objects and concerns. Look around, and you will observe that all things are changing, most of them rapidly (H. E. I. 4975–4989; P. D. 408, 2536, 3336). Turn where you will, you note the restlessness of men. New partners, new parties, new experiments, new diversions. Why are all things around us thus full of change? 1. Partly because that capricious thing the human will underlies all finite activities, and will not let us remain quiet. Its fickleness it is that keeps public and private life disturbed [1321] A changing world! Can it be otherwise with such a vacillating element under it? Can you build a vessel that will not pitch or lurch, when beneath it there is that which pitches and lurches all the while? A changing world indeed. Changing in its loves and hates, in its wishes and its wills, in its hopes and fears, in its purposes and plans. Changing like withering grass and fading flower. 2. But this evanescence is not entirely an outgrowth of human weakness; part of it is the outworking of a Divine design. The fluctuations of earth are its heavenly discipline. God uses it to rid the world of evils, as He uses thunders and lightnings to shake out of the air deadly diseases hanging there. Even for the individual a quiet, undisturbed life is rarely God’s plan. The soul is apt to grow hard, and selfish, and narrow, unless over-turnings and ups and downs shake it loose from earthly good and gain (Psalms 55:19; Jeremiah 48:11; H. E. I. 3997–4014). To prevent this, changes keep us shaken up. God’s merciful hand is in the commotion (H. E. I. 110, 111). [1318] There is a kind of autumn sermonising or moralising that is more vapoury than truthful, and more sentimental than pious. Much of the doleful talk about the blighting and blasting of the fair and the beautiful, in the field and forest and on the lawn, is foolishness. The blanched leaf fluttering from the tree is spoken of pityingly as though overtaken by some untimely fate, as though some destroying influence had cut short its life. But as a matter of fact, we know that the falling of the leaf was as natural as the unfolding of the leaf. Winter or no winter, frost or no frost, it would have faded or fallen, because that was the Creator’s plan concerning it. He meant from the beginning that it should last only so long. Study its structure, and you will see that its work was done. When, therefore, the landscape spreads around the emblems of a frail and dying world, instead of taking on a plaintive tone, it would be wiser cheerfully to say, “The summer has finished its appointed task, and when the set time comes, may my own be finished just as well!—Vassar. [1321] I was running over again recently the career of that hapless Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Who that has once read it can forget the tragic history? For a brief space she was the idol of her realm. Then her enthusiastic subjects offered to take the horses from the royal carriage and draw it with their own hands down the streets of her gay capital. How terrible the transition when, a little later, along those same avenues they dragged the widowed sovereign to execution, rending the air with curses that ceased only when the bloody head was held up in sight.—Vassar. II. Note now the stability with which this inconstancy is contrasted. Turn from the changing world and consider the unchanging Word. “The Word of our God standeth for ever” (Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:24-25). 1. There is this immutability about the facts which Scripture states. Every little while infidelity with blare of trumpets announces some fresh discovery of science hostile to revelation, and at each disclosure some timid believers are almost ready to concede that the Bible has gotten its deathblow. Children that we are to be scared by shadows! Why, Sir Charles Lyell tells us that in 1806 the French Institute numbered more than eighty geological theories that struck against the inspired record, and not one of those theories survives to-day (H. E. I. 539, 636, 642–645). 2. There is the same permanence about the predictions of this Word [1324] 3. There is the same perpetuity about the principles or doctrines of this Word. At times the enemy comes in so like a flood that it seems as if all the old landmarks were swept away. But the old verities remain unchanged. Divine holiness, justice, and supreme dominion; human accountability to a righteous law; human sinfulness, and pardon through a crucified Saviour; the necessity of repentance and regeneration through the renewing and sanctifying Spirit; a reckoning day when right shall be crowned and wrong crushed, and the drama of history close amid praises—not one of these Bible truths has been abrogated or annulled by all men’s sneers or jeers. Providence is not a myth. Christ is not an amiable enthusiast. Heaven is not a dream, nor is hell a fiction. 4. This Word is permanent in its fruits. “The Word of our God” is first of all sometimes heard with the ear, then sometimes accepted by the understanding, then sometimes received into the soul, and then sometimes manifested in the life of the believer. Where so grasped and held, it is a principle of undecaying power. The work that begins with the saving entrance of the Word goes on for ever. Not only does the truth so embraced by the heart perpetually produce fruit in the individual, but in the community it keeps yielding fruit year after year.—Thomas E. Vassar. [1324] Prophecy is only pre-written history Much of it has not yet come to pass, yet Christian trust no more doubts that what is pledged is coming than the man of the world doubts that winter is on its way. Why should we doubt it? Look back and see how predictions once made have turned into realisations on the right hand and the left. Hear the cry of the bittern as it sails amidst the flooded palaces of Babylon; listen to the song of the fisherman spreading his net where Tyre once sat a proud ocean-queen; catch the wail of the Jew downtrodden in the city of his fathers, and without a country anywhere that he can call his own, and then ask whether other promises or other threatenings of the Divine Word are not as likely to be fulfilled.—Vassar. THE STORY AND MORAL OF A BLADE OF GRASS Isaiah 40:6-8. All flesh is grass, &c.I. THE STORY OF THE BLADE OF GRASS. The tender beauty of these words is not confined to the fact that their leading thought—the transitoriness of human life—is full of pathos. There is a plaintive music in them; the refrain—“grass withers, flowers fade”—goes singing through the brain, quickening the tender grace of days that are dead. Imagination stirs and works; we see the broad pleasant field bathed in sunlight, and then the fierce hot blast sweep across it. Who does not feel at times that that is a true picture of human life? But these words take new force as we connect them with the circumstances in and for which they were spoken. The prophet’s main duty hitherto had been to denounce the judgments of God on the sins of Israel. He is now carried on to the distant time when the Jews will start on their return to their native land. He is to “speak comfortably” to them. As he broods over the vision—“Hark, a crier!” Another message of comfort (Isaiah 40:3-5). There is once more silence in the prophet’s heart. But, “Hark, a voice.” It is the Divine Voice saying “Cry!”—i.e., “Proclaim.” The herald turns and asks, “What shall I cry?” The Voice replies, “All flesh is grass,” &c. The great heathen world was transient. “Comfortable words” for the Jews. But they must not forget that their life on earth is brief; that they can only endure as they fashion themselves on the Word of God: “This people” is grass. II. THE MORAL OF THE STORY. The blade of grass reminds us that human life soon withers, that human fortune often withers even before the man dies. James particularises the general lesson (James 1:10-11). He also reminds us that some men wither even while they retain the full vigour of life and their good fortune abides. “The rich man withers in his ways;” and therefore, argues the Apostle, he should rejoice when his riches use their wings and fly away. Why? Because trial is good for every man (James 1. Isaiah 40:2; Isaiah 40:4-12). Great reverses of fortune are among the severest tests of character. This truth is based on a true, on a Christian view of human life. We may not fear riches for ourselves, but do we not fear them for our neighbour? Do we not fear poverty for ourselves and for our friends? A Christian teacher cannot bid us grieve over any reverse by which our character is tested, matured, perfected. In the Christian view of life, character is of supreme importance; circumstances are of value only as they serve to form and strengthen and purify it. The wealth and the poverty will soon pass, but the character will remain, and will decide our destiny. If you say, “Surely it is very hard to rejoice, to be honestly and sincerely glad when loss and pain come upon us!” what can any man reply but, “Yes, surely it is very hard, so hard that we shall never do it, except as we possess ourselves of Christ’s spirit. Heaven is very high; how are we to reach it save by climbing?” The rich man is often like a blade of grass, withering beneath the scorching sun, so that the flower falls off, and its graceful beauty perishes. The sun of prosperity shines upon him with a too-fervent heat; all the beauty and nobility of his character fades under it. He withers away in his “ways,” in the multitude of his schemes and pursuits. His fortune grows, but the man dies—dies before his time—dies before he ceases to breathe and traffic. Is not that a true picture, and a sad one? We must all needs die; and, in some of its aspects, even that fact is sad enough. But it is sadder still that many should be as grass which wilfully exposes itself to a heat it might escape, and withers and dies while the field is still green and fragrant. .—The warning comes home to us in this age; for our whole life is so intense, that it is almost impossible to make leisure for thought, or for those religious exercises on which our spiritual health depends. We are literally “withering away in our ways.” We all need to take the warning which speaks to us as unto men—i.e., as to spiritual and immortal creatures, sons of God, and heirs of eternity. If we would not have the world crush us, we must resolutely set ourselves to be in the world as Christ was in the world.—Samuel Cox, D.D.: Biblical Exposition, pp. 432–441. THE OF LIFE Isaiah 40:6. The voice said, Cry, &c.One wonders that there should be so sublime and startling a machinery for the delivery to us of so common-place a truth. Here is a voice from the firmament. An invisible agency is brought to bear, as though for the announcement of something altogether new and unexpected (cf. Job 4:15-17). But truths which we never think of disputing may be practically those which we are most in the habit of forgetting. The voice, the apparition, is not needed to impart new truth, but it is needed to impress old truth; what we want is not an increase of knowledge, but the gaining influence for knowledge already possessed. I. It is of the first moment that this commonplace announcement should be pressed by all possible means on our attention, because no other announcement could be better adapted for the promotion and growth of the graces of the Gospel. It is undoubtedly the presumed or the imagined distance of judgment which encourages men to persist in their sins (Ecclesiastes 8:11). There is a sort of unacknowledged idea that what is protracted and indefinite will never take effect; or it is imagined that life will yet afford numerous opportunities. To overthrow this sinner’s theory, and substitute for it the persuasion that “in the midst of life he is in death”—practically to overthrow it—would be to compel him to make provision for the coming eternity, on the threshold of which he may at any moment be standing, and concerning which he is apprised by daily spectacles of mortality. And the effect thus wrought on the unconverted would not be without its parallel in the righteous, on whom we cannot charge the habitual disregard of the dread things of the future. The feeling that the day of death is not near is at work in both. He would say, when inclined to loiter and be slothful in his great work as a candidate for eternity, “Dare I lose a day, when perhaps but few hours are left; when life is the alone season in which to gain a lofty place in the future kingdom of Christ, and life may be already contracted to a span, so that what I grasp not now may be for ever out of reach?” “What shall I say?” saith a voice from the firmament; the answer of the righteous man should be, “Oh! cry so as to make me feel that ‘all flesh is grass; and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field.’ ” II. A supernatural authority is needed to gain any practical hold for a truth which is so readily and universally acknowledged. We do not require a voice from heaven to make us know that such and such substances are poisonous, when all experience testifies that they are. And are not our churchyards filled with the old and the young? The Heavenly Voice bade a solemn proclamation to be made of the frailty of life; as though it were ascertained that observation and meditation would never bring it home to man; as though truth must be delivered with all the force and convincingness of a new revelation, ere there were likelihood of its gaining any practical hold. And if it be a thing for revelation, and therefore for prayer, all meditations amongst the tombs will be practically of no worth, except as they bring men to their knees. It is most important to remember that there is no inherent power in truth to work effectually on the soul. The power is in truth only as applied by the Spirit of God. We must not substitute the Gospel for the Saviour. A voice saith, “Cry!” Your anxiety must be that the thing cried—cried so as to come as a revelation from God—may be our own constant exposure to death (H. E. I. 1557–1566). .—Let this be part of your daily prayer to Almighty God (Psalms 39:4). What we need is the being brought to feel old truth, rather than the being brought to recognise new. Oh! cry, cry earnestly, that God will proclaim so as to make you practically and permanently feel this simple, well-known truth—“All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.”—Henry Melvill, B.D.: Golden Lectures, 1851, pp. 733–740. I. ISAIAH’S MESSAGE. “All flesh is grass.” I also have the same message to publish to my hearers to-day. These words suggest— 1. Our earthly origin. The earth is the mother of us all. Every kind of grass has its roots in her, and the most beautiful flower is not ashamed to own its mother. But many conceited people, especially if they have risen in society, are ready to forget the lowliness of their origin. Their parents and the friends of their childhood they would gladly disown. What mean and ignoble vanity! 2. Our constant dependence upon the earth for our sustenance. 3. Our equality. Some flowers are fairer than others, yet they are made of the same matter. One may be in better soil than another, more sheltered by nature or man’s device from the blasting north wind, and more open to the sunlight, but it is the same in substance. When we look round on society, we see men widely different in appearance from each other. How varied have been the circumstances of their birth, education, employment, opportunities, &c.! Yet they are all brethren. A common lot awaits them all (H. E. I. 1536, 1537; P. D. 677). 4. Our frailty and the uncertainly of our life. “As the flower of the field.” Not the garden flower, defended from storms and intruders by the gardener’s devices, but “as the flower of the field!” It opens with beauty in the morning and drinks in the warm rays of the sun; but there is no certainty that a burning tempest will not beat upon it or a beast trample it down before noon. Thus it is with us all. Confidently as the young reckon on seeing many years of happiness, “there is but a step between us and death” (H. E. I. 1539–1546; P. D. 705, 2225). II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PROPHET WAS TO DELIVER HIS MESSAGE. “Cry!” Be stirring, earnest, urgent. Not that he who can cry the loudest is the best preacher. But the command suggests— 1. That there is danger. A vehement call is an indication of peril. There is danger to the sinner—not to his property, nor even to his body, but to his soul! 2. That the people do not see their danger. How true this is! How many are like a man sleeping soundly on the beach while the tide is rapidly surrounding him! Such are some of you. Wonder not, then, that we “cry” to you. 3. That the people and their danger are coming nearer to each other each moment. Many, like men working in a hayfield when a thunderstorm is gathering, postpone their escape to the last moment, and often find that the danger was nearer to them than they thought. 4. That the danger to which the people are exposed is very great. 5. That the people are unwilling to hear. Life and Works of the late Rev. David Rees, of Lanelly, pp. 87–94. THE OF THE GOSPEL Isaiah 40:8. But the Word of our God shall stand for ever. A word is a spoken thought. God has spoken His thoughts to man. The record of what He has said is contained in the volume of inspired Scripture. The text affirms that it shall stand for ever. It is appropriated and applied to the Gospel by Peter (1 Peter 1:24-25), who quotes this entire passage. The prophet’s general affirmation respecting God’s Word is applied to the Gospel in particular. It is imperishable. The grass withers. It is fresh and green when growing on the ground. In due time the mower cuts it down, and, lacking the supply of new life, it withers in the sun. The flower is beautiful in the garden. You cannot carry it away exactly as you plucked it. You have cut it off from the sources of its life; and, however carefully you keep it, in a few days it will begin to fade away. Man grows into health and vigour. He is cut down by an invisible hand in the midst of his life-work; or he accomplishes his life-work, and then sinks into decay and forgetfulness. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” But while the grass withers, and the flower fades, and man dies, the Word of our God stands for ever. Our theme, therefore, is the imperishableness of the Gospel. I. IT IS IN ITS . The assaults of infidelity have been unable to overthrow it. Its historical records receive confirmation from advancing knowledge. Its prophecies have been historically fulfilled in the most remarkable way. Its miracles are abiding evidence of Divine power brought to bear on the confirmation of its truth. Its moral teaching is exactly adapted to man’s moral nature, and presents the loftiest ideal of possible humanity. Its conception of the great central figure, the Lord Jesus Christ, can only be accounted for by its truth. Its distinguishing doctrines are characterised by their clear perception of man’s ruined condition, and their provision of what is necessary to his spiritual interest. Its continuance and gradual advancement in the world is a fulfilment of its own prediction, and a perpetual proof that God is with it. The grass has withered season by season; the flowers have faded one by one; the generations of men have followed each other to the land of forgetfulness; but it remains. The attacks upon it, made with fresh vigour and from new points of view, have left it—a fortress often attempted, but never captured. As the sea flows up and threatens to overwhelm the land day after day, but retires again to its place, so the periodical assaults of infidelity retire like their predecessors, and leave the Gospel as it was (H. E. I. 2418–2427, 2451, 1165–1168). II. IT IS IN ITS NATURE. Notwithstanding the dangers around it, the Gospel continues the same. Human history flows on, like a stream with many variations and windings. Empires rise and fall. Cities grow to magnificence, and decline. Customs and habits change. Opinions become popular or drop into disuse. Physical science as taught in one age is entirely different from physical science as taught in another. Manufacturing processes give way to invention and improvement. New facts are discovered; new truths deduced from them. Human thought is in continual flux. Yet the facts remain. The crust of the earth and the substances it contains are the same. Change is not in the objects studied, but in the knowledge of the student. The same sun shines, the same atmosphere floats around the earth from the beginning; only both are better known. And God is the same, and the Gospel is the same. Different views may be held of some critical questions; more may be known now than formerly of the localities, the history, the customs referred to in Scripture. But Scripture remains. No criticism has expunged any important doctrine. Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” The same way of salvation, the same invitation to the sinful and weary. The Gospel of Paul and Peter and John is the Gospel still. The “faithful saying” is still true and “worthy of all acceptation.” The justification by faith which Luther sounded over Europe is the way in which sinners are justified to-day. The need of regeneration with which Whitefield and Wesley awoke the slumbers of England still exists. Men may throw off or modify their opinions of many things, but the essential nature of the Gospel cannot be changed. It is God’s final word respecting men’s salvation. It must stand for ever. III. IT IS IN ITS . It stands for ever, not only in the written book, but in the living soul. When believed, it enters the soul as a living force. It completely changes the currents of life. Its influence pervades everything. It touches and turns into gold everything in the man’s nature. It removes fear, brings consolation, sanctifies the heart and life. “Being born again.” And when they pass to the better land, it does not cease to live in them. They carry it with them into heaven. It was Christ in them “the hope of glory.” They are now glorified together with Him. Christ will never be effaced from their memories. The love of Christ which was felt below is perfected above. The praise of Christ, which was expressed in many a thankful strain, is the celestial song which embodies their living recollections of the Gospel (Revelation 5:9). The Word of God will stand for ever in the thoughts and affections of ransomed souls. Nor can it, as a vital power in human breasts, pass from the earth. “One generation passeth away and another cometh.” The spiritual succession will be maintained to the end of time. Flowers drop their seed before they die, so that from them other flowers may spring. Every Christian desires to leave representatives behind him. Every Christian is an agent; parents, friends, Sabbath-school teachers, ministers. Thus the Gospel lives. Christians! how great the privilege of an interest in the everlasting Gospel! It nourishes your faith. It rests your soul. It brings daily comfort and strength. It sustains your dearest hopes when all earthly things fade. See that you discharge your duties to the Gospel. 1. Obey it as the practical expression of your faith. 2. Disseminate it. 3. Believe in its perpetuity and triumph. Away with the drivel about the decay of its influence. O sinner, consider the bearing of this on you. You are perishable. So is all around. The imperishable you neglect. Once more it invites. It will survive when you, as to this world, have perished. It is the winning side. At present you are on the losing side. It is preached that it may win you.—J. Rawlinson.THE CHURCH’S MISSION Isaiah 40:9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings! &c.It is freely asserted that the influence of the Church of Christ is now extremely small. We have been made familiar with statements like these: “The pulpit has lost its power; the Church has lost its hold upon the people; multitudes are hopelessly alienated from the public services of religion.” Consider— I. The Church’s place and function in the world. What have men a right to expect from her? The text represents the Church as a bearer of good tidings to men. 1. She is exhorted to get up on a high mountain where she will be conspicuous to all, and from which her voice shall reach over Judah’s hills, along her vales, and to all her villages and towns. 2. To be courageous and energetic, full of faith, and action, and earnestness in fulfilling her work. 3. She is told what her message ought to be: “Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” II. So long as the Church is faithful to her mission as the bearer of glad tidings about God, she will be prosperous and powerful. She is in the world not only to hold fast the truth, but also to hold it forth. She is to echo God’s message in human language and with human tenderness. Do not many churches fail in this respect? Some churches are turned into concert-halls, some into homes of priestcraft, some into theological arenas or intellectual gymnasia, and others into places where feeble platitudes about sin and grace, and faith and future happiness abound (H. E. I. 1184–1186). III. How much the world needs to hear the good tidings which have been intrusted to the Church of Christ.1. One great and growing evil, threatening us with infinite peril, is the cleaving of society into two great classes—the rich and the poor. While forces like these drive different classes apart, what is there to draw them together? Higher secular education does not do it. Politics will not do it. Communism or Socialism has tried to do it, but has failed, and must ever fail. It fights against inevitable inequalities. Men, divided from one another in various ways, must be brought under one roof before God (Proverbs 22:2). 2. What a terrible fact sin is in human life! Where it does not transgress the decencies of society, what a disturbing, depressing, enfeebling fact it is in our existence! The Church has here a noble field of influence. She ought to have glad tidings for hearts burdened with transgression, or gnawed by remorse, or wearied in the conflict with impurity, or depressed by the sense of helplessness. 3. What terrible facts suffering and sorrow are in human life! The Church’s message to the suffering and sorrowful is an infinitely tender and precious one. These should go forth from her courts relieved and comforted. Her Lord and Master was a great sufferer—was made perfect through suffering. “Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” 4. What a terrible fact death is in human life! Where, how, when, shall we die? From whom can we learn anything of death? Science can explain the chemistry of our decay, can talk wisely about the conservation of energy; but we want something more. Philosophy has loved to speak of death; the Epicurean saying, “Let us eat,” &c.; the Stoic, “Death is universal and inevitable; let us meet it bravely and with dignity.” But we are only shocked and chilled. Poetry has sought to throw a charm around death; but even poetry cannot satisfy our yearning. It is reserved for the Church to justify her title as “the bringer of good tidings” by unfolding to men her God-given revelations concerning death. To her it has been given to take the sting from death, the triumph from the grave. She provides a Guide who never fails in the valley of the shadow of death. Pointing to One who hung upon the cross, lay in the grave, and rose through the clouds to heaven, she can say to all, “Behold your God!” (Isaiah 43:2-3).—William Young, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, xx. pp. 330–332. THE ’S TASK (Ordination or Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 40:9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings! &c.This chapter commences the second part of Isaiah’s prophecies, in which the local and national is less prominent than in the former, and the visions are carried forward to the time of Messiah. The prophet hears voices, each of which contains a message of consolation. The first bids him announce the coming of the King and command the preparation of His way; the second affirms the everlasting duration of the Lord’s Word; the third calls attention to the fact of His coming. The third is our text. It is differently rendered in the margin. “O thou that tellest good tidings unto Zion; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem.” This version is adopted in Handel’s Oratorio. It is generally preferred. It makes Zion and Jerusalem the recipients of the good tidings along with the cities of Judah. God’s strong hand would terminate the long Babylonian captivity, and lead His people back, as a shepherd leads his flock. But beyond this is the great salvation the Messiah would accomplish. The call is addressed to those whose business is to proclaim that salvation. Their occupation is described; their challenge is dictated; their methods are prescribed; their sphere is defined. I. THEIR IS . They are evangelists: tellers of good tidings—a suitable description of the preachers of the Gospel, and their work. The Gospel contains the good news men need. The world lies in ruin. It is sick. It has no power of recuperation. Its disease produces a fatal unwillingness to be cured, if only its consequences may be escaped. The preacher is charged with the good news that the disease can be cured, its consequences averted, the dislike of recovery removed. God’s love in Christ is the essence of the news (John 3:16-17). If it came to you for the first time, you would say it was the most astonishing statement possible. It involves the whole work of Christ. It involves the proclamation of God’s readiness to forgive and cleans the sinner. It is salvation. Whoever makes this known to any one previously ignorant of it i an evangelist—a teller of good tiding—a preacher of the Gospel. Conventionally this name is given to a professional class. There are many reasons for the existence of such a class. But serious loss is sustained, if the preaching of the Gospel is confined to them. Others should also preach. Parents, Sunday-school teachers, friends in conversation, letters, visitors of the ignorant and neglected, distributors of tracts and books. Every man who has heard and believed the glad tidings should himself be an evangeliser. Every Christian is such a man. He has not heard a secret, but a glorious truth which he is to proclaim. II. THEIR IS . The announcement of the glad tidings of salvation does not terminate in itself. It is proclaimed with a view to action. “Behold your God.” Hence the Gospel is a manifestation of God and a summons to man. 1. A manifestation of God. He is the Author of the salvation, the Doer of the great and gracious things announced. When surveying a manufactory and its machinery, your thoughts turn to the manufacturer and the engineer. Going over a hospital, you think of the benevolence of the man by whom it was built and endowed. Studying the heavens and the earth, you think of their Maker’s power and skill. So when you think of the Gospel, think of God. It is the medium through which He is best known. His full manifestation waited for the incarnation of His Son (H. E. I. 855–857). “The world by wisdom knew not God.” That was true of the ancient world. It is true still. Men think and dream about God. But they do not know Him until they come in humility to the Cross. It reveals His holiness and His love. It shows Him righteous, yet delighting in mercy. And this representation of Him has ever been most effective in the reclamation of the heathen from idolatry. Judaism was comparatively uninfluential. When Christianity arose, the idols fell (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). The overthrow of ancient idolatry was the work of two or three hundred years. Modern heathenism is falling in like manner before the manifestation of God in Christ as the redeeming God. 2. A summons to man. “Behold your God!” This is the action required on the part of those to whom the Gospel is addressed. Men must not turn away from the manifestation of God. If a prince were to show himself in an impoverished part of his dominions for the purpose of relieving the people’s wants, would indifference become them? Would they not look to him? This is the look the Gospel demands. Behold Him with the eye of faith. When you carry the Gospel to others, call upon them thus to behold Him. If there are those here who are not saved, we call on you thus to behold Him. As the Israelites, when bitten by the serpents, were told to look to the serpent of brass, we tell you to look to Jesus (John 1:29; Isaiah 45:22). Helpless and ruined without Him, we proclaim salvation by Him, and call upon you to look and live. III. THEIR METHODS ARE . 1. For the message they must endeavour to secure publicity. “Get thee up into the high mountain,” where you can be seen and heard. Go where the people are; seek the centres of population; avail yourselves of all circumstances to attract attention. 2. The message must be delivered with energy. “Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up.” As if you believed in it, realised its importance, sympathised with its gladness. Bring into the announcement the vigour of mind and body that is born of earnestness. 3. The message must be proclaimed with courage. “Be not afraid.” Fearless preaching carries authority and weight. The Gospel has never wanted men of such courage. And it is displayed. Recent offer of Christian young men in South Sea island to take the place of the teachers massacred in New Guinea. IV. THEIR SPHERE IS DEFINED. “Zion, Jerusalem, the cities of Judah.” Every one must have a definite work. It will gradually expand from nearest relations and friends to neighbours, our country, the world. Tell it, brethren, because— 1. It is time. 2. It is needed. 3. Its proclamation is commanded. 4. Success is assured. 5. Faithful service will be rewarded.—J. Rawlinson. THE GOOD Isaiah 40:11. He shall feed His flock, &c.The Hebrews were, for the most part, a nation of shepherds. To them especially these declarations must have appeared full of beauty, tenderness, and life. I. THE GOOD “He shall feed,” &c. 1. Who is this Shepherd? He who was foretold by the prophets (Ezekiel 34:23; Micah 5:4; Micah 7:14). In the New Testament it is declared that these prophecies were fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 5:4; Hebrews 13:20; John 10:11). 2. What is He? God as well as man (Isaiah 40:10; Zechariah 13:7; Micah 5:4). Being truly God, He is well qualified to be “the Good Shepherd.” He never slumbers nor sleeps. His knowledge is infinite, His power almighty, His resources limitless. He has in His heart infinite tenderness, which He manifested by dying for His flock. II. THE FLOCK FOR WHICH HE CARES. His flock? The people of God (Psalms 100:3). Weak, wandering, defenceless in themselves, they depend entirely upon Him for succour and safety. The whole flock of Christ is known by distinct marks. 1. It is a little flock. Small compared with the great assembly of saints in heaven, or with the multitudes led captive by Satan. Not because He is unable or unwilling to save. His fold is large enough for the whole world; its door is open for all mankind, and He stands at it inviting all to enter. The real reason (John 3:19; John 5:40). 2. It is a united flock. Its members live by “one faith” in “one Lord,” and are united in principles, in affection, in conduct, in devotion, in destiny (H. E. I. 1202, 1203). 3. It is a holy flock. Holy in heart, in conversation, in conduct (H. E. I. 2831, 2856). Besides the marks which distinguish the whole flock of Christ, others distinguish its individual members. 1. A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness (John 3:5). 2. Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10:3). 3. Following Him (John 10:4). III. HIS CARE FOR IT. Mark— 1. His general care for His people. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd.” His eye watches over them; His arm protects them; His grace supplies their need (Ezekiel 34:11-16). 2. His peculiar tenderness to the young. “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.” His tender care for children (Mark 10:13-16; Proverbs 8:17). For young converts. A lamb just dropped on a bleak mountain, where the cold wind rages, where the stormy rain descends, where the wolf, gaunt and grim, prowls around for prey;—such a lamb in such a state is a figure of young Christians in this wicked world. But the Good Shepherd, who watches over them with infinite tenderness night and day, will support them in all their weakness and dangers, and succor them in all their wants and sorrows. When a shepherd sees a young lamb so weak that it cannot keep up with the rest of the flock, he does not leave it behind to die, but takes it up and carries it. Thus does Jesus (text). He pardons their sins, gives them peace, invigorates their souls, and enables them to go on their way (H. E. I. 961). 3. His singular compassion for the feeble and the burdened. “He shall gently lead those that are with young.” Almighty, all-wise, all-merciful, He is well qualified to lead the afflicted. He will lead them in the right way, in the best way, gently. His sympathy and His succour will never fail them.—John Cawood, M.A.: Sermons, vol i. pp. 363–378). JESUS AND THE LAMBS Isaiah 40:11. He shall gather the lambs with His arm, &c.Greatness in league with gentleness, and power linked with affection pass before us in this chapter (Isaiah 40:10-11). I. Who are the lambs our Lord is said to gather and carry in His bosom?1. In a certain sense we may affirm, that all His people are lambs. In so far as they exhibit the Christian spirit, they are lamb-like. As the lamb might be presented in sacrifice, so every believer presents his body as a living sacrifice unto God. He hates wars and fightings. Jesus will gather all such lambs. 2. The word “lamb” frequently signifies the young; and our Lord graciously receives many young persons into His bosom. Jesus always had children among His auditory (Matthew 19:14). Youthful piety should not be mistrusted. Children should be invited to declare their faith in the Lord Jesus, and to come forward and be joined to the Church of Jesus. Let them hear the words of the Good Shepherd (Proverbs 8:17; H. E. I. 795–800). 3. Young converts, those who begin to have religious impressions; those who have recently repented of sin, and been driven from confidence in their own good works (Isaiah 42:3). 4. Those who are naturally of a weak, timid, trembling disposition. Their needs demand our sympathetic attention. Jesus seeks them out. 5. Those who know but little of the things of God. This class is not so much desponding as ignorant (John 14:9). II. How does Jesus show this special care for the weak ones?1. By gathering them. The shepherd watches carefully when the little lambs are born. He watches, when the flock is on the march, lest the lambs lag behind. He knows their skittish nature. He gathers them, and keeps them under his own eye. 2. By carrying them in His bosom (H. E. I. 961). (1.) As the safest place. Who can hope to take His bosom-treasure away from Jesus? (2.) The tenderest place. Soft for hurt little ones. (3.) The easiest place. It makes one wish to be always a lamb, if one could always ride in that chariot. (4.) The most honourable place. We would not put into our bosom that which we despised. 3. By His teachings. These are simple, mostly in parables, full of winning illustrations, and always plain. (1.) He reveals His teachings gradually. He gives milk before He offers strong meat; does not hang our salvation upon our understanding mysteries. (2.) His experimental teachings are all by degrees too. He suits the burden to the back. 4. By the solemn curses with which He effectually guarded the little ones (Matthew 18:6-10). 5. By the promises made on purpose for the weak. 6. By requiring of them what is easy (Matthew 11:29-30). He does not send the weak believers to the forefront of the battle, as David did Uriah. 7. By accepting the least service that these little ones may offer. III. Wherefore this care of Christ towards the lambs of His flock?1. Because the weak are as much redeemed by the blood of Christ as the strong. A man will not lose a thing which cost him his blood. 2. Because in the new-born child of God there are peculiar beauties which are not so apparent in others. The first love of the beginner is well known. The first tenderness of conscience; the first intense delight in the service of God. 3. Because they will become strong one day (Mark 4:28). Jesus sees them as they are to be (H. E. I. 1071). 4. Because Christ’s suretyship engagements require that He should preserve the weakest as well as the strongest (John 17:6; Jude 1:24). 5. Because of His promises (John 10:28). 6. Because compassion argues that if any should be watched it should be these (H. E. I. 952–958). IV. Practical Conclusion.1. Let us gather the lambs. (1.) For Christ. (2.) Into His Church. 2. Let us carry in our bosoms those who are gathered (Exodus 2:9).—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1868, pp. 73–84. This promise concerns “the lambs” of Christ’s flock. He is a mighty Shepherd (see Isaiah 40:10; Isaiah 40:12); but He does not despise “the lambs,” those who are feeble, ignorant, and conscious of their helplessness. He carries them in His bosom! What does this imply? 1. His boundless affection for them. On the cross He has given costly proof of it; and always His is a love that expresses itself in actions, not in words merely. 2. Their tender nearness to Him. How sweet it is to lie on the bosom of the Good Shepherd! 3. Their absolute safety. If He has in His heart love enough, and in His arm power enough to protect them, then for the lamb to perish is as impossible as it is for Him to perish (H. E. I. 934–941). 1. This presentation of Christ has a kindly aspect toward the sinner. How gentle is that Mighty Being to whom we invite you, on whom we counsel you to rest! 2. There is encouragement here for those who feel themselves the weakest and feeblest of all God’s children (H. E. I. 959, 960). 3. There is no encouragement here for those who are wilfully weak. For what purpose does the Good Shepherd cherish? It is that He may sanctify. It is not merely to preserve, to protect; but He nourishes His lambs that they may grow.—J. H. Evans, M.A.: Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 324–336. THE MIND OF CHRIST TOWARD THE YOUNG (Sunday-School Anniversary.) Isaiah 40:11. He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom. The earlier verses of this chapter are sufficient to prove that these words were written of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Isaiah 40:3, and Luke 3:3-6). Seven hundred years before the appearing of our Saviour, a prophecy was given of His character; of His tenderness in guiding, protecting, and feeding the souls of those who should be brought to put their trust in Him,—more especially in cherishing and watching over the weaker and the younger members of His flock (cf. John 10:11; John 10:27-28). Let us inquire how far this predicted character of the Messiah was fulfilled in the recorded deeds and works of Jesus Christ upon earth. 1. How precisely does Mark 10:13-16 set before us the Good Shepherd gathering the lambs with His arm! How precisely does it declare His readiness to receive and bless little children! (H. E. I. 765.) (1.) How great a comfort to pious parents who now dedicate their children to Him! (P. D. 464, 465.) (2.) How gracious an encouragement to those who in early years begin to seek Him! (P. D. 962, 963.) 2. In Mark 10:17-22 we read that a young man came running to Jesus, with every sign of earnestness, docility, and reverence, to ask what he must do to inherit eternal life. Our Lord saw in him that self-satisfied spirit which immediately appeared in reply to our Lord’s answer to his question: “Master, all these have I observed from my youth.” Then our Lord gave a direction, designed, not to teach us the method of our salvation, but to bring to light the plague of the young man’s heart. The event showed that he was not then prepared to enter into the kingdom of God (H. E. I. 3591, 1889, 3567–3569). Yet there was that in his serious and respectful demeanour, his ingenuous simplicity, and his outward blamelessness which our Lord regarded with deep and affectionate interest (Mark 10:21). He showed that interest by mercifully revealing to him his sad and fatal defect, and urging him to lay the axe to the root of his sins, and to follow Him. From this incident we may learn with how deep an interest our Lord regards that ingenuous openness, that blameless morality, that dutiful and reverent simplicity which is the greatest charm of youth; and yet how far all this may at last fall short of the character of an heir to the kingdom of God (H. E. I. 3603, 3606, 4080–4105). 3. Another manifestation of the mind of Christ towards the young is seen in this, that He takes the character of a little child as the type of that which distinguishes His true disciples (Matthew 11:25; Matthew 18:2-4). He who so acted and spoke must have had a singular tenderness of feeling towards little children. Doubtless that which commended them to Him was their instinctive feeling of weakness, and of dependence upon others for all things; their consciousness of ignorance, and simple faith in all that is told them by those older than themselves; the absence in them of guile, ambition, hypocrisy, and all assumption. Our sharing in these qualities, and our display of them toward Christ, is essential to our very safety (P. D. 964). 4. Remember also the solemn earnestness with which He denounces a woe against all who lead them into sin (Matthew 18:6). Probably “the little ones” here spoken of are those who resemble little children; but still they are peculiarly applicable to children, so liable to be drawn away from Him by the force of evil influence or example (H. E. I. 775). 5. Christ did not disdain the praises of little children (Matthew 21:15-16). 6. Remember His charge to Peter: “Feed my lambs.” Those thus referred to might be rather the weak in faith than the young in years, yet in many cases the two would be identical; the young would be also weak. For these their parents should tenderly care (H. E. I. 781–788, 803–806). But when the parents do not discharge that sacred trust, the Church should see to it that the young souls for which Christ died do not perish for lack of knowledge.—C. J. Vaughan: Sermons, 1846, pp. 328–342. THE OF CHRIST TO THE Isaiah 40:11. He shall gently lead those that are with young. We have here an indirect proof of the Deity of our Lord. Infinite power is required to control the movements of the burdened ones of whom our text speaks; so many as He has to lead! Besides, He must have infinite wisdom to know me. I am a mystery to myself; though myself be a book that I study, and ought to study far more than I do, yet how little do I know of it! How then can He know all of them, and each one singly?—know all the maze, the whole of the labyrinth, the “wheel within wheel,” the winding path within the winding path, of body, soul, and estate; all that bears on me in my relative positions, in my connection with the Church, in connection with my family; all my personal weaknesses, my constitutional infirmities? Unless He does know this He cannot “lead” me. He must be God who doeth these things. And He is God. May our hearts bow before Him! I. Christ’s people are often burdened. Sin, their inborn corruption, is a burden to them. Still heavier is the burden when they have been betrayed into actual transgression; a guilty conscience is a heavy burden indeed. The slowness with which he makes progress in spiritual excellences is also to the believer a burden. Sorrows and temptations are burdens. The body itself is a burden (2 Corinthians 5:4). The service of God has itself a burden in it; we read of “bearing the burden and heat of the day.” Often, too, he feels the burdens of others—their mistakes, follies, and sufferings, to rest heavily upon him. II. When they are thus burdened they experience the infinite tenderness of the Good Shepherd.1. He does not drive them; He leads them. Satan drives his miserable victims to perdition; the Saviour leads His ransomed ones along the paths of righteousness to eternal blessedness. 2. He leads them gently. Who can unfold the wondrous tenderness, patience, forbearance, compassion, and love with which He has lead each one of us? He leads “gently,” not foolishly; not with such tenderness as one sometimes sees in earthly parents, leading their children to their harm, and thinking it to be love,—the worst of all unkindness. It is the kindness of One that wisely loves. Could I suppose a father taking a knife to amputate the limb of his child, there might be an appearance of severity in the sharpness of the knife, but who can tell what would be the tenderness of that yearning father’s heart? He “gently leads,” and never more tenderly than in some providences that appeared the severest at the time. As Cowper has said, it is but the graver aspect of His love.—J. H. Evans, M.A.: Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 337–348. GOD (For Trinity Sunday.) Isaiah 40:18. To whom then will ye liken God? &c.The extreme point which has ever been reached by objectors to the doctrine of the Trinity is the point of incomprehensibleness, not the point of impossibility. The doctrine, though incomprehensible as to the manner, can never be proved impossible as to the fact (H. E. I. 4811–4814). The same may be said of the Deity, or any of His attributes, e.g., Eternity, Omnipresence. Reason is required to submit to Revelation when she cannot comprehend. We might almost say that until truth is beyond (not opposed to) Reason, it does not strictly belong to Revelation (H. E. I. 537, 1087, 2022–2024). The text is a simple but energetic assertion, couched in the form of a question, of the impossibility of finding any likeness or resemblance to God. I. The Creator is distinguished from every creature by being self-existent. 1. No way of accounting for the origin of anything except by supposing something which never had an origin. It was an ancient inscription in a heathen temple, “I am whatsoever was, is, or shall be; and who is he that shall draw aside my veil?” 2. The existence of a Creator is a necessary existence. This should prepare us to find God inscrutable. To depict an Archangel, one has but to remodel himself; but how begin to depict God, the Uncreated?II. Hence the vanity of all attempts to explain or illustrate the Trinity in Unity. 1. If we could produce an exact instance of three in one, we should have no right to point to it as at all parallel with the union in the Godhead (H. E. I. 4816–4821). Man was made in the moral image of his Maker. It is the image of the nature which the text says it is impossible to find. Still some use may be made of illustration. III. Is it possible that there may be three persons in the Godhead, consistently with that unity which Scripture unreservedly ascribes to the Divine Being? 1. Observe man’s constitution. All confess he is made up of a body and a soul. Apart from seeing this union effected, we might have thought it impossible. It is a union of quite different natures. Why should he not unite two things of the same nature, e.g., two spirits? If with two, then with three; the possibility does not depend upon the number. Thus we admit the incomprehensible, but we disprove the impossible. 2. The foregoing illustration shows no unmindfulness of the truth that we cannot find a likeness to the everlasting God. It shows from what is possible in created being the unreasonableness of pronouncing a certain constitution impossible in the uncreated Being. “Wonderful Being! who has only to tell what He is to make Himself more inscrutable.” IV. Note the practical character of the doctrine of the Trinity. 1. The whole of Christianity falls to pieces, if you destroy this doctrine. If this doctrine be false, Christ Jesus is nothing more than a man, and the Holy Ghost a creature of quality. That truth cannot be a barren speculation which may not be believed or disbelieved without affecting the Christian character. 2. Reflect upon prayer. Prayer must be prescribed and regulated by the doctrine of the Trinity. It is a false god whom man worships, if he adores Unity in which there is no Trinity. The heathen bows down before a stock or a stone, the Socinian before a Godhead in which there is no Son and no Holy Spirit. Without a Trinity, man must save himself; with a Trinity, he is to be saved through Christ. 3. Our duty. Whilst no likeness can be found to the invisible uncreated God, we are to study conformity to the image of His Son. Resemblance to Christ is the nearest approach to resemblance to God (Colossians 3:4). See Outline: THE TRINITY IN UNITY, vol. i. pp. 133, 134.—Henry Melvill, B.D.: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 284–308. The passage suggests:— I. That the greatest things in the material world are nothing to God. The ocean, the heaven, the earth (Isaiah 40:12; Psalms 33:8-9). II. That the greatest minds in the spiritual universe are nothing to Him (Isaiah 40:13-14). He is uninstructible: the only Being in the universe who is so. He is absolutely original: the only such Being. We talk of original thinkers; such creatures are mere fictions. He being so independent of all minds:— 1. His universe must be regarded as the expression of Himself. No other being had a hand in it (H. E. I. 1491–1497; P. D. 631). 2. His laws are the revelation of Himself. No one counselled Him in His legislation. 3. His conduct is absolutely irresponsible. He is answerable to no one. He alone is irresponsible, and He alone can be trusted with irresponsibility. III. That the greatest institutions in human society are nothing to Him. Nations are the greatest things in human institutions. Nations, with their monarchs, courts, armies—Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome—these are great things in history (Isaiah 40:15). Islands (Isaiah 40:15-17). IV. That the greatest productions of human labour are nothing to Him. Perhaps in all ages the highest productions of human genius have been in connection with religion. Religion has had the finest architecture, carvings, sculpture, paintings, &c. But what are they to Him? (Isaiah 40:18-20). .—How great is God! Well might the Moslems cry in their prayers, Allah hûakbar!—“God is great.” “There is,” said an eloquent French preacher, “nothing great but God” (P. D. 1493, 1502, 1508).—David Thomas, D.D.: The Homilist, Editor’s Series, vol. xi. p. 167. CHEER FOR THE Isaiah 40:26-31. Lift up your eyes on high, &c.These encouraging assurances must have been of the highest value to the captive and disconsolate Jews in Babylon. Banished for so long a period from the land of their fathers, they were ready to fear that they were outcasts from God. And they are of the utmost value now, for even now the people of God are in times of trouble often tempted to take a dark and depressing view of God’s dealings and dispensation. Then let them consider the facts here brought before us. I. In His providential government, God exerts on behalf of His children the same almighty power which at first created and still sustains all worlds (Isaiah 40:26-27). When by the aid of astronomy we attempt to conceive of the vastness of the universe, we are not only astonished, but confounded. Two thousand stars are said to be visible to the naked eye; but astronomers declare that there are 250,000,000 of them. What an evidence of the affluence of God’s creative energy! The same power that at first called them into being must be perpetually put forth in regulating their movements, sustaining their harmony, and controlling their mutual influences (H. E. I. 362–365). Surely, He whose eye can discern, whose arm upholds millions of worlds, can distinctly survey and effectually preserve and bless every individual of His redeemed family, without overlooking or disregarding the minutest of their concerns (cf. Isaiah 40:10-11; Luke 12:6-7; Philippians 4:6-7; Romans 8:28. H. E. I. 4015–4022). II. In ordering the concerns of His people, God exercises the same wisdom which He displays in regulating the constitution and course of Nature (Isaiah 40:27-28). His wisdom is equal to His power. To Him causes and effects, tendencies and results, are alike known. The events both of the past and the future lie distinctly before Him (H. E. I. 2264, 2268). How great, then, is the encouragement to refer all our interests to Him with whom an error in judgment is a thing unknown, and a mistake impossible! (H. E. I. 4049–4057.) III. God is pleased to impart ample and diversified communications of grace to those who wait upon Him. Of those who receive from Him renewal of strength it is said, “They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” These words seem to imply that there are those of whom all this elevation of spirit, buoyancy of heart, and untiring alertness in their prescribed course may be asserted. But there are many more to whom some one of these capabilities is imparted without the others. 1. The first part of the description presents to us a favoured class of devout worshippers, distinguished by fervour of spirit in their approaches to the throne of grace, so that they are enabled to soar far above this lower region of cares, fears, and turmoils into a higher and serener atmosphere, where they attain to more realising views of God in Christ, and more intimate, joy-inspiring, and transforming communion with Him. Such were Baxter, John Howe, Leighton, Watts, Doddridge, and other poets of the sanctuary who have aided the upward flight of redeemed spirits. There are such men still among those who here wait upon God. 2. There are other Christians, whose minds are less buoyant, whose affections are less fervid, and whose imagination is less vivid; but, by the grace of God, they run with persevering energy the race set before them, and are not weary. 3. There are others of whom it can only be said—yet, blessed be God, it can be said—“They walk and do not faint.” Their movement is less rapid than that of the former classes, but still they are making constant progress in the path of duty and safety. Some of them are aged, infirm, afflicted, or tried, harassed, and tempted; but still they look unto Jesus, and “He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no power He increaseth strength” (Psalms 69:33; H. E. I. 952–961, P. D. 474). IV. Divine aid is necessary to support even the strongest. Without it, “even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.” There may be an allusion here to young men selected for military service, singled out as the most vigorous, active, and athletic. As even these cannot secure for themselves the continuance of their health and strength for a single day, so for vigour of faith, fervour in love, energy in obedience, we depend on the grace which renders us “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (H. E I. 2351–2358). V. Divine aid is sufficient to strengthen even the weakest. From God comes the strength of the strongest, and in Him they trusted. David (Psalms 68:17; Psalms 71:16). Paul (2 Corinthians 12:5-10). In all times of need and depression, let us look to the same Helper; we shall not look in vain (H. E. I. 4789–4981).—H. F. Burder, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 262–278. The Christian’s life is a continual warfare. Nor has he any strength but in God. He is prone to reflect more on his own weakness than on God’s power. I. THE OF GOD’S PEOPLE. 1. Temporal afflictions. (1.) Pain and sickness. (2.) Losses and poverty,—sometimes rendered heavier by the unkindness of friends and calumny. Job sank for a time under their weight (Job 3:1; Job 27:2). 2. Spiritual troubles. (1.) Corruptions of the heart (2.) Unsuccessful conflicts. (3.) Temptations of Satan. (4.) Desolations of Zion (H. E. I. 1059–1062, 2457, 3398, 3949–3951). II. THE WHICH GOD WILL BESTOW. God is never at a loss for means to succour His people (Isaiah 40:28). 1. He is not lacking in tenderness and compassion. (1.) He has given them a sympathising High Priest (Hebrews 4:15). (2.) Accepts their weak endeavours (Isaiah 40:31). (3.) Infirmities are no bar to His favours (Matthew 12:20; H. E. I. 2313–2315). 2. He expects, however, that they “wait upon” Him. (1.) Prayer is necessary (Ezekiel 36:37). (2.) Effectual aid obtained by waiting (Deuteronomy 33:25). The drooping shall “mount up,” &c.; they that had utterly fallen shall “run;” they shall march onward in spite of all opposition; they shall never faint through want of strength or courage. (3.) None shall be disappointed in his hope (Psalms 40:1-2). III. . 1. To those who bless themselves that they have never felt such discouragements. Such ignorance argues an utter ignorance of true religion (Galatians 5:17). 2. To those who are now discouraged. Though the sources are many from whence difficulties arise, God is an all-sufficient Helper to those who trust in Him (2 Corinthians 12:10; Philippians 4:13). They shall soon be able to attest the truth of the prophet’s assertion (Isaiah 30:18).—Charles Simeon, M.A.: Skeletons, pp. 202–204. This is the language of Isaiah’s despondency and consolation. Sorrow may be said to be the heritage of us all. God never intended man’s life to be a perpetual song. He made the roses and the thorns, the sunlight and the shadows. But to all who either feel or utter the prophet’s lament God sends the prophet’s consolation. I. GOD’S POWER IS THE COMFORT OF HIS PEOPLE. The problems of our life have no solution if we turn away from God. Life, when we turn to God, is never cruel and hard, however full of trial it may be. God has surrounded us on every side with reminders of what He is. 1. His power is painted on the sky. 2. His power is seen on earth. II. GOD’S IS, &c. This is seen rightly only in conjunction with His greatness. We see the tender in contrast with the mighty. “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,” stoops to give power to the faint. Tenderness is strength in gentle action. Gentleness is not weakness, but calm, quiet, loving strength. The Great Father has also a mother’s tenderness (P. D. 1499). He giveth power to the faint. Not He gave; not He shall give; but He giveth (H. E. I. 2304). HE GIVETH!—that is God’s name. He who fainteth not is drawn to those who do faint; and to the faint He giveth power. There is nothing so mighty as the faintness and weakness which takes hold of the Divine strength. It has omnipotence behind it (2 Corinthians 12:9). In Christ how is this character given Him by the prophet confirmed? Strong to exorcise devils, yet how tender with His disciples’ faults; strong to still the storm, yet so touched by His disciples’ trouble; strong to raise the dead, yet so tender to weep tears of natural sorrow (H. E. I. 951–961). III. GOD’S WISDOM IS, &c. “There is no searching of His understanding.” This is not to say much if it only means that we cannot search it; but there is no searching of it. God’s infinite wisdom is to us the needful complement of His infinite power. .—We cannot understand, but God knows all. Some plan there is in our changeful life. We can only rest in the thought of His wisdom, His tenderness, His power. And Christ! He is the wisdom of God, the love, the tenderness of God. Away from Christ, there is no certainty, no rest; and hope is quenched in darkness.—Henry Wonnacott: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi. pp. 180–182. Isaiah 40:27-31. Why sayest thou, O Jacob? &c.Here is no mere utterance of the complaints of the people; for although the more earnest Jews of the day doubtless did feel that God had forsaken them, the prophet had felt it with the keenest agony. Consider the circumstances in which Isaiah was placed when the text was written. 1. He had been prophesying for fifty years with but few glimpses into the splendour of the future, and without any indications in the people of the beneficial results of his mission. 2. Imagine now his position. Summoned to prophesy with the strange warning that his words would harden the people (chap. Isaiah 6:9-10), he had found for half a century the truth of that mysterious commission. He had seen words both of the most awful woe and of the tenderest love alike fail to rouse the people from their dreams. Invasion after invasion swept over the land; he had just seen the people panic-stricken at the approach of the dread Assyrian army; had beheld their hosts wither in a night before the breath of the Destroyer. Another and darker invasion, which would carry them captive to Babylon, had shaped itself before his prophetic eye. Must not the grey old man have been more than human if he had not been tempted, in some moments, to cry in utter gloom, “The Lord has forgotten me?” 3. In the midst of that deep depression, the new revelation, which begins with a shout of joy in this chapter, opened before him in its glory. The old question came back, with its grand reply, “Why sayest thou?” &c. We have three points before us— I. ISAIAH’S . It arose from a twofold source. 1. The sense of a Divine desertion: “My way is hidden from the Lord.” Just because the most earnest of the people felt the absence of God from the nation, he felt it far more intensely. Many men have had the same experience. If we are Christians, we shall know it sooner or later. 2. The absence of Divine recompense: “My judgment is passed over from my God.” A cry from the prophet himself. Remember how little result of his long labour the man of eighty years had seen. The people were buried in God-forgetting repose; the priests were dead in formalism; the spiritual life of the land was decaying, and thunders of woe were muttering in the nation’s future. All great men think that they die in failure. The same terrible absence of Divine recompense has been felt by lesser minds, if only earnest. II. THE TRUTH THAT REMOVED IT. In Isaiah 40:30-31, we perceive that the double manifestation of God’s greatness in Nature and the tenderness of His revealed will dispelled the gloom. 1. The greatness of God in Nature (Isaiah 40:28; Isaiah 40:26). (1.) Would not He who guided unweariedly the stars guide the life of immortal man unforgettingly and righteously? And thus the eternal chorus swept down on the prophet’s soul from the heaven of heavens (Isaiah 40:27). Before the majestic care of the Creator in God’s visible Bible of creation man’s doubting heart should grow calm. (2.) He speaks not only of the unsearchable Creator, but of the Everlasting God. The Everlasting implies the thought of One to whom past, present, and future are one now (Isaiah 40:6-8). 2. The tenderness of the revealed will (Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 40:29). The revelation of God’s tenderness fuller for the Christian man. We know how the Great Shepherd gave His life for the sheep. III. THE RESULTS OF ITS REMOVAL. They are twofold. 1. Strength in weakness (Isaiah 40:31). Feebleness is transformed into power when God has taught His great lesson of glorying in infirmity. 2. Immortal youth. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” There is an old Jewish fable that the eagle in dying recovered its youthful power. This is what Isaiah meant. The trustful heart never grows old. The dying Christian starts into new vigour at the name of Christ. “The oldest angels are the youngest.”—E. L. Hull: Sermons, First Series, pp. 81–90. GOD’S POWER THE COMFORT OF HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 40:28. Hast thou not known? &c.A softer tone one might think better adapted to the despondent; but this great interrogation seems as if the very thunder had taken in charge God’s defence and man’s elevation. The terms by which God is described are not what may be termed the gracious designations often employed to describe Him. It is not the Father, the Redeemer, the gentle One; it is the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth; as if Divine comfort were not a sentiment only, but arose out of the majestic, dominant, mighty, and grand in the Divine nature. I. “Hast thou not known?” This is not a new revelation; it is an appeal to memory—a strong point in all the Divine pleading. Our memory should be as the prophet of the Lord in our life; recollection should be inspiration. Let a man be faithful to his own recollections, and it is impossible he can long be despondent, weary, and slow of heart to lay hold of the great work and discipline of life. It is the preacher’s strength that he has to speak directly into people’s hearts. II. Is God all-mighty? 1. Then do not fear for the stability of His works. What guarantee have we that the summer is coming? God’s Word (Genesis 8:22). We work because God is. This is very humbling in one of its aspects, because we have nothing to do with all that is highest and grandest in the creation. We are to do the servant’s work; but no employment is menial if it be accepted from God’s hand, and wrought out according to the measure of His commandment and the inspiration of His call. 2. Have no fear about the realisation of His promises. It is difficult to see how certain promises are to be realised. God keeps our hands off His promises quite as surely as He keeps them off His stars; He asks that their fulfilment be left to Him. It is God’s heart that comes down with His signature; because of His moral attributes, all that He has promised shall be fulfilled. 3. Do not imagine you can escape His judgments. His lightnings find us out. You have evaded Him now fifty years, and you think you can do it fifty more; but you cannot. There are many oxen that are being prepared for the slaughter when they little think it. 4. Be assured that the throne of right shall stand upon the ruins of all wrong. You cannot kill evil with the sword; its abolition is a work of time: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness” (Psalms 2:1-5). There is a poor outlook for those who are going to fight God! III. God is not only powerful, but also all-wise. “There is no searching of His understanding.” Infinite strength would terrify us, but infinite strength under the dominion of infinite mind recovers us from the shock which comes of immeasurable, unwasting strength. The forces of Nature are not lawless; behind them all is God’s mind. 1. The darkest providences have meaning. Let us keep within our little sphere, and live a day at a time, and interpretation will come when God pleases and as He pleases. 2. God’s plan of salvation is complete and final. We shall waste our strength and show how great is our folly by all attempts to improve the method of redemption and recovery of the world. Is there a blade of grass we can improve, looking at it as God made it? Then, why seek to improve His method of salvation? 3. Our individual life is all understood by Him. We are often in shadow; it is enough that God knows our life, and that His wisdom is pledged as our defence. View the mysteries of life atheistically, and they become terrors; but regard them as under the control of a beneficent Power, and an eye of glory opens in the very centre of the gloom. 4. We have a guarantee of endless variety in our future studies and services. God is ever extending our knowledge in reward of the endeavours we are making. Monotony depresses and enfeebles; He will ever have something new to communicate to the mind of His servants. .— 1. What is our relation to this Dread Being, whose power is infinite, and whose wisdom is past finding out? We are either loyal subjects of His or rebels in His realm. Everything depends upon our relation to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Nature itself is but a mocking mystery apart from the Cross, which reveals our sin and God’s plan of salvation (John 1:29). 2. Those who are rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins have the freedom of the City of God. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in God.” God waits to gather us into His infinite strength, and to make us wise with perfect understanding.—Joseph Parker, D.D.: City Temple, pp. 349–356. THE GOD Isaiah 40:28. The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. A great contrast between God and all His living creatures on this earth. They all need rest, but He has no need of it, for He is never weary. We shall find this declaration full of comfort; but before we consider the senses in which it is true, we shall do well to remember that we are plainly taught in His Word that there are certain things of which God is weary. I. THINGS OF WHICH GOD IS WEARY. God is weary, 1. Of the obstinacy of sinners (Isaiah 43:24). 2. Of the backsliding of His professing people (Jeremiah 15:6). 3. Of heedless praises and hypocritical prayers (Isaiah 1:11-14). 4. Of our cruelty to each other (Exodus 3:7-10; Exodus 22:22; Isaiah 7:13). II. THINGS OF WHICH GOD IS NOT WEARY. 1. He is not weary in continuing and preserving His creation. The extent of this task; the multitude and minuteness of its parts. Neither its vastness, nor its complexity, nor its duration have availed to weary Him. We rest sometimes by changing the mode of our activity, but there is no cessation possible in God’s work (H. E. I. 362–365, 3174–3176). 2. He is not weary of caring for His people, supplying their temporal wants, guiding their affairs, removing unknown hindrances out of their way, solacing them in sorrow, strengthening them against temptation, educating them for time and eternity (P. D. 2908). 3. He is not weary of hearing prayer. This is a special labour, additional to the work of preservation, and even to the care of His people. Remember the multitude of the prayers that are constantly ascending to Him. The folly of many of them! Yet still He listens to us! 4. He is never weary in punishing sin; never so weary as to desist from it. There are cases in which we leave incorrigible offenders alone—we will not trouble ourselves any more about them; but it is never so with God. Not because He loves punishment, but because He loves righteousness. To a tender heart it is always a pain to punish; yet God, whose tender mercies are over all His works, age after age requites all who do wickedly. 5. He is never weary of pardoning penitent sinners. How many He has pardoned! How often He had to pardon every one of those who are now “the spirits of the just made perfect!” How often we have tried His patience! Yet He still waits to be gracious; He does not say, “Here comes another sinner; drive him away!” nor, “Here comes that sinner again; refuse him access to my throne.” He is as ready to pardon now as He was when Christ hung on the cross. He looks upon sins, not only as crimes, but as diseases; and, like a physician, is ready to minister to every plague-stricken one. Come, then, to Him now (H. E. I. 2285–2286, 2328–2339). This view of God should— 1. Awaken our admiration of Him. It is good to admire His works; better to admire Him (Psalms 104:34). 2. Strengthen our trust in Him. Our human friends fail us, but God will never fail us (chap. Isaiah 26:4-5). 3. Deepen our love for Him. He is unweariable, not in strength merely, but in affection. His love outlasts that of many mothers (chap. Isaiah 49:15-16). 4. Lead us to endeavour to imitate Him. “Religion consists in imitation of God” (Which-cote). We should never grow weary of any work for Him which He permits us to do. [1327][1327] On Saturday, September 30, 1770, Whitfield preached his last sermon on this text: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Before he went out to do so, a friend, observing how ill he looked, said to him, “Sir, you are more fit to go to bed than to preach;” to which he answered, “True, sir;” but turning aside, he clasped his hands together, and looking up spoke:—“Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of Thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, seal Thy truth, and come home and die.” WAITING ON GOD Isaiah 40:31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. I. Two conditions are necessary to physical life, viz., repose and activity. So, also, in the spiritual life, there are two conditions of health, viz., passivity and exercise. The former is expressed by waiting, which implies— 1. Passivity—a state in which we are the recipients, in which we do nothing, but quietly expect something to be done. As men “wait for the morning,” they wait for the salvation of God; for the fulfilment of His promises; for the coming of the Lord. 2. Confidence in God, an assurance that He will reveal Himself, that He will accomplish His Word. 3. Desire and expectation. Men who wait for the morning both expect it and long for it; so those who wait for God—for His salvation, for His coming—expect it and long for it (Psalms 130:6). 4. Patience and submission—patience, because we know that the good waited for will not be granted before God’s time; submission, because we know that it is in God’s power to grant or to withhold, and that our only hope is in Him. Waiting, therefore, is the opposite (1) Of indifference; (2) of despair; (3) of rebellious discontent. (See vol. i. pp. 178, 179, 332.) II. Those who wait on the Lord renew their strength. 1. Because God flows in upon the soul, imparts larger measures of life; as occurs in sleep. As touching the ground, according to the fable. 2. Because God approves and blesses those who thus confide in Him and long for Him. III. Times in which we should wait. 1. In seasons of devotion, private and public. 2. In times of sickness and sorrow. 3. In times of spiritual dearth. 4. All the time of our continuance in this world is a time of waiting for the salvation of God.—C. Hodge, D.D.We have here some of the benefits of waiting upon God as they appeared to the fervid soul of the prophet Isaiah. True messenger of the old covenant, he continues to speak under the new. Let us listen to this old message, which is also new. What does the prophet say? He says:— I. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” This sounds as if this godly life of theirs involved a considerable tax upon their spiritual strength; as if they were in danger of becoming “weary and faint in their minds.” Is this really so, Christian tradesman, householder, citizen, preacher, worker in the Lord’s vineyard? What do you say, you who suffer and you who are tempted? To all such this promise of Scripture will be very welcome. The least it can mean is— (1.) That they shall stand their ground. But it must mean something more than that they shall not retreat, though in such a warfare as ours not to have yielded is itself a victory. It must mean, they shall advance, they shall make sure and steady progress against the foe. But the margin speaks of this renewal as a change of strength, as if it would remind us— (2.) Of the many-sidedness of the grace of God, and its perfect adaptability to our ever-changing needs. Whatever we need for the journey or the conflict, for prosperity or for adversity, prayer will obtain it for us (H. E. I. 2363–2374). II. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” This seems to say that the life of communion with God is not a long series of vapid and unemotional hours, a dead level of mechanical and spiritless employments, but a life that has rare and glorious experiences, holy aspirations, ennobling thoughts, ecstatic emotions, spirit-stirring hopes. “Wings as eagles.” What does this mean? Climb where the eagle makes her nest and look. It means— 1. Purer air. Very pure is the atmosphere in which the eagle soars; she leaves all the fogs and mists of earth beneath her. 2. Clearer vision. The eagle sees things in their real relation to each other. What a mighty difference this often makes in our estimate of their nature! Premeditated insults below become mere forgetfulness above; irreparable injuries, mere scratches upon the skin; formidable duties, precious privileges. 3. Untroubled quiet. No one knows but he who has the secret of this Divine communion how deep a quiet God breathes about the heart that loves to speak with Him. In a peace that passeth understanding the praying spirit listens to the still small voice of God. 4. Rare landscapes greet his eye who mounts up with wings as eagles. We know what it is to look on Nature from the level. Can you fancy what it must be to look from eagle’s wings? Can you fancy what it is to have beneath you the beauty of the earth from horizon to horizon? So is it with those that wait upon the Lord. Lifted up on faith’s strong eagle pinions, over the great world of God’s written revelation, what prospects they rejoice in! What order, beauty, harmony, and sublimity they descry! Or if these pinions raise him above the world of human life, it is still the same with him; he sees what none other sees—God overruling all things, causing all things to work together for good to them that love Him. 5. Unclouded sunshine. It is possible to get above the clouds (John 15:11; 1 John 4:18; Ephesians 3:19). III. “They shall run and not be weary.” Theirs shall be capacity for the most strenuous exertion. IV. “They shall walk and not faint.” Is not this the same as saying that we shall have the power of steady perseverance, of patient endurance under protracted trials? Did the prophet put this last because patience is one of those Christian graces that has its perfect work the latest—because the bearing of the Lord’s burden is often a much more difficult thing than the doing of the Lord’s work? And was it because he would encourage us by the assurance that that power, difficult as it is, shall yet be ours through prayer? All this has but one lesson: BE MEN OF PRAYER.—John H. Anderson: Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 84–87. THE WE NEED Isaiah 40:31. But they that wait upon the Lord, &c.Divine promises are made to character. The character here described is one who waits on his patron for a benefit, on his master for direction. It is the believer’s expectant, obedient look. It probably here describes the attitude of the believing Jews in Babylon in expectation of deliverance. For all action strength is required. It is more easy to describe than define. There is the strength of a fortress, of an army, of a labourer. There is intellectual strength and moral strength. This last is required in the Christian life. There is an immense power of evil adverse to it, resistance to which requires moral strength. The text suggests the source whence it is derived, the constancy with which it is supplied, and the achievements by which it is distinguished. I. THE SOURCE WHENCE IT IS DERIVED. From the Lord on whom we wait. This is the point of connection between the text and what precedes. The prophet has contrasted the Divine power with the helplessness of heathen gods. He speaks of the power displayed in creation. When we contemplate its ample details, we conclude that power equal to their production is Omnipotence. The question is not affected by the fact that, while operating on matter, He is Himself immaterial. We do not understand the connection between mind and matter. But we know that mind operates on matter directly or indirectly. All science, all mechanical and engineering skill, is the indirect command of matter by mind. It can also command it directly. When the centurion came to Jesus pleading for the cure of his sick servant, it was not necessary for the Saviour to go to him (Matthew 8:13). Who can explain the contact of the will of Jesus with this sick man at a distance from Him? Yet it was real and effectual. Thus with a word, the expression of mind and will, God at the creation “spake and it was done.” It is illimitable, inexhaustible power (Isaiah 40:28). Nor is it only the power that controls matter. Equally immeasurable is He in the region of intellect. Hence the prophet advances to this as the completion of his statement. “There is no searching of His understanding.” We cannot understand the manner of the Divine thought. It is beyond us, as the thought of the mathematician is beyond the babe. But we know that it comprehends everything that exists, or will exist, or can. And moral strength is His. He is holy; He is essential holiness. His will is the extremest removal from moral evil and accordance with righteousness. When He made man, He made him in His image; when He formulated laws for man’s government, though fallen, they expressed His essential righteousness; and this is His demand, “Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” And this is the source of human strength. Will any man say that his physical strength is self-created and independent? Or that his intellectual strength is independent of God? He who gave it sometimes takes it away. Our moral strength comes from Him. For what is it? Is it not the inclination of the will to the good, the righteous, the holy? Is this the natural disposition of man’s will? Was it not lost in the Fall? Is not human nature proverbially weak in resistance of evil? How can it be made strong? “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” He not only pardons the past by the power of the atoning sacrifice; He provides by His Spirit a change of heart for the sinner. This regenerating power is the beginning and centre of the soul’s strength. II. THE WITH WHICH IT IS . The body becomes weary by exertion. The over-wrought brain becomes incapable of effort. Both must be recruited by rest and suitable aliment. And the soul’s strength gives way under the pressure of evil unless it is constantly replenished from the Eternal source. The difference between such as are permanently strong and such as are weak is the difference between such as rely on their own sufficiency and such as wait on the Lord. Youth is the time when self-confidence is greatest. But if the young Christian becomes confident in the self-perpetuating power of that determination of his will that has been given by the grace of God, he will be in danger of spiritual exhaustion and consequent powerlessness. “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.” Strength is maintained by constant inflowing from God. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” There may be an allusion to the supposed renewal of the eagle’s strength. Very impressive is the contrast between Nature when exhausted and weary in winter, and the springtime, when reinvigorated from secret sources and her strength put forth anew. Pleasant to the toiler, weary in mind and body with his work, is the quiet evening with his family, the night’s sleep, the Sabbath change and rest. Sweet is returning strength when the crisis of disease has passed, and the power which illness has exhausted is felt again. Thus spiritual forces are liable to waste. They need repair. Bring them to the source of strength. Use the means of grace. Seek the Spirit’s help. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” How blessed the experience of Paul (2 Corinthians 4:16). III. THE BY WHICH IT IS . “They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” Weakness seeks ease; strength seeks action. It is described— 1. As elevation. Like the eagle, whose flight is upward toward the sun. Nearer in thought and feeling to God. 2. As progression. In the path of Christian experience, character, service. It becomes easier from habit, as the daily task. And new strength is supplied. The practical lesson of the whole is, that to fallen men God is this true source of moral strength. “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”—J. Rawlinson. Isaiah 40:31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength &c.Human strength is of many kinds—physical, mental, spiritual; but every form of human strength must of necessity spend itself; for the world of which it forms a part decays, and by and by, like a worn-out vesture, the heavens and the earth shall be rolled up and put away. All strength apart from God is derived strength, and is consequently measurable, and must come to an end. The river runs on and the brook fails not, because they come from fountains that are not affected by drought; but cisterns are dried and reservoirs fail, because they have no springing well at the bottom of them; and if the pipes which supply them cease to flow, they are soon left dry as a threshing-floor. Let every man know, therefore, that whatever his strength may be, of body, mind, or spirit, if it be his own, it will fail him one day. Mingled with all things human there are portions of that all-dissolving acid which fell upon man’s nature when Infinite Justice said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” On the other hand, Divine strength never fails. It seems almost a superfluity to say as much as that: it abides in joyous fulness, never in the least diminished. The Lord was God when as yet this sun, and moon, and all these stars slept in His thought like unborn forests in an acorn cup; and He will be God when all this brief creation shall melt back to nothing, as a moment’s foam dissolves into the wave that bore it and is lost for aye. God changes not; the fountain of His almightiness still overflows. You may bring your boundless wants and have them all supplied, but you shall no more diminish His all-sufficiency than when an infant dips his cup into the sea and leaves the sea brimming over upon ten thousand leagues of shore. What then? These two things seem very far away—man with his faintness, his strength gradually drying up: God with His eternity and inexhaustible omnipotence. If we can bring these two together, if by an act of faith you that are human can be linked with the Divine, what a wondrous thing will happen! Then the sacred words of the text will be fulfilled. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” When the heart drinks life from the heart of God, and man is at one with his Maker, then all is well. “From God, the overflowing spring,Our souls shall drink a fresh supply;While those who trust their native strengthShall melt away and droop and die.”I. WE SEE HOW A TRUE CHURCH MAY BE . “They that wait upon the Lord.” 1. A Church such as a Church ought to be consists of men who depend upon the Lord alone; for waiting signifies dependence. Their hope is in God. They rest in God’s righteousness as their righteousness, and they receive the great sacrifice provided by God to be their atonement and their acceptance. No man is really a Christian who finds his hope and confidence within himself; he must be looking out of himself to God in Christ Jesus. If Christians are what they ought to be, they depend upon God alone in their Church capacity. (1.) God’s Word is their only creed: they do not add to it anything whatever—no, not a sentence, a gloss, or a thought. A true Church of God will say, “We wait upon the Lord for teaching: this Word of the Lord is to us our infallible source of doctrine, and that alone.” Those who wait upon the Lord for their creed shall never need to give up their faith for something better, but they shall renew their strength. (2.) A true Church waits upon the Lord for grace, and has faith in the doctrines of grace as the testimony with which it is to work. It says to the pastor, “Teach you what God has taught. Preach Christ crucified. Preach not your own thoughts, nor notions of your own inventing, but what is revealed of God—preach you that, for it shall be the power of God unto salvation.” If the bare unaltered truth of God will not break a man’s heart, then it certainly will not break it when it is rounded and toned down and made to look pretty so as to suit the prevailing taste. A Church that waits upon the Lord uses only the doctrine of Scripture as its battle-axe and weapons of war. (3.) A Church that is waiting upon the Lord always knows where its strength lies, namely, in its God. What is the power with which men are to be converted? Eloquence, say some. The Church of God says, “Not so. Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.” I solemnly believe that so much of human oratory as there is in a sermon, so much there is of the weakness of the flesh; for all the power must be of God working with the truth through the Holy Ghost. Therefore we should use great plainness of speech, and never speak for the sake of the language, but always for the sake of the truth we have to say, that God may bless it to the hearts of men. No man in this world was ever converted except by the Holy Spirit, and never will any man be truly converted by any other power. The Gospel has salvation in it when the Holy Spirit works by it, but no other doctrine can save. Many in these days think that we want a great deal besides the Spirit of God, but they are in error. They think that the world is not to be converted and men saved in the old-fashioned way of preaching the Word of God with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; but it is to be converted in that way and no other. You cannot touch a dead heart to make it alive either by excitement or by philosophy. Spiritual life can only come in God’s way, and it is God’s way by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God’s Word will not return unto Him void; but man’s word is void when it goes forth, and void it remains to the end of the chapter. The magicians and their enchantments cannot compare with the rod of Moses. We mean, whatever others do, to keep to “waiting upon the Lord,” going to work in the Lord’s way, and depending upon the Lord’s power, and upon that alone. 2. If we depend upon God, our expectation is from Him. We wait upon God as the birds in the nest wait upon the parent bird, expecting from her their food. Before she comes you hear their cries, and when she comes, if you look into the nest, you will see nothing but so many gaping mouths, all waiting, expecting to be filled by the mother-bird. That is just what a Church of God ought to be—a company of wide-opened mouths waiting to be filled by the Lord alone “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it,” says the Lord. Do you not think that some Churches, and some Christians, have scarcely learned to open their mouths at all? Let us expect more of God, and we shall receive more. Is He not able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think? Expecting people, a flourishing Church. They are believers in the power of the Gospel, and they act accordingly. When I fire the gun, they are on the alert to pick up the birds, for they believe in the killing power of the Word. If a Church would but wait upon God in this sense of expecting great things from Him, it should have them; for He will never allow His people to complain that He has been a wilderness to them. 3. To make up waiting there is a third thing, and that is patience—to hold out and wait the Lord’s time and will. This patience is to the uttermost desirable, that we may endure affliction, persevere in holiness, continue in hope, and abide in our integrity. Patience is the long life of virtue, and sets on its head the crown of experience. It is no child’s play to continue to suffer affliction with joyfulness, and to remain for years perfectly acquiescent in the will of the Lord, let that will be what it may. That little word WAIT is a word fit for a father in Christ, and cometh not out of the mouth of a babe in grace. Some are ardent followers of Christ, but they do not seem to have learned the meaning of that word “patience.” They are working for Christ, and they are depending upon the Lord, and they are looking for results; but when they do not see them immediately, they are offended and depressed. You were much the same when you were children: you wanted everything there and then, and waiting was dismal work to you. It is the mark of the child that he is in a violent hurry where men are steady. The Lord sometimes sends us speedy results to our labours; but at other times it is not so—the truth works slowly and surely, and effects all the more precious results. We must wait for seed to grow and for fruit to ripen. If we really wait upon the Lord, we shall just keep on, resolved to abide in duty, determined to remain in prayer, undaunted in confidence, unmoved in expectation. We shall not fly into a passion with the Lord and refuse to believe Him any more, neither shall we run off to novelties and fall into the fads and crazes of the day. The Lord will not fail the soul that waits upon Him; all will be well; the blessing will come. What a sweet thing is the calm leisure of faith! “He that believeth shall not make haste.” Fret and worry, hurry and haste, are all slain by the hand of faith. II. WE SEE WHAT THE LORD’S WAITING PEOPLE NEED. They need to renew their strength. 1. Because they are human. As the world is full of changes, so are we [1330] Creatures whose home is on the earth cannot always live upon the wing: they must feel faint at times; and hence the necessity of this blessed promise, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” [1330] Some friends never seem to be either high or low in their feelings: their life has neither hills nor valleys in it, but is comparable to an unbroken plain: they traverse a perpetual level. It is not so with others of us: we are all Alps and Andes. These favoured pilgrims march steadily and evenly through the world, always at one pitch and pace; but others of us who mount up into the heavens in burning zeal and holy joy, go low, very low down, into the depths, till our soul sinketh because of sorrow. The best and bravest of the saints are poor creatures. Elijah on the top of Carmel, when he has brought fire from heaven, cries, “Take the prophet of Baal; let not one of them escape!” Hear him as he pleads with God and unlocks the treasury of the rain. See him gird up his loins and run before the chariot of Ahab. There is a man for you! If ever hero-worship might be tolerated, it is in the case of “this my lord Elijah.” Look not too closely at the champion, for within twenty-four hours he is afraid of Jezebel, and soon he is whining, “O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” Do you blame him? Do you fail to understand so sad a stoop from so great a height? Take heed of censuring a man so greatly approved of God as to be spared the pains of death. If you do as well as Elijah did, perhaps you may hear some nobodies blaming you in your hour of exhaustion; but as for me, I cannot censure him, nor can any man that has ever enjoyed the heavenly delirium of high-strung zeal in the Master’s service, and having been borne aloft on eagle’s wings, at last falls upon the earth in absolute exhaustion. After high excitement there will come reaction.—Spurgeon.2. Because they are imperfect. Our natural corruption and the imperfection and infirmity of our flesh are about us still, and these bring us down at times till we say with David, “I am this day weak, though anointed king.” Because we are human and imperfect, we cannot always be at our best: the sky is not always clear; the sea is not always at flood; the year is not always at summer; the summer is not always in the zenith; the moon is not always at her full; the tree is not always adorned with fruit; the vineyard does not always flow with wine; roses do not always blush, nor lilies always bloom. Creatures have their rises and their falls, and to us also there must be times when we need to renew our strength. It must be renewed, for otherwise it will decline still further, and this would be painful, dangerous, and dishonouring. The Lord would not have us utterly fail, nor fall prone upon the ground in the heavenly race; therefore to those who have no might He increaseth strength. 3. We must renew our strength, for it is for our honour, comfort, and safety. 4. It is for God’s glory and for own own usefulness that we should be strong; and if we fall into decline and weakness, pray do not let us stop there. A pining sickness is an awful disease for a Church to die of. Do not linger in such a state. Up with you, and cry mightily unto the Lord, and you shall yet be restored. III. HOW ARE WE TO RENEW OUR ? If we are God’s people, we must renew our strength by continually waiting upon God. [1333][1333] When a man wants his bodily strength renewed, his purpose may be effected by eating a good meal. He has grown empty through hunger, and there is nothing in him; he must be filled up with substantial nourishment, and then the human engine will generate fresh force. Oh, ye who are weak in spirit, come and feed upon Christ! Sometimes a man may renew his strength by taking a little rest. He has grown weak through stern labour and long fatigue, and he must be quiet and repose till he recovers. Oh, ye weary, heavy-laden, where is there rest for you except in the Christ of God? We have known men’s strength renewed by breathing their native air. They have risen out of a hot and fœtid atmosphere into the cool breeze of the mountain-side, and the bracing breeze has made them strong again. Oh, to have the breath of the Spirit blowing upon us once again!—Spurgeon.If a Church wants reviving, if saints individually want reviving, they must wait upon God— 1. In prayer. Oh, what a blessing a day’s prayer might be! If you cannot get as much as that, how much renewing may be gained in an hour’s prayer! 2. Add to that a re-dedication of ourselves to the Lord who bought us. This often helps us to renew our strength. 3. Then afresh realise your entire dependence upon God. Put yourself into the Lord’s hands absolutely. Be like the sere leaf that is carried by the breath of the tempest. 4. Then go forward to renewed action. In renewing your strength, ask the Lord that you may undertake fresh work, and that this work may be done to a nobler tune—that you may have more expectancy, more confidence, more faith, more God-reliance. What things are done by men in common life with self-reliance! But with God-reliance we work impossibilities, and miracles fly from us like sparks from the anvil of a smith. When a man learns to work with God’s strength, and with that alone, he can do all things.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1756. Isaiah 40:31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, &c.As it is the same God who works in nature and in grace, a most interesting analogy may be traced between His operations in both. When the earth is parched with the heat of summer, and its productions begin to languish from excessive drought, it is watered and refreshed by the showers of heaven, and its various plants and fruits not only resume their former health and vigour, but spring up and flourish with greater luxuriance and vigour. The flower, too, that had drooped and withered at the close of day, is revived by the cool and the dews of night, and in the morning puts forth its buds and expands its leaves anew, delighting the eye with the beauty of its colours, or perfuming the air with the sweets of its fragrance. For every degree of exhaustion in nature, the wisest and most adequate provision is made by its all—pervading and beneficent Author. In like manner, when the spiritual strength of the Christian is impaired, from whatever cause, if only he wait upon God, his decays of strength are recruited from above; new fountains are opened for his comfort; he rises up from the ground, on which he was sitting in feebleness and sorrow, and no longer with faltering, but with firm and steady steps, pursues the course of active duty or of patient suffering in which he is appointed to move. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Observe— I. TO WHOM THIS AND IS MADE. “They that wait upon the Lord,” i.e., those who (1) earnestly desire the enjoyment of His favour; and (2) diligently attend to, and take peculiar delight in, all His service and will. II. THE IMPORT OF THE . It implies— 1. That the principles of the spiritual life within them shall be gradually strengthened and increased. These principles are faith and love—faith in the Son of God, through whom, as the propitiation for sin and the beloved of the Father, they are justified and accepted and saved; and love to Him as having redeemed them unto God by His precious blood, and given them the first-fruits of His Spirit, that they may live to His praise and be heirs of His glory. These principles are strengthened by the very act of waiting upon God, for thus our knowledge of Him is increased. And the more we know of Him, the more our faith in Him and love towards Him will strengthen. 2. That increased communications of Divine grace shall be made to them. III. THE EFFECTS OF ITS . 1. The devotions of those who wait upon God become more elevated and intense. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” [1336][1336] At first, or when weakened by the influence of unbelief and corruption, the motion of the believer’s soul towards God and spiritual objects is but feeble and inconstant, like the flutterings of a new-fledged bird, stretching its wings and attempting to fly, but, from want of habit or of strength, attempting it with little success. But when, in waiting on the Lord, their faith and love become more vigorous and steady, and the circumstances that rendered them languid and fluctuating are removed, like the eagle, which, after its feathers are renewed, mounts from its rocky nest stronger and livelier and more beauteous than before, and with expanded wings soars above the lower regions of the air, as towards the orb of the sun itself—they rise above the influence of the world and its vanities; and as their heart ascends in devout aspiration to the God of mercy and grace, they approach more nearly to the full radiance of the Sun of Righteousness, and rest their desires and affections more intensely on Him, as the brightness of the Divine glory, and the source of ineffable light and bliss. They are not only visited with peace and joy in believing, but are almost, like Paul, raised as to the third heaven, and see and hear things that are unutterable and full of glory. Such elevated enjoyment is not indeed vouchsafed to every believer. Nay, there are many who perhaps never reach it on this side the grave. But their devotions do in every case become more exalted and habitual as they go on in their course in the strength of the Lord. Perhaps their mental constitution is incapable of such intenseness of meditation and of feeling; or it is not necessary for the particular duties and service assigned them; or their natural temperament is so melancholy and desponding, that were they to be indulged with such high manifestations, their depression might become deeper after these manifestations were over, and the fearful suspicion that they were altogether delusive might sink them in greater distress than before. But one thing is certain, that by all who truly wait upon the Lord progress will be and is made, both in the strength and the countenance of devotional habits, of spiritual affection, and of heavenly-mindedness; and that the grace which they ask in prayer and receive by faith gradually raises them to a far higher state of Christian attainment than that by which the beginning of their spiritual life was marked. Of the degree of this advancement they may not, indeed, be always conscious, for their humility will increase in exact proportion to their other real attainments.—Dickson.2. They acquire greater alacrity and perseverance in doing His will. “They shall run,” or march on, “and not be weary.” Here the metaphor is varied, and changed into one that is more common in the sacred writings, as expressive of Christian duty, which is frequently compared to running or marching (Psalms 119:32, &c.) To those whose spiritual strength is renewed by waiting on the Lord, duty is not a task, but a delight. They are never so happy as when labouring in the sphere of service allotted them; and under the burdens which sometimes press upon them they are supported and cheered by the promises and grace of Him whom they serve. 3. They are enabled to manifest fortitude and patience under affliction. “They shall walk and not faint.” Here the metaphor is again beautifully varied, or rather another shade of the same image is presented for the encouragement of every traveller to the Heavenly Zion. Even when incapable, as it were, of increasing their strength or of being active in the service of God, grace is both promised and imparted for enabling them to move forward without fainting in the path of submission and suffering (Psalms 23:4; H. E. I. 198–202).—David Dickson, D.D.: Discourses, pp. 198–222. SOUL GROWTH Isaiah 40:31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, &c.Men develop under a universal law of variableness. We do nothing continuously except breathe and pulsate. It is insanity to think upon one subject continuously. Health demands intermission, even retrocession. This truth may be seen in a larger way in our pursuits and actions. We pursue pleasure, engage in business, seek sociality intermittently (H. E. I. 2064–2066, 2073–2074). Deep moral and religious thought and feeling are produced by a thousand concurrent influences. All endeavours to hold Christians, Churches, or individuals to a high emotive condition of religious feeling are vain. Virtue, morality, duties are perpetuated; but, in regard to these, we are changing. When reactions and backslidings take place, how shall men renew? How shall the words of the prophet be fulfilled? The method by which spiritual strength may be renewed and augmented must be learned from a study of the providence of God. We ought to take the Bible as men take charts. Human life is the interpreter of the Word of God (H. E. I. 549, 550, 560). What, then, are some of the methods by which men, in the Divine economy, advance in spiritual impulse and rise permanently higher? [1339][1339] See H. E. I. 2473–2569. 1. We must not be biassed by any theory of Church or ordinances, nor by any preaching, to suppose that we are shut up to the dealings of God with us through these channels. The Church occupies a foremost place here; but the schools, books, newspapers, business, social influences work upon the human soul. 2. It pleases God to make the spiritual development of men depend on time-growth. The body is the first to develop, then the social affections, with the elementary forms of the intellect, then the moral elements, and last the spiritual nature. Many persons develop high religious emotions prematurely. Many may lose by neglect or by delay; but there is an element of time which must be taken into consideration. 3. Spiritual strength is renewed through the removal of false or imperfect views of truth. There is a relation between a man’s reason and things that are reasonable. The preaching of the Divine nature is, sometimes, not made drawing to men. It is not altogether human depravity that is at fault. Spiritual growth ought to be more to us than any orthodoxy or regularity of outward forms. Change of circumstances may give the needful impetus to soul-growth. 4. Many persons fail to come to the inspiration of the higher views of religion by reason of worldly prosperity, which tends to satisfy their lower nature (H. E. I. 3998–4014). In these circumstances, distresses, infirmities, and even great sorrows, are blessed of God to the opening of their nature and to the renewing of their spiritual strength. Troubles are well-diggers. We are rich and strong, not by the things which we possess, but by the amount of true manhood developed in us (H. E. I. 129, 130, 204–212). 5. It pleases God also to employ the companionship of friends and neighbours in developing their higher manhood. There is nothing so helpful to a soul as the contact of another soul. How much was there in Christ’s personal touch! Go about as a man among men (H. E. I. 1049, 1050). 6. When, by the use of these various instrumentalities, our souls have grown and come into the possibility of a higher spiritual disclosure, then there is a further soul-growth in us. We come to a state in which there is a direct influence of the soul of God exerted upon us—as direct as sight and voice to the bodily senses. Men may come, at last, into that state in which the Spirit of God shines with a steadfast lustre upon them (H. E. I. 974, 2840, 2900). Then there is the triumph of grace in the soul. Then intuitions become truths. What wonder that the dying saint should catch the sound of heavenly music! .—It is the privilege of all Christians to live this life, not today nor to-morrow, but as the result of patient continuance in well-doing, growing in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.—Henry Ward Beecher: Christian Age, vol. vii. pp. 102–106. THE EAGLE-WINGED Isaiah 40:31. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. Scripture is full of parables, in which spiritual things are represented by natural. Here the believer’s progress is compared to the eagle’s flight. I. THE WINGS HE MOUNTS UP. There are especially these two, the wing of faith and the wing of love. 1. The wing of faith. None can mount up to heaven without it, for it is a grace that looks not at the things seen in this world, but at the things that are not seen; and it mounts the soul to heaven and heavenly things (H. E. I. 1902–1907; P. D. 1164). 2. The wing of love. This grace, like faith, unites the soul to Christ. This is such a strong wing that fire cannot burn it; marytrs have found that the fire did not burn their love; no, it mounted up to heaven with the flame (H. E. I. 3337, 3338). II. THE THINGS WHEREIN HE MOUNTS UP 1. Not in airy speculations. Some have a great deal of head-knowledge, but no heart love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). There may be much speculative knowledge where there is no saving grace (H. E. I. 3091). 2. Not in sinful curiosity, to pry into the secrets of God (Deuteronomy 29:29). Many fall into this error in regard to the decrees of election and reprobation, the day of judgment (Matthew 25:13), heaven (H. E. I. 1508–1518, 1793–1802, 2718). 3. Not in self-conceit and self-estimation, as some do who mount up in the pride of their hearts (James 4:6). 4. Not in fits and starts of devotion. Many who hear the Word seem to be mounted up in joy; but it is but a flash, and like a land-flood (Luke 8:6; Luke 8:13). They mount up— 1. In holy meditation (Psalms 104:34; Romans 8:5). They do not allow their thoughts to wander on the mountains of vanity (H. E. I. 3499–3504). 2. In holy desires (Isaiah 26:9). 3. In heavenly affections (Colossians 3:2). 4. In lofty designs. Their ultimate design is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever. 5. In righteous practices. This is seen in all their actions. The world’s standard is not theirs (1 Corinthians 10:31). III. HOW THE MOUNTS UP. Like the eagle— 1. Naturally. The eagle mounts not at man’s command, but by the instinct God has given it (Job 39:27). To the believer a new heart has been given, and it is natural to him to be mounting towards God. When the hypocrite mounts up, he is forced up contrary to his natural tendency, like a stone cast up into the air (H. E. I. 3008). 2. Highly. The eagle flies higher than other birds, and makes her nest on high; unlike the ostrich, that leaves her eggs in the sand. 3. Gradually. Though the eagle’s flight is strong and swift, it is gradual. So the believer mounts up, by degrees (Psalms 84:7). He rises to more and more knowledge of God and more and more communion with Him, until faith and hope land in vision and fruition. 4. Frequently. The carnal professor mounts up only about the time of a communion, or when in some sore affliction, or during a revival, and whenever these seasons are over, he goes down as fast as he went up; but the believer mounts on week-days as well as on Sabbath-days, on ordinary Sabbaths as well as on communion Sabbaths. IV. WHY THE MOUNTS UP. 1. Because it is as natural for him to do so as it is for an eagle. He hath a new nature, which ascends to heaven whence it descended (2 Corinthians 5:17; H. E. I. 1103). 2. Because he hath his nest on high; like an eagle, his all is above. Christ is all in all to him, and therefore rise he must. .— 1. A word of terror to you that never mounted up towards Christ. What shall we say to you? You are not like eagles, but like ravens, that do not mount heavenwards, but wander to and fro upon the earth, as Noah’s raven did, and feed upon sordid things. You cannot fly to heaven, but flutter upon earth; and while you continue what you are, heaven you will never reach. 2. A word of comfort to the mounting soul. As the mounting soul is blessed, so is he safe as long as he is mounting; he is out of the reach of this world’s misery; safe against death itself. The eagle is never in danger but when she is on earth; we are never in danger when we are in Christ till we fly down to the earth. Therefore, seeing God hath renewed your strength to mount up as on eagle’s wings, O soar aloft; look down with a generous disdain upon the world and the vanities thereof, and keep your heart up in heaven. Mount, mount, mount; be always mounting, till you come to the throne of God and the Lamb.—Ralph Erskine, M.A.: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 495–519. He makes a very great mistake who supposes that the word “wait” implies an indolent passivity. The Hebrew word has brawn and bone in it; its signification is primarily to be strong—strong enough to hold out under pressure. Thence the word came to signify patience, as the opposite of discouragement and peevishness. When a soul is ready to do God’s will, and to submit cheerfully to God’s discipline, and to receive such fulness of supply as God is willing to bestow, that soul may be truly said to “wait on the Lord.” It is a great grace, and it leads to a great glory. The man who thus waits on God renews his strength. He does more; he receives a wonderful inspiration. He “shall mount up with wings as an eagle.” Naturalists tell us that the special power of the eagle is in his wings. He can fly in the teeth of a gale, and go out on long voyagings towards the clouds, and play the aeronaut for hours without weariness. The sparrow twitters from the housetop; the dove is content to abide in the forest; but eagles are children of the skies and playmates of the storm. Even their nests are on the mountain crags. So God means that every soul which waits on Him shall sometimes soar. Not creep or grovel in worldliness, or crouch in bondage to man or devils, but rise above all these baser things into the atmosphere of heaven. When a soul binds itself to God, it finds wings. Such an one has a citizenship in the skies. He catches inspiration from the indwelling Spirit. He rises above the chilling fogs of doubt, gains a wide outlook, is filled with ennobling thoughts, and actually feels that he is an heir to a celestial inheritance. He outflies the petty vexations that worry the worldling, and the grovelling lusts that drag the selfish and sensual soul down into the mire. His soul-life is hid with Christ in God. What cares the eagle, as he bathes his wing in the translucent gold of the sunbeam, for all the turmoil, the smoke, the clouds, or even the lightnings that play far beneath him? He flies in company with the unclouded sun. So a heaven-bound soul, filled with the joys of the Holy Spirit, flies in company with God. You may realise these happy experiences if you will but wait on Him. You will be surprised to find what an uplift there is in your religion. You will discover how it can carry you above base and sensual desires; how it can give birth to pure and holy meditations; how it can kindle joy in seasons of dark adversities and bereavements; how it can keep your hope as serene and shining as the morning star. Strive after this, by living less on self and more on Jesus. Live more like a son of God or a daughter of God, with the full feeling of adoption. Set your affections on things above. Don’t count these perishable things to be your treasures. Seek better ones in heaven. So shall prayer and Bible study, and the daily victory over sin, and the doing of God’s will, renew your strength. You will mount up with wings as eagles, until you grow heavenly-minded—“which is life and peace.” This is the “higher life” to which Christ calls every believer. And when you and I are inclined to nestle down in indolence and self-indulgence, God “stirs up our nests” and bids us fly towards Him.—Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.THE RUNNER (A Sermon to Young Men.) Isaiah 40:31. But they that wait upon the Lord … shall run and not be weary. Running is the young man’s pace. With overflowing strength and buoyant spirits, the danger is not that young men should not run, but that they should run amiss, or that they should attempt to run in the right road in their own strength. The text describes a character as well as gives a promise. I. THE RUNNING. There are different paces among the Lord’s servants. Ahimaaz is swifter than Cushi; John outruns Peter. 1. Running is the pace of energy. The puff-ball is the emblem of many a forceless life. Others work with both hands. If the Lord’s work is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Be it ours to outstrip the energy of this world. 2. Running indicates fulness of alacrity (Genesis 18:7; Genesis 24:46; 1 Samuel 3:4-5). Note how often Mark uses about Christ the words “straightway” and “immediately.” Every man should be as David with Goliath, eager for the fray; as Elisha, who left the oxen and ran after Elijah; as Philip, who ran to meet the chariot of the Ethiopian. 3. To run is to be diligent. That is hardly running in which a man starts and stops, and starts and stops again. Much of Sunday-school teaching is a very slovenly make-believe. Patient continuance in well-doing is crowned. 4. Running indicates thorough-going hearty zeal. E.g., Aaron running for his censer, and running in between the living and the dead, that the plague might be stayed (Numbers 16:46-50). Christ is dishonoured by our heartlessness, the Gospel is derided through our indifference, and souls are lost by our sloth. From all this it is clear that the runner is one whose spiritual life is intense. Young men should be runners. II. COMMEND THE RUNNING. 1. Because it is a warming pace. Running is better than standing before a fire for warming one; active exertions are better for the Christian life than listening to sermons. Let spiritual dyspeptics turn their hands to work. 2. A ground-clearing pace. Creepers meet with more obstacles than runners. 3. A cheering pace. Runners have no time to become dispirited. David ran to fight Goliath. One can understand the Balaclava charge. 4. The winning pace (1 Corinthians 9:24). All our God-given strength must be put out to win. 5. A fitting pace for a believer. Jesus Christ declares that we should run for Him. Christians who fall in love with “life in earnest” become far happier men. This is to live in the light of God’s countenance, like Milton’s angel in the midst of the sun. III. THE RUNNER’S GIRDLE. “They that wait upon the Lord shall run and not be weary.” Waiting upon the Lord is essential to the running. They shall not be weary. Much running is short-lived. Many converts are converted back again. Not every bloom becomes a fruit. To wait upon the Lord is— 1. To yield yourselves, by God’s grace, to be His servant. Every hair of our head belongs to our Saviour. Consecration is needed to keep up the running so as to win the crown. 2. To go to Him for all your strength. Man’s natural strength is perfect weakness as to spiritual things; strong points left undefended lead to ruin. Dare to do great work for God, and you will be enabled to dare ever greater things. 3. To cultivate the expectancy of hope. Wait at the foot of Jacob’s ladder for the angels to bring down answers to prayer. (See Outlines, WAITING FOR THE LORD, vol. i. pp. 178, 179, 332, 333.) IV. THE RUNNER’S STAFF. “He shall not be weary.” Some are not weary of God’s work, though they often grow weary in it. To stand, and having done all, to stand, is impossible to flesh and blood; it is only possible to the God-sustained. How run, then? Running Christians have daily strength for daily needs; they find fresh matter of interest (if you want a novel, read your Bible); they look to the end, to the recompense of the reward (1 Corinthians 15:58). .—Let runners beware of slackening their pace.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1869), pp. 337–348. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY RUNNING. To run, in a spiritual acceptation, is to engage with great liveliness and zeal in the duties which God has appointed, and to persist in them with all our powers. Running includes— 1. Forwardness, in opposition to culpable delays. When a good work is proposed to some, they catch at any excuse for neglecting it; or, if they do set about it, it is with so much reluctance and indolence, that what little is done is of little worth. But the lively Christian, let God call him when He will, is eager to discharge whatever appears to be his duty (Psalms 119:60). The angels are represented as standing round about the throne of God, hearkening to the voice of His word; as it were, watching every motion of His lips: and the instant they perceive the least intimation of His pleasure, they fly to execute it. Those who are truly God’s people do His will on earth as it is done in heaven: they do it promptly. Examples (1 Kings 19:20; Matthew 4:22; Matthew 2:9; H. E. I. 3633–3638). 2. Perseverance and diligence. It is not every progressive motion that can be called running. The motion used in it is quick and animated, and that not for a step or two, but for a considerable way, even to the end of the course. It implies, therefore, not merely a forwardness in the setting about a good design, but diligence in prosecuting it, and perseverance to finish it. Our endeavours to please God and win the glorious prize must be strenuous, ardent, continuous. When a person is running for a considerable wager, he doth not loiter, nor enter into trifling conversation with every one he meets. No; he looks at nothing but the prize set before him; he will not suffer himself to be hindered by any one; he pushes on with unremitted ardour to the end of the race (1 Corinthians 9:25; Philippians 3:13). II. HOW FAR THEY WHO RUN MAY EXPECT TO BE . 1. They shall never be so weary as to lose their inward delight in religion. Though the flesh sometimes flags and tires, and the present lively feeling of joy and comfort diminishes, the willingness of the spirit still continues; the principle of delighting in God doth not expire; their love to Christ and their eagerness to serve Him are as strong as ever. They are quite vexed and impatient when they find that nature cannot keep up with grace. 2. They shall not be so weary as to throw off the practice of religion. They may forget themselves, as Peter did in the high priest’s hall, and speak and act very inconsistently with their professed devotion to Christ; but yet, if they be really born again, grace will recover them from this temporary fainting; a look from Christ will set all right again. III. WHAT REASON THEY HAVE TO EXPECT SUPPORT. 1. They have the power and promise of God to depend upon (chap. Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 40:27-29; Psalms 63:8). 2. There is a boundless excellency in religion, calculated to afford continual refreshment. Whatever else men apply their minds and hearts to, they are soon tired of; they find an emptiness in it which makes them throw it aside with disgust (Ecclesiastes 7:6; 1 John 2:16; H. E. I. 4969–4974). But ask one who lives in communion with God, and runs the way of God’s commands with an enlarged heart, whether he is weary of it and would rather be excused from it, and you know what his vehement and indignant answer will be (John 4:34; Psalms 84:10). The toils and labours of religion have one advantage above all other pursuits—there is no climbing to the top; there is no sounding the bottom; there is no finding out the breadth or length of its excellency and sweetness. 3. The faster we run the nearer we approach to heaven. We all know that they who are running in a race feel new vigour when they come within sight of the goal, especially the first of the competitors. With what a spring doth he advance, in his last steps, to lay hold on the prize! It is the same in the Christian race; the near approach of salvation drives off lazy slumbers, and sets all the powers of the soul in animated motion. [1342][1342] Travellers tell us of some countries which are so full of aromatic plants and flowers that they perceive the fragrance at some distance, and are highly refreshed by the pleasing gales. Do you not think it is the same with the Christian traveller, as he hears up towards the heavenly country, of which “the land flowing with milk and honey” was a figure, a shadow, a very inadequate resemblance?—Lavington. .—Let those who are running the race set before them be encouraged. You are in the way of mercy, and may expect not only to be kept from falling, but to have a continual increase of grace. Let the way be never so long, the ascent never so difficult, the opposition never so great, and your strength never so small; what are all these to the power and promise of God? Only— 1. Take care that you begin well. Be sure that your first step in religion is right. Remember that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that “no man cometh unto the Father but by Him.” 2. Avoid hindrances. Many such will be thrown in your way [1345] 3. Keep heaven and your Forerunner in your eye. The soul that looks unto Jesus can never lose its way (P. D. 2312–2314).—Samuel Lavington: Sermons, vol. ii 379–396. [1345] Hindrances of various kinds we must expect to meet with: the world and our hearts are full of them; but there is a world where we shall get entirely above them; where there shall be nothing within us, nor without us, to stop our course or interrupt our joy. “There, to fulfil His sweet commands, Our speedy feet shall move; No Sin shall clog our wingèd zeal, Or cool our burning love.” O Christians! with such prospects before us, is it not strange that we run no faster now? that when heaven, in respect to some of us, can be at no great distance, it should be possible for the comparatively trifling concerns of the world to engage our attention? that we do not spurn it from us with indignation, like the Pilgrim, who ran through Vanity Fair shutting his eyes and stopping his ears?—Lavington. THE CALL OF CYRUS A FRUIT OF THE Isaiah 41:1-2. Keep silence before Me, &c.Behold how of old the Lord called the people and the distant nations into judgment, and condescended to plead and question with them concerning the dispensations of His providence, that they might see and know that He doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. “Keep silence before Me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.” This is as it is written in the Book of Job: “Gird up now thy loins as a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou. Me.”The question which the prophet then proposes is one concerning the future, though in our English rendering it is put all in the past tense: “Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings?” The Hebrew language has not the same certainty in the distinctions of time with ours; and it may be mentioned that the ancient Greek translators have put the question partly in the future, to which indeed it wholly refers. [The tenses of the Septuagint in Isaiah 41:2-3, are the following:—Τίςέξήγειρεν … έκάλεσεν … πορεύσεται … δώσει … έκστήσει … διώξεται … διελεύσεται.] But the prophet in spirit here takes his stand in the future, and calls into judgment and investigation the things, the persons, and events of the future, as if they were before him, ere even they had budded and sprung forth (Isaiah 42:9). “Who hath raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, shall give the nations before him, and make him rule over kings? shall give them as the dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his bow? He shall pursue them and pass safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and doneit, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He.” Even in the first member of the sentence the meaning is really predictive of that which then existed only in God’s purpose and in the preparation of His providence, who calleth the generations from the beginning. You will perceive more clearly that it has this prophetic force if you refer to Isaiah 41:21-25 : “Produce your cause,” &c.It is generally agreed that there is here a prediction of Cyrus; but what I chiefly call your attention to is, that the whole work is claimed by God as His own. It was not merely He that had predicted it, but it was He that purposed it and brought it to pass. As He saith, “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He.” An erroneous idea of prediction has grown up, as if God had left the things predicted utterly loose from the control of His providence, and as if the marvel were only in the foresight, and not in the power, wisdom, and faithfulness displayed in the bringing to pass. Not thus speaks the Word of God, but the prediction is the declaration of God’s purpose, and the event is His bringing it to pass. It is thus they stand related to one another (Numbers 23:19).In our text, the question is not put as to the marvel involved in the prediction, but rather as to the overruling power and wisdom manifested in the doing of it. The question is not, Whose was the foresight? but, Whose was the accomplishment? To whom appertained the raising of this righteous man? Whose was his training? Whose were his victories? The fact of Cyrus’s existence, viewed together with his character, actions, and achievements, was altogether more wonderful even than the prediction of him by name. And so will it be in regard to the predicted coming and glory of Christ. Men will cease to debate of the marvel of its being predicted when they see the greater marvel of its being brought to pass. Not that the correspondence of the prediction with its fulfilment will cease to be a subject of admiration; but the actual bringing such a thing to pass from the present state of the world is harder to be conceived than the prediction of anything future.Now Cyrus was to the Gentiles a type of the Messiah, even as David or Solomon to the Jews; and accordingly we find him spoken of as THE LORD’S (Isaiah 45:1). Comparing the things which are related of him with the history of Eastern kings and conquerors of his age or that preceding, and especially with the monstrous oppressions, butcheries, massacres, and cruelties recorded on the slabs of Nineveh, he seems like a man of another world. It is a gleam of sunshine breaking through thunder-clouds. The soberest and most truthful of the Greek philosophers (himself a statesman, general, and historian) has selected him as the pattern of a perfect prince, and made his education the theme of a most interesting and instructive book. Whence had he that education? Who raised up that righteous man from the east? called him to His foot? At whose feet was he brought up? and from whose precepts did he receive instruction in righteousness?I think that we have here one of those examples in which the tribulation of the Lord’s people has been made to work blessing to the human race. The centribes of Israel had been carried into captivity, and were placed in Halah and Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Their princes were made eunuchs and officers in the palaces of their conquerors, and the daughters of Israel, admired for their beauty, sought after for the music of those exquisite songs of Zion, pitied for their exile and their sorrows, and honoured for their virtue, were not unfrequently made the favourite wives of the conquerors and princes among whom they were placed in captivity. The principles and character of the captives influenced the conquerors. The kingdom of heaven wrought after its own manner, like leaven hid in three measures of meal. Now the mother of Cyrus was a Mede, the daughter of the Median king; and Cyrus, though a Persian, was educated among the Medes, where the principles of the law of the Lord were silently working. Thus the Lord called him to His foot and instructed him; and the good seed in good ground brought forth an hundred-fold. From the rising of the sun he made mention of Jehovah’s name. And so the captivity of Israel in the cities of the Medes served under the good providence of God to leaven the nation of the Medes, and to prepare an avenger of the cause of Judah upon Babylon, and a restorer of His ancient people to Jerusalem.—W. B. Galloway, M.A.: Isaiah’s Testimony for Jesus, pp. 277–282. LESSONS FROM THE HEATHEN WORKERS Isaiah 41:5-7. The isles saw it, and feared. &c.These verses indicate the state of feeling which was created among the heathen nations by the rapid and victorious career of Cyrus. They remind us— 1. That a sense of common danger promotes fraternal feeling and activity (Isaiah 41:5-6). This has been often witnessed in the history of communities. Persecution, oppression, danger, will frequently unite them in one great movement for defence and safety, and thus call forth and develop principles that are too little cultivated in times of prosperity and security. 2. Mutual help is best rendered when each man does his best in his own way (Isaiah 41:7). In the building of a house, in the rendering of a performance, in the manufacture of an article, in the ruling of a state, the general interest is secured, not by all doing the same things, but by each doing his own individual part in honesty and fidelity. Even when an idol was to be made, the carpenter may encourage the goldsmith, &c. A fine lesson is here taught to Christian Churches. See it fully reasoned out in 1 Corinthians 12. 3. Even the superstitions of heathendom are a witness to the spiritual cravings of men. We have here a pathetic example of the perversions amongst which idolatry grovels. In their panic-stricken state the people betake themselves for safety to gods that first their own fingers must fashion. Think of a human soul bowing down to an image that a few moments ago was “fastened with nails that it should not be moved!” Yet we do injustice to heathenism, and do not rightly interpret it, if we suppose its significance lies wholly in these material objects. In reality we see here the human soul crying out for Another, an Unseen, an Unknown. The very groping of heathenism is so far a testimony to God, that it proclaims God to be in the worshipper before the worshipper seeks Him elsewhere. Amongst all our modern idolatries, too, idolatries of wealth, pleasure, fashion, power, &c., we see the uneasiness of souls who can find no settled rest in the things that are touched, and tasted, and handled. Though not definitely expressed, the yearning is for God Himself, of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things.—William Manning.Thus the heathen helped each other (Isaiah 41:6). There are many seasons in which encouragement from our fellow-Christians is peculiarly soothing and grateful to the mind; for as “ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so doth a man his friend by hearty counsel” (Proverbs 27:9). This is true— 1. In the wintry day of adversity. 2. In the dreary night of affliction and bereavement. It is one of the privileges as well as the duties of religion to “feel a brother’s care,” to “weep with them that weep,” and to pour the balm of consolation into the bleeding hearts of our suffering friends. 3. In the stormy day of persecution. It was a saying of Martin Luther, that “the plough of persecution was yoked as early as the days of Cain; and it has been going upon the back of the Church ever since” (Galatians 4:29; 2 Timothy 3:12). 4. In the time of fierce conflict and strong temptation. 5. When entering the vale of death. The help we can thus afford we are bound to render.—R. Bond: The Christian’s Remembrancer, p. 162, &c. Passages in the history of idolatrous worship may be turned to account. Here certain idolaters were alarmed, and ran to seek relief of their gods. They are making a shrine or an idol; they are all in earnest. This suggests what we shall always see whenever we find a model Church. Such a Church is— I. A scene of activity. Every one is at work. Life is a scene of activity in the physical universe, in the business world. We rejoice that intellectual activity has disturbed the darkness and torpor of the Middle Ages; the printing-press does a nobler work than the old feudal castle; brute force, exclusiveness, have had their day. It is still more encouraging when spiritual life comes into a Church. Then a happy activity reigns. II. A scene of cheerful, courageous toil. The carpenter encourages the goldsmith. Many Churches are scenes of recriminating discouragement. How much the minister is helped by a little encouragement now and then! It need not be flattery. Let every man do his own but let there be mutual encouragement. III. A scene of prompt industry and thorough work. There are few worse things for the development of any kind of life than dilatoriness. Promptitude in Church worship and work is much needed. And thoroughness no less. “He fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.” We want cloths that will not rip; bridges that will bear; characters that will stand temptation; friendships that will last. The model Church does its work thoroughly. IV. All are working—actively, cheerfully, courageously, promptly, thoroughly—for one common end (Jeremiah 7:18). They are all building a shrine or an altar. So the Church has one end. It is a unity, not a uniformity—a unity in spirit, in aim, in end. V. Special marks of a model Church. 1. A common-sense sanctuary: central, easy of access, constructed so as to be a house of worship and instruction,—not of worship only, still less for spectacular effect. 2. Kindness to strangers. 3. Well-organised charities. 4. Truly sanctified, truly consecrated by the indwelling Spirit of God. This is the crown of all.—E. P. Thwing, Ph.D.: Christian World Pulpit, xxii. pp. 136–137. TWO KINDS OF HELP Isaiah 41:6. They helped every one his neighbour, &c.Isaiah 41:10. Fear not; I will help thee, &c.It is manifestly the intention of the prophet to exhibit the contrast between Israel and the heathen nations. In contemplating the promise of the 10th verse, we may be so absorbed by its boundless wealth, so amazed by its condescension, so cheered by its comfort, that we fail to notice the sombre background against which it is placed. There is help in both cases, but how different! In one case it is the help and encouragement which men give to one another in a vain, foolish, and desperate course; in the other it is the help that cometh from above. The rapid conquests of Cyrus throw the nations into alarm. What shall they do in this extremity? I. Look at the expedients to which idol-worshippers have recourse (Isaiah 41:6). The carpenters and goldsmiths resolve to manufacture a strong set of gods, and to fix them securely. In the idol-factories the workmen stimulate one another. We may smile at such a gross delusion, as possible only among ignorant races in an age of superstition; but is there nothing corresponding to it among ourselves? We may regard image-worship with an air of scorn as too silly and infatuated ever to find place in Christianised communities; but there are many idols to which the unbelieving heart turns in the day of need and trial. The gods of our day have no outward embodiment, but not less loyal are their votaries to them. Idols are made of mammon and worldly ambitions, of services and ceremonies. Thus do the follies of a bygone age reproduce themselves in all their essential features. To see idolatry, you need not take a long journey to the South Sea Islands or Central Africa. In our scenes of commerce you may meet many a mammon-worshipper. In gay circles you may find crowds given up to the worship of fashion. In the very Church you may find the formalist who has made an idol of sacraments. These modern idolatries are godless and unbelieving; but while there is no faith in God, what an immense amount of faith of a different kind is exhibited! Believe! Why, they believe the most absurd things! e.g., they make gold their trust; they believe that they may lead Christless lives, and yet somehow get to heaven at last. We speak of them as unbelievers, yet what faith they have! They believe far more than the Christian can. To them Christianity is irrational, yet what irrationalities they entertain! “O the credulity of unbelief,” that accepts the most glaring absurdities to strengthen its position! And yet with all this rash credulity there is often an uneasy suspicion that all is not right and safe, and in a day of trouble they must help and encourage one another. Observe the power of association and example to blind men to the truth and strengthen them in bad principles. People think themselves all that is excellent if they do as others do, and are no worse than their neighbours; and so they keep each other in countenance, doing in company with each other what they would not do alone. II. Turn now to the other side, and contemplate the Divine help. Here is Israel’s confidence. It rests on the Almighty Helper. 1. It is help guaranteed by past experience (Isaiah 41:8-9). How intimate the relation in which God stands to spiritual Israel! how gracious the acts He has done for them! how dear they were to Him! What a powerful argument for hope and trust! To cast them off would be the undoing of all that He had done. How securely, then, the promise stands on the foundation of past favours. To the tried, doubting believer there is encouragement here. Your God not only condescends to sustain you with a promise, but to encourage your faith He points to past acts of mercy. He has brought you near; He calls you by endearing names, and appeals to a long experience of His grace and love. The past may be full of unfaithfulness on your part, but amid all there shine out God’s acts of mercy. How can you reject the promise built on this experience? Help in the past guarantees help in the future. 2. Help against opposition (Isaiah 41:11-12), and the reason is assigned (Isaiah 41:13). Israel’s enemies will be frustrated. O Christian! what foes can harm you with God for your Almighty Helper? Plied with temptation, oppressed with fears, surrounded with dangers, you can yet say, “None of these things move me.” All the hosts of evil are passing on to confusion, and through them you are marching to victory. Outward losses cannot injure your real life. These onsets of the foe are for the trial of faith (1 Peter 1:7). 3. Help in weakness (Isaiah 41:14-16). The names “worm” and “me” (i.e., mortals) are expressive of weakness and contempt. But how strong does the feeblest and meanest creature become when armed with a Divine commission and supported by Divine help! “With what,” it has been asked, “may this new threshing instrument be armed but the Word of God?” (Hebrews 4:12). If God has a work to do, the unlikeliest instrument can be made sufficient for it. The worm is not the mean, feeble, and useless creature we think it. Darwin has shown us that earth-worms are the plowers of the soil and the producers of mould, thus by their combined labours fructifying the land. As in nature, so in grace (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Jesus became “a worm and no man;” and His people, few and weak, yet armed with His powerful help, go forth to the conquest of the world. Why, then, should you shrink from any mission on which He sends you, and why should you doubt of success? (2 Chronicles 14:11). 4. Help in want (Isaiah 41:17-19). There is spiritual thirst quenched and spiritual refreshment provided. The desert becomes a lake, the wilderness a garden. God opens streams, not only in the valleys, but on the hills; “high places.” This points to something above Nature. The whole description is obviously figurative, representing “comfort and refreshment and the largest spiritual blessings. As before there was an allusion to the call of Abraham and the exodus, so here to the journey through the desert when the rock was smitten. The words may include mercies shown to the exiles on their return; but their chief reference must be to the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and also in times to come” (Birks). Now, what is the intention of this promise of manifold help? “Fear not, be not dismayed,” or, as it has been rendered, “Look not anxiously around you for help.” Rather look up (Psalms 121:2). Vain is the inward look, for we have no help in ourselves; vain is the look around, for no man can redeem his brother; but look up (Psalms 60:11), and listen to the Divine promise.—William Guthrie, M.A.GOD’S FRIEND (A Sermon to the Young.) Isaiah 41:8. Abraham, my friend. God here puts a very great honour him His friend. What greater honour upon His servant Abraham. He calls could there be than this? Notice— I. How ABRAHAM CAME TO BE THE FRIEND OF GOD Suppose you met on the street a poor, ragged boy, you would very likely pity him, and might say, “That poor boy has got a bad home, and he will grow up a bad man, and will have no one to show him how to live an honest life.” If you wished that you and he might become friends, what would be the first thing to do? Would you not have to tell him that you wanted to become his friend? He would no more think of asking you to be his friend than you would think of asking the Queen to be your friend. God wanted Abraham to be His friend, but how was Abraham to know that unless God told him? Abraham was in the midst of men who were worshippers of idols. As the Psalmist says, “They have mouths,” &c. (Psalms 135:16-17). God knew that Abraham would never come to be His friend unless He spoke to him first. (Read Genesis 12:1-3.) II. THE TIME WHEN ABRAHAM BECAME GOD’S FRIEND. It was at a time when God had very few friends in this world. No doubt He had many friends in other worlds, but He had not made many in this. How many had He in the days of Noah? It is possible that He had not even so many in the days of Abraham. There are some parts of the world where you have no friends,—in Patagonia, for instance, where all the people are savages. Some good missionaries went there once, and tried to teach the people about the Saviour; but they would not listen to Christ’s servants, and starved them to death. Suppose one of the wild savages had taken the missionaries’ part and become their friend, do you not think he would have been a brave man? But why do many people in this country dislike good people so much? It is just because they are good. Bad men do not want to be better; they “love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” It is sad to think that even yet God has more enemies than friends in the world; but He has many more friends than in the day when He called Abraham, and told him to go and live amongst His enemies. III. HOW ABRAHAM SHOWED THAT HE WAS A FRIEND OF GOD 1. “He builded an altar to the Lord” (Genesis 12:7-8). He was like a sailor or soldier who is not afraid to carry the Queen’s standard into the midst of her enemies. 2. He always believed what God told him. God promised him a son, and although he had to wait a very long time before he had the son, he never gave up believing in God; he said to himself, “God would never have made me a promise if He did not mean to keep it; I am quite sure He is able to perform His promise, and that He will do so some day.” True friends always believe each other. 3. Abraham always tried to do what God told him. He told him to offer up the beloved son, for whom he had waited so many years. And Abraham showed that he was willing to obey the voice of God. In the end he was taught a great lesson, viz., that God did not approve of human sacrifice—a thing commonly done—and so a ram was provided (Genesis 22.) IV. LESSONS. 1. You can have Abraham’s name. You, too, may be God’s friend. Remember what Jesus said (John 15:14; Mark 3:35). 2. If you wish to have Abraham’s great name, you must often speak to God. The comfort of having friends is that we can talk to them, and tell them our troubles, and find that they share our joys. 3. If you choose God for your friend, you will have made the best possible choice. Whatever other friends you have, accept the loving invitation of your Heavenly Father—let Him be your dearest Friend; become, like Abraham, “the friend of God.”—Sermons for Boys and Girls, pp. 80–87. (A Sermon for Adults.) Much that is honourable is recorded of Abraham in the Holy Scriptures, but nothing equal to this. He was a man of extensive possessions, a venerable patriarch, the founder of two powerful nations, the ancestor of a double race of kings, the father of the faithful, but, as his highest distinction, “he was called the friend of God” (cf. 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23). 1. THE AND CONDUCT OF GOD TOWARDS ABRAHAM He distinguished him as His friend— 1. By His large munificence. It is not perhaps too much to affirm that God gave to Abraham more than He ever gave to any beside. He gave him not only “exceeding great and precious promises,” but the actual fufilment of them in all their variety and extent, either to himself or his posterity. The grant of Jehovah to this patriarch included a son in his old age, and that his descendants should inherit the fertile land of Canaan; that he should become the father of many and mighty nations, and especially that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed. What does He give to others whom He designates His friends? “His own Son,” “all spiritual blessings,” “a heavenly country,” “a crown of glory.” 2. By His intimate communion with him. “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.” In the plains of Mamre, as Abraham sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, the Lord appeared to him in all the condescension of His favour, attended by two celestial messengers in visible form: there He conversed with him, and the communion He maintained was intimate and friendly in an unusual degree (Psalms 25:14; Isaiah 57:15). 3. By His affectionate confidence in him. “Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?” He meditated the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; but how can He conceal the intention from Abraham, His friend? He told him, therefore, of the judgment which He was about to execute on the guilty cities. The sentiment which Amos and our Lord express is remarkable (Amos 3:7; John 15:15). 4. By His sacred fidelity to him. At an early period Jehovah entered into covenant with His servant, as a man covenants with his friend; and He sware unto him because He loved him. He made the most solemn engagements to visit him with favour, and ratified these engagements in the most clear and condescending manner. Were they ever violated? No! As often, therefore, as the appellation “the God of Abraham” occurs, we have a recognition of covenant transactions and an appeal to testimony of inviolable faithfulness. The covenant of God is His solemn promise; and this He hath given not to Abraham only, but to every believer as His “friend” (Hebrews 6:17-18). II. ABRAHAM’S AND CONDUCT TOWARDS GOD. Friendship ought to be mutual. Observe— 1. Abraham’s steady faith in God. “He believed in God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God” (James 2:23). Faith was the grace for which he was most remarkable, and in which he particularly excelled. He is denominated “faithful Abraham,” and the “father of the faithful.” “In hope he believed against hope, and was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” In such degree as we live in the exercise of faith we are entitled to this honourable distinction, “the friends of God.” Faith in God is cordial reliance on His testimony. It is “taking God at His word” (H. E. I. 1877–1881). 2. Abraham’s holy fellowship with God. He was much devoted to God, and enjoyed special nearness to Him. At the time when he removed from place to place, it is remarked that wherever he rested, “there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the Name of the Lord.” We need only to instance his intercession on behalf of Sodom. (Read Genesis 18) Thus let your life be a life of fellowship with Heaven; and the closer this communion is maintained, the higher your enjoyment will rise. Friends love to converse with each other, and do you converse with God. 3. Abraham’s cheerful obedience to God. We have many facts in proof of this assertion. When he “went out not knowing whither he went,” it was in obedience to the command of God. When he manifested such a temper of peace in the separation which occurred between him and Lot, it was in compliance with a heavenly ruling in his heart. But the most prominent act, the noblest proof of the patriarch’s obedience, relates to the sacrifice of his son (Genesis 22:2; Hebrews 11:17-19). Let it be remembered our obedience is the best proof of character, and the surest test of the disposition of the heart (John 15:14). .— 1. Learn the true dignity of man. It is to have fellowship with Heaven and friendship with God; being the “children of God,” &c. 2. Be thankful for the grace which you have found. Once you were “children of wrath,” &c., now friends. 3. Confide more implicitly and affectionately in Him who hath done so much for you. Friends have a mutual interest in what each other is. 4. Enjoy your comforts with grateful satisfaction. What a friend gives us he wishes us to enjoy (H. E. I. 307). 5. Learn to endure trials with calm submission. We can bear that from a friend which we cannot bear from an enemy. 6. Beware you offend not this Friend. “I was wounded in the house of my friends.” The question which Absalom put to Hushai is pointed and appropriate: “Is this thy kindness to thy friend?”—Thornhill Kidd: Village Sermons, pp. 310–318. THE SWEET HARP OF Isaiah 41:10. Fear thou not; for I am with thee. Saul was subject to fits of deep despondency, but when David played on his harp the evil spirit departed, overcome by the subduing melody. The text is such a harp. Its notes quiver to the height of ecstasy, or descend to the hollow bass of the deepest grief. I. NOTE THE TIMES WHEN ITS SWEET STRAINS ARE MOST NEEDED. 1. When we are racked with much physical pain. 2. In our relative sorrows, borne personally by those dear to us. 3. When all the currents of providence run counter to us; when, after taking arms against a sea of troubles, we are being swept down the stream. 4. In the midst of unusual responsibilities, heavy labours, and great enterprises. 5. When one stands alone in the midst of opposition. 6. When we go down to death. Thus all through life the saints march to the music of this harp, as the Israelites set forward to the notes of the silver trumpets. II. HEAR ITS NOTES . Their sweetness melts into each other, but each string may be touched severally and by itself. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee.” What does it mean? 1. I am with thee in deepest sympathy. As Baxter puts it— “Christ leads me through no darker roomsThen He went through before.”2. The Lord is with us in community of interests. God Himself would be dishonoured if true believers should fail. 3. I am with thee in providential aid. We do not believe half enough in the providence of God. Providence is strikingly punctual. 4. God is with us in secret sustaining power. It is said of Christ, “There appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him.” 5. By sensible manifestations of His presence. These are made to the opening spiritual sense. This cannot be described. Who shall describe gleams of the sunlight of Paradise? But we can be as sure of them as we are sure that we are in the body, and see the rays of the sun. In such moments— “Should earth against my soul engage,And hellish darts be hurled,Then I can smile at Satan’s rage,And face a frowning world.”III. MUCH UPON THE OF THOSE NOTES. 1. The comfort of the text excels all other comfort under heaven. God’s “I am with thee” is better than the kindest assurance of the best of friends. 2. There is here all the comfort that heaven itself could afford. We have the chariots of God, which are twenty thousand; but better than that, we have God Himself. 3. Here is something sufficient for all emergencies. In the subsequent part of this chapter we find one engaged in a service, and it is written, “I will strengthen thee,” &c.; then he is engaged in warfare (Isaiah 41:15); then he becomes a traveller (Isaiah 41:17-18); then a husbandman (Isaiah 41:19); so, no matter where we may be, God is with us. 4. Divide the words, and view them separately. I am; here is self-existence, eternity, independence. I AM becomes the friend of His people. Note the tense of it—not I was, not I shall be; but I am. I am—what? I am with thee, who art poor and feeble. IV. THE TEXT NEEDS THAT THE EAR BE TUNED BEFORE ITS MUSIC CAN BE . It is not every one that understands the delights of harmony in ordinary music. You must have faith,—the more faith, the sweeter music. You must believe in a real God—not in a myth; your faith must give you eyes to see God. Such trust is human omnipotence. May God bless us with this faith!—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1867), pp. 385–396. Men are liable to be afraid whenever they find themselves in the midst of perils. They need a prescription against fear, not against feeling. Peril surrounds us like an atmosphere. “Through much tribulation,” of some sort, “we must enter the kingdom” of heaven (John 16:33). The old Stoics believed that man became excellent in proportion as he became hardened. Christianity has no sympathy with this prescription—insensibility to pain or pleasure. I. Some of the things of daily life that man is apt to fear. Take not a human catalogue, but a Divine one (Romans 8:35). We find there the whole list of what man has more or less to go through. (Explain and dwell upon the perils in detail.) II. The basis of our triumphs over every fear is God present with us. To be alone is to aggravate our grief. In every condition God says, “I am with thee.” What is the nature of this presence? It is not God’s essential, but His special presence—cheering, protecting, preserving. Will inspire you with fearlessness. Mark the speciality of it, “I am with thee”—with the individual Christian.—J. Cumming, D.D.: The Daily Life, pp. 335–360. AWAY WITH FEAR Isaiah 41:10. Fear thou not, &c.The later chapters of Isaiah are full of encouragement. Commotions may rend the nations, but God’s people shall abide in safety. Their safety in Him contrasts with the insecurity of those that trusted in idols, the work of their own hands. The Lord, moreover, had especially adopted and chosen Israel. He had called Abraham out of a distant land; had given him importance and influence; had settled the countrv on his posterity; had never cast them off, notwithstanding their frequent deviations from the line of fidelity to Him. In them the prophet sees the representatives of those whom at all times He will distinguish by His special regard. The truth contained in our text is applicable always. It is everlasting truth. It is the Christian antidote to fear. The Christian’s confidence is encouraged; his timidity is deprecated. I. . The encouragement is drawn— 1. From God’s relation to His people. “I am thy God.” Dark is the lot of the man who has no God, who has lost faith. But there are many to whom God is intellectually a truth, to whom, nevertheless, He is not a reality. They live without Him. No praise, no prayer ascends to Him. There is no regard to Him in their daily life. His authority is a dead letter to them. The moral influence of this is perceptible in their indifference to spiritual influences; in the earthliness of their principles; in their low standard of obligation; in their helplessness when overtaken by calamity. In all this the Chiristian possesses an unspeakable advantage. With his faith in God he lives in a higher atmosphere of thought, and feeling, and moral impulse. In the deepest trouble, the fact that he has a God is a stay. For the Christian idea of God is not that of a cold abstraction or an object of awful dread. It is warmed and glorified by the assurance of personal interest. Reconciled to Him by faith in the death of His Son, consecrated by a complete surrender, devoted by a love that takes Him into their inmost heart, they appropriate to themselves all that God is. All His power, and love, and faithfulness is theirs. “I am thy God.” 2. From God’s presence with His people. “I am with thee.” Is He not everywhere? Throughout the universe no place can be found where God is not. By this assurance He means something more than the universally diffused presence of His personality. He is with them in a sense different and peculiar; as a Friend for the purpose of influence, animation, protection. We are morally stronger, happier, better because He is there. We feel that a blessing comes with Him. 3. From God’s promises to His people. How numerous are the promises! God’s Word is like a garden gay with flowers of every beauteous hue, which His children are at liberty to gather freely. We need strength; life’s battle must be fought; life’s work must be done. Sometimes we feel like men who have no power. But, as when we have addressed ourselves to some daily task, our energy was found equal to it, so in the spiritual conflict and work we have found ourselves supplied with energy and power from invisible sources. Was it not God who, according to His promise, invigorated mind and will? Was it not Christ who strengthened us? “I will strengthen thee.” Or suppose the burden has been too great for our unaided strength. One cannot carry the burden, but two may. One cannot accomplish the work, but a number can. One soldier cannot fight the battle, but the army may fight and win. “I will help.” Invisible hands take hold of the labour. Invisible armies range themselves in serried ranks at our side. Angelic hosts come flying down with aid to such as cry to heaven. Or are you sinking down beneath the floods of trouble? All power over yourself has gone. Already you are encircled in the arms of death. Unexpectedly you feel another arm underneath and around you. It lifts you above the wave. It is the everlasting arm. It is the right hand of God’s righteousness. It upholds and sustains you until the peril is overpast. It places your feet on a rock. Such are some of the promises. They are all Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus unto them that believe. In combination with their interest in God and His perpetual presence they are the grounds of their encouragement and the antidote to their fears. II. . “Fear thou not; be not dismayed.” The future is before us; we cannot be indifferent to it. The state of mind deprecated is that which is disturbed and anxious because calamity is apprehended. Dismay looks on every side anxiously, like one who thinks himself pursued. It destroys comfort and energy. The timid soldier is a coward when he should be courageous and brave. Timid Christians, whose faith is feeble, who are the victims of fear must be encouraged by the antidotes to fear that are found in the Divine relation to His people, in the Divine presence, in the precious promises. 1. Do you fear the non-performance of your duties? Such as holy obedience, self-discipline, the consistent walk of a Christian, the Christian work which the Lord calls on you to do. Be clear that it is your duty; that He calls you. And then address yourself boldly to it; not in your own strength, but looking for His help. “I will strengthen. I will help.” 2. Do you fear the power of temptation? Some unknown and undefined temptation in the future, or some known, present, easily besetting sin. Is your face against it? Keep it against it and fight. But seek His strength. 3. Do you fear the approach of trouble? The mysterious future. Some trouble looming. Jesus is near, though you may not perceive Him. As when He walked on the sea. “It is I; be not afraid.” 4. Do you fear the hour of death? It is a dark valley. It is a cold river. You shudder. Jesus removes the fear (Hebrews 2:14-15). Your chariot waits. This antidote to fear is addressed to faith. We are not to look at the seen, but at the unseen. Let fear be dismissed. Let Christian courage triumph.—J. Rawlinson.There is here strikingly brought before us the superiority of the religious man over the worldling. But even he is subject to fear. Idolatry and superstition have easily gained a footing in man’s heart in all times. On account of these God’s people were about to be sent into captivity. The prophet is stirred up to cheer the faithful among them. Discrimination is the soul of instruction. There is an outward literal idolatry, and there is an inward spiritual idolatry. The text comes to cheer those amongst us who are determined to stand out against the latter, to which the temptation is as strong as ever. How are we to stand? I. LOOK AT SOME OF THE REASONS WHY GOD’S HAVE TO FEAR. 1. Our own nature is our enemy. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit.” But is not the believer’s nature a changed one? The believer is regenerated; but to grow from childhood to the manhood of faith implies vast experience. That experience declares that whilst we are justified through the righteousness of Christ, sanctification is a gradual work. There is the Christ aspect and the man aspect of this question. He who knows well what this means does not wonder that the Apostle feared lest he should be “a castaway” (H. E. I. 1053–1062). 2. The world is our enemy. To make the world subserve our highest interests is a lesson beyond the alphabet of the Christian life. The young Christian is exposed to fear of the world’s ridicule and opposition. 3. There is also the great enemy. In seeking to fulfil life’s duties, you will find this enemy, as Jesus did in the wilderness (1 Peter 5:8; H. E. I. 1666–1674). 4. The thought of fear. The very thought of it; the possibility of it (Jeremiah 12:5). II. REGARD THE OF THE TEXT. 1. The first encouragement is found in the Divine presence: “I am with thee.” The first disciples had confidence and courage in Christ’s presence (John 14.) The soldiers of Napoleon felt no fear in his presence; but cried, “Long live the Emperor! lead us, and we go to victory or death.” The believer should dismiss his fears when he hears the Eternal say, “I am with thee.” 2. Here is the most endearing relationship in the universe. “Be not dismayed; for I am thy God.” Supreme and blessed assurance is found in being able to say, “My Lord and my God!” One of the finest things after affliction is to find strength returning and weakness departing. The downcast may know gladness and gratitude as they hear God saying, “I will strengthen thee.” 3. Here is a recognition of our need. “I will help thee.” This implies that we are known to be carrying a burden too heavy for us. We are tired; but there is a Traveller by our side, who seeks to help us. 4. He offers effectual support: “Yea, I will uphold with the right hand of My righteousness.” The burden-bearer is ready to fall by not allowing the Lord to take his heavy load; but the Lord is saying to him, “I will uphold thee.” Of what sort is this upholding? There is no left-hand work with God; no sinister work; it is all right-hand work. All that it brings is “righteousness.” To appreciate this encouragement is to know that there is none like it. Carry the lesson to your own blessed experience. Fear not; care not for the world’s scorn or the world’s smile. Remember there is one thing needful, and hold it fast.—A. Morton Brown, D.D.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. pp. 353–355. To whom are these words spoken? for we must not steal from God’s Scripture any more than from man’s treasury. We have no more right to take a promise to ourselves that does not belong to us than we have to take another man’s purse. They were spoken— 1. To God’s chosen ones (Isaiah 41:8). 2. To those whom God has called (Isaiah 41:9), effectually, personally called, as Mary was when Jesus said unto her, “Mary,” and that gracious voice thrilled through her soul, and she responded to Him and said to Him, “Master!” 3. They are God’s servants (Isaiah 41:8), doing not their will, but His will. 4. They are those whom He has not rejected from His service, in spite of the imperfections of which they are penitently conscious (Isaiah 41:9). To these every honey-dropping word of this text belongs. I. A VERY COMMON DISEASE OF GOOD MEN—FEAR. 1. This disease came into man’s heart with sin. Adam never was afraid of God till he had broken His commands, but then (Genesis 3:8). It is consciousness of sin that “makes cowards of us all.” Sin is the mother of the fear which hath torment. 2. Fear continues in good men because sin continues in them. If they had attained to perfect love, it would cast out fear. But this is not their blessedness yet, and they are often cast down (H. E. I. 1051–1062). 3. Fear coming in by sin, and being sustained by sin, readily finds food upon which it may live. When the believer looks within, he sees abundant reasons for fear. Grace is there, but fear is blind to the better nature, and fixes its gaze upon that which is carnal (H. E. I. 2680, 4470–4474). 4. If fear finds food within, it also very readily finds food without. Sometimes it is poverty, or sickness, or the recollection of the past, or dread of the future. Desponding people can find reasons for fear where no fear is. They have a little trouble-factory in their hearts, and they sit down and use their imaginations to meditate terror. 5. In certain instances the habit of fearing has reached a monstrous growth. Some think it a right thing to be always fearing, and are half suspicious of a man who has strong faith. They even call assurance “presumption.” Shun the unbelief that apes humility, and seek after that unstaggering faith in the naked promise of a faithful God which is the truest meekness in His sight. I would not blame all who are much given to fear, for in some it is rather their disease than their sin, and more their misfortune than their fault. In God’s family there are some who are constitutionally weak, and will probably never outgrow that weakness until they have entered into rest. I would give them just enough of the tonic of censure to make them feel that it is not right to be unbelieving, but I would not censure their despondency so much as to make them think they are not God’s children. 6. Even the strongest of God’s servants are sometimes the subjects of fear. His mightiest heroes sometimes have their fainting-fits. Elijah (1 Kings 19:4). II. GOD’S COMMAND AGAINST FEAR. “Fear thou not; be not dismayed.” That precept is absolute and unqualified; we are not to fear at all. Why? 1. Because it is sinful. It almost always results from unbelief, the sin of sins. Unbelief takes away the very Godhead from God; for if He be not true, if He be not fit to be believed, He is not God. 2. It feeds sin. The man who believes in God will fight with any temptation, but the man who does not believe in Him is ready to fall into any snare (H. E. I. 1920–1922). He who cannot trust God in times of difficulty soon begins to trust in the devil, and to adopt some of his expedients for relief; and he who trusts the devil soon finds himself in the snare. 3. It injures yourself. Nothing can weaken you so much or make you so unhappy as to be distrusting (H. E. I. 2050–2054). 4. Fear weakens the believer’s influence, and so causes mischief to others. Converts are not brought to Christ through unbelieving Christians. It is faith that wins souls (H. E. I. 1090). For your own sake, for your neighbour’s sake, fear not, neither be dismayed! III. THE WHICH GOD GIVES TO PREVENT FEAR AND DISMAY. 1. Many a man fears because he is afraid of loneliness. More or less we must be alone in the service of God—in suffering—in old age—or in a strange land. But, believer, you are not alone, because God is with you. Omnipotence will be with you to be your strength, omniscience to be your wisdom, immutability to be your succour, all the attributes of God to be your treasury. “Fear thou not, for I am with thee” (P. D. 3145). 2. Men fear they may lose all they have in the world, and they know very well that if they lose their property they usually lose their friends (H. E. I. 23, 24, 2151–2159). But here the second promise comes in, “Be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” Jonah’s gourd was withered, but Jonah’s God was not. Your goods may go, but your God will not; and having Him, you may laugh at penury and distress, for you shall lack no good thing (Psalms 84:11-12). 3. Fear sometimes arises from a sense of personal weakness. “I have a battle to fight, and I am very weak; I have a work to do for God before I die, and I have not sufficient power to perform it.” But here comes in the next word of the text: “I will strengthen thee.” God can, if He wills it, put Samson’s strength into an infant’s arm. Transfer the figure to spiritual strength. The strength we need for our work does not lie in us, or it would be all over with us. It comes from God, and He will give it. Preacher, Sunday-school teacher, look up to Him and take courage. There was a bush in the wilderness, and it was nothing to look at—nothing but a bush; but oh! how it glowed with splendour when God came into it; it burned with fire, and yet “was not consumed.” God can come into you, and can make you blaze with glory like the bush in Horeb. 4. Some fear that friendly succour will fail. A fear apt to trouble those who have large purposes of benevolence towards their fellow-men. The cooperation of others seems necessary to their accomplishment, and in the critical moment they may fall away. But let them note this word: “I will help thee.” [1348] If the work on which we have set our heart is God’s work, He will send to our aid all the succour we need. [1348] You know what a grand matter is God’s help. A minister was one day bringing his books upstairs into another room, for he was going to have his study on the first floor instead of downstairs, and his little boy wanted to help father carry some of the books. “Now,” said the father, “I knew he could not do it, but as he wanted to be doing something, to please him and to do him good by encouraging his industry, I told him he might take a book and carry it up.” So away he went, and picked out one of the biggest volumes—Caryl on Job or Poli Synopsis, I should think—and when he had climbed a step or two up the stairs, down he sat and began to cry. He could not manage to carry his big book any further; he was disappointed and unhappy. How did the matter end? Why, the father had to go to the rescue, and carry both the great book and the little man. So, when the Lord gives us a work to do, we are glad to do it, but our strength is not equal to the work, and then we sit down and cry, and it comes to this, that our blessed Father carries the work and carries the little man too, and then it is all done, and done gloriously. It is a simple illustration, but may it comfort some desponding heart. “Yea, I will help thee.”—Spurgeon.5. Many a child of God is afflicted with a fear that he shall one day, in some unguarded moment, bring dishonour upon the cross of Christ. This is a very natural fear, and in some respects a very proper fear. But grasp this precious word: “I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The self-same hand that spans both sea and shore bears up the unpillared arch of heaven and holds the stars in their place. Can it not bear you up? Oh, rest upon it, and you shall not be cast down! (H. E. I. 2363–2373, 2791). Here you have angels’ food; nay, the very bread of life itself lies in these choice words. The only fear I have is lest you should miss them through unbelief. Go home, and take this text with you in the hand of faith. It shall prove to you like the widow’s barrel of meal and cruse of oil.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 930. I. There are fears which rise in the heart at the thought of God. Let a man confront himself even in imagination with Jehovah, and the first and strongest emotion within him is terror. We have all trembled when in darkness and solitude we have thought of God (Job 4:13-17). An horror of great darkness creeps over us when first the truth takes possession of us that we shall stand naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The root of all this is our guilt. We have broken God’s law, and however we may forget that at other times, it is the first thing we remember when we feel that God is near, so that if we could, we would flee from His presence. How many illustrations of this we have in the Scriptures! (Genesis 3:8; Exodus 20:19; Judges 13:20; Isaiah 6:5; Luke 2:9; Luke 5:8). Whenever in our own case anything occurs which seems to us to belong to that mystic borderland between the visible and the unseen, we have the same spirit-shudder, which must be traced to the same cause. The mercury becomes peculiarly sensitive when the thunder-cloud is overhead; the needle is most restless when some magnetic substance is near; and so when conscience, by reason of any occurrence in providence, feels God to be close at hand, it becomes most active and fills the soul with alarm. There are few who would not quake with fear if they could be compelled to think for but one short hour on God, judgment, and eternity. Now see how the Gospel meets this dread with its benignant “fear not.” In all the cases in the Bible in which God is represented as coming to talk with men, He begins with these words, “Fear not.” He thereby says, in effect, that we have a wrong idea concerning Him when we think of Him with terror. We regard Him as an enemy, whereas He is our best friend. We run away from Him, when, if we really knew Him, we should betake ourselves to Him in the sure confidence that He will receive us. You ask me how I know all this. I point in answer to the cross of Christ, whereon our innocent Substitute gave Himself up to death for us, that we might be righteously forgiven. That cross, with all its mysterious accompaniments, was God’s great “Fear not!” spoken to the trembling heart of humanity. It is the declaration of His love to thee. Take hold of that, and thy fear will give place to gratitude, as His forgiveness comes into thy soul (H. E. I. 2233–2236, 2319–2321). II. There are fears which arise in the heart as we think of our fellowmen. We have been often hampered in our discharge of duty by our regard to those who are around us (Proverbs 29:25). There is a course of conduct which we clearly see that it is our duty to take, but if we follow it we shall forfeit the friendship of many whose esteem we have been accustomed to value, and so we pause and try to compromise with conscience. Or we are afraid of the opposition of our fellows, and so we are brought to a halt. We have many such cases described in Scripture. Abraham lying to preserve his life; Aaron making the golden calf to save himself from being stoned; Saul sinning because he feared the people and obeyed their voice; Herod beheading John the Baptist for his oath’s sake and the sake of them that were with him; Peter vacillating at Antioch when he saw those who had come from Jerusalem. And we have been ourselves too often in the same condemnation. Now see how the Gospel comes to us with its “Fear not” for this ensnaring trepidation. It assures us that God is on our side. It declares that He will never leave us nor forsake us. It does not declare, indeed, that we shall have exemption from suffering, but that we shall be upheld under it, and supported through it, and be at length more than conquerors. To die is oftentimes to conquer. Who was the real victor on Calvary? Was it not He who bowed His head and said, “It is finished”? Who was the conqueror when the proto-martyr “Heeded not reviling tones,Nor sold his heart to idle moans,Though cursed and scorned and bruised with stones?”This “Fear not “does not guarantee immunity from trouble, but it is God’s word of reassurance whispered into the ears of His tempted, tried, and sometimes weak and irresolute people; and when it is heard in faith, the timid one becomes courageous, and takes his place among the heroes of humanity. See the efficacy of this sovereign antidote to the fear of men on those valiant youths who stood before the monarch of Babylon (Daniel 3:16-18). Behold its power in the conduct of the Apostles when they stood before the Council (Acts 5:29). Behold its success in the aged Palissy, when the French monarch said to him in his cell in the Bastile, “Palissy, if you do not recant, I shall be forced to give you up.” And he replied, “Forced, sire; this is not to speak like a king; but they who force you cannot force me. I can die.” And what met the need of these great sufferers is surely sufficient to meet ours. Oh, ye timid ones, who are terrified by the men around you, hear a few reassuring words from God (Deuteronomy 20:3-4; Nehemiah 1:8; Isaiah 41:14-15, and also Isaiah 41:10). There are multitudes of promises of this same character, and if we would but keep hold of them, no mortal influence would ever be able to move us from our purpose, and no storm of temptation would ever drive us from our anchorage. The Lord is on thy side, therefore go forward undauntedly, for He will make rough places smooth, and crooked things straight before thee (Revelation 2:10). III. There are fears which spring up in the heart at the thought of the future. We know not what a day may bring forth, and whenever we permit ourselves to think of what may come upon us, except when we do so in the light of the Gospel, we become despondent and afraid. In all there is some anxiety. In some it may have regard to temporal concerns. In others it may respect their spiritual safety. In others it may centre in their children. In others, still, it may relate to the time and manner of their death. In many more it may be the future of the spirit-world that puts fear into their souls, and the thought of judgment and eternity may ride like a nightmare over their troubled breasts. Each has his own dread, but see how, with its consoling “Fear not,” the Gospel hushes the heart of each to peace, even as a mother calms her troubled infant into quietness (Matthew 6:25-34). In so far as the future of this world is concerned Jesus says, “Take no anxious thought for it.” Learn a lesson here from the great German reformer, who, in a time of terrible perplexity and with a troubled heart, looked out into the twilight, and saw a bird hop into the shade of a thick tree. It stayed a few minutes on its first perch to sing its even-song, and then leaping upon a higher branch, it placed its head below its wing and went to sleep. “Happy little bird,” said Luther; “he sings his song and goes to sleep, and lets God think for him; and I will do the same.” Or is it your spiritual safety that disturbs you? Then hear what Jesus says (John 10:27-29). Or are you anxious for your children? Then the promise is unto you and to your children; and if you will only do your present duty by them, and commit them in earnest prayer to God, all will yet be well with them. Or is it death you fear? Then for that there is a special assurance in these words addressed to the Patmos seer (Revelation 1:18): “Fear not; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of Hades and of death.” Yes! at the girdle of the Son of man hang the keys of Hades and of death. The door for your departure will not open until He unlock it; and when He opens it, He will be there Himself to greet you. Why then be afraid? (H. E. I. 1634, 1642, 1643). Then as to judgment and eternity, why should we fear for them except for sin? and has not Jesus appeared already to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? So we come back to the great centre of the Gospel, the atoning death of Christ, through faith in which alone we shall have boldness in the day of judgment, and happiness throughout eternity. What has the Christian to fear from a Judge who is at the same time his Redeemer? And if Christ be with us through eternity, that is all we need.—W. M. Taylor, D.D.Fear is very prevalent among Christian people, and is productive of very disastrous results. It seems to be the natural temperament of some and the easy habit of others. In the pious soul a more improper mental attitude could scarce be indulged; for of all men the Christian has the least to fear, as no ultimate injury can come to him, even though apparent dangers threaten him. I. THE OF FEAR. Sometimes occasioned by— 1. The circumstances of the Christian life (Matthew 14:30). Fear is often awakened by life’s physical necessities, by its secular conditions, by its intellectual anxieties, and by its moral inability to achieve duty in its highest method. 2. The phenomena of the material universe (Mark 4:40). Man feels his weakness when brought into contact with the unyielding powers of nature; they heed not his cries, they care not for his rebuke. They are destructive. Man trembles before them. He fears lest they should lead him to the grave, or do him bodily harm. Such phenomena ought not to render timid the Christian heart, as the elements of nature are ruled by the Father’s hand. 3. The phenomena of the spirit-world. Sometimes men imagine that they see visitants from the other world of being; and these, coming in strange garb, with mysterious tidings and ghastly appearance, inspire the human heart with fear. Such timidity is a folly. Heaven has better missions for the immortal good than to send them to frighten the inhabitants of the earth; and hell takes better care of its unhappy crowd than to allow them a momentary release. Such visitations are imaginary. Only the superstitious are troubled with them. 4. Manifestations of the Divine presence (Luke 5:8; Revelation 1:17). The soul of man is too weak and sinful to bear without fear the near and the immediate approach of God. II. THE OF FEAR. It often causes men— 1. To sink into the troubles of life (Matthew 14:31). Fear always makes men sink in their own estimation as valorous; in the estimation of others as cowards; and often into sore perplexities of circumstances. 2. To be anxious without true occasion. God’s ancient people—the disciples. Fear always makes men over-anxious, and makes them imagine danger when there is none. It makes them timorous in every enterprise, even though they have a refuge in the event of peril. 3. To be unfit for the duties intrusted to them (Revelation 1:19). It is not probable that a timid Christian will be very efficient in the public duties of life. III. THE CURE OF FEAR. Fear not? Fear will be cured by— 1. A thorough reliance on the providence of God. 2. A complete knowledge of Christ (Revelation 1:17-18). The more we know of Christ in His offices and attributes, His holy sympathy with men, the less will be our fear. 3. A holy mastery over self, obtained by a consciousness of moral purity. A strong soul, well ruled by the will, will not often be timid, especially if it can fall back upon a pure inner life. Sin is the largest cause of fear. LESSONS.— 1. To trust God. 2. To know Christ. 3. To rule self.—J. S. Exell: The Study, Third Series, p. 576. THE BEST HELPER (Sermon for the Young.) Isaiah 41:10. I will help thee. Two persons are spoken of here: I and thee. “I,” the person speaking, is Jesus, our God and Saviour; and “thee,” the person spoken to, means everybody who needs His help and seeks it. In this passage, then, Jesus is presented to our notice as a Helper. We may have many helpers, but Jesus is the best. There are four reasons why Jesus is the best Helper. He is so— I. Because He is always near to help. If we were hungry, it would not help us to know that a hundred miles off there was a nice loaf of bread. If we were travelling in the desert of Arabia, would it help us any to remember that in England there were many cool and sparkling springs of water? God is always near when people are in trouble. He always could help them if He saw it best. But sometimes He sees good reasons for not helping those who are in need. E.g., there are the wicked men nailing Jesus to the cross. He is God’s own dear Son. God loves Him as no other father ever loved a son. God is near. He sees all His sufferings. The angels of heaven see them. Multitudes of them would fly in an instant to His relief, if God would let them. But no! And why was this? Ah! there was reason enough for it. If Jesus had not died, none of us would have been saved. And just so in every case; there is always a good reason for it, although we cannot always tell what the reason is. II. Because He is always able to help. Sometimes there are many helpers, and they are near at hand, but they are not able to help. We read a great deal in the Bible about those whom Jesus has helped. There we find how He helped Abel when he offered an acceptable sacrifice to God. He helped Noah to build the ark which saved himself and his family. He helped Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He helped David to slay the great giant with nothing in his hand but a sling and a stone. He helped Daniel when he was cast into the lions’ den. He helped Daniel’s three friends when they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. He helped Paul to preach the Gospel; and, in the days of cruel persecution, He helped the “noble army of martyrs” to bear with patience the chain and the dungeon; yea, and even to sing for joy when the flames were kindling around them and the fire consuming their bodies. Rich men can help us with their money, wise men with their counsels, and Christians with their prayers; but Jesus can help us in everything. He can help you in studying your lessons and in all your daily duties. He can help kings and governors to rule and subjects to obey. He can help ministers to preach and people to hear. He can help parents and children, teachers and scholars. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ strengthening (or helping) me:” and we may say and do the same, if we look to Him for His help. III. Because He is always willing to help. We read in the Bible about the rich man and Lazarus: the rich man was able to help, but he was not willing. Jesus is always willing; He may not send the help just in the way we wish, but, in one way or other, He is sure to send it. He tells us that He is more willing to help those who come to Him than parents are to give bread to their children. IV. Because He is always kind in helping. There are some people who are willing and able to help others, and who do help them too, but it is done in a rough manner. On one occasion, while Jesus was on earth, the Pharisees brought to Him a woman who had been guilty of a great sin. They wanted Him to say that she ought to be stoned to death. Jesus said, “Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone at her.” Their consciences smote them, and they went out one by one. And He said unto her, “Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.” In that dark hour, near the Crucifixion, He took His disciples into the garden of Gethsemane, and asked them to watch while He went on to pray. When He returned, He found them sleeping, and all He said was, “What! could ye not watch with me one hour?” He tells us that He “will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax.” He compares Himself to a good shepherd, “who carries the lambs in his bosom.” If any came to Him for instruction, He taught them kindly; if any with troubles and afflictions, He sympathised with them and helped them. He gave health to the sick—sight to the blind—strength to the feeble—comfort to the sorrowing—life to the dead. And what He gave was always given with kind, gentle, loving words. And even when reproof and rebuke were necessary, “the law of kindness still dwelt upon His tongue.” And He is the same now; always near to help, always able, always willing, and always kind in helping.—Richard Newton, D.D.: Best Things, pp. 147–160. COURAGE—ITS SOURCE AND Isaiah 41:13. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, &c.These words were spoken to the Jews in an age of national peril and dismay; they had slowly been losing their ancient strength through a spirit of indifference, and at length the alarm had come that awoke them from their dream. The Assyrian invasion had paralysed them with fear; no sooner had they been saved from it than the prophet was commissioned to announce an invasion from Babylon that would carry them into a strange land. Then it was that Isaiah proclaimed the source of courage, the power of which he himself had proved. The Jews might seem as nothing before the great surrounding nations; but the Lord was at their side; His voice was in their midst, crying, “Fear not; I will help thee.” The words which give us the secret of the old Hebrew courage reveal the source of the courage we need as Christians. The notion, indeed, has gone forth that the ancient fortitude has no place in the life of the Christian,—it has declined before the gentler graces of spiritual life; but if this means that the Christian is to be only a loving, and not a righteous man, then the teaching of Christ Himself contradicts it. Not only so, but the gentler graces demand as much fortitude of soul as the stronger and sterner virtues; and, above all, steadfast obedience to God amid sorrows, and temptations, and failures, requires a courage more deep and real than that of the Jewish warrior. Our subject is—Courage, its source and necessity.I. ITS SOURCE. What a broad sense of the Divine presence and aid in the figure: “I will hold thy right hand!” The grasp of the hand is significant of close and present friendship; and that sense of God’s presence—so near that our faith can touch His hand and hear the deep still music of His voice—realised as it may be in Christ, is the source of a courage which nothing can shake. Take the higher forms of courage seen among men, and it will be seen how this belief creates at once that state in which courage rises, and in which it attains its highest power. We may pass by animal courage—the bravery of instinct or temperament—as not proceeding from any principle, and so totally unlike courage of soul. The higher and true form of courage is of two kinds:— 1. The courage of active resistance. Its great element is found in the fixed survey of the means of conquest; fear rises from the contemplation of difficulties—courage from the perception of the thing to be done. There is always a lion in the path of a man who expects to find one. Intense concentration on the means of action creates the courage that actively resists danger. This is especially true of spiritual courage. It is by the aid of God that we conquer in spiritual battle; and while our gaze is fixed on that, fear vanishes; with the sense of omnipotence grasping and cheering his spirit, a man can defy the world, and death, and hell to make him turn aside from the path of Divine duty (H. E. I. 1911–1919). 2. The courage needful for passive endurance. It is harder of attainment; for while there is anything to be done, we find relief in action; but when we can only be still and endure, then it is supremely difficult to resist the assaults of cowardice. The great feature of this aspect of spiritual courage is self-surrender to the highest law of life; but if we could hear God’s voice, amid the dismay and darkness, proclaiming “All is well,” should we not be trustful, courageous, and strong? II. ITS . It is essential to Christian life for three reasons:— 1. It requires courage to manifest the Christian character before men (H. E. I. 1042–1046). Regarding the two sides of that character as seen in Christ—the strong and the tender, the severely true and the forbearing, sympathising, forgiving—we feel the incompleteness of any other character, and both of these aspects demand courage for their manifestation. What can give us courage to do the right regardless of consequences but the grasp of God’s hand and the sound of His voice? 2. It requires courage to maintain steadfast obedience to the will of God. Christian life is more than visible Christ-like character; it means Christ-like obedience amid the inner and unseen temptations of the soul. Every man has his own cross to bear. 3. It demands courage to hold fast to our highest aspirations. As Christian men, we are bound to aim at being our highest and best. The revelations of our aspirations must become our practical ideals; if we do not strive to realise them, we shall degenerate. If we would gain the far-off summits, we must keep our eye fixed on the gleaming heights. And can anything give us power and courage to do so but the knowledge that the Everlasting arms are round about us, and the voice of the Eternal cheering us onward? And here, as in all the storm and strife of our earthly pilgrimage, we are simply driven to the man Christ Jesus. He knows our weakness, and left us the legacy of everlasting power when He said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”—E. L. Hull, B.A.: Sermons, Third Series, pp. 157–167. THE WORM AND THE Isaiah 41:14-15. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, &c.Though I have read to you only these verses, the treasury of truth upon which I intend to draw now is the whole paragraph in which they occur (Isaiah 41:10-16). In it the prophet comforts the Church by the promises wherewith he had been comforted by God. Before the captivity of God’s people commences, he furnishes them with that which will cheer them while it lasts. In his prophetic vision he sees them in a prostrate and most depressed condition—like a worm trodden under foot in Babylon. But he puts before them the support of their expiring hope, in the assurance of God’s favour. His argument is, that He who redeemed their fathers from Egyptian slavery would redeem them from Chaldean bondage. Mighty as their oppressors were, let them not fear; fast as their chains were riveted, let them not be dismayed; weak and defenceless as they were, let them not despair; for though the mountain threatened to crush the worm, the worm should be strengthened to thresh the mountain. The truths and promises in this paragraph are the heritage of God’s people in all ages, and on them they may, and should, lay hold in every season of threatening and trouble. I. A VERY UNEQUAL CONTEST. The worm is called upon to thresh the mountain! Yea, not one mountain only, but many of them—“mountains.” A hopeless encounter, a mad attempt! But the suggestions of sense and the reasonings of faith are widely different; “to do the greatest things and to suffer the hardest is all one to true faith.” We may apply this representation variously— 1. To the efforts needful to establish the kingdom of God in the world. The agency intrusted with the task often seems altogether inadequate. Was it not so when Moses stood before Pharaoh, and when the power and despotism of ancient Egypt seemed ready to destroy the infant Church; when Elijah stood on Carmel, all the power of Ahab and Jezebel, their court, and the priests of Baal against him—one man against a world in arms; when the first disciples went forth to proclaim a crucified Saviour, with all the power of Judaism and all the arms and wealth of the ancient Roman empire against them; when Luther, a poor monk, challenged the Vatican, and stood solitary before the emperor and cardinals, saying, “Here stand I alone for the truth; God help me!” In each case, who would not have expected that the mountain would crush the worm? But in each case the worm prevailed. If we look at the obstacles still in the way—Heathenism, Mahometanism, Popery, Infidelity, and all the forms of vice—they seem most formidable; but the “worm” shall thresh all the mountains! The corn of the Jews was threshed by drawing over it a sharp instrument—a cart with wheels encircled with iron spikes, thus cutting the straw very small, while the corn escaped through interstices left for the purpose. As complete shall be the breaking down of all the obstacles to the Saviour’s glory by the Christian Church, weak as she is in herself. 2. To the cares and calamities of life. We are here in a state of exile, like that of the Jews in Babylon; and we often need encouragement. The frequent repetition of the charge, “Fear not,” implies that there is much to fear. The greatness of the consolation offered proves the greatness of the impending danger. Fear is incident to our nature, for we are weak creatures; to our character, for we are guilty creatures; to our condition and circumstances, for we are the suffering inhabitants of a guilty world. And though it is true that our hopes are greater than our fears, it is equally true that our faith is never so firm as not to be exposed to waverings, and our hope is never so strong as to be altogether above distrust. The path to heaven lies through an enemy’s country; it is strait, narrow, and intricate; there are many turnings, windings, and bypaths in which pilgrims may be drawn aside, and, like Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, we are not always favoured with daylight. We pursue it beset by trials and afflictions, and we are often confronted by mountains of care and sorrow, of disappointment and danger. But we need not fear any of them. The worm shall thresh the mountains. See also another great promise in which great perils are implied (Isaiah 43:2). 3. To the Christian conflict—the struggle which the Christian has to sustain against the evil of his own heart, the seductive influences of the world, and the artifices and wiles of the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12; H. E. I. 1059–1062). II. AN PROMISE. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob. True, thou art a worm—weak and low in thine own eyes, small and contemptible in the eyes of others; but thou shalt be strengthened for the warfare and successful in the conflict; for I, the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, engage myself on thy side, and will be answerable for the result.” In view of this promise there can be no doubt that grace, though weak, shall be victorious. Great consolation is to be derived— 1. From the near relation which God sustains to His people. “Thy Redeemer,” &c. 2. From the perpetual presence of God with His Church. “I will hold thee,” &c. 3. From the manner in which He adapts the instrumentality He employs to the end He proposes. “I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” 4. From the way in which He identifies His glory with our success. In order to enjoy the consolation of this promise— 1. There must be in us a well-founded hope of acceptance and reconciliation with God. 2. We must seek to possess the character to which this and all such promises are made. 3. We must be much in the exercise of that faith which honours God in all His attributes. 4. We must cultivate the expectation of nothing less than final triumph for the cause of God, and for the individual believer, the recipient of His mercy. The history of the past proves that this expectation is reasonable. How often the worm has threshed the mountain! The captives were delivered from their captivity. The Apostles triumphed over the Roman empire. Luther and his associates did accomplish the Reformation. That which has been is that which shall be; in the future there will be still greater victories for the Church of God.—Samuel Thodey.CHEER FOR THE CHURCH OF GOD Isaiah 41:14-16. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, &c.The first reference of these words may be to the dejected feeling of the Jews in the captivity of Babylon, and they were recorded in order to encourage them in their low condition; but to understand them as referring only to the temporal state of the Jews in Babylon and their deliverance from their captivity would be nothing better than to reduce this sublime inspired record to the level of the writings of Josephus or any other uninspired Jewish historian. The chief and the ultimate reference of the words is evidently to the condition of the spiritual Church in the various ages of the world. Taking the verses in this sense, we are led to consider— I. THE OF THE CHURCH. “Thou worm Jacob.” A worm is a weak and despised thing. 1. The Church of God in itself is weak and helpless. Its most useful and godly members have described themselves as “worms” (Psalms 22:6). It has generally been made up of such persons as the world looked upon with contempt (1 Corinthians 1:26-28.) 2. It has always been despised by the ungodly. The apostles of Christ were regarded by the world as “the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things,” and eminently godly people have been treated thus in every age. II. THE OF THE CHURCH. The weak and despised worm is to be converted into “a new, sharp, threshing instrument having teeth.” The Orientals used to thresh their corn with heavy rollers with sharp iron teeth, which separated the corn from the ears, and cut the straw to be fodder for the cattle. The Church is compared here to such a powerful machine. 1. The holiness of God’s people makes them strong and effective to do good (Matthew 5:16; Philippians 2:15). 2. Their activity and devotedness make them like sharp threshing instruments. 3. Their prayers also have in all ages produced wonderful effects. III. THE OF THE CHURCH. “Thou shalt thresh the mountains,” &c. By the mountains and the hills we are to understand the sinful habits of mankind, such as their commercial frauds, their warlike dispositions, their drunkenness, their lasciviousness, &c., and all the false religions which prevail throughout the world. All these formidable obstructions are to be removed through the instrumentality of God’s people. IV. THE JOY OF THE CHURCH. “Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord,” when all the mountains and the hills shall be removed and made as chaff. 1. The temporal condition of the world will be happy and glorious. 2. Its spiritual condition will be heavenly. It will then be the days of heaven upon earth. 3. And the Church will attribute all the glory to the Holy One of Israel, and not to itself.—Thomas Rees, D.D.Supposed to be an interval of twelve or fourteen years between the first part of the book and that part beginning at chap. 40. The prophet is fast growing an old man. In mind he throws himself into the future, and places himself in the midst of the Jews in Babylon. He supposes their captivity to be nearing its end; but, to the heart yearning so painfully after Jerusalem, it seems without termination. To cheer them, this and the preceding chapter ring with rallying-cries, repeated again and again: “Fear not;” “Be not dismayed.” The text is a remarkable assurance that though their difficulties be as “mountains,” Jacob should rise and “beat them small.” I. GOD’S OWN OF THE OF HIS PEOPLE. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob and ye men of Israel,” or “few men of Israel.” It is His epithet, as well as flung at them by their conquerors; but it is not used in their spirit. It is only when the insect of a man struggles defiantly against his Maker that God says in ineffable contempt, “Let the potsherds,” &c. This is a pitiful remembrance of their weakness. Illustrates His infinite condescension. In deigning to ally Himself to men, in inviting us to share His thoughts and counsels, He has not overrated the worth of the creature He receives to such high dignity. Marvellous that He who has in His majesty and glory from everlasting stood alone, and must be for ever the solitary God, without an equal in His universe, welcomes to His heart those who are impotent as a “worm” (Job 25:5-6). II. GOD’S OF THE HUGE IN THE WAY OF HIS PEOPLE. He speaks of them as “mountains,” “hills.” Babylon, with its strong walls, vast army, the desert reaching away weary miles between His people and their country; all is gauged exactly. For them to try and overcome would be like a worm attempting to attack the mountains. III. THE “WORM” AS THE “ ”. “Thou shalt thresh the mountains,” &c. In the previous chapter God is represented leading His people in their victorious march through the wilderness. A way was to be prepared that He might march right royally before His people (Isaiah 40:3-5). See the instance of Semiramis on her march to Ecbatanæ. Behold the worm attempting the impossible and accomplishing it! The handful of Israelites were omnipotent with Jehovah at their back. Invested with God’s strength, the “worm” should conquer all difficulties. The main idea is the completeness of the conquest of hindrances. No words better convey a conception of the thoroughness with which the work should be done: “Mountains threshed small” and “hills made as chaff.” 1. The application of this promise to the followers of Christ personally. The Christian is to be a “mountain thresher” in his own heart and life. “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” 2. Its application to Christian labour in general. This promise is the inspiration of the Church in what the world deems idiotic tasks affecting the conversion of the heathen. Sin is not always to be the “mountain.” “A new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness” are to arise. You cannot crush goodness out of the world now. (See the failure of Julian, Voltaire, and others.) 3. The application of this promise to any particular neighbourhood. God is jealous of the mountain Sin rising everywhere. If there is any piety in any given locality, though it is as insignificant as a “worm,” it is strong enough with God to save that neighbourhood.—S. Shrimpton. FOR THE Isaiah 41:17. When the poor and needy seek water, &c.I. IN WHAT GOD HERE TO HELP HIS PEOPLE. 1. In case of outward want. This is a trying exercise to many, though little understood by those who have all things richly to enjoy. It is compared to an armed man carrying tribulation and terror in his looks (Proverbs 6:11). The body is an essential part of our constitution, and hath wants of its own, numerous and urgent, and to have little or nothing to answer its cravings in a severe trial. But God can easily help us in such a trial, and out of it. Examples: Hagar (Genesis 21:15-19); the widow (1 Kings 17:12-16). There is no exigency of man beyond the power of God. Though creature succours fail, and all the cisterns of earth should be dried up, there is enough in God to support our faith (Habakkuk 3:17-18). 2. In case of inward trouble and distress from sin. This is still more grievous and insupportable. Though most men think that if they had nothing but sin to trouble them they could be happy, some know that one sin set home upon the conscience by the Spirit of God is a terrible experience (Psalms 38:3-4; H. E. I. 1334–1341). But when the poor soul is ready to give up all for God, God comes to His relief (Psalms 31:22). In the Gospel He has provided a sovereign cure for the wounded spirit (Psalms 130:3-5). 3. In the case of approaching death. A trial from which there, is no escape. Is often very terrible. Yet even here God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. By His presence He not only reconciles us to dying, but makes us wish for it, makes us smile at it, makes us triumph over it (1 Corinthians 15:57). Though death be a king with respect to us, he is but God’s servant, and entirely at His command; he comes to us only when and as God pleases. And God knows how to support and comfort while His servant is taking down the earthly house of flesh (H. E. I. 1642, 1643). I have witnessed only these three cases, but you may apply it to every distress. Whenever the poor and needy cry for help, God engages to hear them. In their misery there is a silent and affecting voice which hath great power with God, and poverty venting itself in prayer hath an amazing force (Psalms 106:44). II. WHY HE HAS MADE THIS PROMISE. 1. For the glory of His own perfections (Psalms 7:15). It is for the honour of His wisdom that He knows how to bring help when the skill and contrivance of all His creatures is nonplussed; of His power, that He is able to deliver the godly out of temptation when the ability of second causes cannot accomplish it; of His mercy and free grace, to afford help when the poor creature is in the worst and least deserving condition. Should God favour us only when we are in prosperity, and there is no difficulty in the way, His hand would not be so visible, nor His perfections so glorious; but to help the poor and needy, and that, too, in their greatest straits and necessities, declares His superlative goodness and excellency, that He can and will do what none else can. He therefore chooses such seemingly desperate cases to appear in, for the manifestation of His own glory (Deuteronomy 32:36-39). 2. Because of the special relation God has to the poor and needy. They that are most neglected and forsaken by men are nearest to God and more particularly taken care of (Psalms 68:5). “The poor committeth himself to Thee” (Psalms 10:14). But will He stand to their choice and act for them? Yes (Psalms 12:5). Which of you, being a father retaining the affections of a parent, if you saw a child in distress, would sit by and take no notice of it? Would you go out of the room and think no more about it? No! You would rather seem fonder of that child than of all the rest, and be more tender of it than ever. So will your Heavenly Father have a special regard to His poor and needy children when they seek water and there is none (Isaiah 63:8-9). III. WHAT WE ARE TO DO WITH THIS PROMISE. 1. Let us praise God for making it to us. What amazing condescension that there should ever be any such thing as a promise from God to His creatures! Will earthly kings thus voluntarily bring themselves under obligation to their subjects? But with a kindness and generosity peculiar to Himself, God makes a covenant with His people, by which He binds Himself in the most solemn manner to be a Father to them, that is, to be watchful and tender to them, and keep them from all evil, and to withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly. 2. In the time of affliction let us plead this promise in prayer, for that is the surest and speediest way of procuring relief. It may be the design of God, in blasting earthly comforts, to drive us to our knees. By bringing us into trouble, and showing us the insufficiency of creatures to help us, He may intend to lead our thoughts up to Himself, the fountain of living waters (Psalms 142:4-5; H. E. I. 69). 3. However great and prolonged our affliction may be, let us not look upon this promise with doubt or distrust. It is God’s promise; and having passed His word, we must be infidels if we doubt the performance (Numbers 23:19). To doubt the accomplishment of anything He hath engaged for were to question His wisdom in promising what He had not properly considered; or His love, as if He would not be as good as His word; or His power, as if He had promised more than He was able to perform. An affront this which even a man who values his character would highly resent. Let us take care, then, how we offer it to God.—Samuel Lavington: Sermons, Supplementary Volume, pp. 414–432. In its primary sense, the text is an encouragement to the Jews to trust in God; in its spiritual meaning it extends to the Church of God in all ages. It describes— I. A CASE. 1. The people of God are often in a low and afflicted state. All men, if they knew it, are poor and needy; but very many think themselves “rich and increased with goods.” “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up.” Soul and goods; as if the soul had tongue and teeth! God’s people feel their poverty and need. 2. They strive after holiness and comfort. Water, as cleansing and refreshing, may be understood to mean holiness and comfort. They long to be delivered from the body of sin and death; they desire to walk in the light of God’s countenance. They try hard for these; but, 3. They often seem to labour in vain; they “seek water, and find none.” They strive for victory, but the conflict remains; deadness and darkness return upon them. 4. They become dejected; “their tongue faileth,” &c. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” They turn faint, like disappointed travellers on the outlook for water; they begin to lose confidence in God (Psalms 42:1-3; Psalms 42:9; Psalms 88:14). II. FITTING . 1. In the words used about God. God is “the Lord,” i.e., JEHOVAH, the Eternal, Immutable, “will hear them;” He is “the God of Israel, ELOHIM, the Mighty One, with whom nothing is impossible. 2. In the promises made. “I will hear.” Let them be encouraged to continue in prayer. “I will not forsake them.” Have courage, then, fainting soul! 3. Those who continue trusting shall certainly be consoled (Isaiah 41:18; Psalms 34:6; Psalms 30:8-11). .— 1. Most men know but little of spiritual troubles. These are not to be envied. Let them seek to know their spiritual wants and obey Christ’s gracious invitation (John 7:37-38; Revelation 22:17). 2. Let those who are fainting under their troubles believe that none ever waited upon God in vain. From these promises, as from wells of salvation, you may draw water with joy (Psalms 36:8; Psalms 16:11).—C. Simeon, M.A.: Skeletons, pp. 318–321). The poor and needy must ever command the sympathy of those more favourably situated. They will probably never cease to exist. The text primarily encourages the captive Jews in Babylon. But it also represents all human need and Divine help. I. THE . “The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth them for thirst.” It is the dryness of the sandy desert which produces distressing thirst. The traveller seeks water in vain. His throat becomes dry; his tongue is disinclined to speech; he sees only a miserable death before him. It is a picture of suffering, destitution, and necessity. The distress may arise from external causes, as bodily disease or pecuniary privation. Or it may be entirely in the mind. All suffering is really there. It is a matter of personal consciousness. The onlooker may see no adequate cause. Yet the sufferer feels. You look at the outside of a splendid house, and it seems to you that no deep sorrow can be there. Yet within there may be anxieties and cares which make the owner indifferent to his splendid surroundings; and in many cases there is biting poverty and want which cannot be revealed. The temptations of such a time are serious (Job 1:9; Job 2:9). 1. Impatience. The sufferer does not readily submit to his impoverishment. His spirit may be that which says, “Not Thy will, but mine be done,” rather than the Saviour’s prayer in Gethsemane. 2. Complaining. When privation presses we are tempted to assume that we are wiser than our Father, and therefore to withdraw our trust and criticise His plans. 3. Despair. And when faith and hope are displaced by despair, there will be prayerlessness. We shall ask, “What profit shall we have if we pray unto Him?” There will be sinfulness. Many plunge into sin to rid themselves of care. There will be recklessness. The temptation is to say, “Things cannot be worse, and can never be better, therefore we may as well lie down and discontinue effort.” Some imagine they escape by terminating their lives. II. THE CRY. Better than yielding to such temptation is to cry to the Lord when poverty and sorrow appear. It is here supposed that God’s people do so. It is their privilege and duty to lay all their sorrows before Him and to leave them with Him, as children entirely dependent on their fathers (H. E. I. 176–178). III. THE PROMISE. Two things are promised. 1. Divine attentiveness. He is not unmindful, even though He may seem so. He listens for and listens to the cry of distress. “I, the Lord, will hear them.” He heard Hagar in the wilderness (Genesis 21:17). He heard Israel in Egypt (Exodus 3:7). He heard Hezekiah when he spread forth Sennacherib’s letter, and when he was sick. He is the hearer of prayer. Thousands of testimonies to this. Your own experience attests it. Can you not say with the Psalmist (Psalms 116:1-5)? 2. Divine helpfulness. “I, the God of Jacob, will not forsake them” (Hebrews 13:5-6). Sad indeed to be forsaken by a friend when trouble and poverty come. God does not forsake. His love is a guarantee. He is the God of Israel. He is our Father in Christ. He is interested in us. His faithfulness is a guarantee. He has bound Himself by the word of promise. Contrary to His nature to fail. His power is a guarantee. “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” Unbelief says it is impossible to overcome this difficulty. But He provided manna in the wilderness and brought water out of the smitten rock. Often by the most unlikely means and in the most unlikely places (Isaiah 41:18). “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” IV. OF THIS PROMISE. 1. There may be some one here who is passing through a season of affliction. God’s children sometimes seem to suffer more than others. You need a message that may help to lift up your drooping spirit. Satan may be pressing his advantage through the depression your trouble has caused. Listen to the declaration of the text. Fall back on the simple representations of the Bible. Repair more confidently to the Lord for help. 2. There may be some one to whom this subject applies as to his spiritual impoverishment and necessity. You have recently discovered that you are spiritually poor. Like a merchant who has imagined that he was accumulating a princely fortune, but who makes the discovery that he is insolvent, you have found out that you are a ruined sinner. But you are not content to perish. Your tongue faileth for thirst. You desire salvation. Now, the Lord pities you in your low estate. He has opened a fountain in the wilderness. Jesus died. In His perfect righteousness, His atoning blood, and His quickening Spirit there is all you need. If you seek your restoration in Him, you cannot be disappointed. If your soul is impoverished, go to His fulness. He invites you. His compassionate love ever looks down on weary and footsore and thirsty travellers in the wilderness of this world, with infinite readiness to supply their wants (Isaiah 55:1-2; Revelation 22:17).—J. Rawlinson.GOD’S PROMISE TO THE POOR AND NEEDY Isaiah 41:17-18. When the poor and needy seek water, &c.In Isaiah 41:8 the Lord is declaring the relation in which He stands to His people Israel, and then He proceeds to encourage His people in the prospect of trial and difficulty by an assurance of His presence to strengthen and support them (Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 41:14-15). The Lord’s people are in themselves but feeble; but in the power of God they shall triumph over their most formidable enemies; as a consequence of their triumph, they shall “rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel.” Then follows the encouraging language of the text. Consider— I. WHO ARE MEANT BY THE “POOR AND NEEDY.” Not those who are poor and needy in a temporal sense, but in a spiritual,—those who feel themselves to be so in a spiritual sense. 1. The life of the Christian may be compared to a waste and barren wilderness leading from this world to that which is to come. In their journey, the Lord’s people often feel themselves to be “poor and needy,” without the cheering presence of their God, destitute of the usual manifestations of His love and the consolations of His Spirit. Water is an emblem frequently employed in Scripture to represent Divine influences, which refresh, gladden, and cleanse the soul, as water does the body. The children of God are sometimes reduced to straits; they seek water, and there is none, and “their tongue faileth for thirst.” They realise the feeling of David (Psalms 42:1-2). 2. The Lord’s believing people may be represented as “poor and needy” when they are anxiously desirous of larger measures of grace and knowledge, increasing holiness and spirituality of mind, more complete superiority to the world with the affections and lusts of the flesh, and a growing conformity to the precepts of the Gospel. Here is the difference between nominal and real Christianity, between the religion of form and outward appearance, and the religion of power and inward experience; between a dead and a living faith. It is impossible to stand still in religion. II. THE PROMISE IN THE TEXT. The Lord assures His people that they shall not be disappointed in the objects of their desire: in their extremity of distress, and when they are almost without hope, He will hear their cry. 1. Prayer, that is, the earnest expression of the desires of the heart, shall never be offered up in vain. He can and will do for His own “far more abundantly than they can either ask or think.” 2. He is represented as the “God of Israel.” Israel was taken into covenant relationship with Him; and on condition of their obedience, He engaged to favour them with His constant presence, to preserve them in danger, to protect them from their enemies, and at length to put them in full and undisputed possession of the earthly Canaan. And so it is with the spiritual Israel of God. They stand in covenant relationship with Him as their “reconciled Father in Christ Jesus.” III. WHAT THERE IS HERE TO PRAYER! God is a God of faithfulness and truth; He will not turn a deaf ear to the supplications of His obedient people (Psalms 50:15; Matthew 7:7). The history of the saints in all ages will bear testimony to the truth of that Scripture, “He giveth power to the faint,” &c. (Isaiah 40:29; Isaiah 40:31). Prayer to God, therefore, is, under all circumtances, a great and solemn duty (Luke 18:1; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). .— 1. To the unconcerned about the blesssings of salvation. (1.) Men can be active enough in the prosecution of their worldly schemes of gain, honour, or advantage; they will take any trouble and submit to any sacrifice; but it is usually quite otherwise in the vastly important business of religion; here all is coldness, apathy, and indifference. But “I say unto you, labour not for the meat which perisheth,” &c. (Matthew 6:33; Mark 8:36; Luke 10:42; Acts 3:19). (2.) Ignorance of spiritual troubles and necessities is by no means desirable. The pathway to Zion is not always cheered by the sunshine of hope and joy; cloud and tempest will sometimes rest upon it (Acts 14:22). If real religion has its peculiar joys, it is not without its peculiar sorrows. 2. To those who are fainting for want of Divine consolations. Remember, and take encouragement from the thought, that “all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus” (Hebrews 10:23; Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 49:15-16).—Charles Rawlings, B.A.: The Pulpit, vol. xlix. pp. 181–184. The redemption of our souls is precious; it originated alike in our extreme misery and in God’s great mercy (Isaiah 59:16). But even the people of God are often reduced to dreadful straits. The ultimate perfection of their natures and the unbounded felicity of their future state are the objects of their firm and delightful hope; but the same Book which reveals what is laid up for them teaches them to expect various troubles and trials by the way (Acts 14:22). Yet under all their troubles they shall be well supported; all their wants well supplied. Isaiah received a commission to minister to the consolation of the saints (Isaiah 40:1). The text alone is sufficient to elevate the souls of true believers with good hope and everlasting consolation. I. THE ACCOUNT HERE GIVEN OF THOSE TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE. 1. Their exigencies are very great. They are poor and needy, and even in want of water. Many of the saints of God have been literally poor. Even when the Lord had brought the seed of Jacob where, generally speaking, “there was no lack of anything,” it was still His sovereign pleasure that, in the midst of abundance, some should be in want (Deuteronomy 15:11). During the captivity in Babylon the number of such persons must have greatly increased. Under the Christian dispensation, poverty has ever been the lot of many who are dear in God’s sight (James 2:5; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29; Luke 4:18; Luke 7:22; Mark 12:37, &c.) All the “rich in faith” are still, in one sense, poor, because completely dependent. Knowing and feeling this, they are “poor in spirit.” Unlike the self-righteous Laodiceans, who boasted of being “rich,” they are ever ready to acknowledge that they are in themselves “wretched and miserable and poor,” &c. (Revelation 3:17). To begin with, they found themselves in want of the most essential spiritual blessings; and afterwards, in proportion as they even partially forsook “the fountain of living waters,” their spiritual necessities became great. 2. Their consequent sufferings are very distressing. The evils of extreme poverty are great, though God supports His people under them, and gives the sanctified use of them. The people of God are not unfrequently subjected to the severest troubles of a temporal kind (Hebrews 11:37-38; Hebrews 12:6; Hebrews 12:11). 3. They earnestly desire and endeavour to obtain relief. They seek water; they cry to the Lord to give it. They who will not work when it is necessary cannot expect to eat when their wants are great. Spiritual supplies are, in every sense, the gift of God; but they are promised only to such as earnestly desire and diligently seek them from Him (chap. Isaiah 55:1-3). The case, indeed, appears pitiable, when bread and water are sought and there is none; but faith is only thus put to the test. God has pledged His faithfulness for your ultimate success. II. THE PROMISE GIVEN FOR THEIR . “I, the Lord,” &c. What is the import of this promise? It implies— 1. Great compassion and kindness on the part of the Promise-maker. How tender are His words! Truly in Him compassions flow (Exodus 34:6; Jeremiah 31:20; Hosea 11:8-9). Not only does He forbear to destroy His people, but He returns to pardon their sins and to load them with benefits (Isaiah 66:9; 1 John 4:10; Romans 8:32). 2. That the prayers of God’s people are heard and accepted. “I, the Lord, will hear” (cf. chap. Isaiah 66:2). One of His names is the Hearer of prayer (Psalms 65:2); all who seek shall find (Isaiah 45:19); as certainly as they pray shall they be heard (Isaiah 58:9); He Says yet more (Isaiah 65:24). 3. That all their wants shall be supplied. What else can be meant by the promise, “I the Lord will hear”? (Psalms 107:6; Psalms 37:19; John 14:13; Philippians 4:19). Can anything be too hard for the Lord? He is the God of Israel, who has pledged Himself, both by His covenanted love and faithfulness greatly to bless His people (1 John 3:1; Hebrews 10:23; 1 Samuel 15:29). 4. That the Lord will be immutably gracious to His people. “I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them” (1 Samuel 12:22; Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 42:16). .— 1. Let not the people of God be discouraged and impatient, though their circumstances be low and their distresses great. 2. Let all their trust be in the Lord (Isaiah 26:4). 3. Let them distinguish themselves as a praying people (Psalms 62:8; John 6:68). 4. Let them walk worthy of His kindness (1 Corinthians 15:58). 5. Let sinners see their misery and their hope (Isaiah 29:8; Revelation 22:17).—Adam Thompson, D.D.: Outlines, pp. 214–220. THE SERVANT OF THE LORD Isaiah 42:1-11. Behold My servant, &c.It is difficult for us who have history, with all its definiteness, to realise the inestimable value of prophecy, notwithstanding its vagueness, to God’s ancient people. But try to put yourself in their place. It was very difficult for them to be God’s people, because it is difficult always to be loyal to an unpopular and apparently hopeless cause. How small was the true Israel! a little speck of light surrounded by a vast continent of darkness. The thought that that darkness would ever be dispelled seemed a vain dream. Besides, there was the terribly depressing influence of the apparent failure of all previous efforts to dispel it. The Law appeared to have been given in vain, kings and prophets raised up to no purpose. In spite of all that the most faithful of them had accomplished, the vast mass even of the chosen people were given over to iniquity, and over all the other nations there brooded gross darkness, the very shadow of death. Idolatry with all its abominations prevailed the whole world over. How, then, could any man reasonably hope that the earth should ever be “full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”? It was contrary to reason to cherish this hope; but yet God’s little band of faithful people did cherish it. In this they were mightily helped by prophecy. The confident assurances of the prophets enabled them to look beyond the things that were seen and temporal, to those that were unseen but eternal. So they walked by faith, not by sight, and rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. Chief among the predictions that were thus helpful to them was that of a Messiah—an Anointed One—who should triumphantly accomplish all the purposes of God in regard to this earth. In this particular prophecy He was held up before them as the “Servant” of God. This was a phrase with which they were familiar. By other discourses of Isaiah, they had been taught to regard themselves—their nation—as called to be the servant of God—the instrumentality by which the knowledge of God was to be diffused throughout the earth and men everywhere won to His service (Isaiah 41:8-9). This was in accordance with the terms of the covenant into which God had originally entered with them (Exodus 19:6). A glorious calling, but how poorly had they responded to it! But now they were taught to look for One who should be all that they ought to have been, and accomplish all that they ought to have accomplished. This prediction they would study with minutest care, and as they did so they would think much and often of such points as these:— I. THE OF THIS “SERVANT OF GOD.”. This much would be clear to them— 1. That His character would be more than blameless; that all conceivable moral and spiritual excellences would meet in it. “In whom My soul delighteth” 2. That He would be unostentatious, thus differing wonderfully from all earthly conquerors (Isaiah 42:2). 3. That He would be gentle (Isaiah 42:3). 4. Yet that this gentleness would not arise from weakness. He Himself would never be broken nor extinguished; over all opposition He would triumph. We, who have history to guide us, know how wonderfully all these predictions have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. II. HIS MISSION. 1. He was to be the maker of a new covenant with God’s ancient people (Isaiah 42:6), that “new covenant” of which other prophets wrote and spoke (Jeremiah 31:31-34). 2. He was to be “a light of the Gentiles.” He was to dispel the darkness that brooded over them by bringing “judgment,” i.e., true religion, to them. The effects of the accomplishment of His mission are set forth in beautiful figures in Isaiah 42:7. How blessed and glorious the task assigned to this Servant of the Lord! III. THE MANNER IN WHICH HE WOULD IT. His conquests were not to be accomplished as earthly conquests had been. 1. His progress was not to be violent or clamorous (Isaiah 42:2). He was to conquer by simply doing what was right and speaking what was true (Matthew 13:14-21; John 18:36-37). The kingdom of God cannot be extended by legal enactments or force of arms. 2. His triumphs were to be advanced by strengthening what was bruised and fainting. Here history comes to the help of the students of prophecy; it is by His gentle treatment of His feeble followers that our Lord has made them strong, and so made His Church a power in the earth (H. E. I. 951; P.D. 474). 3. His triumphs were to be secured by unwearied perseverance (Isaiah 42:4). IV. THE THAT IN THIS MISSION HE WOULD SUCCEED. 1. He would not undertake it in His own strength (Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 42:6). 2. He who had called Him to it was no other than the Almighty (Isaiah 42:5). 3. The mission which He had undertaken was one that this Almighty Creator could not fail to sympathise with (Isaiah 42:8). V. THE REASON WHY THEY SHOULD TRUST IN THIS GLOWING (Isaiah 42:9). This promise was made by Him who had fulfilled His former promises: in this He would not fail. These were the hopes and expectations which sustained God’s ancient people, and we may derive comfort from them to-day. Christ’s triumphs are incomplete. Much remains to be accomplished; so much, that we sometimes doubt whether it can be accomplished. But these doubts are condemned— 1. by history; 2. by God’s Word. The kingdoms of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ—M. N.I. THE PERSON HERE TO. “The Servant of the Lord.” Who is intended by that phrase? Some have answered, Cyrus, because there is an undeniable reference to him in the beginning of the 41st chapter, where he is spoken of as “the righteous man from the east.” But the allusion cannot be to Cyrus here, for he was far from answering to the description given in Isaiah 42:2-3 : his sternness and severity are inconsistent with tenderness. Others allege that the prophet means himself. But how was “he a light to lighten the Gentiles”? And may we not presume that the phrase here designates the same person as in the other places in which it is employed, in many of which it is clearly impossible to hold that it describes Isaiah? Others think that it means Israel; but this servant was to be given “for a covenant of the people,” and, therefore, he must be distinct from the people. In a sense, indeed, the true spiritual Israel are one with Jesus, and they may be regarded as identified. This is the view of Alexander. But even in this view the passage must be taken first of Him, and is true of them only through their union to Him. So we adopt the view that this passage is purely Messianic,—a view which is adopted even by some eminent Jewish interpreters, and which has the sanction of Mat 12:17-21. When, therefore, the question is put, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this—of himself, or of some other man?” we answer without any hesitation, of Jesus who is called Christ. II. THE HERE GIVEN OF HIM. This is comprised in Isaiah 42:1-4. He is the beloved and the chosen of God, and to this prediction corresponds the declaration at the baptism of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He is endued with the Spirit of God, and to this answers the descent of the Holy Ghost on Jesus as He came up from Jordan (Acts 10:38). It is added, “He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles,” which means that He should set up or establish His religion among the Gentiles, and for that the way was prepared in His death and resurrection, and by His great commission to His followers. But the most interesting part of this description is that which follows, and which brings out the humility and tenderness of Jesus (Isaiah 42:2). There was nothing of the love of ostentation about Him. Unlike the Pharisees of His time. When they did anything they supposed to be meritorious, they sounded a trumpet before them. He left His works to speak for themselves. Nay, even sometimes, when He saw that they were not moved by a proper spirit, He forbade those who had been benefited by His miracles from blazing abroad a report concerning them. He said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.” And the whole system of getting up attractions of a factitious character to herald the preaching of the Gospel is out of harmony with His spirit and example. If crowds came after Him, that was an effect of something they had seen in Him, or received from Him. They were not collected by any flourish of trumpets which He caused to be sounded before Him. Few things in these days would do more good in the Churches than the study and imitation of this feature of the Redeemer’s character. Akin to this humility is the tenderness here described. How beautiful the words, “A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench!” In the shepherd’s pipe, if a reed be bruised it gives forth a false note, and the player forthwith takes it out, breaks it, and throws it away. In the lamp, if the wick has gone out it emits an evil odour, and the attendant utterly extinguishes it. But not so with Jesus. That which others would reject as useless, He will endeavour to save (P. D. 475). He will receive even the outcasts, whom the world itself would throw away, and make of them trophies of His grace. We see this illustrated in the Gospel: in His treatment of the most degraded class of sinners (Luke 7:36-50; John 8:1-11; John 4:7-28). In His reception of those who came inquiringly to Him (John 3:1-17; Mark 10:17-22; Mark 12:28-34). In His dealings with the weak in faith (Mark 5:25-34); and in His reception of the backsliding, of which the case of Peter is a conspicuous illustration. Isaiah 42:4 is a prediction of the universal diffusion of the Gospel which yet awaits its complete fulfilment. Meanwhile, as Christ does not fail and is not discouraged by the delay, why should we? III. THE HERE GIVEN HIM. This commission is issued by the Lord God (Isaiah 42:5). Behold the monotheism which so distinguished the literature of Judaism from that of other systems! This Jehovah has called Messiah “in righteousness,” or for a righteous purpose, or in such a way as shall at once manifest and promote righteousness. And the ultimate design is to fulfil His covenant with His people and bless the Gentiles. In doing that He will, by His Spirit, enlighten men in the knowledge of things concerning which they were formerly in the dark, and give them a nobler liberty than they had ever enjoyed, namely, freedom from the slavery of sin. And the result of all this would be an advancement of happiness, so that the people should sing a new song unto the Lord, and His praise should fill the earth. Could anything better describe the effect of the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles at the first, or the results which follow, even in our days, the labours of faithful missionaries among the heathen? LESSONS.— 1. If Christ needed the Spirit of the Lord upon Him, how much more do we? Let us supplicate God to put His Spirit upon us, that we may do His work in His way, and with the greatest possible success. 2. If Christ does not manifest ostentation, why should we? He who seeks to make himself or any particular feature of his own character prominent, thereby proves that he has not the Spirit of Christ. The wish to make a sensation is one thing; the desire to serve our generation by the will of God is quite another. 3. If Christ, who is all purity, could be gentle with the erring, why should not we? He did not sin, and, therefore, made no demand upon the charity of others; but we are always needing that others shall be tender with us; and, therefore, we ought to be all the more gentle with others. “Forget not thou hast often sinned,And sinful yet must be;Deal gently with the erring one,As thy God hath dealt with thee.”—W. M. Taylor, D.D. THE ONENESS OF GOD IN AND IN NATURE Isaiah 42:5-6. Thus saith God the Lord, &c.Isaiah 42:5 is a description of God; Isaiah 42:6, a declaration of His purposes. The sentiment is that the God of nature is the God also of redemption. Assuming the truth of the identity of the Author of nature with the God of revelation, consider certain lessons which follow as corollaries from it:— I. That religious investigation should be characterised by the spirit of docile inquiry. Want of humility vitiates the methods by which men form their religious opinions. In science, it is settled that docility of inquiry is the one spirit which can lead to scientific discovery; in religion many feel at liberty to create their opinions. Especially is the faith which men think they derive from revelation often formed arrogantly. We bring to it a burden of habits of mind, of purposes of life, of usages in society, of the demands of science, the necessities of philosophy, and of authorities in theology. Pursuing our researches thus, we do not discover our facts; we make them (H. E. I. 558, 559). What is the reception which the civilised world now gives to the old astronomy of the Ptolemies, which mapped out the heavens like a Chinese atlas? The truth which we infer as indisputable from the fact of the oneness of the God of nature with the God of revelation is that the disclosures of God in the one should be received in the same spirit as the disclosures of God in the other. II. That in revealed theology will be found a definite and positive system of truth. Side by side with Christian dogmatism there grows up a Christianised scepticism within the range of Scriptural thought. On the one hand, it is claimed that a revelation shall teach this; and on the other, that this revelation, properly speaking, can teach nothing. We begin with inquiry, we end with inquiry. It is refreshing to turn to the confidence with which, in the natural sciences, men express their convictions. How courageous is the etymology of the very word “science!” It is power, because it is knowledge. It even believes that it knows things which are not demonstrable. But our God is one God. We must look for a theology which is a system, not of inquiries, but of answers. We must presume, especially, that in the Book of God we shall come upon certain verities which shall be patent to unperverted inquiry. We do not so much find them as they find us. They come home to the heart of a child as readily as to that of a sage, just as the facts of nature do. Moreover, we must presume that these Scriptures contain a theology that can be positively preached. It must be free from self-contradictions, as other sciences are, so that an athletic faith can use it. It must be such as can show its strength in its methods of working; such as can penetrate and agitate and instrumentally regenerate souls. III. That the facts of these two departments of God’s working will never contradict each other. The trial which Christianity has undergone from its imagined conflict with the discoveries of science has now a history. The history of science confirms the faith which we should cherish, that there is a oneness of God in revelation and in nature. Science itself has established it as an axiom that there are no insulated departments of inquiry. When men think they discover in nature something antagonistic to revelation, we may safely reply, as did the three men at the mouth of the furnace, “We are not careful to answer thee,” &c. (Daniel 3:16-17). IV. That we should expect to find the revealed government of God to be a system characterised by sacredness and uniformity of law. In the natural world we find no such thing as caprice. Disease, even, has laws which are as beautiful in their operation as the laws of health. Law in nature,—Decree in religion. The two revolve around each other like twin stars; both are developments of one truth—that God acts by plan, and not by caprice (Matthew 10:29-30). V. That from the unity of God in nature and in revelation we have reason to expect the occurrence of mysteries in a revealed theology. Science, in the world of matter, is thwarted in all its investigations, sooner or later, by insoluble mysteries; and just so, and no otherwise, is it with certain problems in religion. Nor is it any more marvellous that revealed theology does not solve such problems in the one realm of thought, than that natural science does not in the other. Is the connection of the race with Adam one of the hard sayings of a revealed theology? But is it more easy of solution that the vices of a father become a poison in the veins of his children and children’s children? VI. That from the oneness of God in nature and revelation we may infer a confirmation of our faith in the certainty of this world’s conversion to Christianity. The creation of this world and its redemption are, in a truthful sense, parallel acts of omnipotence. It is as certain that the one will occur as that the other has occurred. The necessity of law in nature,—the certainty of law in redemption. The heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water; He turneth it whithersoever He will. Who has not observed the profusion with which the natural world is made emblematic, in the prophetic Scriptures, of the final triumphs of the Gospel? (chap. Isaiah 55:10-11; Isaiah 60:21; Psalms 72:16; Isaiah 35:2; Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 66:12; Isaiah 11:9; Psalms 72:7; Psalms 72:17; Isaiah 60:6-7; Isaiah 11:6-8). The mountains, &c., become not only the emblems, but the pledges of the mighty works which He will do for man’s recovery.—Austin Phelps, D.D.: Exegete and Homiletic Monthly, vol. i. pp. 281–292. CALLED IN Isaiah 42:5-8. Thus saith God the Lord, &c.Some of the most wonderful words ever uttered. It is God speaking to His own Son. It is as if we were secretly admitted into the counsel of God. I. God provided the Saviour. “I have called Thee in righteousness”—I have asked Thee to do this work of righteousness; to work out this salvation, which shall show me to be a righteous God. God did, as it were, look round all the creatures to see whom He would call to this great work. But He chose His Son. None other could be a sufficient Saviour. II. God upheld the Saviour. “I will hold,” &c. The figure seems taken from a father and his little child. When God called His Son to the work it could not but be a fearful work in His eyes. God here comforts His Son under the view. Learn— (1.) How dreadful the sufferings of Christ were. (2.) The greatness of your sins. (3.) God’s great hand in Christ’s work. III. God gave Christ for a covenant. Gave Him away to be a covenant Saviour to the people and a light to lighten the Gentiles. The Son was infinitely dear to the Father. Sinners were infinitely vile in the sight of the Father. Yet, “I will give Thee!” Learn— (1.) The intense love of God for sinners. (2.) That God must have the glory of their redemption. IV. God gave Christ for a light. 1. By nature men have blind eyes. 2. Are bound in prison. 3. Sit in a dark prison-house. A change comes through the gift of God. .—Has Christ been made to rise upon your soul? Plead with God to fulfil His word.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: additional Remains, pp. 61, &c. THE OF GRACE IN CHRIST Isaiah 42:6. I will give Thee for a covenant of the people. These words are repeated by the prophet (Isaiah 49:8). There are three things which have affinity one to another, and yet differ one from another—a purpose, a promise, a covenant. A purpose differs from a promise and a covenant, in that it lays no obligation upon a man. A promise lays an obligation upon him who makes it. There is in every covenant a mutual promise and stipulation between the parties covenanting, whereby they are equally bound each to other in certain articles and agreements consented to by both. Consider, then— I. WHAT IS HERE MEANT. There are covenants between men and men. Abimelech and Abraham made a covenant (Genesis 21:32); Jacob and Laban (Genesis 31:44). Such are called civil covenants. There are also religious covenants, of which two have become famous. One of these was made in the state of man’s innocency (Genesis 2:16-17). In this, God promised to Adam, for himself and his posterity, life and happiness, upon the condition of perfect and perpetual obedience. This is called the covenant of works. The other was made after the Fall (Genesis 3:15); it was renewed with Abraham (Genesis 12:3), and with Isaac (Genesis 26:4), and with Jacob (Genesis 28:14). In this covenant eternal life is promised to man upon the condition of faith in Christ. The apostle calls it “the law of faith” (Romans 3:27). It is of this the text speaks. Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, had nothing to do in the first. It was fœdus amicitiæ. God and Adam were perfect friends when it was made. That of which Christ is Mediator was made to bring man to life and salvation, after his sinful violation of the first covenant. II. WHO THIS PEOPLE IS TO WHOM CHRIST IS GIVEN AS A . By “the people” we are to understand the people of Israel. These are principally mentioned for three reasons. 1—Because Christ, according to His human nature, descended from them (Romans 1:3; Isaiah 11:1). 2. Because this covenant of grace was first made with them (Romans 9:4). 3. Because when Christ should come in the flesh, this covenant was first to be pressed upon them (Matthew 10:5-6; Matthew 15:24). Still, the promise of Christ to Abraham extends to the elect of all nations (Genesis 12:3). III. IN WHAT CHRIST IS CALLED A OF THE PEOPLE. 1. He is the Head of the covenant. Adam was the head of the covenant of works; Christ, the second Adam, is the Head of the covenant of grace. He is caput electionis; and He is caput fœderis, in whom all the elect are fœderati, entered into covenant with God. Fallen man was unmeet to enter into covenant immediately with the holy God. All the promises of God are in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). 2. He is the Purchaser and Procurer of the covenant. We read of the “blood of the testament” (Hebrews 9:20; Isaiah 53:10). 3. He is the Sum and Substance of the covenant. Take Christ out of it, and it will be but an empty thing; He is its Alpha and its Omega, its very pith and kernel. 4. He is the Messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1). He published it of old by the prophets (1 Peter 1:11), and alterwards in His own person (Ephesians 2:17); when He was ascended, by the apostles (Mark 16:15); and still by the ministry instituted by Him to continue to the end of the world (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). 5. He is the Surety of the covenant (Hebrews 7:22). He undertakes on God’s part that all that He hath promised shall be made good to the believer. (1.) By His Word (John 5:24). (2.) By the shedding of His blood. His blood was poured out to ratify the covenant. (3.) By the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. One end of these is to confirm the covenant; they are both outward seals of the covenant. (4.) By His Spirit. The Spirit is a sealing as well as a sanctifying Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12). And Christ is a Surety on our part. He undertakes that we shall close with the covenant, and that we shall walk according to it (Ephesians 4:11-13; 2 Corinthians 4:13; Romans 1:4). .— 1. The whole business of our salvation centres in Christ Jesus. Who can express the strong, rich comfort which springs out of this to all that have an interest in Christ? 2. Let the unbeliever be warned that the covenant of peace is built on Christ. He that hath not Christ hath not the covenant; out of Christ, out of the covenant (Ephesians 2:12).—Ralph Robinson: Sermons, pp. 462–479. He who is promised as the chief matter, the mediator, surety, scope of the covenant, is by a metonymy called “the covenant.” “I will give Thee for a covenant;” that is, I covenant to give Thee to the people. Jesus is granted in the covenant to bring us to God. To which blessed and glorious purposes He is exhibited— I. AS THE LIGHT OF LIFE (Luke 2:32; John 1:4; John 8:12). There is a light that serves to kill and destroy, to bring death and condemnation to light: the light of the law, that killing letter concerning which the apostle says (Romans 7:9-10). But Christ brings life and immortality to light (2 Corinthians 4:6; John 14:8-9; John 17:3). II. AS THE LORD OUR . This is His name (Jeremiah 23:6). To this end He is given to us— 1. As our propitiatory sacrifice (1 John 2:2; Romans 3:25). 2. As a merciful and faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 9:24; Exodus 28:12; Exodus 28:29; Hebrews 12:24; 1 John 2:1-2; Romans 8:33-34). Not only a righteous, but a merciful High Priest, that is provided with a sacrifice, and hath a heart to offer (Hebrews 5:2). No dignity to which He is exalted can make Him forget His friends (2 Timothy 2:13). III. AS OUR LORD AND KING (Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 9:6). God hath more care of His saints than to leave the government of them on their shoulder. He is a King to gather them, to govern them, to defend and save them (Matthew 1:21). Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. IV. AS OUR HEAD AND HUSBAND (Ephesians 1:22-23; 1 Corinthians 11:3). Believers are joined to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17; Colossians 2:19). They are married to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). From this union follows:— 1. A communication of influences (Colossians 2:3; Colossians 1:19). This fulness of Christ is ours, and for us (John 1:16; Colossians 3:3). 2. A complication of interests. Christ and His saints are mutually concerned. They have nothing but through Him; their whole tenure is in the Head; and whatsoever is His is theirs—His God His Father, His merits, &c.—R. Alleine: God’s Covenant Grant, pp. 24–36. The word “covenant” stands in the centre of this passage (Isaiah 42:5-8), and we may well conclude, on a consideration of the whole context, that the idea of covenant is central also in meaning. In (Isaiah 42:5) we are reminded of God’s creative, providential, and sustaining energy, as manifested in the material universe and in the region of human souls. From this elementary truth we are led on to the deep secret which God is ever unfolding in His revelations of mercy and saving love. The whole passage teaches us— I. THAT JEHOVAH, WHO IS THE KING OF THE , IS ALSO THE KING OF GRACE. Isaiah 42:5 sublimely expresses His supremacy over nature and man, and is suggestive— 1. Of what He teaches us in astronomy (“He that created the heavens and stretched them out”). 2. Of what He teaches us in geology, botany, and related sciences (“He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it”). 3. Of what He teaches us in the history of nations (“He that giveth breath,” &c.; comp. Acts 17:25). So also is He supreme in the empire of souls—in the work of redeeming as well as of creating. His glory in this respect cannot be shared by another (Isaiah 42:8). He is the Originator of all saving methods, and the Source of all spiritual fulness. II. THAT HIS IN THE DOMAIN OF GRACE ARE EQUALLY REAL AND SURE AS THOSE IN THE SPHERE OF NATURE. He disdains not to make a covenant with the people. His gracious intentions are not capricious, haphazard, accidental, or in any way partaking of the nature of after-thought. They are of the nature of a covenant—a divine purpose, treasured up and unfolded in the course of the ages. Modern science loves to trace the invariability of natural laws. Christian theism, also, accepts the teaching as proof of the divine veracity. In nature and in grace we learn of a covenant-keeping God. Indeed, the one is but an illustration of the other. (See Jeremiah 31:36; Jeremiah 33:25-26; Isaiah 55:10-11.) III. THAT THE DIVINE IS . God would have us know, beyond all mistake, that He is covenanting with us. 1. The earlier forms of pledge were given in the special selection of the Jewish nation to bear testimony for Him. 2. The crowning pledge of His covenant is afforded us in the gift of Christ. Only in Him do the words of Isa 42:6-7 find their true fulfilment. IV. THAT THE DIVINE HAS RESPECT TO ALL NATIONS AND PEOPLES. For the blind and self-righteous Jew of ancient times, or the hard and unsympathetic dogmatist of modern times, to regard the covenant as expressive of an exclusive compact by which a vast portion of mankind was to be shut out from God’s pitying favour, is to mistake its significance. This is to turn a sublime truth into a keynote of caprice and unworthy favouritism. It is a “covenant of the people, a light of the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6), that is here indicated. So the earliest form of the promise was comprehensive, and looked onward to an all-inclusive plan (see Genesis 12:3). We see in Jehovah’s covenant, then, a basis of redemption for all men, an offer of saving help to every sinner of every race.—William Manning.THE GREAT NAME Isaiah 42:8. I am the Lord: that is my name. The names and titles of the Almighty, which convey ideas of overwhelming greatness and glory mingled with awful mysteriousness, are most worthy of our best attention. I. THE NAME BY WHICH GOD HAS HIMSELF. Our translators have only retained the word JEHOVAH four times out of 6855 instances in which it occurs in the original Hebrew. Seldom, if ever, used by the Jews after the Babylonish captivity; on account of their great reverence for the Divine Being, they substituted Adonai—Lord; and their example was followed by our translators, who, out of respect to this feeling, have almost invariably rendered it Lord, always, however, directing it to be printed in capitals, to denote that the original word is JEHOVAH, and to distinguish it from every other name. Its derivation and meaning. The incommunicable name. Psalms 83:18 accords with this declaration. In two instances we have God’s own interpretation of this great name (Exodus 3:14; Exodus 34:6-7, more fully interpreted). In the former instance He announced Himself to Moses in the glory of His self-existent and eternal majesty, as “I AM;” in the latter, in the glory of His grace and goodness—the most ample and particular description of the Divine character, as given by Himself, in the sacred records. It also denotes God’s special relation of love and care to His people. The covenant name. He is the God of all flesh, but He is the JEHOVAH of His people (Psalms 68:4). If we would rejoice before the Lord, we must contemplate Him in the special relation of love and care. Our comfort very much depends upon the views we cherish of our God. The splendour of His attributes cannot of itself awaken joy. Trusting in Him, through Christ, as our JEHOVAH—an unchangeable Lord of purpose and promise—gives comfort, and we can view His glorious perfections with holy, chastened joy, that softens down to adoring love. For, Hebrews 6:17-18. Our hearts can only find satisfaction in union with a Being such as God has revealed Himself to be. II. THIS GREAT NAME IN UNION WITH SOME OF ITS OLD . 1. JEHOVAH (Jeremiah 23:6). Jesus is not only the righteous Lord, but the Lord our righteousness. This short sentence, only two words in the Hebrew, comprises the whole Gospel. As sinners need a righteousness in which to stand before the Holy One, Christ’s Gospel is the grand provision for the restoration of righteousness in fallen and sinful men (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:25-26); personal righteousness, obtained only by faith (Romans 4:5; Romans 5:1; Romans 10:3-4). 2. JEHOVAH-SHALOM—Jehovah is peace (Judges 6:24). The Lord speaks peace unto His people. He who is our righteousness is also our peace (Ephesians 2:14; Romans 5:1). Our legacy (John 14:27). 3. JEHOVAH-NISSI—Jehovah is my banner (Exodus 17:15). Material warfare an emblem of the spiritual. (1.) The Church of God is a Church militant; ever at war with the kingdom of darkness. The world must be conquered for Christ. The banner of King Jesus is not placed in our hands for us to be calmly indifferent, but to inspire us with an absorbing ambition for its increase of glory. Victory is sure. (2.) Our Christian life is a battle. Not only troubles to meet and pass through, but active enemies to resist and overcome. There is no furlough and no discharge. Yet we need not fear. 4. JEHOVAH-JIREH—The Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14). Let this memorial of the past be our watchword for the future. The Lord will provide for us in wisdom according to our necessities (Philippians 4:19). He has done so, and He will (Romans 8:32). 5. JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH—The Lord is there (Ezekiel 48:35). Doubtless Ezekiel has another city and another promised land in view—the Gospel church and the Heavenly Jerusalem. The Church is called “the city of the living God.” The Lord is there—our joy and rejoicing—nor will He ever forsake His people. Of the Church triumphant JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH is the chief glory and happiness. “God Himself shall be with them, and dwell among them.” “This is their supreme delight,And makes a heaven, of heaven.”.—This Infinite Jehovah is anxious to become your Covenant Friend, and Guide, and Portion.—Alfred Tucker.THE RIGHTS OF GOD Isaiah 42:8. I am the Lord; that is my name, &c.God is jealous of His honour (Exodus 20:2-5). The injunctions against idolatry have been repeatedly violated by all the nations of the earth: in ancient times by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and even the Israelites; in somewhat later times by the Persians, Greeks, Romans; and every modern nation known to us is either now idolatrous or has been rescued from idolatry through the influence of Christianity. To the corrupted mind of man idolatry has peculiar charms: it gratifies his desire for outward signs; it meets his craving after the material and the visible. The text is of vital interest to ourselves, inasmuch as every impenitent sinner and every unfaithful follower of Christ dishonours God and is chargeable with a kind of idolatry. Mark— I. THE IMPORT OF GOD’S NAME. “I am Jehovah, that is my name.” 1. It means the Being that exists. Of every other being, animate and inanimate, it can be affirmed that there was a time when it did not exist; but of Jehovah no such affirmation can be made (Psalms 90:2; Isaiah 40:14). 2. It implies that He is the fountain of all being. A false philosophy affirms the existence of other beings independent of God, and maintains especially the eternity of matter. But such views are irrational and absurd (Jeremiah 10:12; Isaiah 40:26). Nor may it be affirmed that these passages imply no more than that God worked on pre-existent matter (Hebrews 11:3; H. E. I. 353–359). 3. The word signifies that God is also the preserver of being. He made all things for Himself—not to be abandoned to themselves and fate; but to be watched over and sustained, that the end of their creation might be fully answered (H. E. I. 362–365). 4. The name Jehovah indicates that God is the God of Providence. It is admitted that God operates by law; but it is as certainly His power that upholds the worlds as it would be were there no law of gravitation. The laws of nature, so called, are but the modes in which God works. Miracles show that those laws are under His control (Psalms 148:8; H. E. I. 3530–3538). 5. The sublimest feature in His Providence is that which was exhibited in the redemption of mankind. The name Jehovah leads us to this point. God is the Saviour of the world, since for a sinful world there could have been no preservation without redemption. In Christ the character of God as the merciful I AM is clearly manifested (John 1:14). II. THE GLORY WHICH BELONGS TO HIM. “My glory will I not give to another,” &c. The term glory is sometimes used in Scripture in reference to the visible symbol of Jehovah’s presence—the Shekinah; at other times it denotes the manifestation of His power and wisdom in creation; and at other times again it is employed in a more general sense to set forth the attributes and perfections of His character. But in the text the word is equivalent to honour, worship, adoration. What, then, is the glory which belongs exclusively to God? 1. The glory of the creation of all things (Revelation 4:11). 2. The glory of the world’s redemption. The work to be achieved was not simply the redemption of mankind, but their redemption in a way consistent with the law of God. But achieved it was, and achieved by God Himself; no angelic being aided in the enterprise, and “of the people there was none with Him.” 3. The glory of the application of redemption to the case of each individual believer in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:8; Titus 3:5-6). Where is boasting then? It is excluded. 4. The glory of the advancement of mankind in knowledge, holiness, and peace. The human race is certainly improving; and it is to Christianity we are indebted chiefly for our civil privileges, and for all our social and domestic comforts. To whom is the glory of our national greatness due? To Him by whom kings reign, to whom the wise owe their wisdom, and from whom every good and every perfect gift descends. Christianity, moreover, is the means which God employs for the world’s regeneration; for though other instrumentalities may be brought into operation, they are but subordinate. III. HIS TO HIS RIGHTS. “I will not give my glory to another,” &c. This declaration may be viewed as corrective— 1. Of the sin of idolatry. He has not given His glory to the gods of the heathen, nor will He permit their devotees to give it them. But there are forms of idolatry practised by the Christian professor. What is the worship of the Virgin Mary, of saints and martyrs, of relics and of pictures, but idolatry? And what is the inordinate love of the creature but idolatry? What is covetousness but idolatry? What is the grasping after wealth which prevails but idolatry? (1 John 2:15). 2. Of the sin of pride. The proud man takes God’s glory to Himself. Perhaps one reason why Christians are less useful than they might be is that they fail to give God the glory due unto His name, and would fain reserve a measure of praise for themselves (1 Samuel 2:30). 3. Of the sin of unbelief. This is allied to pride. It scorns to be indebted for eternal life to grace; it will not submit to the righteousness of God. It robs God of His claims to our confidence and love; but God will not give His glory to another, and never will the terms of mercy be other than they are (Mark 16:16).—Thornley Smith: Sermons by Wesleyan Ministers (1852), pp. 172–187. THE OF PROMISE Isaiah 42:9. Behold, the former things are come to pass, &c.One may observe, in reading Scripture, the general principle that God usually gives a promise of that which He means to bestow. Before Christ came the Father was continually speaking of His coming. Love meets man as a heralding fragrance before the actual bestowal of blessing. Why are covenant blessings the subject of promises? I. IN ORDER TO DISPLAY GOD’S GRACE. To display— 1. The freeness of His grace. The promise to which the text specially alludes is to open the blind eyes, &c. The blind referred to were not born in the days of Isaiah. God promises before we know our need or seek His face. There are many conditional promises in Scripture; but all God’s promises rest on an unconditioned covenant of grace (Romans 9:25). 2. The fulness of His grace. It is unmerited; Christ died for the ungodly. 3. The power of it. He will open the blind eyes, &c. God is great in nature, but greater in grace. Man is a free agent, but he is not, and cannot be, more powerful in any respect than the Lord of all. II. TO AROUSE OUR HOPES. Religious inquirers should find the promises of God unspeakably precious. Some come to Christ easily, others with great difficulty; but there are promises enough in the Scriptures to call forth and stimulate hope in all (Hebrews 7:25). Christian believers, even, need to be told of what God will do, in order, at times, to encourage their hope (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). III. TO OUR FAITH. God desires to educate our confidence in Him. If Christian truth had been made so clear that we could make an axiom of it, there would have been no room for faith. Faith could not then have been the all-important thing it is in the manward aspect of salvation. Faith is the pivot upon which Christian character turns. It is neither a hard nor a wrong thing that God requires from us. The Lord has told us what great things He is going to do for sinners. Do we believe that He can do what He says? Do we believe in His willingness to do it? Then it is ours to cast ourselves upon His power and will. IV. TO EXCITE OUR PRAYER. Prayer is sure to follow hope and faith. Note the order—first, grace, then hope, faith, prayer. Faith soon brings a man to his knees; and while he is pleading, God is hearing. All God’s promises which are not fulfilled are meant to stimulate to prayer. V. TO FOSTER AND WHEN THE MERCY HAS BEEN . Man is made glad when he sees and feels that God’s Word has not returned to Him void; then comes the inference,—If He has done all this for me in the past, He will do as much for me in the future. In the next chapter the argument is, I will do because I have done. “I have redeemed thee; when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” This is the firm foundation for our hope, our past experience of the faithfulness of God; and strong faith is God’s due.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxv. pp. 685–696. GOD’S AND Isaiah 42:14-16. I will destroy and devour at once, &c.The measure of greatness is the measure of terribleness; constructiveness is the beneficent side of destructiveness. The fire that warms will, if abused, reduce the palace to ashes; the river which gladdens the landscape may devastate it; the engine that bears the laughing child to his longed-for home will, if mismanaged, occasion terrible havoc; the lightning, which may be caught and utilised, can burn the forest and strike armies blind. In the text we are confronted with the highest expression of the same truth; the Terrible One is gentler than the gentlest friend. Power belongeth unto God as well as mercy; He is either glorious as heaven or fearful as hell. The terribleness of God is the good man’s security; he does not say, “I must worship Him or He will destroy me;” but, “the beneficent side of that power is all mine.” I. Look at the doctrine of the text in relation to bad men, who pride themselves upon their success and their strength. Daily life has always been a problem to devout wisdom; virtue has often been crushed while vice has flourished. But there is a power beyond man’s; and nothing is held safely that is not held by consent of that power. God cannot be described in parts; He is to be studied in the unity of His character. Men are bound to be as common-sense in their theology as in the ordinary works of life; in building character they should be at least as sagacious as in building houses; they must build for tempestuous as well as for fine weather. We prepare for the severe side of Nature—why ignore the severe aspect of God? This is not preaching the mere terrors of the Lord; it is being simply faithful to facts. The so-called success of the bad man has yet to stand the strain of the Divine trial. God will examine our title-deeds. Remember, we are not stronger than our weakest point. II. Look at the doctrine as an encouragement to all men who work under the guidance of God. “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not,” &c. God declares Himself gentle to those who truly need Him. He promises nothing to the self-sufficient; He promises much to the needy. A true apprehension of this doctrine will give us a right view of daily providences, viz., that men who are apparently most destitute may in reality be most richly enjoying the blessings of God. We ought not to overlook the beneficent law of compensation. Blindness may be but another condition of happiness. Defects are the express conditions on which offers of Divine help are founded; it is because we are blind that He will lead us. It is clear, then, that self-sufficiency on the part of man is an offence to God; not only so, it is a vexation to man himself,—all his efforts at independence end in mortification. Towards one another we are to be self-reliant; towards God we are to be humble, dependent, all-trustful. The removal of the mountains and hills that bar our way is God’s own work; why should we meddle with it as if we could do it better than He? The devil says, “Be your own God,” and we snatch at the suggestion as a prize. Behold! we call you to a God whose very terribleness may be turned into an assurance of safety, and whose love is infinite, unchanging, eternal! .—Men of business! Know ye that prosperity is the gift of God, and that He who gave it can also withdraw it? “I will destroy and devour it at once: I will dry up all their herbs” (Psalms 37:35-36). Bread cannot satisfy unless it be broken by God’s hands. Children of God! ye especially who are called to suffering, and weakness, and great unrest because of manifold defect, God offers you His hand. Rest on God. Fear God, and no other fear shall ever trouble you.—Joseph Parker, D.D.: City Temple, pp. 227–284. THE LEADER OF THE BLIND Isaiah 42:16. And I will bring the blind, &c.Christians, “ye are not as yet come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you.” But thus far He has been your helper. What He has done is only a pledge of what He will do. To aid your grateful remembrance of the past and to confirm your confidence in the future, let us survey Him in three characters, which are all plainly set forth in our text. I. AS OUR LEADER. “I will bring the blind by a way they know not; I will lead them in paths they have not known.” 1. What could we do without such a Leader? Without God man is a poor wanderer on the mountains of ignorance, a prey to every danger, liable to be led astray by his prejudices and passions, certain to miss the only road to heaven. 2. Observe where He leads them: “In paths they have not known.” This is true— (1.) In regard to their temporal concerns. He has done so. If you look back, and contemplate the bounds of your habitation as fixed by Providence, your connections formed, your friends, your successes, your disappointments, does not all this appear now surprising? And He will do so. What can you know of the future? (P. D. 1432, 1440). (2.) In regard to their spiritual concerns. They were not born Christians, but have been made such; and if now they differ from others, and from their former selves, it is because He “hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light.” Once they knew nothing of conviction of sin, of hatred of sin, of faith in Christ, of prayer. And there are heights of holiness to which He will yet lead them by paths they have not now traversed. II. AS OUR . “I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.” This is clearly distinguished from the former. You may “lead the blind by a way they know not,” and you may not explain it to them, but only tell them to depend upon you as a guide, while they are unconscious of anything except progress. But God illumines all whom He guides. Observe four instances in which He gradually makes “darkness light before them and crooked things straight.” 1. Doctrine (John 7:17; Philippians 2:15; H. E. I. 2877, 2878, 3127). 2. Experience. There are many things perplexing here. (1.) Temptations that assail them are among the number, for they hoped to go on in their Christian course without annoyance. They did not remember that Pharaoh, as soon as Israel was gone, pursued, and tried to bring them back again. But presently He shows them that the Christian’s life must be a warfare (H. E. I. 1061, 4768–4776). (2.) Prayer. They read that God answers prayer; they pray, but no answer comes. Very distressing. But presently He shows them that He is “a God of judgment;” that while His mercy would constrain Him to give, His wisdom leads Him to withhold the blessing for a time (H. E. I. 3897, 3898). Or if in answer to their prayers new and heavier trials are sent them, they are called presently to discern in them discipline and training for greater blessings beyond (H. E. I. 101, 2464, 2465, 3692–3695). (3.) Joy. They sometimes do not experience the joy of which they read. He corrects their mistakes concerning it (H. E. I. 2064–2074, 3046–3051). (4.) Assurance. He shows them that they are not to attach undue importance to it (H. E. I. 311–314, 321–323, 340–346). He enables them in the end to rejoice in it. 3. Practical duties. Such as a Christian’s removal from his situation, or his transition from one business to another. In such matters the path of duty is made plain to the man who waits patiently upon God (Proverbs 3:5-6). 4. God’s providential dealings. God’s way is sometimes in the sea, and His footsteps are not known. But sometimes the darkness is dispelled even now, and the Christian sees why he was exercised with such a soul-trouble. Take the case of Joseph (Genesis 45:5-8), or of David (Psalms 119:67). III. AS HIS PEOPLE’S FRIEND. “These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” 1. They deserve to be forsaken, and this they will acknowledge readily enough (Lamentations 3:22). 2. They may think themselves forsaken (Isaiah 49:14; Psalms 77:7; Psalms 31:22). 3. At times He may so deal with them that, in the poverty of our language, we have to speak of them as men forsaken— (1.) In their outward condition (Hosea 5:15). (2.) In regard to their enjoyment of spiritual comfort (Psalms 30:7; Psalms 119:82; H. E. I. 1260, 1261). (3.) In giving them over to a sore conflict with temptation (H. E. I. 4774). But all these apparent forsakings are short (Isaiah 54:7), and they are never real. Even when they can discern no trace of Him, God is still with His people (Hebrews 13:5; Romans 8:35-39; see pp. 78, 79).—William Jay: Sunday Morning Sermons, pp. 120–129. In relation to the movements of Divine Providence God’s people are “blind.” What an infinite mercy it is for them that they have a Guide adapted and adequate to lead the blind! To teach the blind is an exercise of guidance unusual and peculiar; and he who can effectually accomplish this must have some important characteristic qualifications. I. OUR LEADER’S . 1. He who leads the blind must have a perfect knowledge of the way. In this respect a blind man can contribute no help and supply no lack. If his guide be ignorant even of a single step of the way, all his other qualifications are vain. 2. He must have a faithful regard to the end. He must display no treachery; the blind are utterly without remedy against any supposable unfaithfulness; their leader must steadfastly keep the end in view, and suffer nothing to turn him aside from the path that conducts to it. 3. He must pay a constant attention to the path. He must indulge in no carelessness. When a guide is careless, it is practically as though there were none. God neither slumbers nor sleeps; innumerable as the objects are which demand His notice, He never withdraws His eye for a moment from the steps of those He loves. 4. He must exercise towards them tender sympathy. The blind are naturally timid; surrounded with uncertainties, they are apt to be full of fears. Such fears are unreasonable, but it would be cruel to treat them with harshness. Above all guides, God might say, “Now you know you have every reason to trust me; let me see no signs of timidity; step boldly in the way I lead you.” He is not angry, however, with the sinking heart and the fearful step (Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 43:2; Psalms 103:14; Hebrews 13:5). Shall we not say cheerfully, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel”? II. THE DUTY OF THOSE WHO ARE LED. While God leads His people as the blind are led, they ought to walk as the blind who are led; for if the leading of the blind is peculiar, the walking of the blind when led is peculiar too. In the walk of the led blind we may notice— 1. A practical acceptance of the guidance offered them. The attitude of God’s people should be one of grateful practical acceptance. “Thou shalt guide me; and where Thou leadest I will go.” 2. A spirit of entire submission to his guide. He feels that it is not for him to ask the question at intervals, “Is this really the right way?” He feels, above all, that it is not for him to be petulant, and to say, “I will not go this way.” And such should the attitude of God’s people be. 3. An unrelaxing grasp. The blind man never for an instant leaves hold of his guide. And not a single step should be taken by God’s people without reference to His discretion. 4. An aspect of cheerful confidence. A blind man who is feeling his own way walks cautiously and anxiously; but a blind man who is led for the most part walks promptly and cheerfully. He has trusted and is in peace. So should the Christian pursue his way, cheerfully and confidingly (P. D. 2970, 2971).—J. H. Hinton, M.A.: The Church, New Series, vol. ix. pp. 1–5. THE BLIND Isaiah 42:16. I will bring the blind, &c.I. TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE. Not to every blind man, nor to all sorts of blind people; for there are some blind people whom God does not lead. They are those who are consciously blind, and who confess that once on a time they were totally blind—that what they thought was sight before was all delusion; people that feel their own weakness, their own want of knowledge, their own nothingness; people that are willing to be led; people that cannot see everything, and do not expect to see everything, but are willing to walk by faith in the unseen God, and to trust Jehovah where they cannot trace His footsteps. II. THE PROMISE THAT IS MADE TO THEM. “I will bring … not known.” 1. God Himself will be the Guide of His people when they feel their blindness. To lead blind men is not an office generally sought; it is not supposed to be attended with any great honour; but it is a very kindly office, and one which any Christian man may be right glad to render to his afflicted friend. But only think of God Himself coming and guiding the blind—leading His blind children! He will not leave you to stumble and grope your way, nor will He bid you depend upon your fellow-Christian, who is as blind as yourself, but HE will be your Guide. Think of it. 2. Being their Guide, He will lead them in ways they never went before. “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not.” [1372] By the paths of repentance, faith, holiness of life. [1372] The beauty of the promise appears in its especial adaptation to meet the peculiar exigence: “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not.” Of course, when a blind man knows the way, he can almost go without the guide. Many of our friends afflicted with the loss of sight find their way day by day along the accustomed road; and there have been some that have been so expert, though blind, that they could go over fifty miles of country, or thread their way in town up and down the streets of a milkman’s walk, serving at each customer’s house without ever making a mistake. In fact, they have often acted as guides to others; but then it has always been along a way that they have known.—Spurgeon.3. Although the way by which we go be a way that we know not, we shall be led safely in it; for it is not only said, “I will lead them,” but “I will bring them,” which is more. [1375] You may lead a man, but he may be unable to follow you. We shall be safely led, even though we may be sometimes conducted along narrow “paths,” and not along the broad and frequented highways. [1375] The safety follows from the fact that God is the Guide, rather than necessarily from the words of the promise. Alexander translates: “I will make the blind walk in a way they knew not; in paths they knew not I will make them tread;” the meaning being, that God would accomplish the deliverance of His people by a mode of His own choosing, to which they would have to conform.—Spurgeon. III. WHAT SHALL COME OF IT? “I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.” 1. If you are in the darkness of trouble, trust in God and the trouble will vanish. The light of His countenance will chase away the darkness. The trouble may remain, but it will no longer distress you. 2. There is a crook in every lot, but trust in God. He can make the most crooked thing that ever did happen suddenly turn out to be the very straightest thing that ever occurred for our welfare. IV. WHAT WILL BE THE END OF IT? The end of it will be (if you can see nothing, if you are blind, and leave yourself to the Lord to lead you, leaving all that concerns you to His counsel and His care), your life will be strewn with mercies, fulfilled promises; “These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” You shall find God present with you as long as you live. You will never be able to say, “I rested in Him, and was confounded; I trusted in Him, and found His promise fail.” [1378]C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxii. pp. 468–480. [1378] Never does a child of God venture everything by faith but the faith answers.… I was greatly refreshed yesterday by what may seem to you a very small thing, but it was not small to God. I was turning over our church books and I came to the year 1861, and somewhere in January there is a record, “This church requires £4000 in order to pay for the New Tabernacle, and we, the undersigned, not knowing where it will come from, fully believe in our Heavenly Father that He will send it all to us in the proper time, as witness our hands.” And there stood subscribed my hand, and the hands of my deacons, and the hands of my elders, and the hands of a great many Christian women amongst us. Well, I was pleased to see that we had thus put our confidence in God. There were one or two names down there of very prudent brethren, and I recollect at the time I saw them sign it I was rather surprised, because they had been doubting most of the time whether we should ever get the money; but they signed their names like men. A month or two alterwards—say two months—there is this record: “I, Charles Haddon Spargeon, who am less than the least of all saints, set to my seal that God is true, for He has supplied us with all this £4000.” And then follows a fresh minute like this: “We, the undersigned, hereby declare our confidence in Almighty God, who has done to us according to our faith, and sent us, even before the time we wanted it, all that was wanted. We are ashamed of ourselves to think that we even had a doubt, and we pray that we may always confide in. Him in all things henceforth and for ever.” And then there is a long list of signatures.… We have had a good many times to do something like that for large amounts, as a church, but has the Lord ever failed us yet? Never! And He never will, and you may depend upon it that in your business, in your household affairs, in your spiritual struggles, if you will trust God, He will be as good as your trust, and better.—Spurgeon. A blind man in a strange city dare not move. How valuable as well as kind if some one take him by the hand! You are compelled to travel in a country with which you are entirely unacquainted. There are many cross roads and few indications of the paths you should take. Some one overtakes you and shows you the path which conducts to your destination, but which, without his leading, you could probably not have found. It is night. Impenetrable darkness surrounds. You dare not move, lest you should plunge into some dangerous place; for it is a wild moorland. But the morning breaks. The sun begins to shine. The light is in your way. There is a crooked road which must be straightened before you can prosper. You cannot straighten it. Lo! it becomes straight! Is not man’s path in this world one of darkness until God illuminates it? We are blind and ignorant. He alone can enlighten and inform us. He alone knows our way, and He has promised to lead us. I. Look at this truth as illustrated by the history of the Church.1. In Egypt the Israelites were blind. They groaned under their bondage, but saw no way of deliverance. But God did, and in due time He led them forth. 2. Through the wilderness they were led; they did not foresee the way. Even Moses did not arrange their movements. For great disciplinary reasons God kept them wandering forty years in an unexpected path. But He led them notwithstanding. There was the pillar of cloud and fire by day and by night. 3. In Babylon. It was a dark and dreary time. They hung their harps on the willows. They saw no possibility of restoration. But He knew of the Cyrus whom He would raise up, who would lead the besieging army, who would capture the city, who would proclaim deliverance. He knows beforehand the political movements of heathen courts, and how they will affect His Church. 4. From that time to the birth of Christ. The Jewish people in their own land. Wonderful control of circumstances by which the Advent occurred according to ancient promise. 5. Thus in the Church of Christ to the present time. Early Church led in a way quite other than the Apostles would have chosen. Through many vicissitudes the Christian Church has been brought. Yet her great Head has brought her through. Openings have been made for the gospel in unexpected ways. Thus it will be. We are blind. We know not how the final triumph of Christ will be secured, but it will be secured. II. Look at this truth as illustrated by the spiritual experience of believers.God has a people in this world. Some of them may not yet have been called from it. They are in the blindness of heathenism or indifference and sin. God’s time comes. Paul sets forth on his missionary journeys, Williams to the South Seas, Moffat to Africa. Souls are brought into contact with the truth. Christian households are formed. Some are called in early life under parental influence; some resist and continue for years in a course of sin; an unexpected sickness or disaster awakens, or God blesses some sermon (H. E. I. 1414, 1415). You did not know the way of salvation. Human wisdom did not devise it. You could never have discovered it. He brought it near. He led you to His feet, and began in your soul the strange new life. And thus He is leading you to heaven. His Word and Spirit conduct by paths hitherto unknown. Sometimes through pleasant fields of promise, of communion, of holy aspiration, of Christian work; sometimes through dark passages of sorrow and perplexity; now awakening the slumbering conscience, now soothing the troubled heart. Thus He will continue (Psalms 107:7). III. Look at this truth as illustrated by the course of Divine Providence.How often are the Lord’s people brought into complete distress and uncertainty! They dare not move a foot lest it should be a fatal mistake. Then, when He has brought them to the realisation of their entire dependence on Him, and to cast themselves on Him in simple faith, He opens an unexpected way, by means quite unlikely. Jacob thus led into Egypt, where he finds the long-lost Joseph. Peter delivered by the angel from prison. Paul’s desire to see Rome gratified, not as he planned, but by his going as a prisoner. You are not to-day where you expected to be at the outset of your career. Recall your changes and deliverances. Does not this subject teach the lesson of simple trust? Is it dark with you to-day? It is not so with Him. He knows why your sky is overcast. He may have blessings in store which could not otherwise come. Comfort your hearts with His promises. Gather up your courage. Let faith look through the cloud at His guiding hand.—J. Rawlinson.A blind man touches the sympathies of those who see his condition. They become at once ready to help him. To God we are all blind. We see nothing as He sees it; and unless He lead, we cannot go. But His gracious promise is, “I will bring the blind,” &c. I. The fulfilment of this promise has been splendidly exhibited in God’s dealings with our general humanity. How remarkable is that mystery of His gracious providence, that the most important things in the universe should come out of their very opposites!—e.g., that the greatest material prosperity should come out of the greatest spiritual aspiration. And yet this has been the history of the world. The only people able to hold itself unpulverised in the conflicts of nations is the one nation set apart wholly to the service of religion. When men try to further the world, enlarge its commerce, increase its mass of material wealth by devoting themselves only to the things which are seen, they become utterly degraded. On the contrary, material things used for spiritual ends gain new splendours. A house consecrated to God becomes a home. Bread eaten rather for the uses of the spirit that is in the body than for the body itself becomes holy. II. This promise is no less wonderfully fulfilled in God’s dealings with individual souls. No man knows the way. Science cannot find a door in the hard wall of the visible: God must reveal it. When a spirit undertakes to engineer its course, it naturally seeks to enter at a wide gate, and to go in the broad way. To all human appearance there is room there. But when God takes the hand of the soul, He carries it through a very narrow gate, and along a very strait way. From His throne He sees every possible way from Egypt to Canaan. The soul can only see its immediate surroundings, a sea in front, mountain walls on both hands, or a wide, pathless, and devouring desert. We do not know the paths. He does. He is offering to guide us. Let us not go blundering in our blindness, falling over a hundred obstacles for every clear step we make. Let us put our hands in His, who hath promised to lead us. “For one thing only, Lord, dear Lord, I plead;Lead me aright,Though strength should falter, and though heart should bleed,Through peace to light.“I do not ask my cross to understand,My way to see;Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand,And follow Thee.”—The Study and the Pulpit, 1877, pp. 761, 762. How rich in comfort we should be if we could get well into the thought of this text, and if we could get the thought well into us! As to our being blind, needing counsel and guidance, in constant danger of taking false and disastrous steps if we attempt to pursue our way alone, how often are we reminded of this! 1. There is the blindness that results from the limitation of our faculties. 2. Blindness that is due to our inexperience. 3. Blindness caused by our degradation. The promise in our text is very consoling by the very closeness and completeness with which it takes hold of our condition. Not only does it assure us of the loving guidance of God in a general way, but in those cases also where the darkness is deepest, and where the blindness is total. Even the blind have sometimes their familiar paths, where they are safe as long as they keep to them. Here, however, the blind are to be brought by ways they know not: they are to be led in paths they have not known. A very special guidance must here be at work, coming in at the moment of deepest need, taking us by the hand and leading us on, just when even the ordinary knowledge that serves us on the familiar paths can be of no use to us. When the usual roadway ends, when the landmarks disappear, when the well-known signs are gone, and no accustomed object meets the eye, then the Divine Hand comes near to lead the trustful heart, and to direct it into the heavenly way, which otherwise it could not find. The special thought before us, then, is, that God, in His providence, so orders the critical and decisive steps of His people, that they are safe, even when they cannot see the issues. Illustrate this by a few striking examples. 1. The case of Joseph. Trace the stages of his career. Even he does not dream of the steps that will lead to the fulfilment of his destiny. Yet in what marvellous ways, through a process which now we should term romantic, does he at last reach the goal! The full conviction of Joseph, that God had been working through all that wonderful history, is clearly stated in his memorable words to his brethren (Genesis 45:8). 2. The sojourn of Israel in Egypt. Consider the manner in which Jacob was drawn down to Egypt to begin that sojourn. Joseph’s history had affected, not himself only, but that of the whole family and the whole race of Israel. But how totally unable must the members of that family have been to perceive the critical nature of the successive steps of the history! How wonderful that so many long years after Jacob had given up his son Joseph as being dead, regarding it as the crowning grief of a very strange and sorrowful life, news should be brought him that his son was yet alive, and that he must go and see him before his death! Then consider what that journey from Hebron into Egypt meant. Roots up Jacob from his home in his last days to die in a strange land: inaugurates the life of Israel in Egypt, &c. Yet Jacob, too, could see the hand of God in all the strange history of the past, when he could survey it in its wholeness, and was sure also of the future guidance of the people. Among his dying words he said to Joseph, “Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.” 3. Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Strange process was that by which Moses was fitted to become their deliverer, &c. Similar illustrations might be easily traced in the lives of such men as David, Nehemiah, Daniel, and indeed most of the saints of Old and New Testament Scripture, all bearing out the truth we have previously stated—that God’s providence takes special care of the critical and decisive steps of His people, so that they are safely guided through the paths they did not and could not know. Our text indicates, also, what these histories beautifully confirm— 1. That happy surprises are in store for those who are thus Divinely led. “I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.” 2. That the Divine purpose and fidelity are all-comprehensive. God does not break off in the middle of things, but fully completes what He begins. “These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” Such a subject as this may well be applied to strengthen our faith and hope. It suggests such lessons as the following:— 1. The leading is conducted by Infinite Wisdom and Love. God’s purpose is one of highest beneficence, and He cannot belie Himself. “He who spared not His own Son,” &c. (Romans 8:32). 2. The leadings of God may often cross our wishes, and therefore we must follow in the spirit of trust. Trust is essential to the blind. To break away from the Guide in the spirit of self-will and rebellion is to invite disaster and endanger all that follows. Our safety lies in our self-surrender to God, in our childlike acceptance of His appointed way. 3. This trust is to be combined with the spirit of sincere and honest effort. It is no lazy and spurious resignation, which tamely submits to infirmities it ought to cure, and wearily bears the evils it ought to vanquish. That is not to be led—it is to be carried; and it is a decaying, a rotting religion that will not put its own feet to the. ground and bravely do its part. God guides those who will walk, who will follow. Through many a secret passage of life and over many an untrodden path will He at last bring us out into the open places, where He will make darkness light before us, and crooked things straight. These things will He do unto us, and not forsake us.—William Manning.The promises of God are not only “exceeding great and precious,” but exceedingly manifold and varied. Now the eye is caught by some single star, shining intensely bright in the midnight sky; and now a clustered constellation seems to burst on the sight. Look, for example, at the text. In it there are four distinct promises, each rising above the other in grace and consolation. They are made by God under the character of a Guide, and they represent Him as undertaking— 1. To bring sinners into the right way. 2. To lead them in the way. 3. To remove difficulties out of the way. 4. To continue His guidance even unto the end.—C. F. Childe: Sermons, pp. 232, 233. LED BY UNKNOWN PATHS Isaiah 42:16. I will lead the blind by a way that they knew not, &c.This is the language and promise of the Lord. He here speaks of Himself, and tells us what He will do—things strange and unknown, and perhaps unanticipated. It is impossible to have a just view of this text without adverting with some minuteness to its original application. But its meaning is no less spiritual than prophetical, and is as applicable to every soul as it was to the Gentile nations. This union of prophetical and spiritual meaning forms one of the most striking characteristics, and one of the greatest beauties, of the writings of this prophet. The prophetical meaning has been verified by centuries of history, and all that history now is a bold and open evidence that the spiritual meaning shall equally hold good. If the darkened Gentiles have been led, &c., the darkened sinner, if he will heed God, shall be led so too. I. SOME OF THIS . When God leads men to true religion, He does lead them very differently from any and from all of their previous anticipations. This is true of every soul in many respects. 1. The thing, circumstance, or truth, whatever it may be, which first fixes the great matter of salvation upon the mind, is something very different from anything commonly anticipated. One man has one set of causes, and another another. So with the young, &c. If they are led to seek God at all, He leads them in a way they knew not. This forms among Christians one of the most common and cherished reasons for gratitude (H. E. I. 1410–1415). 2. The same thing will find illustration in the manner of a sinner’s forgiveness. Anxious inquirers are prone to think they must endure some more painful fears, or attain some righteousness which, somehow, shall be an offset to their guilt, before God’s pardon can ever reach them (Romans 10:2-3). All this is in vain. If God leads them, they will see it is in vain. Salvation is a gift; and that God has led them in an unknown way, their own astonishment is evidence, when they have found peace in believing. Among the sweet and grateful recollections of believers, this leading of God has universally a place. 3. Perhaps the most remarkable of all illustrations of this truth is to be found in the experience of Christians. We should naturally expect them to have more correct expectations of God’s treatment than other people. But they are slow to learn; they are often disappointed; their anticipations are no foreshadowings of God’s treatment of them. Their comforts, their prosperity, and strength seldom come to them in the way of their anticipations; yea, very seldom, or never. The allotments of Divine Providence which affect them most are such as they little expected. II. SOME REMARKS ON THIS SUBJECT. 1. God will make Himself known as infinitely above us. Be ashamed that you ever distrusted Him. 2. We must have faith. We cannot walk by sight. 3. If God is leading us on toward heaven, He will compel us to trust Him. We are blind. By faith darkness becomes light. Never point out a way for yourself. Take God’s way. Never despond. Trust Him. Accept His Son, and pillow your aching head upon His promises (P. D. 1652–1659). 4. This mode of God’s leading us is calculated to bring us most near to Himself. Has it not been so? Do nothing but trust Him in His Son.—Ichabod S. Spencer, D.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 247–262. The great truth which the prophet plainly teaches is, that the whole course of each individual is so guided and arranged by an unseen, but not an unfelt hand, that, like a blind man, he is led by another. Proverbs 16:9 is almost a commentary upon this passage. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,Rough-hew them how we will.”I. Illustrate this by a little introspective inspection of your inner and past history. Recall, as far as you are able, all you can recollect in your past biography. Is not your whole life, in warp and woof, totally different from anything you ever expected years ago? Like blind men, you have been led in a path that you knew not. This is the fulfilment of God’s prophecy. Did not an unforeseen accident, as the world would call it, alter the course of your career? A bereavement—a sudden reverse—an accidental conversation or remark Will any man tell me that all these little incidents fraught with vast issues were chance? Is it not upon the minutest incidents that the most gigantic results often depend? What can be the explanation? God leads us (H. E. I. 3223–3226, 4015–4022). But what is still more remarkable, God often takes the sins of His people, and out of those sins He elaborates their progress in likeness to Himself, and in fitness for the kingdom of heaven. Nothing so demonstrates the infinite compassion of God as this. Apply the same great truths to those things that brought you to the Saviour. The heart wounded to the quick, only to apply to it a balm that heals it perfectly and forever. Instances of this in the Bible: The Samaritan woman (John 4); the Feast of Pentecost and Peter’s sermon (Acts 2); Saul visiting Damascus on an errand of proscription and blood (Acts 9); Abraham—Jacob—the Shunamite woman. What are these but proofs that God leads the blind in a way that they know not? And what do they teach us? “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. II. Some useful practical inferences.1. God is in everything. In all things. magnificently great, and microscopically minute. There is nothing so small that it is beneath His notice; there is nothing so great that He does not control (Matthew 10:30). 2. This God, that thus leads the blind by a way that they know not, is the Christian’s Father. If it were God only that is in all things, it would not be comfort; it would be awe, &c. Nothing can touch His children till He has given it its mission and its commission. 3. Do not hastily judge, when adversities overtake you, what the issue will be. We are prone to infer from what overtakes us now what must betide us always: such is not Christian logic. Whatever be the issue, all afflictions that overtake us have a present beneficent action. Never let us employ in estimating what God has done that unhappy monosyllable IF. These ifs are the steps of God—the stages of Providence, &c. (Isaiah 50:10). Therefore, whenever you cannot explain the circumstances that surround you, &c., remember that God your Father is leading you, a blind man, by ways that you do not know. Wait, trust, pray, hope, and God will make crooked things straight, and dark places light.—J. Cumming, D.D.: Redemption Draweth Nigh, pp. 357–369. God has foreordained everything which He Himself will do (Acts 15:18). And He has been gradually unfolding His designs from the beginning. The restoration of the Jews from Babylon and the calling of the Gentiles into the Church were very wonderful events, but in them this prediction was fulfilled. It receives further accomplishment daily. I. God’s dealings are mysterious.1. The dispensations of His providence have been at all times dark. 2. The dispensations of His grace are equally inscrutable. This is seen in the first quickening of men from their spiritual death, and in their subsequent spiritual life. II. His intentions are merciful. The perplexities of His people are often very great, but He has gracious designs in all (Jeremiah 29:11; Job 42:12-13, with James 5:11). Joseph (Genesis 37:6-10; Genesis 37:28; Genesis 39:17-20). The same mercy is discoverable in God’s dealings with all His afflicted people. He suffers their path to be for a time dark and intricate, but He invisibly directs and manages their concerns; He gradually removes their difficulties, and clears up their doubts (Galatians 3:23-24; John 15:2; Malachi 3:3; Psalms 97:2). They are often ready to doubt His love, but— III. His regards are permanent. God did not forget His people when they were in Babylon, neither will He now forsake those who trust in Him (Isaiah 44:7-8; Isaiah 49:14-16; 1 Samuel 12:22; Philippians 1:6). The prophets declare this in the strongest terms (Isaiah 54:9-10; Jeremiah 31:37; Jeremiah 32:40). St. Paul abundantly confirms their testimony (Romans 11:29; Hebrews 13:5-6). .— 1. How careful should we be not to pass a hasty judgment on the Lord’s dealings! (H. E. I. 4038–4048). 2. How safely may we commit ourselves to God’s disposal!—C. Simeon, M.A.: Claude’s Essay, &c., p. 229. A PROMISE FOR THE Isaiah 42:16. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. This promise refers primarily to the manner in which God purposed to deliver His ancient people from bondage, by means at once unprecedented and complete; but it is surely available for all who, confessing their own blindness and powerlessness, cast themselves upon God for guidance and succour. Such persons may plead this promise in reference— 1. To ignorance which they wish to have removed (James 1:5). 2. To mysterious providences. God’s dealings with us and others are often incomprehensible, and inexplicable by us; but let us wait patiently, believingly, and prayerfully, and in due time this promise will be fulfilled (H. E. I. 4040–4058). 3. To Christian duty. The sincere Christian constantly asks, “What is the will of God concerning me?” But many difficulties may be in the way of deciding this question; a variety of points may require to be nicely adjusted; contrary claims may leave the balance of the scales almost in a state of equipoise; but in due season the sincere seeker for Divine direction shall be directed (Proverbs 3:6). 4. To formidable difficulties that appear insurmountable. “There is a crook in every lot;” but in regard to the Christian all “crooked things shall be made straight.” They may give a great deal of trouble for a time, but in the end they will prove helpful and not hurtful to the patient believer.—William Reeve: Miscellaneous Discourses, pp. 434–440. Sin has its fascinating lustre and flaring splendour; murky clouds often rest upon the way of righteousness and truth; but sin’s splendours go out in pitch darkness, while at eventide there is light for the Christian. I. The believer’s darkness is turned into light, and the crooks of his lot are straightened.1. The frequent grim darkness. (1.) Much of it is of his own imagining. Many of our sorrows are purely homespun, and some minds are specially fertile in self-torture; they have the creative faculty for the melancholy; enjoyments even cause them to tremble lest they should be shortlived. (2.) Much existing darkness is exaggerated. “Joseph is not, Simeon is not;” but Jacob pictured Joseph devoured of an evil beast, and Simeon given up to slavery in a foreign land. Take up the cross, and mountains will shrink to molehills. (3.) Troubles disappear just when we expect them to become overwhelming. The waters of the Red Sea stood upright as a heap to make a pathway for God’s people. Who can tell what plan God may have in store for him? Hezekiah was sore dismayed before Rabshakeh. Little did he know that the talk and boasting were all that would come of it. (4.) When the trial comes, God has a way of making His people’s trials cease just as they reach their culminating point. As the sea when it reaches to the flood pauses awhile and then returns to the ebb, so our sorrows rise to a height and then recede. Hear God bid Abraham sacrifice his son! He makes darkness light when the darkest hour of the night has struck. (5.) Every trial was foreseen, and has been forestalled. God can furnish a table in the wilderness. (6.) However severe the trial, God has promised that as our days our strength shall be. Considering that the grace is always proportioned to the trial, and that trials produce manliness, one might even choose trial for the sake of obtaining the grace which is promised with it; the mingled trial and grace will make our lives sublime. (7.) Especially dwell upon the promise that the Lord will make your darkness light. How soon, and how perfectly, can Omnipotence accomplish this! How soon is it done in the physical universe! A fulness of consolation can be poured forth in a moment. How is it done? Sometimes by the sun of His providence. Often by the moon of Christian experience, which shines with borrowed light, but yet with sweet and tranquil brightness. Frequently by a sight of Jesus going before, and by hearing Him say, “Follow me; fear not; for in all your afflictions I am afflicted.” God had one Son without sin; but He never had a son without chastisement. And often by snatching a firebrand from the altar of His Word, and waving it as a torch before us, that we may advance in its light. 2. The crooks of the believer’s lot. (1.) One may lie in your poverty. (2.) Another in some very crooked calamity. (3.) If he is free from these, he has at least a crooked self. The others would matter little but for this. It may be you have crooked temptations—temptations to profanity or to certain vices. 3. God will make all the crooked things straight. (1.) It may be that some are straight now; the making straight is only to make them seem so to us. Our crosses are our best estates. (2.) God can bend the crooked straight, and what will not bend, He can break. The crooked character has been bent straight; the judgment of God has taken away the crook out of the household, so that the righteous might have peace. If He do not this, He will give power to overleap the difficulty (2 Samuel 22:30). II. Some words to the seeker.1. Some doctrines are dark to you. God makes all light to faith. 2. Perhaps your darkness rises from deep depression of mind. Faith must precede its dispersion; faith will disperse it. 3. Your crooked natural disposition God can make straight. Note— (1.) That which saves is not what is, but what will be. “I will make darkness light; I will make crooked things straight.” There is a transformation in store. (2.) It is not what you can do, but what God can do. “I, Jehovah, will do it.” (3.) This work may not be yours at once, but it shall be soon. It does not say, “I will make darkness light today;” still it does say, “I will.” III. Two lessons to believers.1. If God will thus make all your darkness light and all your crooked things straight, do not forestall your troubles. 2. Always believe in the power of prayer.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1868), pp. 709–720. BLIND IN THE Isaiah 42:18-20. Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, &c.Thus the Lord expostulates with His ancient people, and thus He has reason to expostulate with us. We succeed them, both in religious privileges and in the abuse of those privileges. Where does the light of the Gospel shine more clearly? But do we excel other people in knowledge and virtue, in faith and patience, in temperance and goodness, as we surpass them in the means of acquiring these Christian graces? No! There is here no one who could challenge the justice and propriety of this expostulation, if it were addressed to him. In our text we have— I. A . “Deaf,” “blind,” &c. We are “deaf,” in a spiritual sense, when we do not attend to the Divine admonitions, or give earnest heed to the word of instruction; “blind,” when we do not perceive the glory of the Gospel, and the force and beauty of Divine truth. This description is— 1. Absolutely true of most men. The ignorance of numbers who constantly enjoy the best religious instruction is far beyond what any person can imagine who has not made it a matter of special investigation. Nothing they have ever heard or seen during their attendance upon the ordinance of religion has made any effectual impression upon them. The first principles of Christianity are unknown to them. They have never learned to understand what is meant by repentance, faith, holiness, the Divine character or their own, the evil of sin, the extent of their own sinfulness, or even what is required of them in the common duties of life. Yet some of them delude themselves with the hope that there is before them a future of eternal blessedness! They are not all equally ignorant. Some of them amidst the light of the Gospel and the sound of religious instruction occasionally receive a little. But the whole truth they will not receive. Many doctrines and precepts of Christianity oppose their passions and prejudices, and therefore against these they obstinately close their ears and shut their eyes. 2. In some measure true of all men. The sincerest followers of Christ may be charged with not exercising, as they ought, the spiritual senses which God has given them. The best Christians would have been better still, if they had never, by their siothfulness and inattention, lost the benefits conveyed by the means they have been favoured with (H. E. I. 2570–2584, 2654–2658). As far as this description is true of us, our condition is a terrible one. 1. It is the result of sin. Is it not a terrible sin even to be heedless of the messages sent us by Almighty God? But many have deliberately shut out the rays of the Sun of righteousness, because light was troublesome, and would not permit them to enjoy those works of darkness on which they were bent. 2. While it continues, all the means intended to deliver us from sin will fail to benefit us. As the most-improving advice given in conversation is useless to a deaf person, and the most delightful objects are displayed to no purpose before the blind, so the word of truth is preached in vain to those who have neither ears to hear nor eyes to see its meaning and excellency. Before one step in the way of salvation can be taken, this hindrance must be removed. 3. Our condition is nearly hopeless, and tends to become absolutely hopeless. [1381] 4. We ought to be ashamed of it. You ought to be ashamed of your ignorance of Christianity in a Christian country, and still more ashamed and humbled for the cause of it, which is always sloth, stubbornness, or self-conceit. 5. We ought to be alarmed on account of it. For the reason already given—that our condition tends to become a hopeless one. And also because the penalty of wilful blindness in the midst of sunlight is consignment to eternal darkness and woe. [1381] When the habit of inattention is formed, or men’s minds are so armed by prejudice as to be determined not to hear or embrace certain truths which are offensive, their condition is nearly hopeless. He who does not use his spiritual senses, and keep them in constant exercise, must expect to find them impaired, and, in time, lost. Those congregations which have long enjoyed a sound and animated course of instruction without any particular benefit, become in the end more stupid and hardened than those which have not been so favoured. What can be said or done to do them good, which has not been repeatedly tried in vain? As time and increasing years have a happy effect in strengthening and confirming good habits, so they have a still more powerful influence in confirming bad ones. So that those persons who suffer their passions and prejudices, their disrelish for the word of truth, their blindness and inattention, and all their other inveterate habits to accompany them till the decline of life, are likely to lie down with them in their graves, and to be found encumbered with them on the morning of the resurrection.—Richardson. II. AN . There is a call to the deaf to hear, and to the blind to look that they may see. This is like the command of our Saviour to the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth, and implies that this deafness and blindness was their fault as well as their misfortune. Every command of God is accompanied with grace and strength. He requires nothing of His people but what He has promised to enable them to perform. In dependence upon His promise, they ought therefore to stir themselves up to the discharge of their duty. The spiritually deaf should endeavour to open their ears to instruction, the spiritually blind to open their eyes to that wondrous display of grace which the Gospel exhibits. The effort will be as successful as that of the man to stretch out his withered hand, when it is made in obedience to the Divine command, and in dependence on the Divine blessing. [1384] And when this fatal obstruction is removed, and we have got ears to hear and eyes to see, the means of grace and salvation will have their proper influence.—William Richardson: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 470–482. [1384] See Dr. Bushnell’s admirable sermon, “Duty not Measured by Ability,” in The New life, pp. 253–266. CHRIST A LAW- SAVIOUR Isaiah 42:18-21. Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, &c.I. THE NAME HERE GIVEN TO SINNERS (Isaiah 42:18). Equally applicable to all unconverted men. 1. Naturally deaf. Do not hear the voice of Providence, of Christ, of pastors (Psalms 58:4). 2. Blind. This word is constantly used in the Bible to describe the stupidity of unconverted souls (Matthew 15:14; Matthew 23:26; Matthew 23:17; Revelation 3:17). They do not see the depravity, &c., of their own soul, the beauty, &c., of the glorious “Sun of Righteousness,” the path they pursue, leading to hell. “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind.” Those who are deaf and blind are generally the least attentive. Attend, for God calls upon you! But you say this is a contradiction, “If I am deaf, how can I hear? If I am blind, how can I look?” Leave God to settle that difficulty, only listen and look up. There is truly no difficulty about it. II. THE OBJECT POINTED TO. “Who is blind,” &c. Every expression here evidently points to Christ. [1387][1387] This by no means certain. The preacher will remember that concerning this passage diametrically opposite views are held by different commentators. The remarks of Birks and Cheyne are here given as specimens. Birks:—“Vers. 18–21. These words are commonly applied to the Jewish people. Of recent critics, Dr. Henderson, almost alone, refers them to the Messiah. But his exposition of them as ironical, or the language of the Jews, is open to very weighty objection. On the usual view, the title ‘the Servant of God,’ would be used twice emphatically, and in close connection, in two different senses. The objection is only strengthened by the fruitless attempt to join Messiah and the nation together, in both places, as the common subject. The title ‘perfect’ cannot be applied, without great violence, to those whose sin is denounced in the same context, and belongs naturally to our Lord alone. “The guilt and shame of the people are here enforced by direct contrast with the true Israel, the Prince who has power with God. Blind and deaf in spirit, not in their outward senses, they are to fix their eyes on Him, that sight and hearing may be restored. Theirs was the blindness and deafness of idolatry and self-righteous pride. He, too, is blind and deaf, but in a sense wholly opposite, by unspeakable forbearance and grace. So Psalms 38:13 : ‘I as a deaf man heard not, and I was as one dumb that openeth not his mouth.’ The Gospels renew the same picture (John 8:6-11). It is the same with the divine perfection in Balaam’s message: ‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.’ The person named is the Messenger whom the Lord was about to send (John 10:36). He is the Perfect One, alone pure and sinless; the Lord’s servant, whose gentleness and patience have been described before, and who is to set judgment in the earth. On this view the repeated question, Who is blind as He? has a deep significance. Where sin has abounded grace still more abounds. The marvel of Israel’s blind idolatry and unbelief is to be surpassed by a greater marvel of love and grace in Israel’s Redeemer, who sees as though He saw not, and hears as though He heard not, when He visits His people in great mercy to pity and to save. “Ver. 20. The blindness of this Servant of the Lord is now explained, with allusion to the promise (Isaiah 35:5): ‘Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.’ It is the free choice of patient love. He can open the ears of the deaf, but refuses to hear the sounds of strife and violence. Every sense is awake for mercy. He gives voice, hearing, sight, to the dumb, the deaf, and the blind, but deaf and dumb Himself in refusing to judge when He comes to save. Thus men are blessed, God is glorified, and the excellence of God’s righteous law of perfect love is for ever revealed.”—Commentary, pp. 218, 219. Cheyne:—“Vers. 18–20. We are confronted here with an at first sight perplexing discrepancy, viz., that whereas in Isaiah 42:1-7 ‘the Servant’ is introduced as an indefatigable worker in Jehovah’s cause, and as especially appointed ‘to open blind eyes,’ in Isaiah 42:19 we find ‘My Servant’ and ‘My Messenger’ described as spiritually ‘blind’ and ‘deaf.’ This, however, is one of those apparent inconsistencies in which Eastern poets and teachers delight, and which are intended to set us on the search for a higher and reconciling idea. The higher idea in the case before us is that the place of the incompetent messenger shall be taken by One both able and willing to supply his deficiencies and to correct his faults.’ Israel—the people being as yet inadaquate to his sublime destiny—Jehovah’s own ‘elect,’ shall come to transform and elevate the ‘unprofitable servant.’ “Ver. 18. Hear, ye deaf …] Jehovah is the speaker. He has before Him a company of spiritually deaf and blind. Surely (we may suppose Him to make this reflection) they are not all stone-deaf; some may be able by exerting the power yet graciously continued to them to hear God speaking in history and in prophecy (comp. Isaiah 42:23)!—Thus it would almost seem as if Jehovah Himself had assumed the function of ‘opening blind eyes,’ previously ascribed to the Servant. But there is no real discrepancy. The operations of Jehovah and of His Servant are all one; Jehovah must nominally interpose here in order that the incompetence of His people-Servant may be exposed, and the necessity for another Servant, springing out of but far worthier than Israel, be made clear. “Ver. 19. Who is blind but my Servant?] The blind and deaf Servant means the people of Israel, regarded as a whole, in its present state of spiritual insensibility. Jehovah is sometimes described anthropomorphically as ‘saying,’ or, more fully, as saying to His heart, i.e. to Himself (Genesis 8:21). It is such a ‘saying’ that we have here. Jehovah sadly reflects, ‘Who among earth’s inhabitants is so blind and deaf as Israel, my servant?’ Strange fact! The servant, who needs a sharp eye to catch the least gesture of his master (Psalms 123:2)—the messenger, who requires an open ear to receive his commissions, is deaf! To interpret ‘Who is blind, &c.’ of Jesus Christ, as if ‘the guilt and shame of the people[were] here enforced by direct contrast with the true Israel, the Prince who has power with God,’ and as if the true, no less than the phenomenal Israel, could be called blind and deaf with reference to His slowness to take offence (Prof. Birks), is to go directly counter to Biblical usage (see Isaiah 6:10; Jeremiah 5:21; Ezekiel 12:2; Zechariah 7:11). In fact, the only passages quoted in support of this far-fetched view are Psalms 38:13, where the sin-conscious Psalmist resigns his defence to God; and John 8:6-11, where the Saviour (if this interpolated narrator may be followed), under exceptional circumstances, refuses an answer to His persecutors.”—Commentary, vol. i. pp. 259, 260.1. My servant (Isaiah 42:1, cf. Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:2; Luke 22:27; Philippians 2:7). He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. 2. My Messenger (Job 33:23; Malachi 3:1). God sent Him. 3. He that is perfect. “He did no sin,” &c. 4. Blind and deaf (also Isaiah 42:20). This describes the way in which He went through His work in the world (same as Isaiah 42:2; and Psalms 38:13-14; Isaiah 53:7). He was blind to His own sufferings. He was deaf: He seemed not to hear their plotting against Him, nor their accusations, for He answered not a word (Matthew 15:13-14). III. THE WORK OF CHRIST (Isaiah 42:21). This is in some respects the most wonderful description of the work of Christ given in the Bible. He is often said to have fulfilled the law (Matthew 3:15; Matthew 5:17). But here it is said, He will “magnify the law,” &c. He came to give new lustre and glory to the holy law of God, that all worlds might see and understand that the law is holy, &c. He did this— 1. By His sufferings. He magnified the holiness and justice of the law by bearing its curse. He took upon Him the curse due to sinners, and bore it in His body on the tree, and thereby proved that God’s law cannot be mocked. Learn— (1.) The certainty of hell for the Christless. (2.) To flee from sin. [1390][1390] Compare other translations of this verse. Cheyne: “Who is blind but my servant? and deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as the surrendered one? and blind as the servant of Jehovah?” Arno’d: “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I would send? Who is blind as God’s liegeman, and blind as the LORD’S servant?”—See also the translations by Alexander and Delitzsch. 2. By His obedience. He added lustre to the goodness of the law by obeying it. Learn the true wisdom of those who love God’s holy law (Psalms 19) IV. THE EFFECT. “God is well pleased.” 1. With Christ. 2. With all that are in Christ. .—He that wrought out this righteousness invites you to get the benefit of it.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 349–355. THE LAW BY THE Isaiah 42:21. The Lord is well pleased, &c.God may be said to make the law honourable by everything by which He shows His own great respect to it. In every government, the sovereign is the fountain of honour: in the Divine government, God is the fountain of all honour. Whatever shows God’s respect to it, magnifies the law. The law is magnified when either the precepts or penalty of it are fulfilled, when the commands or threatenings of it are satisfied. The work of redemption magnifies God’s law:— I. By the perfect obedience that Christ gave to the commandments of it. What is meant by His obedience to it? In ourselves, holiness and obedience to the law are but one and the same thing; but it is not so, it was not so always, as to Christ Before He came to the world He was perfectly holy; but that holiness could not be called obedience. It was when Christ took on Him our nature that He fulfilled our law. It was our duty that He performed, and our righteousness that He fulfilled, as well as our sins that He bore. How much this obedience magnified God’s law as to the commands of it, will appear when we consider the following properties of it:— 1. It was perfect obedience. “He continued in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” 2. It was the obedience of the most glorious person that could be subject to the law. 3. It was obedience performed by express Divine appointment. 4. It was obedience performed in a low condition; which served to show, that obedience to the law in any rank or station is honourable. 5. It was an obedience of universal influence as to the example of it. II. By the perfect satisfaction He gave to the threatenings of it. He bore the penalty of it, by His sufferings and death. Three things show the importance of keeping up the authority of the law:—the Author of the law, the matter and end of it, and the kingdom that is commanded by it. Notice the properties of Christ’s suffering the penalty of the law. 1. It was a real execution of the law. The law was given by Moses, but fulfilled only by Christ. 2. It is a total execution of the law. No other punishment of creatures shall be called such. It is of Him only that it can be said that “he made an end of sin,” of the punishment of it. 3. It was an execution of it upon the most honourable person that could suffer. All the other persons that ever suffered for sin on earth or hell, principalities and powers of darkness, were but mean, low, vulgar, in comparison of this King of kings and Lord of lords. 4. It was also an execution of it upon the nearest relation of the Judge. The relation between God and Christ is expressed in the analogy between a father and a son. But the relation between a father and a son is nothing to that between God and Christ. This serves to show the righteousness of the law. If a judge executed the law only upon his enemies, he might be called partial; but if he executed the law upon those he cannot be said to have any hatred to, that shows him to be actuated by the purest justice and righteousness (H. E. I. 374–383). III. The work of Redemption magnifies the law, as it is a work of infinite love. Everything that hath the nature of a motive to strengthen obedience magnifies the law. Favours, as well threatenings, are motives to excite to obey God’s law; and this is the greatest favour, and is one of the chief motives to stir up to obedience and restrain from evil. Threatenings are not the only motives to stir up to obedience. Gifts from the lawgiver are also motives to obey the law. What can be more fit to magnify a law of love than a work of infinite love? If we considered this, we would see nothing a greater motive to establish the law. The law of God commands us to love God, and the work of redemption is the greatest motive to love Him. The law of God commands us to glorify Him: the work of redemption shows us the brightest manifestation of His glory. IV. The work of redemption magnifies the law by the reward of obedience. The law is honoured, not only when obedience is performed, but when obedience is rewarded. Every person thinks himself honoured when he is obeyed, but doubly honoured when obedience to him is rewarded. The honour that was done to Christ is done to the law; and not only all the honour that was done to Jesus Christ, but all the gifts that His people get by being united to Him for the sake of His merits, that is, for the sake of His obedience to the law. This, indeed, may make us admire the wisdom of God, that the honour that is done to the criminal is done to the law; for the sinner that believes in Christ is made righteous through His righteousness, and the law is always honoured by the blessedness of the righteous. V. The application of the work of Redemption through the Spirit magnifies the law. The law is magnified by everything that puts disgrace upon sin. That which puts disgrace upon sin puts honour upon obedience. We are justified by faith in Christ’s righteousness; and by the Spirit we are enabled to render obedience. :— 1. Every one who despises the law despises Christ. 2. God, having magnified His law so wondrously, will have us always stand in awe of it. 3. We should take encouragement to ourselves, if we truly repent of our sins, if we truly see our need of Christ, to hope for mercy, because justice is so gloriously satisfied. 4. We should be adoring the wonderful, immense wisdom of God in the work of redemption, the manifold wisdom of God, the many attributes manifested in it.—John Maclaurin: “Select Works,” pp. 242–271. Among all the obscurities about the prophetical writings, the simple fact that there is a mysterious prophetic personage is plain and obvious. He is introduced in the beginning of this chapter in a very solemn and impressive manner. Who this is, it may sometimes be found difficult to determine. Jesus is the key to the interpretation. That this chapter belongs to Christ, would seem to admit of very easy proof: just by the Bible interpreting itself (Matthew 12:17-21; Mark 1:11; Mark 9:7). This passage is spoken of Christ. I. A preliminary observation or two. 1. With respect to the “law.” It is a word used in Scripture in two ways. (1) As a universal thing—the moral law. (2) As a limited thing—the ceremonial institutions, given to a particular part of mankind, and for a particular time. 2. To “magnify the law and make it honourable” cannot mean that Messiah was to produce any change in it—that what He did was to perfect the law itself; as if the law had any defect about it. The moral law, necessarily resulting from the Divine perfections and government, is incapable of improvement. Christ did not do anything in the way of enlarging the ceremonial law. 3. We cannot suppose that this means, that there was to be any change effected in the conceptions of God about the law—that the work of Christ was intended to affect the Divine mind in relation to it. 4. It must signify the manner in which created minds were to be affected by it. Something was to be done, by which there should be a certain impression with respect to law, produced upon the minds of the intelligent universe—that should, so to speak, give body and substance and visibility to God’s own conceptions about His law. II. The necessity for this. If sin had never entered into the universe, God’s law would always have been a sublime and grand thing in the estimation of that universe. And if when sin was permitted to enter the universe, the penalties and sanctities of the law had been carried out fully and literally, then law would always have been magnified; it would then have been always a great and glorious thing. But if there is to be the fact, that there are sinners and violators of law, those that on just principle are exposed to the penalty, and yet they are to escape, and to be treated as if they were actually righteous, &c., then law so far seems to go for nothing,—there is danger of a certain effect being produced upon the minds of God’s creatures, injurious to His character, and government, and law. And, therefore, there was a necessity in the nature of things, that this escape from penalty and punishment should not only be agreeable to the principles of law, but that there should be a manifestation of that: that something shall be done, the moral effect of which upon the minds of God’s rational creatures shall be equivalent to the impression which would have been produced by the literal carrying out of the principles of law itself. The work of Christ does this, and this prophetic declaration is realised. III. The manner and way in which this thing, thus necessary, was done. 1. Christ’s teaching always maintained the authority of the law (Matthew 5:17). 2. His personal character magnified and honoured it. He was “made under law,” and obeyed it, and never wished to be free from it (Hebrews 7:26). 3. But these are but preparatory to that one great act which was the consummation of His work—His propitiatory sacrifice; in which, in a certain sense, He stood forth, as it were, bearing the penalty of the moral law, and in another sense manifesting the substance and casting a light and glory upon the ceremonial. (Hebrews 2:14-17.) There was a substitution in two senses: (1) of person— (2) of suffering—producing an impression upon all moral nature of God’s regard to His own authority, and His determination always to act in harmony with law. 4. His people are redeemed unto obedience (Titus 2:14; Romans 8:3.) Hence, saints love the law—respect it—rejoice in it. The substitutionary work of Christ expounds those many representations of Scripture, harmonising with the text. The private and personal affections of our nature are not enough as an analogy to the work of God. The case of the king of Babylon and Daniel will illustrate the whole of this subject (Daniel 6. See also, H. E. I. 376, 383, 391).—Thomas Binney: The Pulpit, vol. 40, pp. 234–240. THE HONOUR WHICH THE GRACE OF THE GOSPEL UPON THE AND OF THE LAW. I. It is necessary to have clear views of the characteristics and operations of the two dispensations. 1. The Law of God is simply the revealed will of the Creator. First proclaimed when the first intelligent creature was formed, and it requires from all moral beings unqualified and instant submission. This Law made known to man at his creation, revealed anew at Sinai, renewed and confirmed by Christ. No intelligent creature exempt from it. Disobedience involves condemnation and ruin, arrays God against transgressors. Thus it was with angels who sinned, with Adam, and is with man now. The holiness, faithfulness, authority of this law can never be annulled. It is the law of God, not of Moses. 2. The Gospel is a free offer of actual and finished salvation to man, who is under condemnation of law. It is a remedy for existing, actual evil; restores the transgressor of the Law, not by annulling, but by fulfilling the Law for him; announces a Saviour who has assumed the sinner’s place, and rendered for him the satisfaction and obedience required by Law. The same Divine Being who gave the Law also gave the Gospel. No inconsistency or change in Him. II. Consider the direct assertion of the text—that the righteousness of Christ magnifies the Law and makes it honourable. Gospel teaching does not set aside the Law or subvert moral obligations. In preaching justification through grace, we establish, confirm, and honour the Law. For we announce a salvation provided by God, in which He is well pleased; which satisfies every legal demand; makes the sinner secure; and infinitely glorifies the Divine character. 1. The Gospel honours and magnifies the Law by the voluntary obedience of Jesus. The Law is honoured by the obedience of angels, would have been honoured by man’s obedience; but the submission and obedience of Christ magnifies it even more highly. 2. By the voluntary sufferings of Jesus. If all the transgressors of the Law had been punished, the Law would have been honoured. It was more honoured when God Himself consented to bear its penalties. Christ’s sufferings the same in nature as those which unpardoned sinners endure. Those sufferings were a perfect satisfaction to the violated Law (H. E. I. 377–383). 3. By requiring every sinner, as a condition of pardon, to acknowledge his guilt in breaking the Law, and his desert of condemnation under its sentence. 4. In the new obedience rendered by those whose hearts have been renewed. These the truths which the apostles preached, for which the Reformers died, without which the Gospel cannot triumph over error and sin.—Stephen H. Tyng, D.D.: The Law and the Gospel, pp. 374–390. SIN A SPOILER Isaiah 42:22. But this is a people robbed and spoiled. When the unsuspecting traveller is waylaid, overcome by superior force and plundered; when a house is broken into and all its valuables carried off; when a country is overrun by hostile armies, devastated and pillaged, we cry out against such outrages, and pity the poor victims. Shall we be moved by wrongs like these, and yet be indifferent to the far more fearful robbery and spoliation which we have suffered through sin? Shall we continue to harbour and encourage the spoiler, who is snatching from us our most valuable possessions, nay, is even making a prey of ourselves? It is sad to contemplate the havoc which sin has made upon our nature. But it is necessary to have a right estimate of the extent to which we have suffered. Deep convictions of the reality, nature, and consequences of sin are essential to a proper appreciation of the blessings of the gospel. We are not left in doubt as to the cause of Israel’s degradation. The question is put and answered in Isaiah 42:24. There is the explanation of the misery and ruin in which the people were involved. It would have been a small matter had the invaders only spoiled them of their possessions, but they themselves became a prey. The condition to which they were reduced is a good example and representation of the consequences of sin. Let us contemplate the ravages of this spoiler in the light of the words before us:— I. Sin robs us of peace. It is a truth which we cannot evade, that as soon as a man commits a sinful act he has introduced into his life an element of unrest and misery. He has broken down the walls which protected him on every side, and now the forces of evil assail him unopposed. In this respect every sin bears a resemblance to the first sin. The guilty pair in Eden sought concealment among the trees, but it was an unavailing refuge. God brought them forth for conviction and sentence. There is no peace to the wicked. He has leagued against himself penal forces which cannot be resisted. What is here said of Israel is true of him, “they are snared in holes.” In the false refuges to which the guilt-stricken soul betakes itself, it is “snared and taken.” Sin most surely finds out the sinner. He becomes a prey to the wicked deeds which he has committed. We have heard of man-traps and spring-guns being fixed with wires in such a manner that when a wire was trod upon, a gun wheeled round, and shot or wounded the intruder. Such are the dangers which beset the sinner as he pursues his lawless course. How can there be any peace or security in such a case? The moment we sin, God delivers us over to the spoilers, who track our steps, and give us no peace (H. E. I. 4603–4612). II. Sin robs us of liberty. Under the plausible pretext of giving us liberty, it takes it from us. (2 Peter 2:19.) Men think that by indulging evil desires they widen the bounds of their freedom, but soon they find themselves degraded slaves (H. E. I. 4482–4484). They think it a fine thing to be allowed to do as they like, but ere long they become the captives of their sinful likings. We all know the enchaining power of habit. Sin is a hardening thing, but it is also cunning, deceitful, insidious (Hebrews 3:13). “Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird,” but foolish man rushes into the net. He harbours the thief who will plunder him of his choicest treasures, and deprives him of his liberty. He dallies with the deceiver, till he is fast in its clutches. Priding himself on his freedom, he finds it only a freedom to do evil, a freedom from law, while he has lost the power of doing good. Milton speak of those “Who bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,And still revolt when truth would set them free:License they mean when they cry Liberty!”III. Sin robs us of moral power and influence. Righteousness is bold, fearless, strong; but disobedience is weak and cowardly. A holy and upright life is an influence for good. The man who walks with God, who is much with Him in secret communion, reflects the heavenly rays that fall upon his own soul, and becomes a light and a guide to others. But once admit sin into the heart, and his moral power is so far lost. He no longer looks with reproving eye on the sins of other men, for he has allowed the spoiler to enter his own heart and to sap his spiritual strength. Take Samson as an example. Revealing to his temptress the secret of his strength, and suffering his locks to be shorn, he thought he might go forth as at other times and shake himself free of his assailants; but he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. He is a type of thousands who have been spoiled through sinful indulgence of their moral power. This result is brought about in a gradual, imperceptible way, just as a disease may for long have its seat in the system before it reveals itself outwardly; but meanwhile the man’s strength is declining. The sin you indulge may be unknown to the world, but there will be a something in your life and demeanour which will betray a hidden weakness, a waning power, a flagging zeal (H. E. I. 4491–4495). IV. Sin robs us of sensibility. A long course of wickedness deadens the moral sense, makes men think lightly of sin, and even disregard the divine threatenings and judgments (Isaiah 42:21.). What spiritual blindness sin has wrought! what gross insensibility! The fire closes round him, yet he cares not. God contends with him, but conscience is so seared and deadened that nothing can rouse it. See, then, what sin can do. It can so rob and spoil us as to leave us destitute of any feeling to which either God’s love or wrath can appeal. These are some of the treasures of which sin robs us. It opens so many doors by which spoilers enter. The theft may be perpetrated in a stealthy, secret way, so that for a time the sinner is not aware of his loss, nay, may be deluded with the notion that he is a gainer, and not a loser; but soon the deception is discovered when he finds that for a few glittering toys he has bartered away his choicest endowments, that the prowlers whom he never suspected have made off with his most precious treasures. Our subject presents a true picture of man’s state; but a man may be robbed and not be aware of it. Some precious article may be surreptitiously taken from his house, and not be missed for a long time. So it is with the unawakened sinner. He knows not that he has been harbouring thieves who have carried off his substance and robbed him of his spiritual possessions. If he set any value on these things, he would soon see his destitution; but, pleased with trifles, he knows not his loss (Revelation 3:17). Our first need, then, is to be convinced that we have been robbed and spoiled. Reflect, O sinner, on the state to which Satan has reduced you, the prey which sin has made of you. Look up to God—no peace, no communion, but a sentence ready at any moment to be carried into execution. Look into your own heart, where corruption is weaving its cords around you. But can the stolen goods be recovered? So far as human help goes we are helpless; “none saith, Restore.” But there is One who can arrest the spoiler and bring back the lost treasures. If stung by the nettle, you have not far to look for the leaf that eases the pain (Isaiah 42:21). Christ has said, “Restore: stop thief,” and invites us to the enjoyment of the dignity and riches we have forfeited (Romans 5:1; Colossians 1:20; Romans 3:22-26; John 8:32; Galatians 5:1; Zechariah 12:10).—William Guthrie, M.A. THE OF THE JEWS AN TO THE WORLD Isaiah 42:23-25. Who among you will give ear to this? &c.I. The desolation brought upon the Jews. Terrible. Sent upon them by God. Defeated after their rejection of the Messiah. It continues to this day. II. The justice of the sentence that is gone forth against them. III. Their insensibility under these judgments. They do not see the sentence which, in evil hour, their own ancestors pronounced against them: “His blood be on us and on our children!”—and on them it hath been. This is the awful curse under which they are now drooping and groaning (H. E. I., 143). IV. An appeal arising out of this awful dispensation as applicable to ourselves. The whole history of the Jews is intended to be an admonition to us. Sharing in their sins, we shall certainly share in their chastisements.—R. C. Dillon, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 72–103. BY SIN Isaiah 42:25. And it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. One of the most evil results of sin is, that it hardens and deadens the soul. When persisted in it goes beyond the stage of arousing anxiety and alarm; it stupefies and benumbs, so that a man gets “past feeling.” What a pitiable object does he become who is so under the influence of poison that he is no longer himself! Fire burns him, yet so insensible is he, that where a healthy man would be active in self-defence, he lays it not to heart (H. E. I., 4535, 4540). We take the meaning of the text to be, that the corrupt part of Israel had become so depraved by their sins that they were not to be roused even though they witnessed the judgments of God inflicting upon the nation the just penalties of their rebellions: “they laid it not to heart.” It matters not whether we regard the judgment as a special interposition of God or as a natural result of sin, the doctrine is frequently illustrated in human experience. All sin carries with it a fire that burns the sinner; yet we see instances in which the sinner has been previously so hardened that he lays it not to heart, and the fire goes on burning him. E.g.,— 1. The fire of Covetousness takes hold upon some men. The just desire to secure a fitting recompense for honest effort is here distorted into a consuming fire of avarice. How seriously it deadens all the higher faculties of their nature. Selfishness is the centre of their life, and there they live in the midst of one raging desire, the desire for possessions, to the exclusion of God and divine things. Ponder this picture of insensibility as drawn by Christ’s own hand (Luke 12:15-21). 2. The fire of Lust does deadly damage upon others. Here the lurid flames of unholy passion obtain the mastery where God’s temple should be (1 Corinthians 6:19). The powers of body and mind sink down in debasement under the tyranny of this ruinous vice. 3. The fire of Intemperance has a destructive hold upon tens of thousands. And how insensible its victims become! Draw the too well known and familiar picture of a drunkard’s life, and a drunkard’s home. Health, property, reputation, comfort, all drop away: wife and family are debased; yet, whilst poverty and ruin are creeping over the scene, he can look upon it all with astonishing indifference. The fire burns him and his, yet he lays it not to heart. These instances suggest many others. How fearfully true it is that men can live in such flames as these, and not lay it to heart. They remain insensible— 1. To all Warning. 2. To most Impressive Examples in the fate of others. 3. To most Agonising Convictions which now and then haunt even themselves. .—Where fire is concerned, prompt, earnest, and wise attention is the duty of the moment. If there be some feeling left, begin with that, and lay hold of recovering help.—William Manning. WORDS FOR THE Isaiah 43:1-3. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, &c.These cheering words were addressed by God to His peculiar people the Jews; but He has a peculiar people now, and all who partake of their faith and love may consider this Scripture as written for the purpose of imparting comfort and strength to their troubled hearts. It suggests four subjects for consideration: the afflictions to which the people of God are liable; the exhortation addressed to them; the promises by which it is strengthened; and the arguments by which it is enforced. I. Compared with the miseries they have deserved, or with the weight of glory reserved for them, the afflictions of God’s people are light (H. E. I. 3703, 3704); but in other points of view, they often appear sharp and heavy. The text implies, 1, that these afflictions are certain; that they not only may come, but will come. It speaks of them as things of course (H. E. I. 47–55, 3674). 2. That they may be great; deep as rivers, dangerous as rapid torrents. 3. That they may be greatly diversified. They may be in the waters to-day, and may have deliverance, but to-morrow they may have to walk through the fire and the flame; to endure trials which are unexpected and strange, and far more severe and bitter than any they have previously experienced. II. How suitable and encouraging is the exhortation which is here addressed to us: “Fear not.” 1. The power and greatness of Him from whom it proceeds gives to it a force which it would not otherwise possess. It comes from the only Being in the universe who can bless a sinner, or whom he has cause to fear. 2. The natural tendency of our trials is to excite fear. This fear may be innocent; it may lead us to avoid them, if God will, and if not, it will move us to circumspection and prayer. Such a fear our Saviour manifested in Gethsemane. 3. But there is a fear of another kind, and this we are here called on to lay aside: a fear which is the effect of unbelief, and the cause of murmurings, despondency, and wretchedness; a fear which tempts us to choose sin rather than affliction, which provents us from praising God under our trials, and from trusting Him to bring is out of them. III. This exhortation God supports and strengthens by two most gracious promises. 1. He promises His own presence with us in our trials. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee” (H. E. I. 198–202, 3677). 2. He promises us preservation under all our calamities. “When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” What does this imply? That our trials shall not injure us. In proportion as they tend to become temptations, grace will be ministered to us, and they shall not overthrow us. Nay more; the very calamities which appeared likely to destroy every spiritual grace within God’s people, to overwhelm their patience, their confidence and love, are made the very means of displaying and brightening them all (H. E. I. 204–214). By calling the suffering graces of His people into exercise, He will render them invincible. He will enable them to pass through rivers of trouble as safely as His beloved Israel passed through the Red Sea, and cause the fires of affliction to play as innocently around them as they played around His three servants in the furnace at Babylon. IV. In the greatness of His condescension, God vouchsafes to add to His precious promises several arguments to assure us of their fulfilment. 1. The first is drawn from the relation in which He stands to us as our Creator. “Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel.” He created us naturally, and has re-created His people spiritually (Isaiah 43:21; Ephesians 2:10). Here, then, is a solid ground of confidence. The Father of our spirits must be well acquainted with our infirmities and weakness (Psalms 103:13-14; Isaiah 63:9). Neither will He ever forsake the work of His own hands. He raised us out of the ruins of the Fall, made us temples in which He delights to dwell and be worshipped; and He will never suffer the structures which He has erected at so much labour and cost to be thrown down by violence, or worn away by storms (Psalms 138:8; 1 Peter 4:19). 2. The Almighty draws another argument from the property which He has in His people and the manner in which He acquired it. “Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” We are His by redemption also. And what a mighty price did He pay for us! He gave “Egypt for the ransom” of His ancient people, “Ethiopia and Seba for them.” But when we were to be redeemed, kingdoms and empires were too poor a ransom (Romans 8:32; Acts 20:28). Hence He estimates us, not by what we are, but by what we have cost Him. Will He abandon that which cost Him so dear? (Zechariah 2:8). 3. The covenant which God has formed with His people ensures the fufilment of His promises. “FOR I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour;” thus implying that He has entered into some engagement with His Israel; that He considers Himself bound to be with them in their troubles and distresses; that His own veracity and faithfulness are at stake, and would be sacrificed if Israel were forsaken or injured. . 1. How rich in consolation is the Word of God! 2. How essential to our happiness is a knowledge of our interest in the divine promises (H. E. I. 306–308). 3. How full of confidence and praise ought they to be, who live in the enjoyment of the divine presence in the hour of trouble! It is tranquillising and sweet to have a beloved friend near us when our sorrows are multiplied upon us, but what is the presence of the dearest earthly friend, when compared with the presence of a sympathising God! 4. How blind to their own interest are they who reject the gospel of Christ!—Charles Bradley: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 266–285. I. The most eminent piety, the most exalted privileges, form no ground of exemption from the heaviest trials.—God, by His prophet, in this chapter multiplies descriptions of the character and dignity of His people, and yet in the same breath speaks of the severe trials that await them. The people of God have had to pass through severe trials; not merely to hear about them, &c., but to endure them. Abraham (Genesis 22:2). Jacob (Genesis 37:32). Martha and Mary (John 11:1, &c.) 1. Let us not presume upon exemption from them (H. E. I. 234–236, 3361, 3674). 2. Let us not wonder if trial increases in weight and severity. This may be intimated in the text—waters, rivers; fire, flame. There is an ascent in the path of suffering, a graduated scale of sorrow. Trials are proportioned according to our strength; to our missing the improvement of former calamities; to our insensibility to chastisements (Amos 4.) II. The supports which God furnishes are equal to the utmost emergency in which we can be placed. “I will be with thee.” Enough!1. Enough to temper the excess of trial, and to enable us to bear up under it. The text engages that the trial shall not reach beyond a certain point: “they shall not overflow thee.” Our supports shall be in every way equal to our necessity. Mr. Cecil says: “I shall never forget the encouragement when standing by the dying bed of my mother. I asked her, ‘Do you not tremble at entering an unknown world, not knowing what you shall meet there? ‘It is no matter what I shall meet there,’ was her answer; ‘He hath said, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee’ ” (H. E. I. 198, 3677). 2. Enough to sanctify the calamities to the promotion of our highest interest (H. E. I. 215, 3696–3701). III. The promise of support is as certain as the trial is inevitable (Numbers 23:19). “I will be with thee,” &c. Apprehended, this promise induces resignation, prayer, commitment to God, hope.—Samuel Thodey.I. The character of the people to whom this promise is made. “Jacob,” “Israel.” II. What God has done for them in time past; or what are the steps which He has taken to make them what they are. He has created them; He has redeemed them; He has called them by their names. Therefore He calls them His; “Thou art mine.” III. What He promises to do for them in time to come.—Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 136–156. We have here God’s redemption, calling, and adoption of His people set forth as a ground of fearlessness in danger, and of comfort in the season of greatest distress.—Charles Neat: The Protestant Preacher, vol. iii. pp. 383–390. GROUNDS OF IN GOD Isaiah 43:1-2. But now thus saith the Lord, &c.I. Here we have four distinct grounds of confidence in God. 1. Our creation: “Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel; fear not.” 2. Our redemption: “For I have redeemed thee.” 3. Our calling: “I have called thee by thy name.” 4. Our adoption: “Thou art mine.” Are not all these the very strongest grounds of confidence in God? 1. Shall we not trust in Him who created us? The ungodly indeed can derive no confidence from the consideration of God having formed them; their relation to Him renders their rebellion against Him an incalculable evil (H. E. I. 4488–4489). A man must be renewed and reconciled to God before his creation can be judged a proper ground of confidence in Him. But it should be rested on by those who have received the atonement. Is it possible that He who made you, and whose forfeited favour as your Creator has been restored to you, can ever leave you or forsake you? Shall He become the Father of your spirits, and suffer your spirits, and souls, and bodies to perish? 2. If creation is a ground of confidence in God to them who are reconciled to God and bear His image, what must redemption be? What a magnificence of love, grace, mercy, compassion, holiness, and justice do we behold in this wonderful transaction! Is it to be supposed that redeeming mercy, surmounting every obstacle to the salvation of a sinner, can suffer you, in all the helplessness of your corrupted nature, to be driven to and fro with every wind of passion, and at last to be destroyed for ever! No! if you would calculate the extent of the divine assistance offered to the people of God, you must calculate upon the scale of redemption (H. E. I. 4631–4632; P. D. 3204). 3. In calling you by His grace, God has given you a personal interest in the redemption of His Son, and in all the blessings of His salvation. The unspeakable condescension, friendship, and tenderness which God in this heavenly calling manifests are strikingly declared here: “I have called thee by thy name.” When you call each other by your proper names, you do not by this signify more familiarity, benignity, and confidence than God does in calling you by them. He speaks to you, as to Abraham His friend; when He addressed Abraham by name, He did not feel more love for him than He feels for you day by day, continually. Why should you fear, whom He calls by your names? He has thus made your redemption and all its blessings His personal concern. 4. He who has called you by your names has adopted you into His family. “Thou art mine,” my servant, my child, mine heir, the heir of mine everlasting kingdom. What can be a higher ground of confidence in God than adoption into His family, than the endearing and exalting relation of a child? What condescension and mercy in God, thus to select one of the tenderest relations in life, by which to illustrate the nature of His love to us! (Isaiah 49:15). II. On these grounds God exhorts His people to display a fearless fortitude when they are exposed to trials: “Fear not.” III. In order to render it easier for them to manifest the courage which His children may well be expected to display, He adds gracious promises which should be to them a pillar of fire, to illuminate, guide, keep, and cheer them in the wilderness, or in the deep waters, through which their passage to a better country has been marked out for them: Isaiah 43:2. Right on to the end, they shall have His presence and protection.—Miles Jackson: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 233–257. Those relations of God to man which form the groundwork of the believer’s obligations, are in this passage adduced as the foundations of his confidence and peace; and this fact shows, further, that the two must stand or fall together. Men should think of this before they seek to lower the strict requirements of God’s law. We can only lower our estimate of what we ought to do for God, by first lowering our estimate of what God has done for us, and so stripping from our faith all that now raises it into heights above our reach, and depths beyond our fathoming. God is your Creator, Preserver, Saviour, King. These are the very grounds of the assured confidence of which the prophet speaks. Consider— I. THE CHARGE GIVEN—“Fear not.” The quality of fear is described in the Scriptures under various aspects. Thus it is spoken of sometimes as a feeling to be exercised. “Be not highminded, but fear;” and again as a thing to be avoided, “Fear not.” There is the coward’s fear, which cannot bear the very sight of danger. Such is the fear that makes a man shrink from examining into the true state of his soul before God, and that makes men hide from themselves the thought of death. There is another kind of fear, which never shows itself till the time of actual trial comes; beforehand, it is arrogant and boastful, but sinks into despondency and despair when it is put to the test. God’s people are free from both of these; they are deeply conscious alike of their danger and of the inadequacy of their own strength to meet it: but they stand fast, “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” A righteous, godly fear, the believer has; but the cowardice of the world, which is loud to boast, and slow to act, and quick to doubt, he must never know. It becomes neither the dignity of his calling, nor the faithfulness of his God. The believer and the unbeliever are sharply separated in respect of the objects of their fear. The timid child and the courageous man both have fear; but the one fears a shadow: the other, that which, not to fear, would show the absence of a reasonable courage. What things ought we to fear? Shall we fear the opposition and hatred of the world; those who can injure the body, but cannot touch the soul; pain, or sickness, or temporal misfortune? Those may do so who make this world their all, but not the believer, who recognises in them the medicines of the soul. Shall we fear the devil? Not with God on our side. Or death? Not so; for it is the gate of higher life, and introduces us to life’s crown of glory. He who fears God need know no other fear. Such fear is not a base naked terror; it becomes a wondering reverence, and loses itself in love; for He is not against His people, but for them; “Fear not, for I am with thee.” But the absence of this fear makes everything else fearful. II. THE REASON . “Thou art mine.” These words were spoken to Israel after the flesh; yet, as the relations named—Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour—are not peculiar to them, but are realised by every believing heart, every believer may take to himself his share in this animating promise; for all these relations are adduced, not as reasons for anything we are to pay to God, but as reasons for that which we are to receive from Him,—they form the ground of our confidence (Psalms 119:94). The certainty of our hope does not depend on our holding God, but on God’s holding us; it is not in our power to realise His promise at all times, but we may rest on the immutability of that promise (2 Timothy 2:13). The believer’s hope is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” To see to what a strong rock that anchor holds, turn your thoughts to the relationship spoken of in these words, “I am thy Creator, thy Redeemer, thy Saviour;” “I have called thee by thy name,” words which imply a personal, immediate interest. All is His work; the goodness which created, the grace which has quickened, corrected, strengthened, taught, sanctified, has all come from Him! III. THE (Isaiah 43:2). This does not consist of any absence of trial and danger; the expressions of the text rather imply their presence, many in number, and varied in kind (Psalms 69:1-2). No extraordinary interposition will preserve the child of God from those miseries “to which man is born as the sparks fly upwards.” The protection promised consists in the constant presence with the soul of its unseen but Almighty Saviour (Psalms 16:8; Hebrews 13:5-6). .—Contrast the condition of the believer, and of the unbeliever. Affliction is the lot of all; but while a man loses nothing, in the calculation of earthly happiness, by becoming a follower of the Saviour, in the calculation of heavenly happiness he gains all. There is more sunshine, even in this world, to the righteous than to the unrighteous. Both have to share the “ills that flesh is heir to;” but what a difference in the strength of the two to meet them! If for a moment the Christian’s heart sinks, then the promise comes back to him like a refreshing breath from above—“Fear not; for I have redeemed thee.”—Edward Garbett, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 204–222. DIVINE CONVOY Isaiah 43:2. When thou passest through the waters, &c.I. THE PATHWAY THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE CALLED TO TREAD. Through waters and fires; used in the Scriptures as emblems of troubles and sorrows (Acts 14:22). 1. Temporal troubles. You can scarcely look into the narrowest circle of your acquaintance without finding sorrows, losses, cares, broils, contentions, all the fruits of sin (H. E. I. 47–51). 2. Spiritual troubles. Consciousness of utter inability to comply with the demands of the fiery law. Satan’s suggestions and temptations. The troubles of life are— 1. to the ungodly, judicial punishments; 2. to God’s people, fatherly corrections, or trials of their faith (1 Peter 1:7; H. E. I. 66–70; 3678–3684). II. THE POWER THAT BEARS THEM ALONG. “I will be with thee.” Two views may be taken of this precious promise: there is such a thing as God being with His people, and they not knowing it; and there is such a thing as their sensible enjoyment of it. 1. God never deserts the objects of His love. But there have been many instances in which His people have had added to their trials the terrible fear that He had deserted them (Lamentations 3:8; Psalms 77:7-9; Job 23:8-9; H. E. I. 1644–1657). 2. But to those who humbly wait upon Him, He reveals His presence with them; and in that they find all they need to sustain them, and heaven begun below. III. THE WHERE THE PATHWAY OF GOD’S PEOPLE WILL END. It is a mercy that the promise is “when thou passest through,” not merely into. God’s elect pass through waters and rivers, fires and flames, but they get to the other side. And what is found there? The rest that remaineth for the people of God (H. E. I. 2792, 2793; P. D. 1784).—Joseph Irons: Grove Chapel Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 289–299. I. THE WATERS AND RIVERS WHICH ARE IN THE ’S WAY. [1393][1393] In most parts of our country, ingenuity and labour have been employed to lessen the fatigues and remove the dangers of travelling. Roads are cut through woods and morasses, and over mountains; inns are established; and bridges are thrown over rivers and brooks. But in countries which are thinly inhabited, or into which the improvements of modern times have not been introduced, travelling is full of danger and of toil. The stranger, if he has not a guide, is in perpetual uncertainty, is harassed by apprehensions; and if he reach his destined place, it is not till he is almost exhausted by fatigue, and after many hair-breadth escapes. At one time, he is almost faint with hunger; at another, he is parched with thirst; at another, either benumbed with the cold, or scorched by the heat, or overpowered by the severity of the storm, before he can reach a place of shelter, or find the necessary refreshments of nature. Now, he knows not at what place he shall enter the forest, to avoid being torn by the briars and thorns, or entangled in some impenetrable thicket. Then, he hesitates whether the thick mire be not too deep for him, or the marshy ground may not sink beneath his feet. In a little while he is distressed how he shall, by the best and easiest path, ascend the steep and woody mountain; or how, in descending, he shall avoid the precipices which appear below. Again, he arrives at the banks of some deep and rapid river, or approaches some torrent descending from the mountains, and swelled by the winter floods; and how he shall descend, and where he shall pass through, and whether the waters be fordable, or the streams be not too rapid, are questions which distress his mind and fill him with anxiety and fear. Many such impediments were in the traveller’s way; and to many such hazards was he exposed in Canaan, and especially in the countries adjacent, many of which were mountainous and waste. On this account, frequent allusions to this state of things are made by the Spirit of God in scripture, especially in describing the Christian life. The Christian is represented as a man travelling through the waste howling wilderness to Immanuel’s land.… Many a mountain of difficult duty has he to ascend, and many a steep of painful suffering has he to descend on his way to his heavenly home. Many waters of deep distress, which sometimes rush unexpectedly upon him, like torrents from the mountains, and threaten to sweep him away into destruction, has he to pass through.—Peddie. “Waters” and “rivers” are employed metaphorically in two opposite senses. Because, in a warm climate especially, waters are so necessary to allay the thirst of man, and to cool and invigorate the body enfeebled by excessive heat, and are so calculated to beautify the landscape and to diffuse fertility, everything that is comfortable and joyous is shadowed forth by “waters,” “rivers,” “streams” (Isaiah 41:18). But in other places, as here, by “waters” and “rivers” we are to understand afflictions and tribulations; because waters, which are so beneficial, when in over-abundance are so noxious; and because he who has to pass through them has a difficult and hazardous task to perform, and he who is plunged into them is in imminent risk of his life. 1. The waters of affliction are numerous. The Christian in his progress towards heaven has not one river only to pass through; there are many, including the Jordan, that lie between him and that happy land (Psalms 34:19; H. E. I. 3661, 3674). 2. They are often deep. Every stream is not a brook; there are rivers as well as rivulets; and all afflictions are not “light.” The stream is easily passed over in summer months, or when the sky is serene and settled, compared with what it is in the midst of winter, or when it overflows its banks in consequence of the descending torrents. When it goes well with the soul, and the Christian walks “in the light of God’s countenance,” and “in the fellowship of Christ,” and “in the comforts of the Holy Ghost,” the waters of trouble are easily forded; they seem not half so deep as at other times when the heavens above, as well as the things on earth, frown upon him. The union of many streams occasions a greater depth of water than can be found in any of them singly; and how deep must be the affliction of that saint who meets with combined distress of body and of soul (Psalms 42:7; Jonah 2:3). 3. They are frequently muddy. When the waters of a river are most plentiful they are usually least limpid, and the traveller who has to pass through them, besides the uneasiness which he suffers from perceiving their increased quantity, is distressed because he can neither see the bottom nor conjecture their depth. How often in times of affliction is it thus with the saints! The designs of Providence are wrapt up in obscurity. Their eye is unable to discover the reasons of the Divine controversy with them; neither can their anxious minds form any idea of that depth and severity of distress which they must yet suffer before they obtain deliverance. 4. They are in many places broad. The river is often confined by the height of its banks within a narrow channel, and whatever be the difficulty of passing through, the traveller soon reaches the further side; but at other times it spreads itself out to a great extent, and it is not till after many a weary step that he reascends to the dry land. The waters of affliction often extend over a great space (Psalms 90:15; Psalms 88:15). It is no small addition to trouble of any kind, when it is lengthened out. The soul is ready to faint because of its continuance; faith, patience, and hope are ready to die out (Psalms 13:1-2). Indeed in no case can we see the further bank of the river of trouble. A mist hangs over it. When we enter it; we can never say how long it will be before we reascend out of it. This only we know, that when the journey of life is finished, we shall be delivered out of all tribulation, and “the days of our mourning shall be ended.” 5. They are at certain seasons exceedingly rapid. They sometimes descend upon the saint with all the rapidity of a torrent, and ere he is aware he is in the midst of great distress. As in Job’s case, the messengers of woe come running unto us at a time when all is quiet, and we looked for joy (Job 30:14; Job 30:26; Job 30:31). Even when the soul enters the stream with full warning of what it is to meet with, it is often found more rapid than was supposed, and descends with a force which it is not easy to sustain (H. E. I. 54, 55). II. THE PASSING THROUGH THE WATERS. 1. There is no getting to heaven without passing through the waters. The heavenly land, like Canaan to Abraham when he dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, “lies beyond the flood,” and through this we must pass before we can enter in and possess it. Affliction is the portion of saints in this world. Each of them in his order seems to say with Jeremiah, “I am the man that hath seen affliction.” The Great Head of the Church Himself passed through many waters of tribulation (Isaiah 53:3). 2. Some saints on their way to heaven pass through more rivers of trouble than others. Travellers who set out to the same place from different parts of the country pass through tracts different in their form and scenery, and some meet with rivers which others avoid. The Lord, in wisdom and sovereignty, diversifies the lot of His people. 3. The travellers to Zion pass through the same waters at different stages of their journey. The rivers wind. Hence they are met by the travellers from different parts at earlier or later periods, at greater or less distances. Let us not take it for granted that because we have never experienced trials against which others have had to contend, therefore we shall never meet with them. 4. Through the very same waters of affliction the Christian in his journey has often more than once to pass. We ought not to imagine that, because we have been in any particular period afflicted in a certain manner, we shall no more experience that distress. The waters through which you have already passed may wind about, and you may have to pass through them yet again. Never think yourself secure against any one trial, temptation, or affliction, while you are so far from the house of your heavenly Father. 5. The Christian, in passing through the waters and the rivers, much needs a guide and helper. Without one, he could never pass through them in safety. His own wisdom, courage, and strength are utterly unable to resist the impetuosity of the torrents that assail him. His fellow-Christians need the same assistance as himself. His help can come only from Him who says here: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” III. THE OF GOD DURING THE ’S PASSAGE THROUGH THE WATERS. 1. It is the presence of God Himself which is promised. Not merely by means of instruments. The Lord has more love to His people than to leave any of them to pass through the waters with no other comforter or helper than the best of men, or even the greatest angels. Their wisdom, power, and grace are finite, limited, and insufficient for an undertaking so arduous. He has therefore promised to be with them, and this is everything. 2. It is the special presence of God which is promised to be with them. By His essential presence God fills heaven, earth, and hell, upholding and governing all things. But if the promise has any meaning or comfort in it, it is a promise of special presence; a promise of His presence as a God of grace and love. How big with comfort, help, and deliverance is our text when thus understood! In the time of trouble, we wish our friends to be near us. Yet, often their sympathy cannot remove our anguish, nor their help effect our deliverance. But when we have God with us, He can do for us all we need. 3. It is the presence of the Lord in all distresses which is here promised. Were there one river through which a saint had to pass in which he had not reason to expect the Divine presence, he would have cause to be afraid. But as His presence is intended for the consolation and salvation of His people, the promise reaches to every kind of distress. 4. It is His presence at all times which is promised. He is not like a stranger who occasionally appears for the relief of those who are struggling with the stream, and are ready to be swept away by it. No, He abides with His people (Isaiah 54:10; Psalms 138:7). 5. The promise guarantees the presence of God with all the saints when passing through the waters. Partialities are unknown with our God. He loves all His children, and He will provide deliverance for them all. If this promise was made for any, it was for them that especially need His presence and help. The more helpless thou art in thyself, the greater is the evidence that He intended it for thee. IV. THE HAPPY OF GOD’S WITH THE SAINTS WHEN THEY PASS THROUGH THE WATERS. 1. He guides and directs them. It is His general promise to His people: “I will guide thee with mine eye;” and if there is any season in which they need Divine counsel and heavenly guidance, it is in the season of distress. But then He gives it to them as He did to Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:12; H. E. I. 176). 2. He comforts them (H. E. I. 202; P. D. 93). 3. He sanctifies to them the waters of affliction. Since God is with him, the swelling waters purify the believer, and cannot destroy him; they fit him for heaven, and cannot prevent his progress to it. Many, besides David, instead of suffering by affliction, have come up out of the waters “like flocks of sheep which go up from the washing” (H. E. I. 116). 4. He strengthens them to pass through the waters. Cry then unto Him (Psalms 20:1-2). 5. He delivers them from the waters. They cannot deliver themselves. But they are not therefore lost in the deep waters (Psalms 34:6). Deliverance comes not always as soon as they desire it; but it comes in due season; it never comes too late. In the most unexpected moment, in the most unexpected manner, He appears for their deliverance; so singular is it sometimes that they can scarcely credit it (Psalms 126:1-3). He does not always deliver them from every river into which they enter. He permits some one or other of them to carry them down the stream till they reach the waters of Jordan. But there they do not perish. He gives them victory over death, and by means of this deliverance sets them free from all their troubles.—James Peddie, D.D.: Discourses, pp. 395–424. It is assumed that God’s people will pass through the waters and through the fire. These elements, so useful as friends, so terrible as enemies, represent trouble and distress. Water may be too deep to ford, the practised swimmer may be overpowered. Within the grasp of fire, injury, destruction, death are speedily accomplished. The sufferer is sometimes like one aroused from sleep in a burning house. Despair seizes him. Those who have no God, or whose faith fails to realise His sufficiency, relinquish effort and hope. The antidote is found in God’s all-sufficient promises. Here is one that assures believers of the Divine presence in trouble, and the Divine deliverance from it. I. THE DIVINE IN TROUBLE. What is it in our nature that finds a relief in the presence of a friend in times of deepest sorrow? In the first burst of sorrow, the heart must be left alone. It prefers to be alone. The nearest earthly friend must not intrude on the sacredness of its grief. But the time comes when it craves for sympathy. The presence of a friend, even if no word is spoken, exerts the mysterious influence that brings relief and consolation. At suitable time and in suitable manner, there will be the sympathetic word. Perhaps the substantial aid. Whether or not, there will be the restful feeling of the weak when they depend upon the strong. Your friend’s trouble may have been the hopeless ruin of his fortune. You could do nothing for him. But you made it in your way to call upon him. He will never forget it. He is sick; and time, to the sick, is weariness. You visited him. Dear to Paul the apostle were those friends who were not ashamed of his chain; who visited him in imprisonment and ministered to his wants. It is not merely that there is society to relieve the tedium of solitude, and divert attention from the presence of sorrow. Any one might do that. But more is wanted. A stranger, or one to whom the sufferer is personally indifferent, could not convey the mysterious influence that has help and comfort in it. The comfort comes from the consciousness that the presence is that of a friend. Now, God is the best of friends. It is the privilege of believers to call Him friend. By faith their sins are forgiven. They are reconciled to Him. By His grace they are born again. The old enmity of their hearts is abandoned. Its place has been taken by love. Fellowship with God is the Christian’s joy. His friendship reflects glory on those who are honoured with it. It is this Friend who says, “When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee.” We cannot see Him. Sight is not necessary to the conscious presence of even an earthly friend. The room may be dark, not a word may be spoken, not a sound heard; but we feel that he is there; the influence is the same as if we saw him. God’s conscious presence fills the soul with faith, hope, peace. It is the consciousness of love and sympathy. It is the invisible, secret, gentle power of His Spirit that gives calmness and strength while trouble is pressing most heavily, and while external circumstances are the most distressing. “I will be with thee” (H. E. I. 198, 3677). II. THE DIVINE FROM TROUBLE. If the believer is called to pass through the waters, they shall not overflow him; if he is called to walk through the fire, he shall not be burned, nor shall the flames kindle upon him. Trouble may come: but he shall be brought through at the last. It may seem like a miracle. It is like saying the action of fire and water shall be so controlled that their natural result shall not follow. No difficulty, no trouble is so great that the Lord cannot effect a deliverance; in some unexpected way deliverance shall come. The day is overcast with gloomy clouds; the atmosphere is depressed; the rain comes in torrents; the wind sweeps down houses and trees before it; universal wreck seems impending; when unexpectedly the storm abates, wind and rain cease, the clouds separate, a genial warmth is diffused, the sun shines out, the storm is forgotten. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” He suffers His people to pass through fire and water, not only that He may display His power and love in their deliverance, but often, because the fire and the water lie in their way to some good exceeding what they have ever enjoyed; which, without it, could not have been reached. Sickness is sometimes the pathway to health; temporal calamity to prosperity; sorrow to established Christian character; spiritual distresses to a profounder realisation of spiritual blessings. The cross prepares for the crown. Death is the gate of life. Oh, how many such deliverances are recorded in the sacred history! Joseph from prison. The bush burned, but was not consumed. The children of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Daniel from the lions’ den. The three Hebrew youths in the furnace of fire; but there was one with them “like the Son of God, and therefore upon their bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed.” Fire cannot burn, water cannot drown those whom the Lord preserves. Nothing can prevent the fulfilment of His word. Consider the grounds on which your confidence may repose— 1. His purpose. The salvation of His people from every evil is part of His redeeming plan. Everything is subordinate to this. Hindrances have been swept away. He has spared no expense. “I gave Egypt for thy ransom. Ethiopia and Seba for thee.” He gave His Son. 2. His faithfulness. You can plead His word of promise. The truth of His nature is pledged. He will do as He has said. 3. His love. Is He not thy Father? He loves His children. His heart is set on their salvation. Will not love do all that is necessary? 4. His power. He can sweep away all material and spiritual hindrances that lie in the way. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. But there must be faith. God’s promises are made to faith. The blessing is according to faith. Let your mind rest in the promises in every time of distress, whatever its nature, assured that either He will remove it or overrule it, so that a blessing shall come through it. If there are losses, disappointments, bereavements, soul-troubles, the solemn hour of death, His presence, and His delivering power shall be the sufficient antidote.—J. Rawlinson.God’s grace never shines so brightly as when it shines through the cloud of His people’s sins. Nor does it ever appear so glorious as when displayed in the depth of their unworthiness. When nature is at the lowest, grace is generally at the highest. When God has threatened His people for their sins, or chastened them for their follies, He then generally steps in with some revelation of His grace, or makes some precious promise. This was the case with Israel of old, whom God had visited with sore and terrible judgments; and then, instead of utterly consuming them, He comes forward and says, “When thou passest,” &c. I. THE PILGRIM’S PAINFUL LOT. He has to pass through deep, sore, and successive trials. Persecution, temptations, conflict within. Temporal trials: losses, crosses, disappointments, and vexations. The fire tries the metal, and separates it from the dross, &c. So the believer’s trials refine him, &c. II. THE LORD’S PROMISE. “I will be with thee.” Nothing is so much needed, nothing so much prized by the believer in affliction, as the presence of God. 1. To direct thy steps, for I know all the way. 2. To strengthen thy faith, for I know how weak and feeble it is. 3. To cheer thy heart, for I know all thy sorrows. 4. To secure thy benefit, for I will surely do thee good. 5. To bring thee safely through all, and lead thee safe to glory. .—Our trials will sweeten home. Heaven will make amends for all. Whatever happens, God is still our Father, and we are His beloved children.—James Smith. GOD’S OF HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 43:4. Since thou wast precious, &c.We learn here— 1. That nations and armies are in the hand of God and at His disposal. 2. That His people are dear to His heart, and that it is His purpose to defend them. 3. That the revolutions among nations, the rise of one empire and the fall of another, are often in order to promote the welfare of His Church, to defend it in danger, and deliver it in time of calamity. 4. That His people should put the utmost confidence in Him as being able to defend them, and as having formed a purpose to preserve and save them.—A. Barnes. (A Motto Text for the New Year.) Isaiah 43:5. Fear not, for I am with thee. Again we enter upon the dark of uncertainty. Standing upon the threshold of another year, which we know by experience will have its cares, and its perils, and its sorrows. What is the true antidote of fear? What is the real elixir of the happiness we wish to one another but the presence and protection of the Lord? This He guarantees to us: “Fear not, for I am with thee.” I. FEAR IS NATURAL TO MAN. 1. As a feeble creature in the midst of the irresistible and mysterious powers of the universe. What can allay this fear but the protection of One who can control those forces, who is mightier than they, and will use that might in my behalf? 2. As a sinner, conscious of violations of the law of the Great Ruler, and therefore justly apprehensive of the divine displeasure. The religion of the Bible reveals the Creator as a Saviour, delighting in mercy. Thus the real language of the Bible is, Fear not. To Abraham, Isaac, Joshua, Gideon, &c. In all these exhortations not to fear, the reason given is Jehovah’s presence; but it is that very presence that makes the conscious sinner afraid (Genesis 3:8). Yet in the Bible the presence of God is urged as a dissuasive against fear. Because God is revealed to us as merciful, &c.—in Jesus Christ as the Saviour and the friend of sinners. II. THOSE WHICH RENDER THE OF GOD AN TO FEAR. The power which any one possesses to dissipate fear by his presence depends upon the qualities of that person, his ability and his willingness to help. The character of God is what He is in Himself, what He has already done, and what He has promised to do; it is this which gives force to the exhortation, “Fear not, for I am with thee.” III. SOME OF THOSE TO WHICH THE IS . The first Sabbath of the year. We walk forward in darkness; what that darkness conceals we cannot even conjecture. Fear may suggest various evils. God says, “Fear not, for I am with thee.” To some the year is sure to prove one of severe trial. To some this year will be the last on earth. .—Appeal to those who do not regard the presence of God as the chief element of their joy, as that which chiefly will make the year a happy one.—Newman Hall, LL.B.: The Christian World, January 8, 1864. GOD’S CALL, OUR (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 43:6. I will say to the south, Keep not back. I. THE OF THE SPEAKER. “I will say.” Who is He? The tone He assumes is that of one who need only speak to be heard, felt, and obeyed through all nature. It is He who is the great I AM; in comparison with whom the universe, with all its furniture, is as nothing, &c. Such an agent, such a friend, one so high and unspeakable, suffices you. But what will He say? or, what will He do? He promises to interest Himself in the conversions of the heathen, to bless our attempts for their conversion. How divinely pleasant and supporting! What more do you ask? But how will He speak? Not merely to the understanding, but to the conscience and heart; to all the secret springs of our nature; so as to make converts not to the sect of the Nazarenes, but to righteousness; not to Christianity only, but to Christ. Take two or three instances: St. Matthew, St. Paul. Are you converted to Christ? Without it, perish you must everlastingly (Matthew 18:3, &c.) We see the grandeur of the speaker in these and all similar instances. 1. Does the ineffable JEHOVAH Himself promise to speak in this manner? Then, let us not regret the want of miracles to convert the heathen. The promise suffices alone. What greater miracle than conversion itself? Be content with these miracles, and expect them from Him who says, “I will say,” &c. 2. Does He promise His efficiency in converting the heathen, on the supposition that we become His organ? Then, let us no longer blame Him for the partial communication of the Gospel. As was said by the Israelites to Pharaoh, “The fault is in thine own people.” The Gospel is committed to us in trust. You whisper, “But if success is thus indefinitely assured to Gospel missions, none can fail of effect.” I answer— (1.) None do fail altogether. (2.) The promise in the text, and every similar one, implies that, though God will command success, it shall be through a fit instrument. (3.) God will work in a way worthy His infinite wisdom as well as goodness. Duty is our province; events of time, &c., belong to Him. II. THE GLORY OF THE THING SPOKEN. “I will say to the south.” No particular country is specified. Better so, than otherwise. “The south,” amongst the cardinal points of the world—the east, west, north. In those verses (5, 6) we have a grand promise of universal conversion. “I will say to the south, Keep not back.” This implies— 1. Something divinely tender and affecting. “I am your Maker and Saviour—essential love; and wait upon you, to unite you to myself and to all the flower of being in the universe,” &c. Can infidelity propose a greater good to mankind than the Gospel? 2. He will say to the south as He says to us, “Bring out your dead, deliver up all your vices, keep none of them back.” The design of Jesus Christ is to redeem from all iniquity. 3. That there is a disposition in the south to do the contrary. They have not only the common corruption of our nature to contend with, but the prejudice of ages to keep them back from the Gospel. Then, every exertion on our part is necessary. The natural and strong predilection of the heathen for their own ancient system. In this work nothing can be lost. Nothing less will be gained than eternal glory, for millions upon millions in the South Seas will be won.—T. Prutycross, A.M.: The Pulpit, vol. v. pp. 161–172. GOD’S Isaiah 43:10. Ye are my witnesses. This is what Jesus says to us. He has left His fame in our hands (Acts 1:8). He could have done without us. But He has chosen the weak things to witness as to what He has done and is doing now. I. WHY GOD HAS CHOSEN A FOR THIS WORK. Because— 1. He knows experimentally more of God than any other being. Angels could witness of His majesty and goodness. Devils, of His wrath and justice. All men, of His wisdom. But a child of God, while witnessing to all these, can tell of His forgiving love, &c. 2. He can have no greater joy. 3. On account of our being constantly in the presence of our fellow-men. He would have the world without excuse. II. THE THINGS A MUST POSSESS IN ORDER TO WITNESS FOR CHRIST. 1. Knowledge. 2. Veracity. 3. Consistency. 4. Patience. 5. Boldness, firmness. (H. E. I. 3922–3976). III. THE BEST METHODS CHRIST’S CAN ADOPT. A parade of private devotion? Learned expositions of your creed? Denunciation of your opponents? Seclusion in a hermit’s cell? Nay. But rather— 1. A daily manifestation of heart-loyalty to Christ. 2. A daily feeding on His promises, thus showing contentment and hope. 3. A daily growing in His likeness. 4. The daily display of the graces of His Spirit.—R. A. Griffin: Stems and Twigs, pp. 63. One grand design of God in leaving Christians in the world after their conversion is, that they may be witnesses for Him. It is that they may call the attention of the thoughtless multitude to the subject, and make them see the difference in the character and destiny of those who believe and those who reject the Gospel. I. TO WHAT POINTS ARE TO TESTIFY FOR GOD. Generally they are to testify to the truth of the Bible. They are competent witnesses to this, for they have experienced its truth. But more particularly Christians are to testify— 1. To the immortality of the soul. 2. The vanity and unsatisfactory nature of all earthly good. 3. The satisfying nature and glorious sufficiency of religion. 4. The guilt and danger of sinners. 5. The reality of hell, as a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. 6. The love of Christ for sinners. 7. The necessity of a holy life. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE TO TESTIFY. By precept and example. On every proper occasion by their lips, but mainly by their lives. Because example teaches with so much greater force than precept. They should live in their daily walk and conversation, as if they believed the soul to be immortal, &c. Remarks.— 1. Sinners will never feel right on the subject of religion, unless God’s witnesses rise up and testify. 2. We see why preaching does so little good. 3. The standard of Christian living must be raised. 4. Every Christian makes an impression by his conduct, and witnesses either for one side or the other. 5. It is easy to see why revivals do not prevail.—C. J. Finney: Revivals, Lecture X. ONE LORD AND SAVIOUR (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 43:11. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour. I. This is a declaration that is now needless in many parts of the world. All the civilised nations are convinced that, if there is a God at all, there is only one God. What an intellectual advance! In Isaiah’s time, the monotheists were in a miserable minority. All the great nations had their god or gods. The depressed condition of the worshippers of JEHOVAH seemed to most people a sufficient proof that He was only a god, and a god inferior to others. Sennacherib’s estimate of Him (2 Chronicles 32:10-15, “How much less!”) seemed to have been ultimately justified. The men for whom this prophecy was intended knew that He had not delivered Jerusalem from the power of the worshippers of the Assyrian gods, who ascribed their victories to those gods. Hence it was necessary for them to protest against the belief that JEHOVAH was at the most only a god; to proclaim Him as the only living and true God (Isaiah 43:12). This proclamation was not made in vain. Belief in Him as the only God and Saviour has been spreading ever since. Cured during their exile of their passion for idolatry, the Jews have ever since been His faithful and successful witnesses. The testimony first of those Jews to whom God had revealed Himself in Christ, and then of their converts, consigned to oblivion the gods of Greece and Rome, and has rendered idolatry impossible among the leading races of mankind. What a glorious intellectual advance! And what inestimable moral advances have been its results! II. But it is a declaration that is still needful in many parts of the world. The world is not merely the particular portion of it in which we dwell. We are apt to think so. But we should look beyond the circle in which we are living. When we do so, what do we see? Idolaters—millions of them. Polytheists still outnumber Monotheists. To this fact we must not be indifferent. For us, it is a call to duty. Knowing God, we must make Him known. It is for this purpose that He has mercifully revealed Himself to us (Isaiah 43:10-12). Shall we be silent concerning Him? Zeal for His glory forbids it. Compassion for our fellow-men forbids it. No greater benefit could we confer upon them. If we have no zeal for His glory, no compassion for our fellow-men, how dare we call ourselves God’s people? how can we hope to dwell with Him in blessedness for ever when this short life is over? Mission work is our duty. It would be our duty, if it were as hopeless an enterprise as was Isaiah’s in his own day (Isaiah 6:9-10). But faithful witness-bearing for God has been in this century prolific of glorious results. Results of mission work in the South Seas, Madagascar, &c. So it will be. The task has the allurement of certain success. Let us address ourselves to it vigorously and with glad heart. III. It is a declaration which we may make with even more confidence than did our fathers. The unity of God is being more and more clearly revealed to us. Science is the friend of religion. By it how wonderfully has our conception of the vastness of the universe been enlarged! How completely we have been convinced that it is in a universe we find ourselves, in an immense empire over which one Power rules. Marvellously varied are its provinces, but in each and all the same laws are in operation. Behind all these laws there is one Will (H. E. I. 2222, 3174). Nothing can oppose or evade it with success. The attempt is madness, and ends always in misery. Throughout all the revelations of science, God speaks to us precisely as He does in this chapter: “I, even I, am the Lord, … and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who will turn it back?” Being so much more fully instructed than our fathers were, we should also be more clearly, confidently, and fervently witnesses for God. IV. It is a declaration which we should not only make to others, but should lay to heart ourselves. Wonderful and glorious is the revelation given us in our text. 1. On one side, it is an awful revelation. It is an assertion of absolute authority, under which we must live and act: “I am the LORD!” Science bears especially this testimony, that we are in an empire where law is universally and indiscriminately administered (H. E. I. 3171). In God’s kingdom there is no border-land, such as the strip that divided England and Scotland before the days of the Stuarts, where men may do very much as they please, without fear of government penalties; no realm of lawlessness such as the Highlands of Scotland were in the days of the Stuarts. God’s authority is maintained everywhere; there is not one physical law of His which can be violated or disregarded without mischief. The testimony of Science and of Scripture is one and the same: Sin and suffering are inseparably united. This is as true in the moral and spiritual realm as in the physical; one Lord rules over all! (Numbers 33:23; Proverbs 10:29; Proverbs 11:21; Romans 2:6-9; H. E. I. 3188, 4603–4610.) To this revelation of God let us give heed. Let it govern our conduct. So will temptation be stripped of all its allurements and seductions (H. E. I. 4673–4676, 4754–4757). So we shall travel life’s journey safely. 2. To this revelation there is another side which is indeed a Gospel. Were there no other voice than that of Science to address us, we should shudder as we listened; we are surrounded by so many possibilities of transgression, we are so prone to fall into them, and their results are so disastrous! Conscience would then be only an alarming force; it would haunt us with its testimony that we have already sinned against the Ruler who administers justice so inflexibly, and punishes transgression so relentlessly. But Scripture had another word to add; it reveals Him to us as the SAVIOUR: “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no Saviour!” 1. He is a Saviour. By His very nature. “God is love”—practical love. He cannot behold His children in need, and sit idle; cannot listen unmoved to their cries for help (Exodus 3:7-8; H. E. I. 2303). In every time of trouble let us remember this, and be comforted and strengthened. 2. There is no other Saviour. Experience had been teaching this lesson to the captives in Babylon. When the power of Assyria and Babylon had begun to loom up before them and their fathers, and threatened to enslave and destroy them in their fear and unbelief, they had sought help from human powers, but had sought it worse than in vain (Isaiah 30:1-5, &c.) Is not this a lesson we need to learn! In the time of temporal trouble or of spiritual conflict, how apt we are to look elsewhere than to God! But we look in vain. In neither kind of necessity can we do anything for ourselves (John 15:5; H. E. I. 2358). Nor can our friends help, further than God pleases (Psalms 146:3-4). Nor even in sacred things, apart from God, is there help for us (H. E. I. 3438–3442). In every time of need, let us trust in God only (Psalms 62:5; H. E. I. 172–176.) 3. We need no other Saviour, for He is an all-sufficient Saviour. This was the lesson the poor captives in Babylon needed. Not easy for them to learn it. Their case appeared hopeless. Think how the power of Babylon must have seemed to them (they were far weaker in comparison with it than is Poland now in comparison with Russia); how impossible that they should ever be set free from it! What they needed to be taught was, that in comparison with God, Babylon was nothing, and less than nothing; that when JEHOVAH was pleased to set them free nothing could withstand Him (Isaiah 43:5-6; Isaiah 43:13-17). How completely and gloriously these promises were fulfilled, we know. We also need to learn this lesson. Sometimes our distress is so great, that we are ready to believe that there can be no deliverance from it. But this despair and distrust in God is foolishness (Jeremiah 32:17). The wiles of the devil are so subtle, his assaults so overwhelming, that we are disposed to cease from the conflict as a hopeless one. But again our fear is foolishness (2 Corinthians 12:9; Ephesians 6:10; Romans 8:37; H. E. I. 3363–2376.) In God our Saviour let us rejoice with great joy, and let us hasten to make Him known to our fellow-men, whose needs are as great, whose conflicts are as severe, and whose perils are as terrible as our own. GOD’S Isaiah 43:12. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Catch a view of the picture with which these words are connected, and then let us look at the sentiment in relation to ourselves. God is supposed to be observing the conduct of man in relation to Himself. He sees that almost everywhere He is virtually excluded from His own world, His place usurped by idols. He seems to say, “Shall this state of things be allowed to continue? Am I never to have my due? I will bring this matter to a test. I will assemble the whole world, and will call upon the nations who worship idols to produce their evidence of the deity of these things they worship, and I will call upon my own people to stand forth and give their testimony for Me. I have given you proofs of the reality of my existence; ye are therefore my witnesses. I will confront all idolaters with you, and you shall testify that I am God (Isaiah 43:8-13). I. THE CHURCH, whose internal blessedness is in God, and whose experienced blessedness is from Him, is under obligation to stand forth to the world as giving a perpetual testimony for God. (H. E. I. 3903–3907.) 1. She is able to do this. Having been from the beginning the repository of the sacred documents, she can testify (1) that He gave prophecies which have been fulfilled in her history (Isaiah 43:12); and (2) that He has wrought miracles on her behalf (Isaiah 43:12). 2. She does this— (1) By the very fact of the assembly of her members for worship, she testifies to the world her confidence that “He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (2) By her ordinances—preaching and the sacraments—she bears perpetual testimony with respect to the nature of religion, the condition of man, the claims of God, the principles on which God and man are to be harmonised and reconciled to each other. II. THE may be viewed in the same light. 1. The Christian may sometimes be called to give testimony for God in word, to a friend, or to an enemy (1 Peter 3:15). 2. Special calls may be made upon him to be a witness to God’s faithfulness to His promises, and to the fact that He is the hearer and answerer of prayer (Psalms 18:6; Psalms 34:6; Psalms 66:16). 3. Whether he will or no, by his habitual conduct he bears a testimony to the world as to his real belief concerning God. It ought deeply to impress our conscience that thus we are constantly giving either faithful or unfaithful testimony concerning Him. III. In view of these facts, let us recognise and remember— 1. The honour God has put upon us in thus committing His character into our hands. 2. That thus we are brought into a wonderful resemblance to our Lord Himself. He is termed “the true and faithful Witness.” While He lived on earth He gave such a representation of the character of God that He could say, “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father;” and it should be our ambition, by a close imitation of Him, also to show forth the glory of God, “full of grace and truth.” 3. The obstacles, temptations, and dangers by which we are surrounded, that we may be on our guard against them. 4. The guilt of that professing Christian who by his inconsistencies gives a false witness for God, so that men looking at it can see nothing at all of the Divine character. How often have men of the world been hardened by regarding the false testimony which inconsistent Christians give (H. E. I. 1163, 1164, 4177). 5. The sinfulness of those divisions by which the power of the Church’s testimony on behalf of God is broken (H. E. I. 1225, 2450). 6. The greatness of the reward of faithful witnesses for God (Matthew 10:32). IV. Consider the character, the duty, and the doom of those who render this testimony of the Church necessary. 1. Your character is—opposers of God, deniers of God; refusing His claims and His rights, expelling Him from the very earth He has made. 2. Your duty is immediately to receive the testimony of the Church, and be led by it to an earnest inquiry into the claims of God upon you, and to a penitent, believing acceptance of the salvation He offers you. 3. If you will not do this, your doom will be that God will triumph over you; He will glorify Himself, His power, and His justice in your eternal destruction from His presence (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Psalms 2:10-12).—Thomas Binney.Before a great assembly—all the nations of the earth—the question to be decided is, which out of a host of rival gods is the living and true God? The mode of test is a crucial one, viz., which out of these gods has foretold the future? Plain prophecies are asked for—distinct predictions which could not be ascribed to human sagacity. The gods of the heathen fail; and Jehovah summons His people Israel to attest that the fortunes of their nation had been foretold and had fallen out as predicted (Genesis 15:12-16; Genesis 15:18-21). Christian believers may be regarded as taking the place of ancient Israel; and in the widest sense they may be appealed to as God’s witnesses in the great controversy going on between God and the world. Let us note— I. Some of the questions upon which Christians are called to give evidence in favour of their God.1. One of the first is this: Is there distinct interposition of God on behalf of man, in answer to believing prayer? The world is ready—too ready—to ridicule the idea. “Providence is a blind Fate, impartial alike in its severities and its bounties.” Now, albeit there is the same event to the righteous and to the wicked, the former are ready to testify that in the same events there are distinct differences in God’s dealings. But the precise question is, whether or no God answers believing prayer. How many witnesses might be called to answer, Yes! 2. What are the ultimate results of affliction? The Christian holds that the woes of unbelievers are very different from the chastening sorrows of believers. He believes that he gains by his losses; he is ready to prove it from his own experience. 3. Is the believer’s life a joyful one? What happy people other people must be, if Christians are melancholy! With all their trials they can rejoice in the Lord, and again and again rejoice. 4. The moral tendencies of evangelical Christianity are sometimes called in question. It is thought that the doctrine of free grace tends to make men think lightly of sin. “If God forgives sin so easily, men will sin more and more.” But the world abounds with proofs to the contrary! Men hate sin most at the foot of the cross; they love holiness most when they feel that God has blotted out their sins like a cloud. 5. The Christian religion is sometimes said to be antiquated: “it has had its day.” Now is the time for true believers to vindicate the manliness and force of their faith. They are “God’s witnesses;” can Christianity no longer nourish heroes? Let us teach the world that we retain the old power among us. 6. It is our daily business to witness for God as to whether or no faith in the blood of Jesus Christ really can give calm and peace to the mind. Our hallowed peace must be the proof of that. 7. We shall be called one day to prove whether Christ can help a man to die well or not. A continuous faithful witness will make that last testimony indubitable. II. Some suggestions as to the mode of witnessing. You must witness, if you be a Christian. You are subpœna: You will suffer for it if you do not. 1. As a witness, you are required to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Speak the truth, but let your life be true, as well as your words. 2. Direct evidence is always the best. Second-hand Christianity is one of the worst things in the world. 3. A witness must take care not to damage his own case. Some Christian professors give very telling testimony the other way; but we are God’s witnesses! Let our testimony be clear for Him. 4. Every witness must expect to be cross-examined. “He that is first in his own cause,” says Solomon, “seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.” Therefore, watch! III. There is another witness beside you. “Ye are my witnesses, and my Servant whom I have chosen” (Philippians 2:7-8). Witnesses for God are not solitary (Daniel 3:25; Revelation 1:5). “I am the Truth,” said Christ; in Him was no sin (John 14:30); His witness-bearing was perfect; He witnessed to Divine justice; read Christ’s witness to God’s love (1 John 4:10); He could say—“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” .— 1. Christians, make your lives clear! Be as the pellucid brook—not as the muddy creek. You need not tell men that you love them: make them feel it. 2. Our witness to those to whom this subject does not apply is, Except ye seek God in Christ, ye must perish; but if ye seek Him, He will be found of you.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xi. pp. 445–456. (A Sermon to Young Men.) “Ye,” men of Judah, people of Israel, “are my witnesses”—witnesses that I am, and of what I am. All the nations round about you have corrupted themselves and gone astray, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator. “Ye are my witnesses.” But God has other witnesses:— 1. Nature (Romans 1:20; Acts 14:17). 2. Man’s own soul. Its capacities, its attributes, its aspirations, can neither be explained nor satisfied without God. The world’s greatest want is God. Man is made for God, and without God he cannot be a true and perfect man—his nature will be at once defiled and incomplete, and his experience more that of the animal than of the angel. Sooner far will you succeed in covering the earth with fruitfulness and beauty without light, than make human nature and society bright, pure, and blessed without God. We call on you, then, for your own souls’ sake, for your country’s sake, and for the world’s sake, to become witnesses for God.—In those who would be witnesses for God, three things are necessary:— I. OF GOD. Unless you know Him—not absolutely and perfectly,—that no finite mind, not even Gabriel’s, can do; but as it hath pleased Him to make Himself known in His works and in His Word—you cannot bear witness of Him. If you would know Him truly, you must study the book in which He is revealed; study it as you would a history, a philosophy, or a science which you wish thoroughly to understand (H. E. I. 576–580). II. STRONG FAITH IN GOD AND IN HIS CHRIST. Without such faith, Moses, the apostles, and the martyrs could not have witnessed for God as they did. Nor can you. The morals, practices, and spirit of our age render a deep and abiding faith essential to a stable and successful witnessing for God. Such a faith you cannot have by merely wishing for it. It is born of light and nursed in light. To be of the highest, truest, and strongest order, it must be born of the intellect and the heart. The surest means of begetting it is to have in your own souls the experience of the power of the Gospel to meet all the necessities of your moral nature. To this evidence of experience you should add a comprehensive knowledge of the varied and external evidences of your faith. Thus you will be able to give a reason for the faith that is in you (H. E. I. 1138–1149). III. A WHOLE-HEARTED FOR GOD. “Be a whole man in everything,” said Joseph John Gurney to his son,—“a whole man in the playground, and a whole man in the schoolroom.” We must be whole men in witnessing for God. Vacillation and half-heartedness will make our testimony of none effect. There will be no need of roughness or ruggedness of character in order to all this. Jesus was very gentle. The most prominent Bible examples suggest to us, not the storms and tempest, but the quiet stream, ever deepening and growing, which flows on for ever. Moses, Joseph, the three true-hearted Israelites in Babylon—what they were in the fulness of their purpose to serve the Lord, and in the calm fearlessness with which they fulfilled their purpose, we must be. It is not required of us that, being firm as rocks, we should be as unfeeling. It is only required that we be as the well-rooted oak, which feels the stormy blast and tempest, but sends its roots the deeper, and grows the stronger, from the force which threatens its destruction. Now, with these three things—knowledge of God, strong faith in God, and a whole-hearted decision for God—do you ask what you have to do as witness-bearers? You might almost as well ask what the sun has to do. What but to shine? The influence of the man in whom these three forces dwell will be felt, even if he put forth as little direct effort to make it felt as does the violet when it perfumes the air. And yet the Christian has this great superiority over the sun, which sends forth his light through millions of miles of space, and over the flowers which fill plains and valleys with their fragrance—that he knows what he is and does, and means it all. He may, and does, consciously aim at a character of greater brightness and sweeter fragrance, and at making himself a more efficient instrument of the divine beneficence to mankind (H. E. I. 1089–1095). With such aims and endeavours, “How shall he bear witness for God?” He will connect himself with a Christian church; he will take part in the common labours of the church; in the business of life he will be honest and honourable; he will strive, through Divine grace, to embody in his life the spirit and morals of the Sermon on the Mount. The man who is all this, and in his heart aims at all this, will be prepared to bear witness for God in every form and way that Providence may determine. He will not need to write “Christian” on his forehead; men will take knowledge of him that he has been with Jesus. Among such witnesses for God, we want greatly to enrol you.—John Kennedy, D.D.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 424–427. THE AND OF GOD Isaiah 43:13. Yea, before the day was, &c.The doctrine taught here is— 1. That God is from everlasting—for if He was before time, He must have been eternal (H. E. I. 2253; P. O. 1493). 2. That He is unchangeably the same—a doctrine which is, as it is here designed to be used, the only sure foundation for the security of His people—for who can trust a being who is fickle? (H. E. I. 2254–2256, 2324, 2341). 3. That He can deliver His people always, no matter what are their circumstances. 4. That He will accomplish all His plans; no matter whether to save His people, or to destroy His foes. 5. That no one, man or devil, can hinder Him. 6. That opposition to Him is as fruitless as it is wild. If men wish for happiness, they must fall in with His plans, and aid in the furtherance of His designs.—A. Barnes. THE FUTURE BETTER THAN THE PAST Isaiah 43:19. Behold, I will do a new thing, &c.God’s messages to Israel are steeped in imagery supplied by their past experiences. From this familiar store the figurative expressions of the text are derived; it holds out a challenge to faith, a rebuke to unbelief. I. The emphasis of the promise lies in God’s promise to do a NEW thing—i.e., something unprecedented. Israel was cautioned not to make the past the measure of the future (cf. Isaiah 43:18-19). They were often exhorted to seek help and consolation in remembering their past; but this is a caution against a way of looking at the past which works injury—against a brooding on it that spoils the future. Self-consciousness comes with increasing years; we are apt to exclaim, “The thing which hath been is that which shall be;” “The child is father of the man,” points to the conclusion of a wide induction. Philosophy tells us that this unreadiness to believe that the future can be better than the past is but a proof of growing wisdom; and we are often inclined to say, “our theories of the Christian life have always been far in advance of our attainments; but shortcomings have brought down our expectations.” It is one of the severest penalties of unfaithfulness, that hope for the future is slain. Often men are not troubled much about the loss of hope, but even these know what it is to have a dark void where there should be a light shining more and more. One of the hardest tasks of the Hebrew prophets was that of renewing in the people the impulses of hope; and so this representative messenger of God proclaims, “Remember not the former things,” old things may pass away, all things may become new. II. This new thing is compared with the opening of a path in the wilderness, and the supply of rivers in the desert. Before each one there is a pathless wilderness, beset by difficulties and perils; but even there God will make a way for His people, and sustain their life. Preparation and guidance, difficulty, peril, privation! These are thoughts which associate themselves with the desert and the wilderness. For every Christian, God is preparing a way through unknown experiences. Of each man it may be said— “He was the first that ever burstInto that silent sea.”But God prepares the way; He preserves the traveller; He connects the present, the future, and the past Each day shall be, in some respects, different from all past days; and when the heart turns faint at new demands made upon it, He breathes new life into it with the promise, “Behold, I will do a new thing!” The voice of apprehension cries, “How shall freshness and vigour be maintained within me?” God says, “I will supply rivers in the desert;” not simply sufficiency, but abundance. To-morrow may be a barren prospect; but God is with us; we are near to the Fountain of Life. We often speak of our lack of spiritual life and vigour as though it were a perplexing problem. Is it so, when we do not, will not, drink? There is a “law of the life” of the spirit as well as of the body. Our hearts are like seeds wrapped round so that moisture and air are excluded; such seeds may be planted, but they will not grow. Nor will our hearts wrapped round by prayerlessness, selfishness, indolence, and forgetfulness. Take away these wrappings, lay them aside for ever! Note further, that this Divine promise pledges God to supply that which is a natural source of verdure, gladness, beauty. This is only one of many instances, in which we are taught that God’s will is not only to preserve, but also to adorn our life (Isaiah 35:1). The young should surely listen to this voice. For them all life is emphatically new; their experiences shall not, indeed, be unparalleled in the history of men, but to them they shall be a new thing from God. Christ declares Himself to be the Giver of “living water;” life, and light, and beauty go before Him; He speaks the word which cannot fail: “Behold, I make all things new!”—Thomas Stephenson: Christian World Pulpit, vol. v. pp. 209–210. GOD’S PEOPLE Isaiah 43:21. This people I have formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. . [1396][1396] In ancient history we read of a prince, who, from the summit of his palace beholding the metropolis of his extensive empire, exulted thus, “This is Babylon the great—Babylon, which I have built for the house of my kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty.” He beheld the rising domes, the solemn temples, the numberless palaces of his lords; his heart bounded at the prospect, and his soul inflated with pride. Small cause, however, to be proud, had he recollected that these buildings were inhabited by a nation of slaves, and these temples filled with superstition and idolatry. In the sentence just read you have a far more noble potentate, even the King of kings Himself, reflecting upon the work of His hands, and rejoicing in the review of it. Beholding the triumphs of His grace, the accomplishment of His sacred purposes, and the wonders of His power, He expresses His complete satisfaction. His labour is not found in vain, His exertions are crowned with the designed success, and the production exactly corresponds with the plan laid down. With pleasure He reviews His workmanship, and already anticipates that chorus of praise which will perpetuate the honour of His name through eternal ages.—Lambert.I. It is the prerogative of God alone to form the soul of man anew, both for His service here, and enjoyment hereafter. 1. The subjects of his workmanship: sinners of Adam’s family. Poor material, degraded by sin; but power belongeth unto God, and nothing is too hard for Him to do. He can humble the most stubborn heart, &c. Great comfort in this truth for ourselves individually. 2. The work itself, creating them in Christ Jesus unto good works; renewing them in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness after the image of Him who created them. This work will be completed in each of His people. [1399] Cheerfully acquiesce in any discipline through which He may be pleased to put you for this purpose (H. E. I. 113–115, 157, 158, 3696–3703). [1399] When it is said, “This people have I formed for myself,” it is not to be understood as though the work were already completely accomplished. That will not be the case till all the ransomed of the Lord shall be brought safe to the heavenly Zion. God is here represented as seeing the things which are not as though they were, and as beholding the end from the beginning. With Him to will and to do, to purpose and to perform, are so closely, so infallibly connected, as in effect to be the same.—Lambert.II. In this act of special sovereign grace He has always respect unto Himself; that is, to the display and manifestation of His own glory as the end. The Scriptures invariably teach us to reflect upon God as having made all things for Himself; a lower motive than this He never acted from. He forms this people for the manifestation of the astonishing and unsearchable riches,— 1. Of His grace. How glorious is the grace manifested in the conquest and captivation of sinners, in the pardon of sin, in the sanctification of the soul, and in the support, supplies, and consolations of the people of God. Instance: (1 Timothy 1:12-15). 2. Of His power. Manifest in penetrating a heart hard as adamant; in enthroning grace in the very heart where sin has reigned; in preserving it in spite of all opposition (H. E. I. 2365–2376). 3. Of His wisdom. Manifest in fixing upon the means of bringing sinners to Christ, ordering all things relative to their course, overruling all things for their good, and raising them from the depths of human misery to the summit of heaven’s honours. III. From this, as from all His other works, He will eventually derive a glorious revenue of praise: “They shall show forth my praise.” 1. It is not only the duty, but the desire of that people whom God forms for Himself to praise Him in the present life (1 Peter 2:9). 2. It will be their happy disposition and delightful employ eternally to give unto Him the honour due on that account.—George Lambert: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 274–293. The text refers to the literal house of Israel. The Church of Christ now enjoy the appellation of “the people of God.” Whether Jews or Gentiles, to them the text will apply. I. THE PEOPLE TO. The people of God. Sometimes called saints, &c. 1. They are a saved people. Not only redeemed, but saved. Christ is the “Saviour of all men, but especially,” &c. St. Paul says, By grace are ye saved, &c. Not shall be, &c., but are (Ephesians 2:8; Titus 3:5; 1 Corinthians 1:18). They have felt the efficacy of divine grace; have been justified, &c. Saved from sin to righteousness; from darkness, &c. 2. They are a peculiar people. So they are described by the apostle (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9). Not like others. They are not of the world, &c. Hence their manners and customs, their spirit and temper, their conduct and pursuits, are all peculiar to themselves. It must be so, it ought to be so. The opposite would be evil, &c. 3. They are a distinct people. There are peculiar people in the world, yet they are of the world. But His people are distinct and separate. A people in the world, but not of the world. Crucified to the world, &c. (H. E. I. 5026–5032). II. THE . 1. The nature of this formation. Formed into a “people.” God does not intend believers to be isolated beings. He designed they should be collected—united—a people. Hence they are likened to a family, &c. Only in this way they can exercise their graces, &c., exhibit Christianity in its social influences, and extend it in the world. Beautifully likened to the members of the human body (1 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Corinthians 12:20). 2. The Author of this formation. It is divine—it is of God. The Church is God’s husbandry, God’s building. He gives the same spirit to all, but a diversity of operations, that each may add to the comfort and prosperity of the whole. Hence the term, “the Church of God.” God’s collecting—calling—keeping—saving, &c. III. THE END IN THIS . “For myself,” &c. He made all things for Himself—the Church for Himself. It is called His rest, His dwelling, His delight; and He designs that they “should show forth,” &c. They do this by— 1. Exhibiting the effects of His gracious operations. 2. Labouring to diffuse His glory. For this they live, and act, and pray. 3. Resignation to the divine appointments. Thus Job, the apostles, and first Christians, &c. .—Of what people are you personally a part? Let the people of God think of their high vocation, &c.—Preachers’ Magazine, 1839. HOPE FOR THE Isaiah 43:24-26. Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, &c.These words are addressed to penitent sinners, mourning before God on account of their transgressions. I joy to bring to them this message of mercy and peace. Listen, then, O mourners in Zion, I. TO A OF YOUR SINS AND DESERTS. With what a heavy charge does my text begin! Yet, you know it is true. Not only sinners by nature, you have grieved and wearied God by your actual transgressions. What evil tempers, words, actions, sins of omission and of commission, you have to confess before God! How often did you offend Him even in His sanctuary! The charges His word brought against you, you met by unbelief, itself the sin of sins; but now you feel that you are indeed guilty before God. But let not a sight and sense of your guilt discourage your souls; but let it make Christ and His salvation the more welcome. Listen, II. TO THE OF A FREE AND FULL (Isaiah 43:25). There is nothing but encouragement in these gracious words; they abound with blessings; they make known “Mercy for all, immense and free.”The Promiser, the promise itself, its kind application, and the basis on which it rests, open to us four sources of the most abundant joy and consolation. 1. The Author of the promise. “I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.” Mourning sinners, do you know that voice? It is the voice of the Lord (Exodus 34:6-7). He does not commission a multitude of the heavenly host to carry glad tidings of great joy to all who mourn over their trangressions; neither does He merely command the minister of His word to speak comfortably unto them: but from His lofty throne He Himself speaks unto their hearts! 2. Hence the promise in the text is expressed in the most cheering language (Isaiah 43:25). It is not uncommon for the Scriptures to represent sins as debts, an account of which is preserved in the book of the creditor. When the debt is paid, the sum is crossed over, to intimate that the creditor’s demands are satisfied, and that the debtor is known in that character no longer. But here, to point out the free and full manner in which God bestows pardon, the significant expression “blotteth out” is used, the debt is not merely crossed but obliterated; so that the record can be read no more. God forgives large debts as well as small (Luke 7:40-42). Nor will He make any demand of thy debt at any future time; He will remember thy sins no more. 3. His promise applies to the man who feels most that he deserves no mercy from God. Thou mourner in Zion, thy self-despair makes it evident that “thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” No longer despair; “be not faithless, but believing” (H. E. I. 2332–2337). 4. The basis on which this promise rests may further assure us of the certainty of its fulfilment. God forgives the guilty for His own sake, and not for the sake of their deservings (Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 48:9-11; Ezekiel 36:22; Ezekiel 36:25-26; Ezekiel 36:31-32). God pardons the believing penitent— (1) For His mercy’s sake. It is the property of the eternal Jehovah “always to have mercy,” but every act of free unmerited grace in justifying the ungodly furnishes a new display of His glory. God is concerned for His own honour; He, therefore, will save all who come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Will God, “who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, that with Him He might freely give us all things,” withhold from thee that pardon which, at His feet, thou art groaning to obtain? If thou wert to perish while coming to God in the way He Himself hath appointed, what a triumph it would afford to all the powers of darkness! (2) For His justice’s sake (Romans 3:23-26). On the ground of the all-sufficient atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is for the honour of the justice of God to pardon the guilty the moment he confesses his sins, and truly believes upon the righteous Saviour. (3) For His truth’s sake (Ezekiel 33:11; Isaiah 55:7). God will as certainly perform all His promises as His threatenings. As the promise rests on a foundation that cannot be shaken, we ought with confidence and joy to receive it. III. TO THE URGING YOU TO ACCEPT THE MERCY (Isaiah 43:26). These glorious words invite all the contrite in heart into the very presence of God, there to prefer their requests, assured that He will “fulfil all their petitions.” In pressing these petitions they have a threefold duty to perform:— 1. To state the grounds on which they expect an answer: “Put Me in remembrance.” Thus He speaks in compassion to our infirmities, and to encourage us to “come with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy.” Put Him in remembrance— (1) Of Gethsemane and the cross. (2) Of His promises. The best prayers penitent sinners can use are the promises of God turned into petitions. (3) Of His wonted compassion to sinners. 2. To urge in humble confidence their requests: “Let us plead together.” (Cf. Job 23:1-7.) Let the pleading begin on your part; and let this be your encouragment, that the Holy Spirit “will help your infirmities.” All your arguments must be such as proceed from a full and unqualified admission of your own guilt, a ready acknowledgment of past sinfulness, of your present unworthiness, and of your utter helplessness. Confession of sin is one of the most powerful pleas you can use! But, saith the Redeemer, “Let us plead together.” Listen, therefore, to His pleadings with you. Renouncing your own righteousness, you plead His merits; He also pleads those merits as a reason why you should no longer doubt, but take Him as the Lord in whom you have righteousness and strength. He will remind you of His promises; and if there be any upbraiding at all on His part, it will be nothing more than is contained in these Scriptures (John 16:24; John 20:27). 3. To claim in strong faith the promised blessing: “Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.” Nothing is wanting to pardon, but their own declaration! “What must I declare?” Declare with all thine heart, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that He is my Saviour, my Lord, and my God. I take Him for my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption.” “Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,Which at the mercy-seat of GodFor ever doth for sinners plead,For me, even for my soul, was shed.”—W. J. Shrewsbury: Sermons, pp. 370–400. OF SIN Isaiah 43:25. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. “THY SINS.” What is sin? We must go the Word of God for a correct reply; for although at first the divine law was written on the human heart, yet now depravity has well nigh effaced that writing, and sin itself has made the conscience vile. Neither can we truly learn what sin is by comparing ourselves with our fellow-men, for they are sinners as we are. In God’s Word alone can we clearly perceive what sin is, as being in its essence a violation of law, and contempt of the divine Lawgiver (H. E. I. 4478–4480). But even in this aspect its full enormity does not come into view. We must consider what God is, and what we owe to Him, and then it will appear that our iniquity is the forthputting of our strength against Him from whom our strength has been derived, and to whom we owe our all. Observe, our iniquities are here called ours. “Thy sins,” “thy transgressions.” We often boast of our possessions, but there is nothing else ours as sin is ours. In the sense of absolute possession, sins are the only things we have. We are their authors, their creators; and if we repent not, throughout eternity they will be vultures which will gnaw our hearts, the undying worm, and the unquenchable fire to which we shall be constantly exposed. Can no one sever the connection between me and my sin? Must I perish thus? The text is God’s gracious answer to that anxious question. I. THE HERE . 1. Forgiveness. “I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.” The language is figurative, and may refer either to the blotting out of a dark cloud from the heavens, until thereshall not be a single speck upon the blue expanse; or to the blotting out of a sentence, when the criminal is pardoned. Forgiveness is the setting free of a guilty man from liability to the punishment which his crimes have merited. Of this pardon two characteristics are prominent in the phraseology of the text. (1.) Its fulness. It is a blotting out. He redeems Israel from all his iniquities. (2.) It is a present blessing. The words imply that God does so even now. Soon as the sinner believes, he is forgiven. 2. “I will not remember thy sins.” In a strict sense I am not sure that God can be said to remember or to forget anything. The expression of my text must not be taken in its strictest literality; it is used in accommodation to our finite minds, as the best means of telling us that our former sins will not, after we are pardoned, be any, even the slightest barrier, on God’s side at least, to our intercourse with Him. They are as good as forgotten; we may therefore rise to friendship with God, undimmed by anything which, coming from Him, could painfully remind us that we had formerly been His enemies. II. THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THIS FLOWS. “I, even I,” &c. It is thus a pardon from God. “Who can forgive sins but God only?” There can be no peace enjoyed by any one until he knows that it is God who has forgiven him. When a criminal has been condemned to death, the fact that he is pitied and forgiven by the friends of him whom he has murdered will not save his life, for he has sinned not merely against them, but against the law, and if the sovereign do not issue pardon, he must endure the penalty. And so I have sinned against God; and I can rest in nothing short of absolution pronounced by Him. If it be a merely human pardon on which I rest, the first thought of God will be sufficient to bring back my disquietude and fear; but if it be God’s forgiveness, I may rest on that for ever. If I certainly know that He has justified, I may sound out the daring defiance, and challenge the universe for a reply, “Who is he that condemneth?” If man pardon, God may still condemn; but if God forgive, then there is no power that can reverse His deed, and He Himself will never revoke it. III. THE GROUND ON WHICH THIS IS . “For mine own sake.” The words imply, 1. That God does not forgive sin on the ground of anything in the sinner, or done by him. It is not written, for thy tears’ sake, or for thy good deeds’ sake, or for thy repentance’ sake, but “for mine own sake.” When the tribes of Israel were about to enter Canaan, it was over and over again declared that God gave them not that good land to possess it for their own sake, &c. (Deuteronomy 9:4-6). So with the blessings of the new covenant, “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord” (Ezekiel 36:32). God will not, because He cannot, forgive you on the ground of your own worthiness, or for your own sake. 2. That God forgives sin only on such a ground as glorifies Himself. He cannot forgive sin in every way, or on every ground. He cannot do it simply for His mercy’s sake, for He is just as well as merciful; and both of these attributes must be radiant with glory, in His method of forgiveness. Hence it is only “for His own sake”—that is, through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ—that this blessing is bestowed: for only thus is the whole glory secured to Himself. If God were to forgive sin without any satisfaction to His justice, or any vindication of His law, His doing so would dishonour His character, and sap the foundations of His moral government. He must be seen to be a “just God” as well as “a Saviour:” and in the very matter of justifying the ungodly, His justice must be clearly manifested (H. E. I. 376). “In that salvation wrought by Thee,Thy glory is made great.”For here His justice is satisfied, His law magnified, His name honoured. IV. THE EVIDENT DELIGHT WHICH GOD HAS IN THIS . “I, even I, am He.” He dwells on it, and specially on the fact of its coming from Him, to show that it is not only His own proper prerogative, but His especial delight, to forgive sin for His own sake. He delighteth in mercy, and the depth of that delight is nowhere seen so clearly as in the Cross through which He seeks to enjoy it. He is not the austere Master that many picture Him to be: He is a loving Father, if men would only let Him love them; and there is nothing now in which He so rejoices as in the bestowment of forgiveness on His believing people. Some of us can tell how blessed it is to receive this pardon; but who can conceive how much greater is the blessedness of Him who gives it! (H. E. I. 2328.) Sinner, the highest happiness thou canst give to God will be by accepting this gracious blessing. V. THE OF THOSE TO WHOM THIS IS HERE MADE. Read Isaiah 43:22-24. After this, as an old commentator has said, “one would think it should follow—I, even I, am He that will destroy thee, and burden myself no longer with care about thee:” but no; where sin has abounded, grace does much more abound; where wrath is most deserved, mercy is most graciously expressed. If forgiveness has been offered to sinners such as these, who had wearied God with their iniquities, is there any reason why it should not be to us? We may have been very aggravated transgressors, but we can hardly be worse than they were. Yet even if we are, we may take these words as addressed to us. It makes no matter who or what we are, yet with the Lord there is mercy for us, and with Him there is plenteous redemption. But how, you say, am I to take it? I answer in the words of the prophet, “Let the wicked forsake His way,” &c. You are to take it by repentance and faith. Repentance looses your hold from sin, faith fixes it upon Jesus Christ.—W. M. Taylor, D.D.: “Life Truths,” pp. 21–37. That article in the creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sin,” is too little thought of. Men flippantly declare that they believe in it when they are not conscious of any great sin of their own, but when his transgression is made apparent to a man, and his iniquity comes home to him, it is quite another matter. His first instinct is to fear that his sins are altogether unpardonable. If he does not state his unbelief in so many words, yet in the secret of his soul that dreadful conviction takes hold upon him and darkens every window of hope. He looks to the law of God, and while he looks in that direction he will certainly conclude that there is no pardon, for the law knows nothing of forgiveness. Within the awakened man there is the memory of his past offences, and on account of these his conscience passes judgment upon his soul, and condemns it as even the law doth. Many natural impressions and instincts assist and increase the clamours of conscience; for the man knows within himself, as the result of observation and experience, that sin must bring its own punishment. He perceives that it is a knife which cuts the hand of him that handles it, a sword that kills the man who fights therewith. He feels that he cannot himself readily pass by offences committed by his fellow-men, and so he concludes that the Lord cannot willingly forgive. That part of the hardness of his heart goes to deepen the conviction that God will not pass by his transgression; and he is therefore terribly dismayed and hopeless of mercy. The convinced sinner is able to believe that mercy may be shown to others; but as for himself he signs his own death-warrant, and labours under the full persuasion that the acts of God’s mercy can never extend to him. No stocks can hold a man so fast as his own guilty fears. With the desponding I shall try to deal. I. THERE IS . 1. This appears in the treatment of sinners by God, inasmuch as He spares their forfeited lives. When our first parents had transgressed, they came at once under desert of penalty. The Lord visited the garden and convinced the offenders of their transgression; but instead of there and then casting them for ever away, He talked to them of a certain seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent’s head. Would the Lord thus have spared them, if He had not meant to show mercy? If God had no pardons, would He not long ago have cut us down? God waiteth long, because He willeth not the death of any, but that they turn to Him and live. 2. Why did God institute the ceremonial law, if there were no ways of pardoning transgression? Why the sacrificial shedding of blood, if God did not intend to blot out sin? Does not a type imply the existence of that which is typified? The evident design of the whole Mosaic economy was to reveal to man the existence of mercy in the heart of God, and the effectual operation of that mercy in washing away sin. 3. If there is no forgiveness of sin, why has the Lord given to sinful men exhortations to repent? 4. There must be pardons in the hand of God, or why the institution of religious worship among us to this day? Why are we allowed to pray, if we cannot be forgiven? Why are we allowed to sing the praises of God? Does God expect the condemned to praise Him? Will He shut us up in the prison-house for certain death, and yet expect us to chant hallelujahs to His praise? 5. Why did Christ institute the Christian ministry, and send forth His servants to proclaim His gospel? What is the gospel but a declaration that Christ is exalted on high to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins? Why are we so earnestly commanded to preach this gospel to every creature, if the creature hearing it and believing it must, nevertheless, still lie under his sin? 6. Why are we taught in that blessed model of prayer which our Saviour has left us, to say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us”? It is evident that God means us to give a true absolution to all who have offended us. He does not intend that we should play at forgiveness, but should really forgive all those who have done evil towards us in any way. Yes; but then He has linked with that forgiveness our prayer for mercy, teaching us to ask that He would forgive us as we forgive them. If, then, our forgiveness is real, so is His. A star of hope shines upon the sinner from the Lord’s Prayer in that particular petition. 7. God has actually forgiven multitudes of sinners. We have read in Holy Scripture of men who walked with God and had this testimony, that they pleased God; but they could not have pleased Him if their sins still provoked Him to wrath; therefore He must have put their sins away. But I need not talk of past ages; many sitting among you this day will tell you that they enjoy a clear sense of forgiven sin. II. THIS IS TO SIN. The Lord does not exercise memory as you and I do. We recall the past, but He has no past; all things are present with Him. God sees everything at once by an intuitive perception: the past, the present, the future are before Him at a glance. We may not speak, except after the manner of men, of the Lord God as having memory; and yet how blessed it is that He should Himself use the speech which is current among ourselves, and represent Himself after the manner of a man, and then say, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more for ever.” He wishes us to know that His pardon is so true and deep that it amounts to an absolute oblivion, a total forgetting of all the wrongdoing of the pardoned ones. You know what we do when we exercise memory. 1. To speak popularly, a man lays up a thing in his mind; but when sin is forgiven it is not laid up in God’s mind. We make a kind of store-room of our memory, and there things are preserved, like fruits in autumn, stored up to be used by and by (Luke 2:19). The Lord will not do this with our sins. He will not store them in His archives; He will not give them house-room. As for the ungodly, their sins are written with an iron pen, and the measure of their iniquity is daily filling, till it be poured out upon their own head; their sins have gone before them to the judgment-seat, and are crying aloud for vengeance. As for God’s people, their case is otherwise; the Lord imputeth not their iniquities to them, and does not treasure them up against a day of wrath. Of course the Lord remembers their evil-doings in the sense that He cannot forget anything; but judicially, as a judge, He forgets the transgressions of the pardoned ones. They are not before Him in court, and come not under His official ken. 2. In remembering, men also consider and meditate on things; but the Lord will not think over the sins of His people. I have known persons brood over an offence, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. The wrong grows worse as they think it over. They carefully observe the offence from different points of view, and whereas they were indignant at first, they nurse their wrath and make it so warm that it turns to fury. At first, they would have been satisfied with an apology; but when they have brooded over the injustice, it seems so atrocious that they demand vengeance on the offender. The merciful Lord doth not so to those who repent. No; for He saith, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” 3. Sometimes you have almost forgotten a thing, and it is quite gone out of your mind; but an event happens which recalls it so vividly, that it seems as if it were perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned. The transgressions of His people are dead and buried, and they shall never have a resurrection: “I will not remember their sins.” 4. This not remembering means that God will never seek any further atonement. Under the old law, there was remembrance of sins made every year on the day of atonement; but now the blessed One hath entered once for all within the veil, and hath put away sin for ever by the sacrifice of Himself, so that there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. The Lord will never seek another expiatory offering. The sufferings of Jesus are so all-sufficient that no believer shall be made to suffer penalty for his unrighteousness. 5. When it is said that God forgets our sins, it signifies that He will never punish us for them. How can He, when He has forgotten them? Next, that He will never upbraid us with them,—“He giveth liberally and upbraideth not.” How can He upbraid us with what He has forgotten? He will not even lay them to our charge (Ezekiel 18:22; Romans 8:33-34). 6. When the Lord says, “I will not remember their sins,” what does it mean but this—that He will not treat us any the less generously on account of our having been great sinners? Look how the Lord takes some of the biggest sinners and uses them for His glory. When I think of Peter standing up on the Day of Pentecost, and three thousand being converted under his first sermon, I think no more of Peter’s failure and the cockcrowing. I can see that the Lord has forgotten his threefold denial, and placed him in the front to be a soulwinner. But the Lord Jesus not only uses His people, He honours then greatly. What honours He put upon the apostles, those men that forsook Him and fled in the hour of His passion! God has taken some here present, and has given them commission and ability to bring blood-bought souls to Himself. Is not this the sign of perfect forgiveness? Blessing He blesses us; yea, and makes us blessings. We shall have grace on earth, and glory in heaven. Surely all this proves that He has altogether blotted out our sins, and has determined to treat us as if we had been perfectly innocent. III. IS TO BE HAD. How? Through the atoning blood! Come for it in God’s appointed way. “Repent;” that is, be sorry for your sin; change your mind about it and hate it, though once you loved it. Then confess it, for He saith, “only acknowledge thine iniquity.” Chief of all, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” and that saving includes an act of amnesty and oblivion as to all your sinful thoughts, and words, and acts. Hast thou done this? Then thou art forgiven Never forget thy sin, nor the mercy which has forgiven it. Always repent and always praise the Lord. Honour the forgetfulness of God in not remembering thy faults, and henceforth do thou tell this blessed news to every one thou seest—there is forgiveness, such forgiveness as was never heard of until God Himself revealed it by saying of His people, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1685. It is in standing well with God that the chief good of man consists. On this everything depends, both for time and eternity. As man is His creature, His child, there can be in the heart of God no other feeling towards him in this character than good-will and complacency. But one thing there is that has come between us and Him—sin, a thing that He cannot but hate; the one thing in all the universe against which His displeasure is declared. Yet it has proved the occasion of bringing out His love into fuller manifestation. He has been pleased to proclaim a free pardon, altogether irrespective of the nature and extent of our sins, and with no other condition attached to it than that we receive it as the gift of His grace. How great a blessing! The pledge of every other blessing that can come upon the soul. Needed by every one of us (H. E. I. 2329, 2330). Needed all through life, in death, and beyond death! I. God undertakes to pardon sin for His own sake. It is against Him that we have sinned, and consequently it is only He that can forgive us. There is but one thing that can give hope to the guilty soul, and that is an assurance from God Himself that He will deal with it in mercy, and not remember it against us. Such an assurance He has given us; indeed it may be said to be the chief purpose of Revelation to convey this message of peace to our sinruined world, and commend it to our acceptance (Exodus 34:6-7; Isaiah 1:18; Psalms 86:5, &c.) But it is not in love alone, but in righteousness as well that sin is forgiven. He has also made known to us the special provision which has been made for this purpose. The Son of God appears in this world in our nature, bears the burden of our sin, suffers and dies in homage to the law of righteousness, and rises from the dead as a sign that nothing more can be demanded either at His hands or at the hands of those whose representative He is (Romans 4:25; 1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). It is as the All-just, then, and not only as the All-merciful,—in His full character as the Righteous Father,—that God saves the soul from sin. This meets the demands of our moral nature. It is a righteous pardon that is conveyed in the Gospel, and as such it is proof against conscience, and law, and judgment, and all the terrors which it is in their power to summon against us. Yet we must never cease to think of mercy as the grand source of salvation. Let no one suppose that the work of Christ was necessary in order to incline God to mercy (see p. 92, and H. E. I. 390). On the contrary, it was in His mercy that the plan of grace took its rise (John 3:16; 1 John 4:10). It is “for His own sake” that He pardons and saves,—not on the ground of anything lying outside His own nature, but on the ground of that love, so full and changeless, that it has been in His heart from of old, even from everlasting. And if it is “for His own sake,” in this high sense, how much more may we say that it is not by reason of anything in man that He pardons sin? II. Let us now consider pardon as a thing which every one may look upon as put in his own power. It is the guilty that are in need of pardon; it is to them that it is offered; and as all men are guilty in the sight of God, the offer is intended to be co-extensive with the whole human family. [1402] This being so, with what shadow of reason can any one stand afar off, as if the message of peace were not intended for him? [1402] As far as the proclamation of mercy is concerned, no one is excepted of any class or character, so that every one is warranted to take it to himself. Where there is no express exclusion, all must be held to be included. A whole province, let us suppose, has risen up in rebellion against its sovereign, and he might justly take punishment on all the inhabitants. Instead of this, however, he proclaims a free pardon through all its borders, among all ranks and classes of the people, whether leaders or followers in the revolt, whether more or less criminal, without exception or qualification of any kind. Such a proclamation would take in every individual in the land, and would at once put an end to fear and inspire universal confidence. For none could pretend, with any show of reason, that the king’s pardon was not meant for him, and that he had no warrant for embracing it. Now this is an exact representation of how the matter stands between the King of heaven and the inhabitants of this guilty world. As all are involved in the same sin, the same pardon is proclaimed to all.—Hutchison. The offer of pardon is sometimes presented in a manner still more pointed and individualising. The individual is singled out from the mass, and has the offer made to him in as direct and personal a manner as if it were made to none beside him. The offer applies to every one just in the state in which it finds him. Yet there are few things men are more slow to believe, than that a free and unconditional pardon is put in their own power. “How can pardon have any reference to us, so long as our hearts are hard, cold, and impenitent, as we know them to be!” There are discases to which the body is liable of a very formidable kind, and which yet are attended with so little pain as to give the patient no alarm of his danger. But when the physician assures him of his real condition, and offers to cure him, would his insensibility to the disease be any good reason for saying that the remedy prescribed to him could have no application to his case? And so as to the sinner. This very want of feeling is itself a part of our sin; and therefore, to say that we dare not think of pardon until we get rid of it, is to say either that it is a sin which the mercy of God does not reach, or that it must be overcome in some way or other before it can be forgiven. But “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;” and this includes blindness, coldness, impenitence, not less than sin of any other kind, so that however insensate a man may be, he has full pardon put in his power. [1405] It is not merely to the humble and contrite that pardon is proclaimed, but to man simply as a sinner, with all his impenitence and all his insensibility (H. E. I. 942). [1405] As to overcoming our insensibility or any other sin, as a prerequisite for pardon, that is a thing which it is not in any man to achieve. But suppose it were possible, and that it were made one of the conditions on which sin is forgiven, then pardon would come to be a kind of compromise between God and man—each going so far to meet the other—God doing so much in mercy, and man being expected to do the rest in the way of a meritorious movement towards God. Nor is this objection met even if we strike out the element of merit, and ascribe the movement to the grace of the Spirit; for this would be to reverse the Divine order of the two grand elements of salvation, as if holiness could come before pardon, and as if pardon were not the very first step in the way of life.—Hutchison.III. The manner in which we close with the offer of pardon. As the offer is made to us in the free and unqualified form in which we have just described it, a simple acceptance of it is all that can be necessary. But what are we to understand by the acceptance of a gift of this nature? Faith is the only power by which we can deal with it. When some one whom you have offended tells you that he forgives you, all you have to do is to satisfy yourself that he is sincere in what he says, and trust in his honour to make it good; and at once the difference is at an end, and you have no more any uneasiness on the subject. In like manner, an offer of pardon is made to you by God: He cannot be insincere in making it. He can neither repent of it, nor prove unable to do as He has said. Rest in all this as true, trust in God for His own blessing, and in this state of mind you close with His great offer, and your sin is no more remembered against you (H. E I.1962). IV. The acceptance of pardon will lead to two things,—Comfort and Holiness. 1. If we could realise all that is implied in it,—how deep the death from which we are saved, and how high and blessed the life which begins to open up to us; and could we take it home to ourselves in all its fulness, our consolation would be unspeakable (H. E. I. 306, 307). The man who has no belief that his sins are forgiven can have no comfort in the thought of God or eternity. But just in the degree in which you can trust in God for the pardon of which He has been pleased to assure you, you will have peace. To you He will be a Friend and a Father. There is joy also in the sense of pardon. Those who know what it is to be in distress of soul, as if the terrors of the Lord had been let loose upon them, and the pains of hell had taken hold upon them, and who pass from this into the peace of God, will be filled with gladness, and for a time perhaps with ecstasy. [1408][1408] But let no one reckon on the permanency of such emotions, nor despair when they sink down into a calmer state of mind, as if the mercy and faithfulness of the Most High were dependent on the variable flow of human feelings. As the man that but an hour before was counting the few swift days that seemed to lie between him and his doom, goes along the streets on his way from prison pardoned and free, we can suppose him to be so glad at heart that the very din and tumult of the busy crowds, as they hurry to and fro, are as music to his ear; and when he goes out into the fields and woods, he sees a beauty in the leaf and in the flower, and hears a melody in the song of the birds, such as he had never known before. But can it be supposed that rapture like this will continue for any length of time? And when it has given place to a calmer state of feeling, are we to say there is no comfort remaining? Emotion may and must subside, but there is a happiness bound up with a sense of safety that is sure to survive. And so with the man whose sins are forgiven, and who clings to this conviction in every variety of experience. Your hearts at times may be as dry as dust, yet doubt not even then that you are safe,—as clear of guilt in the eye of God, and as radiant in the white robes of righteousness, as at other times when the tide of feeling is at the fullest.—Hutchison (see also H. E. I. 2073, 2074).2. The other result that may be expected to flow from an acceptance of the remission of sin is Holiness. No sooner do we receive the grace of reconciliation, than we enter into new relations, and begin to move in a new sphere: the whole of our spiritual surroundings are changed: “old things are passed away, and all things are become new.” The consequence of this will be a new tendency of thought and action. It is not in the spirit of a hireling, not for wages that we serve, but in love to one who loves us with an everlasting love, and at whose hands we receive infinitely more as a free gift than anything we could have ever earned for ourselves. Having been forgiven much, we love much. Here is the great spring of holiness,—love to the Holy One, and this blending with a regard for His holy will, and this, again, being inseparable from a feeling of active delight in His holy law.—George Hutchison, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 244–266. This is a promise of forgiveness. Every criminal is liable to punishment, and fears it. Does not the child desire forgiveness when he has transgressed his father’s command? This promise is made to sinners. In promising or bestowing forgiveness, God does not exterminate sin. The accusation against the Jewish people is drawn out in Isaiah 43:22-24. Sin is universal. There are degrees of heinousness. Some have gone greater lengths than others, and sinned against greater light. There is more or less acknowledgment of sinfulness in all. Some are deeply convinced and awakened to concern. They are conscious of the alienation from God and exposure to wrath. The Gospel proclaims forgiveness. It is a Gospel of mercy. I. The text represents the Gospel forgiveness as Divine. “I, even I, am He.” It rested with Himself exclusively to determine whether mercy should be exercised; and if so, in what way. And it is His exclusive prerogative to exercise the mercy, if it is exercised at all. “Who can forgive sins, but God only?” No priest possesses this power. His words of absolution are ineffective, excepting as they declare God’s readiness to forgive. “But did not Jesus give this power to the Apostles?” (John 20:23). If He did, it would not follow that the power descended to any subsequent minister of Christ. The Apostles had no successors. But there is no instance recorded of their ever exercising this power. It is fair to infer that they did not possess it. The power conferred was simply ministerial. Power to declare the way of salvation, the forgiveness of sins. Possessed by every preacher. And by every Christian (Revelation 22:17). He who alone can forgive does forgive. He has chosen to provide mercy. The text affirms it The Gospel affirms it. In this capacity He will be known to men. He is the sin-pardoning God. Encouraging to those who desire forgiveness. II. The text represents the Gospel forgiveness as Gracious. “For mine own sake.” He must glorify Himself. The display of the Divine glory is intimately associated with and essential to His moral government. The mercy of the Gospel displays— 1. His love. Human sin is the fearful problem of the ages. But it gave occasion for the manifestation of an attribute which without it could not have been known. Divine love, in the exercise of forgiveness, becomes possible by sin. The truth that God is love stands forth more distinctly. 2. His righteousness. Seen in the method and grounds of forgiveness. What a father may do in the privacy of his family in relation to offences, is different from what a magistrate may do in his public capacity. The latter is bound to maintain the law without deviation. He is the representative of justice. In this capacity the Divine wisdom and righteousness have combined with love in providing mercy, after satisfying the demands of justice. Christ has made the satisfaction (H. E. I. 376). 3. His faithfulness. He revealed His saving purpose to the Jews. He has revealed His grace in Christ. His honour is bound to the pardon of all that accept the proclamation by believing in Jesus. In providing mercy and exercising forgiveness He acts according to His own nature as well as for the sinner’s advantage. And the view of the Divine character which is presented by the Gospel is more calculated to secure honour, and trust, and love, and obedience than any other. III. The text represents the Gospel forgiveness as Complete. “That blotteth out thy transgressions; and will not remember thy sins.” Here is the assurance of a true, because a complete forgiveness. There is a sense in which it is impossible for sin to be blotted out. Many of its effects must remain on ourselves and on others. Even suffering through sin after it is forgiven. The drunkard and the impure may have repented and found forgiveness in Christ, and yet the ruin of their health and affairs may not be repaired. Nothing can undo the past. Neither can God literally forget sin. His Omniscience retains everything for ever. Men say they may forgive, but cannot forget. They often mean something different from what He means. He blots out sin, when the sinner repairs to the Cross, as the record of a debt is blotted from the book; so that the debtor is treated as if he did not owe it. He will not remember sin against the sinner. It is as if the recipient of a past injury dismisses all feeling from his mind, and treats the offender as if he had not sinned. He reconciles him to Himself. He numbers him among His children (Psalms 32:1-2). How interesting and attractive this representation of the Divine character. Have you contemplated God only with dread as the righteous Judge? Let His mercy be also taken into the account. His mercy does not destroy His justice; His justice consents to the exercise of mercy. For justice is satisfied when Jesus dies. The subject suggests solemn inquiry. All are sinners. Are all our sins forgiven? Have we turned from sin? Have we trusted in the Saviour? Let there be a continued resting in Him. Let there be a steadfast current of the heart’s preferences towards God’s ways. Let there be watchful holiness and earnest usefulness. Are your sins not forgiven? Living on with all the sins of your life against you as an uncancelled debt? Kind and amiable in your deportment; you would not wrong any man. Yet you live in this state of alienation from God. And you are allowing the opportunity of reconciliation to slip past you. You cannot say you are unforgiven because He is unwilling to forgive. Conscience says it is because you have never sought forgiveness, because you do not like the terms on which it is offered. You will not relinquish your sins. You will not come to Him that you might have life. Do you say you would gladly come; that you earnestly desire forgiveness; that you are willing to have Christ if He will only have you? What have you to fear? Does not the Gospel proclaim the forgiving God? Come to Him then. “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”—J. Rawlinson.There is one thing that God always does with sin. He removes it out of His presence. When He casts away a guilty soul, and when He pardons a penitent soul, He is doing the same thing—removing sin absolutely and infinitely. In the depth of His justice, I see the height of His mercy. There is not a greater distance between a soul in hell and heaven than there is between a pardoned man and a pardoned man’s sins. When we think of sin’s power and consequences, what can be compared with that single word, forgiveness?I. THE AUTHOR OF . “I, even I,” an expression which denotes that God is taking to Himself, in some especial degree, some sovereign prerogative. In earthly things, when a sovereign passes pardon, he has been aggrieved, indeed, in so far as the cause of justice is the cause of all; but still he has no personal injury to forgive. Or, when an offended man forgives his enemy, there comes across his mind the recollection that he must stand in need of pardon too. But now mark it with God. He is the being most nearly concerned in all the transgressions you have ever committed (H. E. I. 4478–4480). His law was broken; His empire disarranged; His mercy trampled upon; His love frustrated (Isaiah 43:24). But then, how grandly comes in the text! Were it that one God is injured and another God steps in to make the atonement and forgive, I should marvel less. But here lies the wonder, that God whom we provoke, despise, and neglect, originates the plan and conducts the scheme of mercy Himself. Carry this thought a step further into the manner in which pardon of sin is procured. Men wish to do something to help their pardon. If they could feel more, pray more, do more, and be better than they are, they might hope for forgiveness. We want to find some reason in ourselves why God should forgive us. We endeavour to have before pardon that which will never come till after pardon. But how does God forgive? Like a sovereign: not because you are good, but because He is love. This is the hinging-point of the peace of thousands, who will not take forgiveness as an act of mercy. Look, again, at the text in respect to the way by which the sense of forgiveness when it is granted is communicated to a man’s mind. This is the direct work of Almighty God, who has never communicated it to any man to do it. It belongs not to any living man to pronounce a sinner’s pardon in any other than a conditional or declaratory sense. If you desire a clear apprehension of God’s reconciling love, you must acknowledge that to Him alone it appertaineth to forgive sin. The Author of forgiveness, then, is God. All the attributes are brought to bear upon your peace—omnipotence, unchangeableness, love, justice. The pardoned sinner stands upon the eternal, leans upon the infinite, and looks out upon the unfading. It is the very Saviour who shed His life-blood, that says, “I, even I” (Romans 8:33-34). II. THE NATURE OF . 1. In respect of time. The verb runs in the present tense. It is not “I have blotted,” nor, “I will blot,” but something far better. Probably, the metaphor is taken from a man obliterating with a sponge the record made upon a tablet. We think of God as unwilling to forgive; but He is ready, always waiting to blot out the record of every sin, as the mist that gathers round the mountain top is dispersed by the breeze. See, then, the Christian’s privilege. He looks up to God and he is forgiven. And He who forgives once goes on day after day forgiving. He does not upbraid, and say, “I forgave you yesterday, and I cannot forgive you to-day.” Sins are falling every moment upon that book, but the hand of love wipes out the record. A drop of blood fell on the page and washed it all away like snow. O try it! There is God waiting to wipe out every trace of your sin, if only you look up in simple faith to Him. 2. In respect of degree. I thank God for that little word “out.” None can read a trace where God’so bliterating hand has once passed. You never read of a partial cure wrought by Christ on earth, and you never find such a thing in the history of the Church as the partial healing of a man’s soul. Whatever God does is infinite. It is out—“blotteth out.” Some may feel, “God has forgiven me that sin, but not all my sins.” That is impossible. There never was the case of a man upon the earth who has had only one sin forgiven. There is a distinction between “transgression” and “sin.” The former is the wicked act that lies upon the surface; the latter the deep corruption that lies within the heart. God blots out the transgressions, and will not remember the sins. He deals with both the stream and the fountain. Do not misunderstand me. God’s people commit sin, and are punished very heavily for it in this world after forgiveness. But sin is never imputed to a man in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). 3. In respect of continuance. The present swells out into the future. It stretches on to your sick and dying bed; it meets you at the judgment-seat—“I will not remember.” III. THE REASON OF . God finds all motive within Himself—“for mine own name’s sake.” You say, “Does not He seek the good of His creatures?” Yes; but the good of His creatures and His own glory are identical. You ask, “Why does God forgive a rebel creature?” The answer is nowhere in the creature. It is not in prayer, not in repentance, not in faith; but it is in God. Here is our confidence. God’s forgiveness is not like the ocean. It has the ocean’s depths, but not the ocean’s tides. Therefore He has based it, not on the universe, but on Himself. If the ground of your pardon rested on yourself or your fellow-creatures, on the holy motives you cherished, on the good deeds you performed, what hope could there be of forgiveness? The reason for forgiveness is found in that eternal counsel wherein God gave to His Son a kingdom; in God’s will that there should be a multitude round the throne of His glory; in that unfathomable love in which He is the loving Father of all His creatures; in justice, where, in faithfulness to His Son, He hath made it unjust to punish one pardoned in the Son; in that immutable wisdom wherein He hath given us an earnest of His forgiveness; but above all, seek it in that spot where His love, power, and wisdom stand out unitedly magnified, that purest revelation of His being, that bright effulgence of His name, wherein all meet—in the man Christ Jesus, the crucified, the risen Saviour.—James Vaughan, M.A.: Fifty Sermons, pp. 279–288. I. Free grace blots out our transgressions FROM GOD’S BOOK. II. WITH GOD’S HAND. 1. The recording hand. 2. The hand of Him against whom you have offended. 3. The rejected hand. 4. The avenging hand. 5. The spotless hand of justice. 6. The hand of the Supreme Being. 7. The hand of the unchanging God. III. FOR GOD’S SAKE. “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake” (Ezekiel 36:21-22; Ezekiel 32). Everything God does is for His glory. “Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.” “Of Him,” as the great cause; “through Him,” as the great worker; “to Him,” as the great end. 1. Is it for the glory of God to manifest His infinite wisdom? See it, in its brightness, in this work of salvation. 2. Is it for His glory to manifest His infinite justice? In the salvation of the Church, God has revealed that justice in its inflexible severity. (1.) In the eternal plan of salvation by sacrifice. (2.) Shining in the solemn glory of the cross of Emmanuel. 3. Is it for His glory to manifest His infinite power? See it in the fearful miracles of Egypt; in the merciful deeds of the great Miracle-Worker; in the pardoning of sins, the destroying of the works of the devil, the regeneration of the corrupt, the resurrection of the dead, the restoration of immortality, and the everlasting reign of righteousness. 4. Is it for His glory to manifest His infinite love? In the salvation of the Church it is revealed in its immeasurable greatness; in His compassion for the perishing, forbearance towards the rebellious, forgiveness of the repenting, and in His kindness to the believing. IV. FROM GOD’S MEMORY. “I will not remember thy sins.” A heavenly truth in an earthly dress.—H. Grattan Guinness; Sermons, pp. 333–363. If we were to ask, who need the forgiveness of sins? the ready answer would be, sinners. All men are sinners (Romans 3:10; Romans 3:12; Romans 3:23, and 1 John 1:8; 1 John 1:10). The dreadful reality of sin in us, and sin on us, making us sinners in the deepest sense, gives the teaching of the Word touching forgiveness a large and living interest to us all. I. The fact that God forgives sin. Stated in Exodus 34:6-7; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalms 86:5; Psalms 130:4. Illustrated in David (Psalms 32:5). Sick of the palsy (Matthew 9:2). Woman in Simon’s house (Luke 7:48). II. The meritorious ground on which God forgives. Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:14; 1 John 2:12; Acts 10:43; Romans 3:24-25). The question may be asked, What has Christ done that He forgives for His sake? See Hebrews 9:22-26; 1 Peter 3:18; Isaiah 53:5-6. III. The conditions in us necessary to forgiveness. Repentance (John 1:9; Acts 3:19). Faith (Acts 13:38). Forsaking sin (Proverbs 28:13). IV. The perfection of Divine forgiveness. 1. Sins are blotted out (Isaiah 43:25). 2. Totally removed from sight (Isaiah 1:18). 3. Forgotten for ever (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 10:17). V. The consequences of forgiveness. We have:— 1. Life (Colossians 2:13). 2. Blessedness in the soul (Psalms 32:1-2; 1 John 5:10). 3. Praise in the heart (Isaiah 12:1). 4. The fear of God (Psalms 130:4; Jeremiah 33:8-9). 5. Reconciliation with God (Luke 15:12-32). 6. Praise and joy (Romans 5:1-2).—J. A. R. Dickson.We may learn:— I. That it is God only who can pardon sin. How vain, then, is it for man to attempt it! How wicked for man to claim the prerogative! And yet it is an essential part of the Papal system, that the Pope and his priests have the power of remitting the penalty of transgression. II. That this is done by God solely for His own sake. It is not— 1. Because we have any claim to it, for then it would not be pardon, but justice. 2. Nor have we any power to compel God to forgive—for who can contend with Him, and how can mere power procure pardon? 3. Nor have we any merit, for then also it would be justice; and we have no merit. 4. Nor is it primarily in order that we may be happy—for our happiness is a matter not worthy to be named, compared with the honour of God. But it is solely for His own sake; to promote His glory; to show His perfections; to evince the greatness of His mercy; and to show His boundless and eternal love. III. They who are pardoned should live to His glory, and not to themselves. For that they were forgiven. IV. If men are ever pardoned, they must come to God—and to God alone. They must come not to justify themselves, but to confess their crimes; and they must come with a willingness that God should pardon them on just such terms as He pleases; at just such a time as He pleases; and solely with a view to the promotion of His own glory. Unless they have this feeling, they never can be forgiven, nor should they be forgiven.—A. Barnes.The text solves most of the problems arising out of our moral condition. I. OUR NEED OF . This is evident on account of our transgressions. All guilty before God. The text refers to one species of moral evil—“transgressions”—violations of the Divine law. They are— 1. Diversified. Against both tables—Divine providences, &c. 2. Numberless. 3. Individual—distinctly ours. 4. Heinous. As committed against a good and gracious God, &c. As scarlet and crimson. 5. Recorded. Symbol of the text (Revelation 20:11. &c.) 6. Connected with Divine penalties. 7. No created being can deliver us from the results of our transgressions. No priest, &c. Jesus only. II. THE DIVINE AS TO OUT . Striking. I. the Creator (Isaiah 43:15); the Jehovah (Isaiah 43:3); the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 43:3); your Redeemer (Isaiah 43:14). 1. He has sovereign right to do so. 2. His infinite love and mercy disposes Him to do so (Exodus 32:18, &c.) 3. This Divine nature and name Christ the Saviour possessed as the Son of God (Colossians 2:9). He was appointed the Mediator, and by and through His person, merit, and work we obtain forgiveness of sin. There is salvation in none other. 4. By faith in the Gospel of Christ, we realise the removal of our sins. .—God blots out all sin utterly and for ever. The erasure is complete. How solicitous we should be to hear God speaking thus to our hearts, by His Holy Spirit. There is no excuse for the unforgiven.—J. Burns, D.D., LL.D.: Sketches and Outlines, pp. 348. THE SPIRIT TO THE SEED OF JACOB Isaiah 44:1-5. Yet now hear, O Jacob my Servant, &c.The three Divine Persons in the Godhead are represented in Scripture as concurring in the salvation of fallen man. Our text is one of those interesting passages in which the Holy Spirit is promised in the Old Testament. I. THE PEOPLE TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE. The “seed” or “offspring” of Jacob, i.e., those who resemble Jacob in his state and character, in his spirit and conduct. 1. Jacob is here represented as the creature of God. “Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb.” The same is true of all His spiritual children (Ephesians 2:10). 2. God had chosen Jacob. Twice declared in our text. True also of His spiritual children (1 Peter 2:9). 3. In the text twice called the servant of God. His children are also in the same capacity (Acts 27:23; Romans 12:1). 3. Jacob is also called Israel. We know on what occasion that name was first given him (Genesis 32:28). It is the memorial of his triumph in prayer; and the promise in our text is made to those who, like Jacob, wrestle with God in prayer for spiritual blessings, 5. Jacob is here called Jesurun, i.e., “the upright one.” Those who are interested in this promise are such as are upright before God. Imperfection may cleave to them; overpowered by temptation, they may fall into sin; yet they are sincere (H. E. I. 1022). II. THE PROMISE MADE IN THE TEXT (Isaiah 44:3). What is here promised is the Holy Spirit of God, the Sanctifier and Comforter of the Church. A blessing in which all other blessings may be said to be included. With it, and it alone, there come to the soul spiritual life, pardon, purity, peace, and meetness for heaven. Here promised under the emblem of water. Water is a blessing— 1. Universally necessary. Without it, both man and beast must speedily perish. 2. Universally diffused. In some countries, indeed, it is more abundant than in others; but there is no habitable region on the face of the earth where it is entirely wanting. Nor is the Holy Spirit confined to a few favoured ones (Acts 2:17). This promise is being fulfilled. 3. Abundant. Note the promise of the text: “pour floods.” He will communicate His Spirit copiously to earnest suppliants. 4. Cheap. Generally cheap, as the light of the sun, or as the air we breathe. What can be cheaper than the grace of the Spirit? Too precious to be sold (Job 28:14). It is the free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (John 4:10). III. THE EFFECTS THE OF THIS PROMISE (Isaiah 44:4-5). When the earth has been long without rain, the whole face of nature assumes a mournful and sterile appearance. Let rain be given, and fertility and beauty are seen on every side. Without the Holy Spirit, there is barrenness in the Church. When the Spirit is poured out upon the Church, what are the results? 1. Its converts become exceedingly numerous. “They shall spring up as among the grass”—numerous as the blades of grass. Preliminary fulfilments of the promise (Acts 2:41; Acts 4:34; Acts 5:14). In every age since that time, the number of converts has multiplied in proportion to the outpouring of the Spirit. 2. Its converts become distinguished for the rapidity and luxuriance of their spiritual growth. “They spring up as willows by the water-courses” (cf. Hosea 14:5-7). The young convert, watered by the dews of the Spirit, makes rapid progress in spiritual knowledge and in grace. He rivals the lily in grace, the olive-tree in beauty, the cedar in stateliness, and the vine in fruitfulness. He ripens as quickly as the full-grown ear of corn; and, like the vine of Lebanon, diffuses around him the most delightful fragrance. 3. They are animated by the purest spirit of self-dedication to the Lord, and of cordial attachment to His people (Isaiah 44:5). That is, they shall dedicate themselves to the Lord as His faithful servants and sincere worshippers; and separating themselves from the ungodly and profane, shall solemnly and publicly join themselves to His Church. That this is the duty of those who have been converted and benefited by the Spirit, may be safely inferred from the practice of the Church in every age (Acts 2:44; Acts 2:46). Can we do better than follow the example set us by the primitive Church? Is it not at once our duty and the most likely way to promote the edification and salvation of our souls? Are we not more likely to go to heaven in company with those who travel thither, than by keeping aloof from them? (H. E. I. 3903–3911.) .— 1. What resemblance do we bear to the character of the people to whom the promise is made? Is the workmanship of God seen in us? Does the sanctity of our lives prove that we are His elect people? Are we men of fervent and persevering prayer? Are we sincere and upright before God? 2. Has the promise of the text been fulfilled to our souls? We so absolutely need the grace of the Spirit that we must perish, if we have it not. There is no good reason why we should be without it; like water, it is everywhere placed within our reach, and may be obtained in the greatest abundance by only asking for it. How inexcusable, then, must we be, if we still remain without it! 3. Some of us profess to have received the Spirit! What are the effects which He has produced on our spirit and conduct? (H. E. I. 2897, 2898, 1430–1437). 4. Have you truly dedicated yourself to God? and have you joined His people?—Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 469–479. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS ON MAN (For Whit-Sunday.) Isaiah 44:3-4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, &c.When God designed the recovery of ruined man, He purposed to accomplish the gracious and glorious work by two great means: by giving the Son to take upon Him our nature, to obey and suffer for us therein; and by sending the Holy Spirit, to render all that Christ has done and suffered for us applicable and effectual to the salvation of our souls. In this Scripture an abundant effusion of the Spirit is promised to the Church, under the emblem of water: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.” Being made truly sensible of spiritual need, and earnestly desirous of something better than creature satisfaction, this declaration promises a supply of spiritual blessings for the refreshment of the soul. Is that soul barren as the dry ground where there is no water? There is an enlargement of the promise—floods of grace are spoken of: “and floods upon the dry ground.” Then there is an explanation, in the plainest language: “I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessings upon thine offspring.” This promise was strikingly fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. It is doubtless to have a more complete fulfilment in that happy and glorious state which yet awaits the Church, when the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea. But it has also a most important reference to those operations which are carried on by the Holy Spirit in our own souls, and upon which our salvation depends (John 3:3). Let us, then, reverently study what has been revealed to us in the Word of God concerning the being and operations of the Holy Spirit. I. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 1. The Spirit, of whom this and other Scriptures speak to us, is Divine. (1) This, and more, is involved in our Lord’s command, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (2) The same distinguishing names and titles are given continually in the Word of God to the Holy Ghost, as belong to no other than Almighty God. “THE LORD” (2 Corinthians 3:1. Cf. Isaiah 6:9 with Acts 28:25). “GOD” (Acts 5:3). “JEHOVAH” (Cf. Isaiah 63:14 with Deuteronomy 32:12 and Numbers 14:11). 2. The Holy Spirit is not an attribute or operation of God the Father; His distinct personality is clearly manifest from several scriptures. (1.) From distinct and visible appearances. At the baptism of our Lord. In Matthew 3:16, we read of a distinct manifestation of three Sacred Persons, at one time and place: The voice of the Father was heard, “This is my beloved Son;” the Lord Jesus came up out of the Jordan; and the Holy Spirit in a bodily shape descended from heaven, and lighted upon Him. On the day of Pentecost. He visibly descended on the apostles, in the likeness of fire. (2.) To “the Spirit” divine and personal attributes are assigned. He is eternal (Hebrews 9:14). Omnipresent (Psalms 139:7). Omniscient (1 Corinthians 2:10). (3.) He acts in a personal manner, as one who has a distinct and personal will (John 14:7-8; 1 Corinthians 12:11). (4.) He has personal appellations (Isaiah 11:2; John 14:16; John 14:26). He is called “a Comforter,” which is the name of a person, and of one vested with an office; “another Comforter,” to distinguish Him from God the Son, who is a Comforter and indisputably a Person. (5.) The immediate care and government of the Christian Church has been committed peculiarly to the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is His especial work, spiritual life His especial gift; by Him the work of sanctification is carried on; all Christian holiness, and the exercise of every grace, proceed from Him (John 3:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 13:14, &c.) He also qualifies and appoints persons to minister in the Church of Christ, and claims their services (Acts 13:2; Acts 20:28). These testimonies place it beyond doubt that the Holy Spirit is a divine, distinct, and self-existent person, infinite in all His attributes; that He is also, with the Father and the Son, One, God over all, blessed for evermore (H. E. I. 2867). II. HIS IN THE HUMAN SOUL. He is the great Teacher, the Spirit of Illumination, the promised Guide, who alone can lead us into a saving knowledge of the truth. We all continue in a state of spiritual darkness and death until by His mighty power we are born again. It is only through His agency that the corruptions of the human heart can be subdued and mortified, and a holy conformity to the will of God either acquired or sustained. He is the great and only true Comforter, from whom alone any solid consolations come. His work in the soul is just as necessary for its salvation as was the work that was finished on the Cross; and no man, however wise or learned he may be, knows really one tittle more of spiritual things than he is experimentally taught them by the Holy Ghost. His blessed influences, which are so absolutely necessary to us, should be earnestly sought (H. E. I. 2871–2891; P. D. 1815–1821).—John Johnstone, M.A.: The Way of Life, pp. 172–196. The suitableness of this passage to the important subject of the day, when we commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, is obvious. Let us consider— I. THE PROMISE. “I will pour,” &c. This, then, is a promise of the Spirit, which is here compared, as in other scriptures, to water, on account partly of its purifying, and partly of its comforting properties. For as water cleanses the body and quenches thirst, so the Spirit purifies the soul and satisfies spiritual desires. But who are they upon whom the Spirit is poured? 1. Upon the people of God, compared to the earth in the drought of summer, parched and thirsting for rain; upon those who are sensible of their spiritual barrenness, and are not looking for the supply of their wants to their own imaginary merits or strength, but are trusting in the mercy of God through Christ. Upon these the Lord will shed the Holy Ghost abundantly. 2. Upon the children of believers. II. ITS EFFECTS. “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses.” The image here employed implies two things—an increase of the Church, and a growth of individual piety. As plants and herbs spring up of themselves and spread in a grassy and well-watered spot, so did the Christian religion at first rapidly extend itself, through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Thousands were converted by a single sermon, and churches were planted over the whole of the then known world. As the willow situate by the river’s side shoots up quickly, so he upon whom the Lord pours His Spirit plentifully thrives and flourishes in the divine life. His faith becomes steadfast, his love pure and fervent, his humility profound, his knowledge and wisdom extensive and deep, his zeal ardent and constant, lowly and meek, his deadness to the world thorough, and his devotedness to God unreserved. If the gift of the Spirit be so important, how earnestly should we pray for it! Prayer is the appointed means of obtaining every blessing, whether temporal or spiritual, which God has to bestow. It is the particular duty annexed to the promise of the Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27; Ezekiel 36:37). Neglect it not! Pray first of all for your own dry and barren souls, that they may be visited with an abundant outpouring of the Spirit, and thereby be softened, refreshed, and fertilised. Pray next for your children, and pray in faith, expecting, on the ground of the new covenant and of the Divine promises, that your prayers will be heard and answered; your children are included in the promise as well as yourselves. Make a constant practice of praying “for the good estate of the Catholic Church, that it may be so guided and governed by God’s good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in the unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.”—James Gibson, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 87–99. Three things demand our attention— I. THE OF DIVINE . This is seen in the condition of the persons to whom this promise is addressed. Graphic and affecting terms are used to describe the state of the Church when the grace of the Spirit is withdrawn or withheld. It is a state— 1. Of destitution. The face of nature is entirely dependent on the dews and rains of heaven for its picturesque and fruitful appearance. In their absence the earth pines and languishes. Think of the condition and appearance of Israel, when for more than three years rain was withheld from it. As dependent is the heart of man upon God; where His gracious influence is not exerted, there is no true peace or joy. 2. Of sterility. This is denoted by the phrase “dry ground.” Dry ground is barren. Equally barren is the human heart in the absence of divine influence; it brings forth nothing valuable. 3. This destitution and barrenness extends even to the rising generation. Grace is not hereditary. The children of the most devout are individually dependent on God for all excellence. Unless that dependence is exercised, all the excellences resulting from their religious education will dwindle away and ultimately die. The necessity of divine influence clings to us all. II. THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE . This is represented in the metaphor by which it is described, “I will pour water,” &c. The opposite metaphor, fire, is also used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit. The propriety and beauty of the metaphor employed here will appear if we consider— 1. The peculiar proprieties of the promised blessing. Remember (1.) its cleansing influence. (2.) Its softening power. (3.) Its fertilising tendency. (4.) Its satisfying quality. Nothing else so effectually quenches thirst. 2. The manner of its bestowment. (1.) It falls from heaven. (2.) It is imparted freely. (3.) It is poured forth copiously. “Floods upon the dry ground.” III. THE EFFECTS OF DIVINE . When it is exerted, the results are seen— 1. In numerous conversions to God (Isaiah 44:4). As grass springs up in the water-courses, and willows grow in the moistened earth, so where the Spirit is poured forth numbers of converts arise to call the Redeemer blessed. 2. In consecration to the service of Christ (Isaiah 44:5). (1.) It is individual and personal. (2.) It is marked by holy decision openly avowed. (3.) It is influential in its example. “One shall say … and another!” .— 1. This promise should teach us to cultivate dependence on the Holy Spirit. 2. Let us derive encouragement to seek an enlarged effusion of the Divine influence for ourselves and for others. 3. The promise and the pictures of the text appeal to you young folk. They show you what you are without the Holy Spirit; what you may become under His gracious influence; and they stimulate you to that personal dedication to God on which your present and eternal well-being depends.—George Smith, D.D.Who are they that shall participate in these rich blessings? The region surveyed by the promise is one of destitution. It is a “dry ground.” Months since a drop of rain fell. It is parched. Nothing grows. The land is thirsty. The land and people represent God’s Church. It was a separated people (Isaiah 44:2). Jacob and Israel, names of the chosen people. Jesurun, “my righteous” or “beloved one.” So that the promise of the text relates to the Church. 1. IN ITSELF. This is the primary idea. The Church is depressed. Here is a promise of revival and refreshing. This is God’s usual course. He reanimates the spiritual life within the Church before He extends it beyond. The world’s conversion is through the Church. But if, like salt that has lost its savour, it has become incapable of its proper influence, how shall its capacity be regained? Only by a new outpouring of the Spirit from on high. God brought back His people; then the heathen knew that He was the Lord. At the Day of Pentecost the Spirit was first given to the disciples, then to the multitude. “Beginning at Jerusalem.” 2. IN ITS . The special promise of the text is that the children shall be brought under the saving influence. “I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring” (Acts 2:39). There is a special propriety and beauty in the arrangement that the Christian parent should be the means of training his children for the Church. If the children of Christians are not Christians, it is usually because the parents have failed in some respect to be to their children what they should have been. We ought to be able to look around on the families of Christians and anticipate their union in the fellowship of the Church as a matter of course. Thus there is in this promise the idea of the Gospel’s perpetuation in the world. It shall not expire with the existing generation. If not a single convert were added from the regions beyond, it will continue to live in the children of God’s people. So that, though the grass withers and the flower fades; though the man dies and is forgotten, the Word of the Lord, which by the Gospel is preached unto you, endureth for ever. Is not the greater proportion of conversions usually among the young? Is not this a fulfilment of the promise? Let Christian parents and Christian ministers be specially interested in the young (H. E. I. 781–788, 795, 803–806). Nor does it terminate there. It spreads outwards. Unlike Gideon’s fleece, which was saturated while the surrounding ground remained dry, the dew which falls upon the Church reaches the region outside (Ezekiel 34:26). Large numbers attend our Christian sanctuaries who do not identify themselves with the Church. They hear the Gospel; are interested in its success; but they have not its blessing. The waters of salvation are flowing around them; but their souls remain parched. For them every Christian should pray. They will suffer me to say a word to them. You are like a drowning man who clings to the side of the boat, but refuses to enter it. This is not God’s fault. It is your own. How long shall it continue? We want more prayer for the Holy Spirit; a more real belief in His work.—J. Rawlinson.REVIVAL: A HOMILY FOR SPRING Isaiah 44:3-4. For I will pour water, &c.Foremost among the judgments which followed Israel’s idolatries was the visitation of drought. We enjoy copious supplies of fertilising rain. Yet, even in our own land, a sensible reduction of the rain-fall in spring is followed by empty shocks in August. But in the sunny climes of Syria, if the half-yearly gift of rain failed, the effect was disastrous in the extreme. If drought is so injurious in the fields of nature, is it not equally injurious in the Church? In our text there is, I. A STATE OF . The ground is said to be “dry,” in a parched and impenetrable condition. Deadly to vegetable growth. With such homely imagery the prophet leads our thoughts from the outer world to the inner. Is it my soul that is here described? Whatever be the reason, God shall be held clear of blame; and, like the first sign of approaching spring, comes His gracious promise, “I will pour,” &c. II. A SENSE OF NEED . The insensibility is gone. The rigid hardness of winter is at an end. Who is there among us whose spirit thirsts not? (Matthew 5:6.) III. A GIFT . A promise from God is as good as its performance. 1. The source of the supply. The great folly to which all men are prone is to seek the supply of their wants elsewhere than in God. Yet God has wisely ordained that nowhere out of Himself shall man’s highest good be found. 2. The suitableness of the means. Showers for a thirsty soul—mercy’s gifts to satisfy the wants of dependent man. Showers of spiritual influence to refresh our drooping piety. Not half so skilfully do the several parts of a key fit into the wards of a complicated lock as the gifts of Christ fit the needs of a human soul. 3. The copiousness of the gift. If showers will not suffice, there shall be “floods.” 4. The range of the promise. It shall not terminate with ourselves; it shall extend to our children—ay, to our children’s children. Consolation for parents. The spirit of piety is as contagious as the spirit of profanity. If our Christian faith and love be vigorous, our ambition for our children will be, not riches, &c., but salvation. IV. . There shall be a revival of life in the Church, as in the parched fields after a copious shower, as in nature at the advent of spring. What a delightful change! 1. Multiplicity of conversions is here predicted. Appearances may be unfavourable; unbelief may ridicule the hope; but the word has gone forth, and cannot fail. 2. Rapidity of growth shall be another feature of this era. Now, for the most part, growth is slow; good fruit is scanty. We scarce can tell whether we gain or lose. But when the heavenly rain shall descend, the young life will break through every bond, will send out new shoots, and make every branch fruitful. 3. Constancy of verdure will be enjoyed. They shall be “as willows by the water-courses.”—D. Davies, M.A.: Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv. p. 407. These words describe a time of refreshing. I. Who is the Author of a work of grace? God. 1. He begins a work of anxiety in dead souls (Zechariah 12; John 16; Ezekiel 37) 2. He carries on the work, leading awakened persons to Christ (Joe 2:28; Joe 2:32). 3. He enlarges His people. Learn (1.) To look beyond ministers for a work of grace; (2.) Good hope of revival in our day; (3.) That we should pray for it. II. God begins with thirsty souls. 1. Awakened persons. 2. Thirsty believers. Signs: (1.) Much thirst after the word. (2.) Much prayer. (3.) Desire to grow in grace. III. God pours floods on the dry ground. Represents those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Marks: (1.) They do not pray. (2.) They do not wish a work of grace in their souls. (3.) Those who do not attend to the preached word. Learn, Christians, to pray for floods of blessing. IV. Effects. 1. Saved souls will be like grass. 2. Believers shall grow like willows. 3. Self-dedication.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons, pp. 66–72. THE CHURCH AND THE (For the third Sunday in October, the day for “universal prayer and effort on behalf of Sunday-schools and young people.”) Isaiah 44:3-5. For I will pour water, &c.The third Sunday in October is, in many places, an anniversary associated with blessed recollections. If the mighty hosts of godly parents and Sunday-school workers agree to ask for the gift of the Holy Ghost, it will be made manifest that we are among the heirs of Pentecost; in our dwellings, &c., we shall be richly blessed, and multitudes of the young will be added to the Church, according to these glorious declarations. Let there be no misgiving; these “exceeding great and precious promises” are “unto us and our children.” I. GOD’S PROMISE OF UPON THE CHURCH. 1. The nature of the promised blessing. Consists in the influences of the Holy Spirit which are frequently represented in the Scriptures, and especially by Isaiah, under the figure of water, either as “streams,” “rivers,” or “floods.” Here the terms “water” and “Spirit” are used interchangeably (cf. John 7:38-39). Analogy between water in the natural world, and the Spirit’s influences in the moral world. Whatever good there is in the Holy Spirit’s agency, this promise includes them all, for when God gives His Spirit, He gives all other blessings (Luke 5:23 with Matthew 7:5). 2. Abundant. The terms employed indicate communications commensurate with the existing need, however great. Like torrents of rain poured on the thirsty earth. The fulness of the Spirit’s influences shall be communicated to us if we seek in the way of obedient prayer and faith. Not a solitary promise—one of a group (Ezekiel 34:26; Joe 2:28; Hosea 14:5; Malachi 3:10, &c.) Had their first grand and signal fulfilment upon the day of Pentecost—the beginning of the fulfilment of these promises. Acts 2:39 proves the universality of the promise. It is yours now. What abundant communications of divine influence we should expect! 3. Needed. God’s ancient people were in a sadly backsliding state. They needed the bestowment of divine influence. So do we. (1.) The low and languid piety of the Church. (2.) The comparatively small success of the various agencies for the conversion of sinners. Our agencies will not be spiritually useful upon anything like a large scale, until they are charged with spiritual force. 4. Must be sought. The promise is made to the “thirsty.” God gives what He promises only in answer to prayer. His promise cannot fail. 5. The results will be most glorious. Individuals. Church. World. II. GOD’S PROMISE OF UPON THE OF THE CHURCH. Has made the hearts of multitudes of pious parents and teachers thrill with delight. Accords with many others. 1. Our children need the Holy Spirit. No natural goodness can supersede the work of the Spirit. Religion not hereditary. 2. God promises to give the Spirit as abundantly to them as to us. Same terms used in each case. Having received the Spirit, they are to grow in grace most vigorously (Isaiah 44:4). The manifestation of this in public (Isaiah 44:5). 3. Must be sought. As in the former case, so in this. The universal Church is seeking this blessing to-day upon Sunday-schools and young people. Grand and inspiring fact! The salvation of our children is placed before us as the crowning glory of the Church when she is in the full tide of her prosperity. Let parents and teachers, &c., expect the fulfilment of the promise to-day. .—A word to unconverted parents. You are glad to see your children pious, though you are neglecting salvation yourselves. One of the strongest reasons why you should seek it. How sacred and solemn is the parental relationship.—A. Tucker.I. That God will pour His blessing on the children of His people. A promise which in all ages, when parents are faithful, is abundantly fulfilled. II. That one of the richest blessings which can be imparted to a people is, that God’s Spirit should descend on their children. III. That the Spirit of God alone is the source of true happiness and prosperity to our children. All else—property, learning, accomplishments, beauty, vigour—will be vain. It is by His blessing only—by the influences of piety—that they will spring forth, &c. IV. Parents should pray earnestly for a revival of religion. No better description can be given of it than we have here. Who would not pray for such a work of grace? What family, what congregation, what people can be happy without it?—A. Barnes. A PUBLIC OF Isaiah 44:5. One shall say, I am the Lord’s, &c.This chapter begins with a prediction of the future prosperity and increase of the Church of God; and the prophet here represents converts as spontaneously choosing to make a public profession of religion. I. SOME REASONS WHY TRUE DESIRE TO MAKE A PUBLIC OF . 1. Those who have experienced a saving change of heart love God’s law. It is in the creation of such a love within them that this change consists (Jeremiah 31:33; Psalms 119:97). Those who love God’s law choose to obey it, and to bind themselves to obey it for ever (Jeremiah 1:4-5). 2. They love God’s ordinances. They delight to observe them all, especially that which commemorates the death of their Divine Redeemer (Acts 2:41; Acts 2:47). 3. They love God’s people, and delight to unite with them in the duties of religion, and in their attendance on divine ordinances. 4. They love God’s cause. They desire to be workers together with God in building up His kingdom, and for this reason wish to put themselves in the best situation, and under the strongest obligations to promote the cause of truth and the prosperity of Zion. Their profession gives them a greater freedom, and creates a greater obligation to speak and act for God and for the good of their fellow-men. 5. They desire to grow in grace; and for that reason desire to join the Church, that they may enjoy the best means of spiritual instruction and edification. 6. They desire to persevere to the end; and being conscious of the deceitfulness of their own hearts, and their proneness to forget and forsake God, they gladly avail themselves of the help that is afforded by a public vow and covenant to be steadfast in His service (H. E. I. 3903–3911). As all who make a profession of religion are not Christians, so neither are all who omit to do so unbelievers. Let us note, therefore— II. SOME EXCUSES WHICH SOME OFFER FOR NOT MAKING A PUBLIC OF . 1. “I am not absolutely certain that I am a Christian.” But you hope you are; and will disobeying God do anything to turn your hope into a settled confidence? The way to get more grace is to use the grace you have. 2. “I do not know that the Church would receive me.” Why not? Do you think that the Church is not competent to arrive at a just judgment concerning you? or that it would wilfully judge you unjustly? or that your excellences are so transcendent that full justice would not be done to them? If this is what you mean, you are not worthy to enter the Church. But if your fear of not being accepted arises from a humiliating sense of your own unworthiness, such humility will rather commend you to the esteem and confidence of good men. 3. “I fear I should do more dishonour than honour to religion.” But you have no right to fear anything of the kind. God promises to sustain you with His all-sufficient grace. Put away this sinful, because unbelieving, fear. 4. “I know a great many good people who are not Church members.” That is no concern of yours. Their neglect will not excuse yours (John 21:21-22; Romans 14:12). 5. “A great many Church members are no better than they ought to be.” True. Let us be sorry that it is so. But this is no reason why you should neglect to name Christ’s name and promote His cause; it is rather a strong reason why you should unite with His few friends to purify, strengthen, and revive religion, and to rectify whatever is amiss in the Church. Note— III. SOME OF THE EVILS THAT RESULT FROM THIS NEGLECT TO MAKE A PUBLIC OF . Those who are guilty of it— 1. Injure themselves, by depriving themselves of that peace and comfort which they might enjoy in communion with God and His people. 2. They injure religion, by neglecting to perform those peculiar and important duties by which it is to be promoted in the world. 3. They injure the friends of God by practically joining with the world in neglecting and opposing the cause which they desire and have bound themselves to promote (Matthew 12:30). 4. They injure the impenitent by practically justifying them in their impenitence and unbelief. The more upright and amiable they appear, the more they injure the cause of God and the souls of men by the weight and influence of their criminal example.—Dr. Emmons: Works, vol. v. pp. 458–469. The immediate effect of the outpouring of the Spirit, promised in Isaiah 44:3, will be a general awakening to the claims of religion. When so visited, men think seriously about the soul, eternity, and God. Hitherto their practice may have been at one with the sentiment expressed in the words, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;” but, under the influence of the new quickening, the unseen state is felt to be a reality, and the interests of time give way before the urgency of the great hereafter. Such views ripen into religious devotion, or the soul’s consecration to God. Touching the nature and method of the surrender and dedication of the soul to God, the prophet’s language indicates these things:— I. The act is strictly personal. “One shall say,” “and another shall call himself,” “and another shall subscribe with his hand.” [1411] Men proceed singly in the matter. Repentance, faith, and regeneration and consecration are individual transactions between the creature and the Creator. Into the fellowship of saints many may enter at the same time. The text favours the idea of concealed action. In their turning to God, it is common for men to move together. Yet the procedure is no more a collective process than eating and drinking at one table and hour is a collective process. As the servants of the Crown have to take the oath of allegiance one by one, so must the vow of service to the King of kings be, in every case, independently plighted. Each person has to enter into the covenant on his own account. [1411] “And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.” According to Bishop Louth, this might be rendered, “Another shall inscribe his hand to Jehovah;” or still more plainly in the Septuagint translation, “An other shall write upon his hand, I belong to God.” You have doubtless seen upon the hands or arms of seamen the name of the ship in which they have served, rendered indelible by puncture, or by staining; this, perhaps, is one of the oldest customs in the world. The slave, in former days, used thus to be marked with the name of his master; the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name of his god; while one of the Christian fathers tells us that in his day, “many marked their wrists or their arms with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ.” This, then, will give you a very distinct idea of what the Lord requires of you, and what He will enable you to perform; it is such a decided choice of the Lord for your portion, such an avowal by your daily actions, that you are not your own, but His who has bought you with the price of His precious blood, that all shall know it as certainly, and that your actions shall proclaim it as unequivocally, as if the name of Christ were inscribed on the back of your hand, and could be seen and read in all companies, and on all occasions.—Blunt.II. The act is performed specially by the faculty of choice and determination. The other mental powers share in the engagement. The understanding and reason, the conscience and the affections, are parties to it. But, whilst the sister faculties conduce to and support the pledge, the utterance of the binding promise does not rest with any or all of them. The decision itself pertains to the instrument of choice. The making up of the mind to what is good and holy is pre-eminently the function and act of the will. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” III. The act, in order to be rightly completed, requires an outward sign or seal. The word of acknowledgment is spoken. “I am the Lord’s;” or “the name of Jacob” is assumed, the visible fellowship of good men is entered; or a subscription with the hand is appended in token of acceptance and submission. When the soul attaches itself to the service of its Saviour, the internal establishment is to be accompanied by some sort of external work. This is seemly by way of open confession. It is right and becoming for the children of God to show whose they are. The sign, too, helps one’s own resolution. Our purpose is the stronger when we have definitively committed ourselves to the adopted course. Again, the sign has its effect upon others. Where the decision for Christ is not avowed, the example cannot be clear and forcible. The token is a reasonable adjunct, and not to be neglected without loss in various ways. Hence the Scriptures call for the outward profession of faith. Our courage is not to shrink from view. Instead of continuing to come to Christ by night only, Nicodemus must consent to receive baptism with water, and take upon him the badge of open identification with an unpopular cause. The Christian’s light is to shine before men. Jesus did not invite to secret discipleship (H. E. I. 1042–1045).—W. Follard.I. The nature of true religion. 1. It is a surrender of ourselves to God. “I am the Lord’s.” (1.) He has an original right—formed us for Himself. (2.) Reasonable right. (3.) Redeeming right. 2. It is an avowed acknowledgment of God. “Another shall,” &c. Profession is demanded by the Lord. 3. It includes union and fellowship with His people. “Call themselves,” &c. So in apostolic times, &c. II. The characteristics of religion as presented in our text. 1. It is personal. 2. Voluntary. 3. Deliberate. 4. Determinate. III. The importance of such a spirit of religion. 1. It is intensely important to Jesus. 2. To the Church. 3. Supremely important to yourselves; it is not a vain thing, it is your life.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons on Special Occasions, pp. 170–173. THE AND OF GOD Isaiah 44:6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, &c.A magnificent text! It places before us three of the loftiest of all themes of thought—the solitariness and eternity of God, and His relations to the Church. There are speculations that are profitless; but others are ennobling. These! About such topics we should often think; or the noblest faculties of our mind will dwindle and die (H. E. I. 3294, 3493). I. THE OF GOD. “Beside Me there is no God.” To us a familiar fact; but let us think about it. One God! Then— 1. One Creator of all things. All—what a comprehensive term! Includes— (1.) The lifeless universe. The sun—suns. Mountains, gems. The rocks, the waves that roll and dash against them, &c. (2.) The living universe. How varied the living forms in this earth, this infinitesimal fragment of the universe! But God is the one source of all the life of the universe, of all its grandeur, of all its beauty. (3.) The moral universe. Men. Angels. What a wonderful Being, of whom the outcome is so various and glorious (P. D. 631). 2. One Sustainer of all things. The regularity of the procession of the seasons, of all the events of the universe, is a sufficient proof that behind all things there is one God (H. E. I. 362–365, 3173–3182). 3. One Ruler of all things. Every departure from the laws of righteousness and love, is not merely an infraction of law, but a sin against GOD (H. E. I. 4478). In all these respects God abides alone, eternally! II. THE OF GOD. “I am the first, and I am the last.” Space and time the two mysteries before which the human mind stands defeated and appalled. They defy our attempts to grasp them (P. D. 1078). But science has done a noble service by enlarging our ideas of both. Astronomy and geology—what suggestions they are giving concerning the meaning of the word Time! But when our thoughts have travelled back as far as is possible, with what do they find themselves confronted? With God! “In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth” (H. E. I. 2253). Let us travel forward. What a changing universe we are in! The predictions of science concerning the solar system. When they are fulfilled, what will remain unchanged? GOD! With Him there is no variableness (P. D. 2536). 1. This enables us to look forward without foreboding. The one Ruler will overrule all the changes for His glory and the good of His creatures. There is a richer universe ahead (P. D. 1492.) 2. How certain is the fulfilment of the promises of Scripture! He who made them will remain to fulfil them (H. E. I. 2254). 3. What an immense interest we have in this truth of the eternity of God! His children shall share in His eternity with Him (Psalms 122:4-8; P. D. 1693, 1971). III. GOD’S TO HIS CHURCH. In considering them, remember that what He is to His Church He is also to each member of it. 1. He is its King. “Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel.” (1.) Its ruler. His will only should be consulted by it. The Church should not fear man nor seek his favour; to GOD only should obedience be rendered. This the inspiring, ennobling principle of the martyrs (Acts 4:19-20; Acts 5:29). (2.) Its defender. No evil can happen to it (Matthew 16:18). The testimony of the past. No fear as to the future (H. E. I. 1246–1251, 2249). 2. He is its Redeemer. “And his redeemer the Lord of hosts.” “Redeemer,” i.e., rescuer. Two modes of rescue, by payment and by power. By payment He has rescued His people from the just claims of the avenging LAW (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; Romans 3:24-26; H. E. I. 382). By sanctifying power He will rescue them from the dominion of ignorance and sin (Matthew 1:21). (1.) There are many imperfections in the Church. But they shall all be removed (Ephesians 5:25-27). His ransomed ones shall form a glorious host with which He shall be “satisfied.” (2.) There are many imperfections in us. Let us not be dismayed because of them, but let us struggle against them valiantly. In our case, too, God will show that He is the Redeemer of Israel (Philippians 1:6; Jude 1:24; H. E. I. 1053–1070). COURAGE Isaiah 44:8. Fear not, neither be afraid, &c.Boldness for God, and boldness in dealing with God, should form part of the Christian character; and the Word of God, from the beginning to the end, encourages this Christian boldness. We are repeatedly exhorted to “fear not,” to “be of good courage.” I. WHY GOD’S PEOPLE ARE LIKELY TO FEAR. 1. Because they are few in number and “peculiar.” Many are called, but few are chosen. “Fear not, little flock,” &c. 2. The result of this is that they have always been a persecuted people (Genesis 5:29; Isaiah 41:10-11). 3. Because they are called to live not by sight, but by faith, and therefore to make present sacrifices (Matthew 19:2-30; Philippians 3:4-7). II. WHY THEY SHOULD NOT FEAR. Because the Lord thus argues with, us: “Have not I,” &c. God challenges man to deny this fact, that He knows the end from the beginning, and has proved that He knows it by foretelling the end from the beginning. [1414] This is the manner in which God argues in other passages (Isaiah 42:9; Deuteronomy 28:47-49; Matthew 26:31). So, again, the Lord has foretold to us everything that is required for our deliverance in the advent and work of Christ (Isaiah 9:6; Zechariah 13:7; Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:5). These prophecies have been fulfilled to the very letter. Hence, God knows the end; foresees the means, and exercises control over those means. Everything that happens, great or small, is under the control of God, and therefore we have nothing to fear, because we are in His hands who “doeth all things well.” In this manner we find the argument used (Isaiah 51:12). [1414] See also Isaiah 44:7 : “And who, as I, shall call,” &c. Foreknowledge is the exclusive prerogative of God; it is exemplified in the prophetic history of His people; it extends to things remote as well as near; it supplies a strong argument for unwavering confidence.—Lyth. III. THE APPEAL WHICH THE LORD MAKES TO HIS PEOPLE. “Ye are even my witnesses,” thus urging upon them, by the strongest possible personal appeal, to bear testimony to the fact that He is their God for ever and ever. He would have all His people speak of His faithfulness (Isaiah 43:10-13). The duty from which many shrink, from a want of simple courage. Many ways in which we may be witnesses. 1. By a consistent life. Should be a “living epistle.” 2. By speaking for the cause of truth and holiness. 3. By zeal for the salvation of souls. Are you amongst the real witnesses for God?—M. Villiers, M.A.: The Pulpit, vol. lxix. pp. 129–134). IDOL-MAKERS Isaiah 44:9-20. They that make a graven image, &c.What have we in this section of this chapter? An effective exposure of the folly of a practice that was almost universal! A fact in itself worth thinking about. We see the folly of the practice, yet it prevailed without any one suspecting its absurdity! Practical lesson: Things are not necessarily right because they are common. True of matters of faith and practice. Yet there is a general tendency to take it for granted that things that are common are right. A perception of the falsity of this assumption leads some men to an opposite error—the assumption that anything that is ancient is absurd. So pendulum-like is our tendency! But the first of these errors, because it is most prevalent, is most distinctly condemned in Scripture. The special aim of Scripture is the cultivation of individuality. It teaches that God is to be worshipped with the understanding (Psalms 47:7; Mark 12:33; 1 Corinthians 14:15). It commands and commends individual search after truth (John 5:39; Acts 17:11). It warns us against idly conforming to common practices (Exodus 23:2). To this aim of Scripture let us respond. Let us have the wisdom and the courage to think and act for ourselves. This is the secret of the origin of the reforms the world needed so much; the absurdity and wickedness of idolatry, witchcraft, Popery, slavery, &c., first dawned upon individual thinkers, who risked their lives in exposing the delusion to others. Thus only can the reforms the world still needs be accomplished. In the very nature of the case, the cultivation of individuality is a duty that devolves on you and me. Let us give heed to it. This an important lesson from the general purpose of our text. Note also— I. THINGS IN THESE IDOL-MAKERS. Like our Lord, we should be observant of things that are excellent in men whose general character and course is wrong (Luke 16:8). The idol-makers were not content merely to believe; they carried out their belief into practice. They believed that they ought to worship idols, and they made and worshipped them. So it is with idolaters to-day. How poorly we should come out, if we were put to this test. We believe many right things: that God should be worshipped, that the Sabbath should be kept holy, &c., but how about our practice? (James 1:22.) 2. They did not hesitate to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish the object they deemed desirable. Many of the idols were exceedingly costly (Isaiah 40:19). The poorest stinted themselves that they might at least procure for themselves idols of carved wood (Isaiah 40:20). Before the idols they offered costly sacrifices, some of them even their children. What terrible sacrifices idolaters often make now! But we, how little we are prepared to sacrifice, in order to do what is right, and to extend the kingdom of God in the world! II. THINGS IN THESE IDOL-MAKERS. When we look upon them thoughtfully, we learn— 1. That intellectual ability is not sufficient to save men from the grossest spiritual follies. The idolaters were not all idiots. Many of them were great statesmen, soldiers, &c. Yet they were guilty of the gross folly of idolatry. Intellect is a great gift, but there are many things for which it is insufficient. Spiritual things can be only spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 2:14). 2. That neglect of the duty of thinking leads men into most foolish beliefs and injurious practices (Isaiah 44:19. See also Isaiah 1:3, and outlines on that text in vol. i. pp. 7–12). The great lesson of this text: the duty of diligent and earnest self-examination. Let us look into our right hand, and see what it is that we are cherishing there (Isaiah 44:20; H. E I. 4433, 4434). THE HEART Isaiah 44:20. He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart, &c.The moral government of God in this world is carried on by agencies that, generally speaking, seem to us most perfectly appropriate to the accomplishment of His designs. But He sometimes chooses means that appear unlikely to bring about what He intends to effect. Such was the method He adopted to cure the Jews of their idolatry. They were addicted to it for many generations. He caused them to be carried away captive to a country in which this degradation was practised universally! Yet it was there they became totally changed in this respect. Considered in itself, there was nothing in their captivity in an idolatrous country to secure this end; indeed it rather had a contrary tendency. But it was the grace of God working with their affliction that rendered it productive of this unexpected result. The warnings and instructions of the prophets accompanied the affliction, and the blessing of God rested on both; while they looked on the idolatrous practices, God’s messengers pointed out their absurdity, degradation, and danger. This chapter was designed for this purpose. But while our text refers to the folly of the idolater, it admits of easy and legitimate application to all the fallen children of Adam who are in their unrenewed state. They are turned aside by a deceived heart; they are feeding on ashes; they cannot deliver their souls, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” I. THE NATURE OF THAT BY WHICH AN PERSON IS . “A deceived heart hath turned him aside.” The deception is therefore— 1. Fundamental in its character. It has its seat in the very centre of his being. It perniciously affects his governing principles. Principles determine action. True, bad men will sometimes, through the operation of outward causes, act contrary to their secret inclinations; and a good man, overborne by temptation, may act contrary to his settled principles (Romans 7:18-19). Peter denied his Master at the very time when his principles, if carried out, would have led him to come forward in His defence. But deception of the heart consists not merely in having the principles overruled by the force of temptation, but in the principles themselves being wrong. In this case, the very springs of a man’s action are out of place, and consequently wrong must be the rule by which he walks and the judgment which he forms. When the fountain is corrupt, all the streams that issue from it will be corrupt. When the heart is in error, all that depends upon its unaided decisions must be erroneous (Proverbs 4:23; H. E. I. 2689–2693). 2. It is powerful in the influence which it exerts. Whether a man will walk in the paths of virtue or of vice, depends entirely on the state of his heart, for in all cases it is true that “as he thinketh in his heart so is he.” His conduct will sooner or later be of the character to which that inclines. Such is the influence of the heart over the inferior faculties that, whatever resistance they may set up at first, it will be but feeble and temporary. There are instances on record—even in regard to good men, as David in the matter of Uriah, and Peter in denying Christ—in which the inferior faculties, not being fully subject to the heart, have, like a factious colony, revolted; but the heart, being right and strong, has exerted its sovereign power, and they have been again reduced to subjection, order, and obedience. On the other hand, in hypocrites and persons partially awakened, the inferior powers have been wrought upon to a great extent; but the heart not being changed, they have soon drawn back to its government and control. The intellect is curiously affected by the heart. How much the heart has to do with the opinions we hold! With what ease a person is brought to believe that to which he is inclined! (P. D. 119, 2382, 3057). How apt the judgment is to protest against that to which the heart is opposed! Such was the powerful influence by which the Jews, in the days of the Prophet, were retained in their idolatrous practices. It was seen to be equally efficacious in the days of our Lord. The corrupt hearts of the Pharisees were averse to His claims, and their aversion influenced their wills to reject and destroy Him; if at any time they found conviction stealing over them, it was met within by a powerful check. They saw, and yet they hated, both our Lord and His Father. 3. The existence of this deception is usually unsuspected, because it is so natural and easy in its mode of operation. Amongst all the reasons assigned for indifference about the state of the soul in the sight of God, this is not the least frequently assigned, that the mind is now at ease. Most persons think that nothing but fanatical zeal can make a man anxiously concerned for himself, or induce him deliberately to awaken suspicion in the reposing souls of others. But there is a quietness which deserves to be dreaded more than the greatest distress that can be experienced. It is the quietness of spiritual death—a false peace arising from the spiritual ignorance of its possessors, or the delusion of others by whom they are led (Jeremiah 6:14; H. E. I. 1327–1333). Though conversions are not all after one pattern, yet there are few whose present spiritual comfort, if it be worth anything, has not been preceded by a severe spiritual conflict. What is required of every one who would avoid the delusion specified in our text? It is that he should act with regard to the momentous concerns of the soul as he does in reference to the interests of the present life. When a man is about to purchase an estate, he most carefully examines the title to it that is offered him. But how seldom are the Scriptures searched for the express purpose of bringing the heart to that test! But consider— II. THE PROOFS OF THIS WHICH ARE TO BE FOUND IN THE SINNER’S LIFE AND CONDUCT. “He feedeth on ashes.” A deceived heart is known— 1. By the vitiated taste which characterises its possessor—by the utter insufficiency and impropriety of those things by which he, as an immortal being, seeks to satisfy the desires of his spiritual nature; just as, when we see a person craving after that which cannot be of any benefit to him, we conclude at once that there is a diseased condition of body, or a perverted state of mind. Only in God can there be found the satisfaction for the soul’s craving after happiness (H. E. I. 2379–2387, 4627–4630). But instead of looking to Him, the man of deceived heart endeavours to supply His place with inefficient substitutes—the things of this world. “He feedeth on ashes,” sensual enjoyments, schemes of worldly pleasure, delusive hopes (P. D. 1680). 2. By the injurious tendencies of the man’s practices. He who “feedeth on ashes” not only debars himself of what is good, but also inflicts upon his constitution a positive evil, by rendering himself incapable of relishing necessary future good when he may feel disposed for its enjoyment. As true of the soul as of the body! The longer repentance is delayed the more difficult it becomes; the longer vice reigns in the heart, the more arduous and painful is the work of its expulsion. [1417] “Feeding on ashes” must also affect the future. That there are degrees of glory we are clearly taught in the Scriptures; but by what rule are they regulated except by the measure of grace received and cultivated here? (P. D. 412, 1752). [1417] To which of the saints can we turn who did not enlist under the banner of the Cross until late in life, and after a terrible course of error and profanity, who does not find, to his deep regret, that in the time of his former ignorance he was not only keeping himself from the proper nourishment of his soul, but also that the ashes on which he then fed have left behind injurious consequences, which now prevent him from enjoying so much as he otherwise would of the excellency of Christ and His Gospel? When the memory has been previously stored, and perhaps at a very early period of life, with the pernicious productions of a licentious press, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to forget them, and supply their place with better things. When the affections have been firmly set on the vanities of time and sense, and through a long period have exercised their strength upon a certain set of objects, it will be extremely difficult to prevent the intrusion of those objects; and that, too, when they ought especially to be annihilated. Many and painful will be the struggles between these and better things for the throne of the heart.—Slye.3. It is seen in that contentment and satisfaction the man appears to possess. “He feedeth on ashes.” He does not take them as a medicine that has been prescribed for him; he sits down to them as a meal, as a matter of habit and choice! How pitiable! III. THE DIREFUL EFFECTS OF THIS ON THE SINNER. “He cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” If the body be diseased in some of its inferior or less essential parts, the vital organs being healthy and the constitution good, it may recover itself, and again perform its wonted actions; but if the seat of life be affected, there is no hope of recovery but by a miracle, or that which nearly approaches to it. It is just so with a deceived heart. Sin has untuned the instrument, and though it has still left the strings, they have no power to rectify themselves. In a dead body there are all the properties for action, and there may be some of the animal warmth, while there is no animation, but the lifeless mass cannot recover itself. No more can the man who has long fed upon “ashes.” The very desire, as well as the ability, to rise to a nobler life passes away from him (H. E. I. 1527).—James Slye: Home Exercises, pp. 33–66. Mistaken notions of image-worship may lead us to regard it with an air of scorn, as too silly and infatuated ever to find a place in Christianised communities; but let us not be deceived; the pagan does not bow down to the mere material of which his god is formed; he believes it to be fraught with a divine power and intelligence, that in it or in his act of worship there resides a secret virtue; and whenever the symbol in Christian worship is believed to have in itself an efficacious virtue, whenever religious acts as such, religious ceremonies or places of worship, are supposed to be possessed of a peculiar sacredness and saving efficacy, we have only a refined species of image-worship. But if not images, we have our idols in abundance. The gods of our day may not have an outward embodiment, but not the less loyal are their votaries to them. Men are prone to make idols of mammon and worldly desires and selfish ambitions. Human nature is substantially the same in all ages. The follies of bygone times are continually being reproduced, and instead of exciting our ridicule, they should call us to examine our own conduct. The text concludes the Prophet’s scathing exposure of the folly of idol-manufacture and idol-worship, which he traces up to “a deceived heart.” “So wrapped up is he in his delusion that he never thinks of examining the grounds of his hope.” May not this explain every false confidence, and every sinful course? As the long practice of idolatry blinds the idolater to its folly, so every sin and superstitious trust has a blinding effect. The lie in the hand becomes a lie in the heart, and the lie in the heart keeps the lie in the hand. Practice and belief have a reciprocal influence. Self-deception is at once the fruit and the seed of sin (H. E. I. 4538). Sin works spiritual blindness, so that the sinner is like a ship in a fog, or a traveller in a deep ravine who knows not his direction on account of the overhanging cliffs and dense foliage (Matthew 6:23); nay, he is worse, for not only is he unable to review his conduct and test his principles, he is indisposed to do so, and it never even suggests itself to him that he is possibly on a wrong track. Look at some of the causes and forms of self-delusion in regard to a sinful life and a foolish confidence, both of which are denoted by “the hand,” as that which acts and that which grasps:— 1. Ignorance of self and neglect of self-scrutiny. Men busy themselves in exploring the expanse of the sky, and ranging the bodies of the universe, while they neglect to scrutinise their own hearts. They recoil from self-examination because it is painful. “O grievous strait!” cries one; “if I look into myself I cannot endure myself; if I see not myself I am deceived, and death is unavoidable.” Surely it is better to open the wound than to let it mortify. If only the sinner would pause and reflect, he might discover the lie to which he is clinging and the deception that lurks in his heart (Psalms 139:23-24). 2. The false religions of the world. Even the heathen have a sense of guilt and a fear of retribution, and when they ask, “How can we obtain pardon and peace?” their own hearts cannot tell, nature gives no response; but the superstitions of the world come to their aid with soothing opiates for a guilty conscience. They are taught to propitiate the gods by bloody rites. So strong is the sense of guilt that the deluded Hindoo practises upon himself every form of torture, prostrating himself before the wheels of the car of Juggernaut. The Mohammedan is very scrupulous in his fasts and prayers, or undertakes a toilsome journey to the tomb of the false prophet, hoping thus to expiate his guilt and obtain a passport to paradise. The Romanist confesses his sin into the ear of a priest, and implores the aid of the Virgin and the saints. The indulgences which he can purchase are paper falsehoods, but so deluded is he that he does not ask, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” In these ways the false religions of the world encourage their votaries in sin and self-deception. All of them are offshoots and creations of depraved human nature (Deuteronomy 29:19). 3. The practice of giving soft and soothing names to sin to disguise its real nature. The lie in the hand is concealed by the lie in the heart, when plausible names are given to dishonourable actions. A man who ruins himself by some degrading vice is said to be “a good-hearted fellow, who harms no one but himself;” a shameful sin is but “a misfortune.” Thus are men led into the belief that there is no such thing as sin at all. They hide their eyes from its sinfulness, and live in the practice of it, because they think lightly of it. 4. The excuses of our own evil hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). In ancient times men ascribed their moral delinquencies to the influence of the stars under which they were born, casting their guilt upon the circumstances of their birth, and imagining that they were under a fatal influence which compelled them to sin (Jeremiah 7:10). Many still believe themselves to be the slaves of inflexible fate, and are bold enough to charge their Maker with their guilt, like Burns, who wrote— “Thou knowest that Thou hast formed meWith passions wild and strong;And listening to their witching voiceHas often led me wrong.”They declare themselves to be the victims of circumstance, unable to help themselves (Genesis 3:12; James 1:13). .— 1. The degradation and disappointment of the self-deceived. “He feedeth on ashes,” which cannot nourish nor satisfy (Deuteronomy 32:32; Luke 15:16). No solid comfort nor abiding peace is found in the lies to which the natural heart has recourse. Foolish man is like the ostrich that tries to elude the pursuit of the hunters by hiding its head in the sand. Lies in heart and life shall have lies for their reward—ashes instead of food. In Doddridge’s well-known hymn, “O Happy Day,” there is a reference to our text, which in some collections has been tampered with. The verse runs— “Now rest, my long-divided heart;Fixed on this blissful centre, rest:With ashes who would grudge to part,When called on angels’ bread to feast!”2. The helplessness of the self-deluded. “He cannot deliver his soul” by detecting the delusions in which he is ensnared. Nothing short of Divine power and heavenly light can break the spell under which he lies (John 16:8-11; Ephesians 5:13-14).—William Guthrie, M.A. THE AND DUTY OF GOD’S PEOPLE Isaiah 44:21-22. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, &c.God contrasts the happy condition of His chosen people with that of the poor blind idolaters whom He had been describing in the verses before. I. All who have come to Christ are forgiven (Isaiah 44:22). 1. The completeness of their forgiveness. Shown in many ways in the Bible (H. E. I. 2332–2337). 2. It is present forgiveness. “I have.” Some say, “I hope, &c.; I don’t know, &c.; It is impossible to tell, &c.” 3. It is Divine. (1.) Some try to blot out their own sins. (2.) Some hope that Christ will blot out their sins. Speak to unforgiven souls. II. All that have come to Christ are God’s servants. Two reasons are given: 1. Because redeemed. 2. Because formed by God. III. Souls in Christ shall not be forgotten of God. His children often think He has forgotten them. 1. So it was with Moses in the land of Midian. 2. So it was with David (Psalms 77, 13, 21) 3. So it was with Hezekiah when God told him he must die (Isaiah 38:14). But God said, “I have heard thy prayer,” &c. 4. So shall it be with God’s ancient people (Isaiah 49:14-15). 5. So it is in the text. The world may forget thee—thy friends, &c. Yet “thou shalt not be forgotten of me.” The Lord cannot forget you. IV. A redeemed soul should return unto God. The sin and misery of every natural soul is in going away from God. 1. Come into the arms of His love. 2. Come into communion with Him. 3. To the backslider. You have done worse than the world, yet He says, “Return,” &c.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 60–65. GOD’S OF ISRAEL Isaiah 44:21. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me1. This promise was addressed, literally and primarily, to the natural descendants of Jacob: a people whom Jehovah had deigned to call into special relation with Himself, and whom He had distinguished by various privileges from all other nations of the earth. But we are abundantly warranted in extending it also to the Christian Church, the spiritual Israel, of which the literal Israel was an instructive type (cf. Exodus 19:5-6, and 1 Peter 2:9-10). It belongs also to every individual believer in Jesus, as a lively member of that body. 2. More is intended in this declaration than is expressed. “Thou shalt not be forgotten of me;” that is, I will not overlook thy interests, or neglect thy welfare, or withhold anything that will promote thy real and permanent advantage (Isaiah 49:13-16). I. Consider this promise as it applies to the ancient Jewish Church. The literal posterity of Jacob were separated from all other nations by a covenant which conferred on them peculiar privileges. But they proved themselves “a foolish people and unwise,” by the manner in which they requited His love. As a just expression of His displeasure, He had determined that they should be carried away into captivity at Babylon (Isaiah 42:22-25; Isaiah 43:27-28). But the prophetic denunciations of chastisement and desolation were coupled with assurances of fatherly regard, and with promises of ultimate deliverance. Even among this degenerate people there were some truly pious individuals who mourned over the iniquities of their countrymen and trembled at God’s word. For their support and encouragement Isaiah subjoins to the threatenings he has delivered the comfortable words of our text. To the righteous individuals of the community it gave a pledge that it should be well with them at all times and in all circumstances; and it also conveyed an assurance that in due time the collective Israel should be released from captivity, brought home again, and indulged with another period of national trial (chap. Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 44:26-28). The accomplishment of these gracious promises in the actual return from Babylon is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Though the national independency and prosperity of the Jews suffered occasional suspension and decline, yet they were not finally scattered till the measure of their iniquities was filled up by their murder of the Messiah, and their obstinate rejection of the glorious gospel. Then wrath came upon them to the uttermost (P. D. 2063, 2080, 2082). But, low and degraded as is their present situation, God can yet lift them up. Israel is not yet totally forgotten of God. He remembers His ancient covenant with Abraham His friend. These natural branches, at present cut off and rejected, will be grafted again into their own olive-tree. II. Consider the promise of our text as it applies to the Christian Church of the present age. God’s Church at large is not and cannot be forgotten of Him. Many have been her afflictions and persecutions, but out of them all He hath delivered her. The attacks of her enemies He has over-ruled for her ultimate increase and establishment. Many are the promises given for her encouragement. They may be arranged under four general classes:— 1. He has promised at all times to afford to His Church the means of grace, and to give His blessing with the means (Isaiah 30:20-21; Jeremiah 3:15; Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 48:17; Matthew 18:20.) 2. He has promised to His Church a great increase of her internal purity, tranquillity, and glory (Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 65:25; Isaiah 11:13; Isaiah 60:21; Zechariah 14:20; Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 4:5). 3. Another class of promises relates to the external peace and victory which God has destined His Church to enjoy in the latter days (Isaiah 41:11). The prophetical part of the Book of Revelation is sublimely explicit in its declaration on this head. 4. A fourth class relates to the future enlargement and extension of the Church (Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 49:6; Zechariah 14:9; Malachi 1:11). These promises are an ample comment on the more general and laconic declaration of our text. God is now in the very act of accomplishing these gracious engagements. The interests of the Church are safe, for they are in the hands of God. The cause which lies so near your hearts occupies a distinguished place in His. Tremble not for the ark of God (H. E. I. 1246–1251; P. D. 518). III. Consider the import of the text in its application to individual Christians. What the Lord says of His Church at large He says to every member of it in particular. Only ascertain your right to the character of “an Israelite indeed,” and then you will also have ascertained your right to be comforted by the assurance that you shall not be forgotten of God. 1. He will not forget those circumstances in your situation which may at any time render necessary His special help and interference. Trust in Him always (H. E. I. 4049–4053). 2. He will not forget the intimate and endearing relations which He bears toward you, nor the claims which these relationships give you on His friendship. He will not forget that He is your Creator, your Redeemer, your God in covenant. 3. He will not forget “the exceeding great and precious promises” by which He is explicitly pledged to help and save you. Men often forget their promises, but God never! 4. He will not forget your prayers. They are all duly filed and registered, ready to be answered in that time, in that way, which will be most for your good and so for His glory (H. E. I. 3884–3886). What a blessed counter-action of those uneasy apprehensions as to our future lot and circumstances, which we are too prone to indulge. We may apply the same consideration as an antidote to our natural dread of dying. Many sincere Christians, though not afraid of what shall be after death, feel considerable apprehension as to the act of dying. They shrink from the prospect of dissolving agonies and parting pangs. But you have unbosomed your feelings and fears on this subject before the Throne. Your prayers will surely be answered to your soul’s comfort when your appointed time shall come (H. E. I. 1642, 1643). 5. God will not forget to confer upon you, if faithful unto death, the reward of glory. He will not forget your services in His righteous cause, your active zeal in doing His will, your patient resignation in suffering it (Hebrews 6:10; Matthew 10:42; Galatians 6:7-8; Matthew 5:12; Matthew 25:23; Matthew 25:34-40). , 1 Corinthians 15:58.—Jabez Bunting, D.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 438–452. I. THE HERE . It is that of a soul in doubt of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Few, if any, of God’s people go through life without knowing something of this state of mind (cf. Isaiah 49:14; Psalms 77:7-9). 1. We may feel thus when God is less in our thoughts than is our wont. It very often happens that we attribute to the want of thoughtfulness in a friend what is really due to nothing more nor less than our own forgetfulness of him; and so when we are tempted to think less of God, we fancy He has forgotten us. 2. We may feel thus when we are less active than is our wont in Christ’s service. Work for God keeps the sense of His presence and sympathy alive and strong. When we diminish aught of our work, or do it with less intensity of feeling, we suffer a corresponding loss of God’s presence and favour, &c. 3. When we are unusually tried and afflicted. We find it hard always to persuade ourselves this does not mean a distant, if not an angry God. It is only when sunshine returns that we are able to see love and chastening hand in hand. 4. When our prayers seem unanswered. Nothing so helps the feeling that God has forgotten us as delayed answers to prayer, &c. 5. When we lack the signs of prosperity in our work for Christ. Some natures are exceedingly sensitive on this point, and when the harvest is long coming we think ourselves forgotten, &c. II. THE PROMISE HERE GIVEN. “O Israel,” &c. Every promise is based on the promiser. This is God’s word to His people. 1. He will not forget our persons. We are not known before God in the aggregate, but as individuals (Isaiah 49:16). He knew what house and street Peter was in at Joppa. He will not forget our persons. 2. He will not forget our prayers. If not what we ask, He will give us an equivalent good. 3. He will not forget His work in us. 4. He will not forget our work for Him. Some reasons for thus speaking: 1. His nature will not allow Him to forget us. 2. Nor His promises. 3. Nor His redeeming work in Christ. 4. Nor His honour (see vol. i. p. 267). : 1. We forget God. Let this promise rebuke us. 2. When we think God forgets us, let this promise encourage us.—James Hoyle: The Study and Homiletic Monthly, vol. iv. new series, pp. 231, 232. The bane of friendship, the canker worm of human life, is suspicion and distrust. Confidence in the character and reliance upon the attachment of those we love form principal ingredients in the cup of human happiness; if these be withdrawn, affection has no resting-place. Every one wishes for some firm object on which he may repose his confidence; a mind endued with any portion of proper sensibility feels equal pain at distrusting or being distrusted. Mutual good faith is the cement of society,—the bond which binds man to man (H. E. I. 1882–1888). A willingness to confide, where no cause for hesitation or demur can reasonably be presumed to exist, is a characteristic of a noble mind; a readiness to distrust without sufficient reason marks an uncertain and unstable character. As suspicion is the bane of human friendship, unbelief is the destruction of religious hope. It is equally dishonourable to God and injurious to ourselves. To guard us against distrust, in regard to God’s providence and grace, is one great design of Holy Scripture. For this purpose God mercifully gives us such promises and assurances as our text. I. WHAT THIS PROMISE . When God says to us, “Thou shalt not be forgotten of Me,” it is implied, 1. That we set a high value upon God’s gracious remembrance. The wicked deem it no sorrow to be forgotten of God; He is not in all their thoughts, and they have no wish to have any share in His. But those who are born of God attach great importance to His gracious remembrance of them; they know it secures happiness in all circumstances, victory over all enemies, support under all trials, a saving interest in all spiritual blessings (Psalms 25:7; Psalms 106:4, &c.) 2. That we have some apprehensions that it is not extended to us. Thus it was with Israel, and with some apparent reason. Thus it is with ourselves when the promise is very long delayed (Isaiah 49:14); when Providences wear a frowning aspect (Psalms 31:12); when conscience is awake to the number and aggravation of our offences; when our enemies appear to triumph over us (Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:22-23); when our religious state is after all doubtful; when we experience a sensible decline of consolation (Psalms 77:9). 3. That God is concerned, not only for the safety, but also for the happiness of His people. He anticipates the objection, and answers it. He loves to see the harp taken down. You may be forgotten by your dearest earthly friends; many unexpected things happen (Genesis 40:23; Jeremiah 2:32; Isaiah 49:15), but God will never forget His people, nor leave them long under the delusion that He has forsaken them. II. ON WHAT GROUND DOES THIS PROMISE REST? Anxiety would be becoming if the fact were doubtful. Some anxieties concerning men are reasonable; some of the “securities” they put into our hands are worthless. But in this promise we should trust unfalteringly, for it rests— 1. On a perfection that cannot be tarnished. Remember who is the speaker; Him in whom all perfections centre as their birthplace, their residence, their home. 2. On a covenant that cannot be broken. The covenant of grace made with Christ is immutable (2 Corinthians 1:20). 3. On a relationship that cannot be destroyed. The union that subsists between Christ and believers is the great guarantee of its fulfilment: “I in them.” Besides, we have for our encouragement unimpeachable records of the manner in which God has dealt with His other promises to His people (1 Kings 8:56). III. WHAT IT DEMANDS. 1. Confidence. 2. Gratitude, which manifests itself in loving remembrance of all His loving-kindness to us, and in cheerful obedience to all His commandments.—Samuel Thodey.SIN AND MERCY Isaiah 44:22. I have blotted out, &c.There are some representations of the character of God which strike us, when we think of them, only with awe. But there are others infinitely more tender and consoling. Such are the contemplations suggested by this passage. I. There is the thought of sin. The individuals to whom these words were originally addressed were guilty of crimes of great enormity and aggravation, crimes that had gathered themselves up until they were black and dense as a thick cloud (Isaiah 1:2-15). But, passing from this particular case to the general application, the substance of these terms applies to us all. “Who can say, I have made my heart clean; I am pure from sin?” Sin is everywhere (Romans 5:12). By pseudo-philosophers and benevolent idealists this doctrine is deemed unpopular and repulsive, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence This fancied exemption from the ruin of the Fall, this clinging to the unaided perfectibility of human nature, is a dangerous error, and must be confronted and exposed. “Man goeth astray even from the womb, and every imagination of the heart is only evil continually.” The gospel proceeds upon the basis of universal depravity, which is so repulsive to human pride. The Scriptures recognise only two varieties of condition. There may be the purest and most beautiful morality without godliness (John 5:42). The true minister of Christ must set forth the personal guilt and danger of every member of his charge. There is sin—sin as a cloud, and as a thick cloud. II. If that were all, this would be a melancholy message; but I now come to the second thought—there is mercy. It might seem strange, and it does seem strange, that after this declaration of apostacy and of impenitence the prophet should not have gone away after pronouncing sentence of doom—gone away without leaving any hope of mercy. Premising that this method of reconciliation must provide somehow for the purity of God, and of the vindication of the honour of His throne, and that all that has come about by the atonement of Jesus, we proceed to observe— 1. That the character of God, as the God of mercy, is the great Bible theme. The whole tale of the Bible is a tale of grace. The last words of the Bible are words of grace (Revelation 22:17). Grace is everywhere (Romans 5:18). This gift of grace was not known in the world until the entrance of sin. There had been many attributes of God before; but grace was, so to speak, a new idea, a new fountain struck out of the heart of the Deity. There was no room for grace in a universe where there was no room for sin; but when sin came into the world, grace came into the world. This was the first stoop of the Divinity. “God can be just, and yet,” &c., Christ died for you all. 2. Look at the sufficiency with which the salvation is invested. As aggravated as your sins have been, so abundant is the mercy of the Lord. Men do not sin and finally perish because they are appointed thereunto by an irreversible decree of God. There can be no responsibility where there is no power. There is no barrier to your own present and eternal salvation except the barrier which your own hands have piled. There is mercy for you. Search the Bible through from the beginning to the end, you find frequent, explicit, and continual declarations of mercy. If you are a sinner, not all the morbid ingenuity of human unbelief, and not all the sophistry of the old demon of the pit, can prevent you from entering, if you will, into the charter of liberty wherewith Christ waits to make His people free. You may tell your own tale if you will, I do not care. “Let the wicked,” &c. There is mercy for all, mercy for you.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.: Penny Pulpit. A PRESENT MERCY Isaiah 44:22. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, &c.I. THE PROPHET’S SIMILE. Our sins may well be likened unto clouds, as to, 1. Their number. Who can count the clouds which chase each other across the winter sky? And has not one of the holiest men who ever lived left upon record the humiliating confession that his sins were not less numerous (Psalms 40:12). 2. Their nature. The clouds are all exhalations from the land and sea, the earthly portion of the universe, and our sins are all the produce of our corrupt and earthly nature; they all ascend out of the soil of the natural heart (Matthew 15:19). 3. Their effects. The clouds shut out from us the sun’s clear and shining light and the bright blue sky, and when they greatly thicken they augur storms and tempests; so our sins, &c. 4. Their situation. The clouds are hung out in mid-heaven, high above our heads, and although it appears the simplest thing in nature to dissolve and dissipate them, for ofttimes while we look the rays of the sun are melting them away, so that the figure which we have just delighted to trace in them is, even while we gaze, changed, and loosened, and scattered, and then gone for ever, yet they are so placed that, weak and transient as they are, not all the efforts of all the men that ever dwelt upon the wide world’s surface could avail to blot one cloud out of existence. So is it with our sins. Man may punish sin, but he cannot pardon it; he may pardon the crime, that is, the portion of a transgression which affects himself, but he can never pardon the sin. No man can dissipate the smallest sin that hangs between us and our Maker. There is but one Being in the universe who can do this, “I, even I,” &c. II. THE PROPHET’S : that forgiveness is a present mercy. “I have blotted out,” &c. The idea of blotting out a cloud seems to be an allusion to that dissolving of these vapours which is continually taking place in the atmosphere, when the heat of the summer sun draws up the moisture of the cloud, and renders it completely invisible. As completely does God dissipate the sins of the believing penitent. It is as impossible to bring them forth again to judgment as it would be to reconstruct the clouds, with all their varied shapes and hues and tints which we looked upon last summer, and which never outlived the day we gazed upon them. Blessed consideration for the souls of God’s believing and pardoned people. It is the teaching of Scripture, not that God will forgive the penitent at the day of judgment, nor even in the hour of death, but in the very moment that they turn to Him. The forgiveness which He bestows is full and free, and it is bestowed at once and for ever. The Scriptures abound with instances of men who could rejoice in a present pardon (2 Samuel 12:13; Isaiah 6:7; Isaiah 38:17; Matthew 9:2; Ephesians 4:32; 1 John 2:12; Psalms 32:1-2). III. THE DIVINE . “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.” God’s method of dealing with His fallen and rebellious creatures is the very reverse of what we would naturally expect. The great argument which He employs to bring them back to Himself is, not what He will do for them, but what He has done for them (Romans 5:8; Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). So here, He does not encourage the penitent by telling them that if they attain to a sufficiently deep and poignant repentance He will forgive them, but by assuring them that they are already forgiven; that in the very first moment when sorrow for sin sprang up within them, He blotted out their sins. Surely this argument should prevail to turn us from our iniquities, to encourage us to accept the offers of Divine mercy, and to begin to serve God with that holy devotedness which can be inspired only by grateful love. Lastly, if we yield to this Divine argument, and grasp firmly the prophet’s doctrine, the firmament that bends above us will speak to us evermore of the abounding grace of God. If in the clouds that pass over it we behold symbols of our many, our daily, our dark, our desperate sins, the blue vault of heaven through which they sail will speak to us still more eloquently of the Divine mercy—immeasurable in height, and length, and depth, and breadth, all infinite in love. Sinner as I am, why should I despond? why should I fear? why should I for a moment doubt? As easy that one vast cloud should shroud both hemispheres, should shut out for ever sun, moon, and stars, as that my sins, however great, however numerous, should surpass in magnitude God’s pardoning love, that abounding grace, that infinite forgiveness which is treasured up for me in Christ Jesus my Lord.—H. Blunt, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 22–39. Sin and iniquity are represented here under the figure of clouds. True, in some respects they are not like clouds. Clouds do good service. They are reservoirs to store up the excessive moisture of the earth, and in due season to return it to the earth for refreshment and fertility (Psalms 65:2.) They serve as conductors of the electric fluid from one part of heaven to another. They are sometimes welcome as screens to moderate the excessive heat of a burning sun. But sin and iniquity produce nothing but evil; no good either to man’s interest or happiness. Yet there are points of resemblance between clouds and human sin. Clouds veil the sun, and sins hide from us the face of God, and darken our view of heaven. Clouds narrow our prospect, and sin prevents us from looking clearly and cheerfully into the great future world, blinding us to everything except the lower things in the world that now is. Clouds, when they are fully charged, bring down the fury of the storm; and sin, when it is finished, brings upon the sinner the tempest of God’s righteous anger, in full and just retribution for every evil word and deed. Lastly, clouds are quite beyond our control; the power to disperse cloud, or blot out sin, rests with God alone. 1. Carefully consider this last point of likeness. God removes the clouds, and He alone. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Man can make many changes and removals; in the physical world in which he lives, in the world of humanity of which he forms part. But not one sin can he blot out. God has reserved to Himself that power and and prerogative: (1.) Because the dispensing of pardon is too precious to be entrusted either to men or angels. Not having the power of omniscience to read the heart, they might not dispense it wisely. What mistakes they might make! (2.) All sin, whoever may be injured by it, is ultimately against God (H. E. I. 4480). Therefore all punishment is in His hands, and the dispensation of pardon is His prerogative. 2. It is a great thing we do when we ask Him to exercise it on our behalf. This appears when we consider a further point of likeness between wickedness and clouds. Clouds are used in Bible language to express a vast number (Hebrews 12:1; Isaiah 60:8). Can we deny that in this respect this figure is sadly applicable to us? How terribly all our life long—every day!—our sins have been massing themselves into thick clouds, which are only awaiting the word to come down in the storms of retribution (Psalms 11:6). 3. For some God has done this great thing. To them He has said plainly, “I have blotted out,” &c. To whom has He said this? To those who have obeyed the latter part of the text: “Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.” These have found that God has provided a full and perfect redemption. Clouds, be they ever so thick, ever so fully charged with the wrath of future punishment, are blotted out: and the forgiven soul stands before God, and looks up into the cloudless sky of His love. 4. For any one whose conscience is not stone-dead, such a change as this must appear of all things most desirable and full of blessing. It is so, but it can never be yours, until you get rid of that thick cloud of unrepented, unforgiven sin which always abides between you and the Father of Mercies. How to get rid of it you know. 5. The sins which form that cloud are yours—“Thy sins, thy transgressions.” You cannot shift them from your own shoulders to some one else; they belong to you, and you only. You may shut your eyes to them: but there they are, like a heavy cloud. You can no more drive them away than you can disperse it. You may try so to colour this or that evil deed as to give it a better look; just as the thunder-cloud sometimes gets touched by a transient light, till the skirts of the terrible thing look bright with crimson and gold. But it is a terrible thing, in spite of all that fleeting brightness which does not belong to it. God looks through all the gay colouring you would lay upon your sins, and sees them as they are. They are the cause of your separation from Him now, and will be the cause of your separation from Him in eternity, if they be not blotted out while you are on this side of the grave.—Edward Baines, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 13–25. What becomes of the believer’s sins? 1. They are forgiven (Ephesians 4:32; 1 John 2:12). 2. Not to be even mentioned unto him (Ezekiel 33:16). 3. Blotted out (“I have blotted out,” &c., and chap. Isaiah 43:25). 4. Covered (Psalms 85:2; Psalms 32:1). 5. Removed (Psalms 103:12). 6. Cast into the sea (Micah 7:19). 7. Hid (Hosea 13:12). 8. Behind God’s back (Isaiah 38:17, see vol. i. p. 438). 9. Forgotten (Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 10:17). Believer, ponder these precious figures. If they do not teach full, perfect, complete, and present salvation, what language can teach it? : Isaiah 1:18.—Bible Readings, edited by Briggs &Elliott. A CALL FOR PRAISE Isaiah 44:23. Sing, O ye heavens, for the LORD hath done it, &c.The prophet, beholding Israel’s redemption achieved and the people restored to their land and privileges, exulted in the blessed change, and burst forth in this impassioned address to all nature above and around him, and lest it should be supposed that his transport was premature, and that he had anticipated more than could reasonably be expected, Jehovah resumes the discourse and names the man whom He had destined to be His people’s deliverer (Isaiah 44:28). It is natural to ask, Was the deliverance of the Jews so great, so blissful, so universally interesting as to justify the prophet’s rapturous call? In reply, we observe that the Jews exclusively were the Church of the living God, and their restoration was necessary to the accomplishment of the predictions concerning the Messiah. It was a shadow and pledge of the spiritual and eternal redemption which He was to obtain. The primary subject is the liberation of the captive Jews, but that speedily merges in a more glorious theme. I. The work which it is here said God hath performed. This work, though then future and still only in progress, is spoken of as already effected. The purpose of God renders its completion absolutely certain. 1. The nature and extent of that deliverance with which the Israel of God are blessed. It is not only redemption from evil but redemption to God, and includes the restoration of His image to our souls. We are only yet beginning to enjoy these high privileges. Where is the man who can sufficiently appreciate the magnitude and blessedness of that change which takes place in the relations, character, and prospects of a sinner when he passes from darkness to light,—from life to death,—from bondage to freedom? Every scene around him seems now to smile upon him,—to speak to him of the goodness and greatness of his divine Benefactor, and animates his gratitude and praise. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” designate all who prove themselves Israelites indeed. What a multitude of all ages, countries, characters, and conditions this name embraces! 2. The display of the divine glory in this redemption. Who but a Being of boundless benevolence, wisdom, and power could have conceived and accomplished it? It delights Him to be known and acknowledged as its Author. How did He effect this redemption? It is the result of His Son’s sacrifice in our nature (Hebrews 9:11-12). “It is finished;” the work is done (Psalms 22:31), and in it God “has glorified Himself” (Psalms 85:10).—Consider, further, that God Himself is the source and sum of all the good which this redemption comprises. What must be the fulness of His knowledge and wisdom who irradiates so many minds; of His love who feeds this celestial flame in so many hearts; and of His blessedness who gladdens and delights so many immortal creatures?—Further, think of the means He employs for putting His people in possession of this redemption. Among these, the word and the ministry of reconciliation occupy the chief place,—means which in the estimation of the world are weak and foolish (2 Corinthians 4:7). Think, too, of the opposition offered to the execution of His gracious designs,—opposition from ignorance and depravity, from the world, and from the hosts of hell; yet it is ineffectual to frustrate the counsels of His wisdom and love. II. This work of redemption supplies, not to the redeemed only, but to the creation of God, a fit theme of the highest exultation and praise. The prophet calls on all orders of creatures. The redeemed are not themselves addressed. Could they need any excitement to joy and praise? There are beings, indeed, who will not sing. They rather look on with malignity and “howl for vexation;” for this deliverance frustrates their designs, abolishes the evil they labour to extend, and exalts the name they dishonour (1 John 3:8). What must be the mortification of that proud and wicked spirit! What fills others with joy will be to him a source of bitter disappointment. It does not surprise us that the fallen angels should raise no song of praise. But what shall we say when we recollect that there are human beings for whose redemption Christ died, to whom the glad news are proclaimed, but who yet reject salvation? This is impiety, folly, and madness, of which even devils cannot be accused. With these exceptions of fallen spirits and impenitent men, the whole creation of God obeys the joyous call. 1. The holy angels delight to behold sin condemned, its works abolished, and its slaves disenthralled (Luke 2:14; Luke 15:10). 2. Even the inanimate and irrational parts of creation have an interest in Israel’s redemption. As this work advances, creation is freed from the vanity to which it is subject (Romans 8:20-21). Not only has earth, as smitten with the curse, been comparatively unfruitful, but its various productions have been desecrated to the vilest purposes,—have been compelled to minister to the sensuality, avarice, and other passions of mankind. The prevalence of purity, justice, sobriety, and mercy will deliver the inferior creatures from a load of misery, and restore all things to their right uses. No sooner is a sinner born of God than he contemplates the works of God with a new eye. He hears them proclaiming the goodness of his heavenly Father, and praising Him by fulfilling His word. Meditating on these results, it is no wonder that the prophet should represent nature in the happy coming age as inspired with new life, clothed with new beauty, and delighting to open her treasures and pour forth from them abundance of good (Psalms 96:11-13; Psalms 98:7-9). If, then, we would see God’s glory, we must study His chief work. There is enough in redemption to awaken our joy.—James Stark, D.D., of Dennyloanhead: Posthumous Discourses, pp. 59–99. This is the response of the prophet’s soul to the redemption announced in the preceding verses. His joy is as reasonable as it is excellent; the demand he makes is as just as it is poetic. There is instruction here as well as eloquence. I. Redemption is peculiarly God’s work. “The Lord hath done it; the Lord hath redeemed Jacob.” 1. This is the teaching of Scripture throughout. 2. On enlightened and careful consideration, reason pronounces that it could have been accomplished by God only. II. Redemption is the work in which the glory of God is most conspicuously manifested. “The Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.” In His material works we see His wisdom, power, and goodness, and they should be devoutly studied by us as revelations of what He is: but in this work we have a disclosure of His patience, His forbearance, His love, His self-sacrificing pity—those moral attributes which are most worthy of our admiration. III. The redemption that God has wrought is a work that demands universal praise. The heavens and the earth may well be called upon to unite with us in thanksgiving, for they also shall share in the blessings of this wonderful redemption (Romans 8:19-21; P. D. 975, 2465).—J. Alwin Flide. THE OF IN THE CAREER OF CYRUS Isaiah 44:28. Cyrus, my shepherd, shall perform all my pleasure. The fulfilment of prophecy is one of the two supernatural arguments for the truth of the Scriptures. I now present in some detail the fulfilment of prophecy in the career and conquests of Cyrus.Isaiah wrote not less than a hundred and thirty years before Cyrus was born; and not less than a hundred and fifty years before his conquest of Babylon. It was long before the Median kingdom existed. The captivity of Judah had not begun. Three or four generations lived and died between the prophet and the Persian prince. The prophet could not possibly have other means of knowing who Cyrus was to be, or what he was to do in the world, than the simple revelation of the facts by the Spirit of God. Yet that he foretold the conqueror’s career, down to minutest details, is established by precisely the same kind and amount of evidence which proves that either Cyrus or Isaiah existed at all.1. The name of Cyrus, the point of the compass indicative of his birthplace, and the direction of his march upon Babylon, are distinctly foretold. “Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus, I have raised up one from the North. From the rising of the sun—that is, from the East—shall he call upon my name.” The two points of the compass named in this language of Isaiah are singularly true. Cyrus was born in Persia, which was east of Babylon. It was commonly called “the East.” One historian speaks of it as the “land of the sunrising.” But at a very early age Cyrus was removed to Media, lying on the north of Babylon; and it was from Media that he came down, at the head of victorious hosts, upon the doomed capital. The prophet thus sees in a vision a prince of eastern birth marching upon the city from the north, and that his name is Cyrus.Small matters these, but all the more significant for that. The question is: Who told Isaiah such minute details about a man he never saw or heard of; coming from a kingdom which at that time had no existence; achieving a conquest which then had not been dreamed of? How did he know what name the future conqueror would bear, a hundred and thirty years before he had a name?Did anybody ever predict Bonaparte’s conquest of Italy a century before his birth? Did ever statesman or magician, as far back as A.D. 1650, declare that, a century and a half later, a conqueror born in the west of Italy would come down from the north and take possession of Rome, and that his name would be Napoleon? Yet this is in kind what the Hebrew prophet did. The question is, Who told him all that? How did he alone, of all the inhabitants of the world, find out the facts so exactly and so minutely?2. Isaiah furthermore describes with remarkable accuracy the personal character of Cyrus. His warlike spirit, his towering ambition, the rapidity of his conquests, the equity of his administration, and his heathen religion, are all declared after the manner of prophecy. “Calling a ravenous bird from the East,” is the prophet’s language. Prophetic vision deals largely in symbols. The eagle is its favourite symbol of an aspiring, warlike, swift conqueror. “Who raised up the righteous man from the East” is the prophetic description of Cyrus. It is almost the exact language in which historians describe the government of the Persian king. “The just one” he is often called. “Take example from the Persian,” the tutors of Oriental princes used to say to their royal pupils. “I have girded thee, though thou hast not known Me,” are the words which prophecy puts into the mouth of God concerning him. This is a distinct prediction of his ignorance of the true God.These are but a few specimens of the prophetic touches of which there are many more, portraying with an artist’s skill the character of this monarch. Imagine now that, in addition to announcing the name and the birthplace of Napoleon a hundred and thirty years before he was born, the magician had described him as an eagle in his conquests; had said that he would originate a superior code of jurisprudence,—the “Code Napoleon;” and that in his religion he would be a Romanist. Would not such hints, added to the items before named, redouble the surprise at the magician’s power? Would not men ask with astonishment who he was, where he came from, by whose authority he spoke, and where he got his information? Yet this is just what Isaiah declares of the great conqueror of the East.3. The significance of the prophecy deepens, when it comes to describe the conquests achieved by Cyrus. Passages abound of which these are specimens: “He gave the nations before him. He made him ruler over kings. He made them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. The isles saw it and feared, they helped every one his neighbour. Every one said to his neighbour, ‘Be of good courage.’ I will subdue nations under him. I will loose the loins of kings.”By such rapid glances, the half of which I do not quote, the prophet foretells the victories of Cyrus over the great nations of the East; the consternation of their kings; their alliances for mutual defence; and the velocity with which the Persian legions marched from victory to victory.Turn we now to history: what has that to say? It does but repeat the prophecy in describing the facts as they occurred. Says one: “He had scarcely gained one victory, before his tumultuous forces poured down on other battle-grounds. Scarcely had one city fallen, before he stood thundering at the gates of another. Empires were like dust before him, and cities like chaff.” That prophecy, “I will loose the loins of kings,” had its exact fulfilment in the consternation of Belshazzar at the handwriting on the wall, when the Persian armies were on the march, and within twenty-four hours would be heard tramping the streets of the doomed capital.4. The prophecy of the downfall of Babylon deserves distinct review. The prophetic story runs in this style: “Evil shall come upon thee. Thou shalt not know from whence it ariseth. Thou shalt not be able to put it off. Desolation shall come suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” Thus is expressed the sudden, the unexpected, the irresistible, and the improbable calamity which was coming upon that haughty city.Just such, in fact, was its conquest by Cyrus. That event, to begin with, was in itself, and in any form, improbable. The military science of the age pronounced Babylon impregnable by any methods of assault or siege then known. So secure did king and people feel that it could not be taken by human force or strategy, that on the very night of its capture by Cyrus, they were given up to feasting and carousal behind their insurmountable walls. The king would not believe the rumour of the enemy’s entrance, even when the blood of his people was flowing in the streets.Here, again, little incidents are detailed which no soothsayer would have thought of, or would have dared to predict, if he had thought of them. “I will say to the deep, ‘Be dry.’ I will dry up thy rivers. I will open before him the two-leaved gates. The gates shall not be shut.” The significance of this language will appear from arraying it side by side with the historic facts. Babylon was a city fifteen miles square. It was intersected by the river Euphrates, as London is by the Thames, and Paris by the Seine. Solid walls surrounded it three hundred and fifty feet high, and broad enough on the top for four chariots to be driven abreast. The two sections again were separated by walls running along both banks of the river. Fronting the streets on either side were folding gates for convenience of access to the stream by day, which the police were instructed to close at the setting of the sun.Cyrus took the city by a remarkable stratagem. He invented a novel way of marching his army into impregnable Babylon. If he could not march over the walls, he would contrive to march under. He did it by a very simple expedient, when once thought of, but only he had the genius to think of it. He dug an immense canal around the walls, and turned the river Euphrates into it. Then he marched his army at dead of night, and in dead silence, under the walls, in the vacant bed of the river. But this brought him only between the two other immense river-walls inside. How to surmount these was the question. The indomitable general had provided scaling-ladders for the purpose. But the God of Isaiah had done better for him than that. He found those gates which let the citizens down to the river in the day-time—“two-leaved,” that is, folding-gates—wide open. Like other drunken policemen, the custodians of Babylon had neglected to close those gates. Even the palace gates were not closed. The invader got near enough to hear the drunken carousals of the king and his courtiers inside, before they were convinced of his approach. Do you not now see a new meaning in the words, “I will dry up thy rivers; I will open the two-leaved gates; the gates shall not be shut; I will loose the loins of kings”?Herodotus, writing seventy years afterwards, says, “If the besieged had been aware of the designs of Cyrus, they might have destroyed his troops. They had only to secure the folding gates leading to the river, and to have manned the embankments on either side, and they would have enclosed the Persians in a trap from which they could never have escaped. As it happened, they were taken by surprise; and such is the extent of the city that they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before the alarm reached the palace.” “As it happened.” Yes, it happened; but a hundred and more years before God had said by His prophet how it should happen. He had said, “I will open the two-leaved gates.” So Cyrus found them wide open, and the way clear to the very banquet-hall of the palace, just as Isaiah had said, before Cyrus was born, that they should be.The question therefore returns, laden with redoubled significance, Where did Isaiah get his information? Who told him that Babylon, a hundred and fifty years afterwards, would be shut off from the Euphrates by gates? Who told him that they would be folding-gates? How did he know that a man named Cyrus would enter the capital in the bed of the river, and on that particular night, contrary to usage and to law, would find that the police had left those gates open, as if on purpose to let the invader in? In short, how came he to write history a hundred and fifty years beforehand? Did any other historian ever write his history a century and a half before it happened, instead of a century and a half later, and be lucky enough to have it all happen to be true, even down to the structure and the opening of gates?5. One other feature of the prophecy and the history in parallels remains to be noticed. Isaiah explicitly foretells the restoration of Judah from captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, through the agency of Cyrus, God declares by the mouth of the prophet: “I will direct all his ways. He shall let go my captives;” even saying to Jerusalem, “Be built,” and to the temple, “Thy foundations shall be laid. He shall let go my captives, not for price or reward. Ye shall be redeemed without money. Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight.”Here we find another group of details which no uninspired mind could have guessed at, and no soothsayer would have dared to predict. Every one of them was to the last degree improbable. No statesman of the age did conjecture them. In the prophet’s time there were no captives at all in Babylon from Judah. When they became captives, long after, it was improbable that they would be released in any way by an Oriental despot, flushed with victory. They were very valuable captives. They were of an intelligent race. Good servants, able-bodied men and women for household use, skilful artisans, honest labourers, were abundant among them. Men of learning and genius, like Daniel, some of whom were deservedly advanced to high places in the realm, were Hebrews. Never was a more valuable class of slaves of equal number held by the rights of war than those held under command of Cyrus from Judea. It was the last thing to be expected from an Eastern despot, that he should let such a people go free; that he should charge no ransom for them; that they should not be compelled to take their freedom by force or stratagem; that their master himself should restore to them their plundered treasures, and direct the rebuilding of their desolated temple. Never was a prediction more improbable on the face of it.Yet all these things happened, just as Isaiah said they would. The truth of the history no infidel presumes to question, whatever he may think of the prophecy. The question therefore returns again, How did Isaiah get his knowledge of coming events? Who told him facts a hundred and more years before the wisest statesman of the age had once thought of them as conjectures? Did any other man, not inspired of God, ever coin history thus out of guess-work? Did ever romance fall true like this? Sir Walter Scott wrote historical romances. Has “Ivanhoe” or “Quentin Durward” ever come true? Toss up a font of alphabetic type at random in the air, and will they come down all set and ready for the press in the form of the “Arabian Nights?” Yet this is, in substance, what infidelity asks us to believe, when it denies the gift of Divine inspiration to the Hebrew prophets.Such, then, is the argument from fulfilled prophecy for the Divine origin of the Scriptures. The career of Cyrus is but a single sample. Other cases of the same kind swell the proof to volumes. The present condition of Babylon, the destruction of Moab, the fall of Tyre, the conquest of Egypt, the doom of Damascus, the desolation of Idumea, the sack of Jerusalem, the life, death, and burial of Christ, are events which belong to the same class. They all abound with the same sort of coincidence between the prophecy and the history. The coincidence extends to minute details. It is sustained without a break through long-continued narrative, covering years—yes, centuries, and involving the destiny of individuals with the fate of nations and of empires.Such intricate and involved prevision no human mind could have painted without a break in the truthfulness of the story, unless inspired by an omniscient God. Any other solution of the mystery throws upon us a weight of credulity a hundredfold greater than that of faith in the “Arabian Nights” as authentic history. For the most part infidelity feels this, and very shrewdly decides to let the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible alone. There is no other argument for the truth of the Christian Scriptures, which infidels so generally agree to ignore as this.—Austin Phelps, D.D. CROOKED PLACES MADE Isaiah 45:2. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight. Man must go; the only question is—How? He may go, either with God, or without Him; God does not force Himself upon us. Whether we go with God, or without Him, we shall find crooked places. But having taken God as our leader, we have come to know what is the meaning of having these crooked places made straight for us. Straightness may be in apparent crookedness; amid all the curvature and intricacy, Christians have been brought through upon a course, that for all high purposes—filial education, spiritual culture, and strength—has been practically and really straight. A child might go to the geographer, and say, “What nonsense you talk about the earth being round! Look on this great crag; look on that deep dell; look on yonder great mountain, and the valley at its feet; and yet you talk about the earth being round!” The geographer’s view is comprehensive; he sees a larger world than the child has had time to grasp. We should regard the text— I. AS A WARNING. There are crooked places. One could wish that we could make one’s own the experience of those that have gone before; but each man must run his own course. 1. There are crooked dispositions,—men of whom you can make nothing. Let the young, especially, be forewarned, and so forearmed. There are those to be met with in life, who, when you think you are walking in the line of their sympathies, will turn perversely upon you; men who, in the midst of your strenuous efforts to serve them, will be as unthankful and ungracious as the rock or the sand that is unblest by all the rich rains of Heaven. 2. There are crooked places in circumstances. When we think we are proceeding most satisfactorily, we sometimes come to knots and difficulties of which we can make nothing. 3. Crooked places are found in the uncertainties of life. No man can certainly say what will transpire during the next hour; and so, again and again, to our disappointment and mortification, we are compelled to withdraw from our methods, and to abandon that on which we had set our heart. II. AS A PROMISE. “I will go before thee.” This was a Divine promise made to Cyrus; and God has made the same promise to all who put their trust in Him. It is surely something to have a Father’s promise singing in the heart. Many know the inspiration even of a human promise. We need the triumphant faith that says definitely to God, “Thou didst promise this, and we wait for its fulfilment.” We need patience, too; patience that comes of faith, that God may, so to speak, have time to fulfil His promise. God does not say when He will straighten our path; nor how. He who waits for God is not misspending his time; such tarrying is the truest speed. If we could believe that, how calm, how quiet, how strong, how sublime would be our life! III. AS A PLAN. We should regard the text as a scheme—a method, a special way of doing things; “I will go before thee.” The word before shows the plan; and it also expresses the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, “I will go alongside thee;” nor, “I will go behind thee;” but before thee. Sometimes, it may be, so far before, that we cannot see Him. There is sovereignty here; but there is love and tenderness too, as when the mother goes before her child that is just learning to walk. The idea of God going before every man, as if he were the only man in the world, does not dwarf God, but rather exalts Him exceedingly. “My Father and your Father,” said Christ, “my God and your God.” .—Let us beware of regarding the truth of the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be considered: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord;” “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” 2. Let us beware of regarding this text as a license for carelessness. “The place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” is the expression of every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.—Joseph Parker, D.D., The City Temple, pp. 4–12. EVERY MAN’S LIFE A PLAN OF GOD Isaiah 45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me. This declaration renders credible the sketch given by Xenophon of Cyrus’s rare excellence of character. He was a model of greatness in every form, because God had guided him, unseen, to be the minister of His own sovereign purposes to the nations of that time. Others have been manifestly “guided” by God for their work: Abraham, Joseph (Genesis 45:8), Moses, Samuel, Paul—Christ Himself (John 18:37). But they differed from other men only in their consciousness (more or less clear) of their being divinely “guided” for their work. The “guiding” is granted to all men, i.e., God has a definite life-plan for every human person, guiding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished. I. This a truth thought of by few men, but constantly set forth in the Scriptures. They show us not only a divine plan in the life of men obviously great, but also that the conditions of obscurity and depression may be the necessary first chapter in a great career [1420] They also show us that God has a personal interest in every man, bestowing on him one talent or more, kindly observing how he employs them; that it is the privilege of every man to live in the secret guidance of God, which implies that there is a plan in which he is to be guided, and that God governs the world in accordance with pre-arranged purposes, which implies that there are such purposes in regard to the individuals by whom the world is made up (H. E. I. 4015–4025, 2246–2248, 2323, 2325, 3403). [1420] David among the sheep; Elisha following after the plough; Nehemiah bearing the cup; Hannah, who can say nothing less common than that she is the wife of Elkanah and a woman of sorrowful spirit—who that looks on these humble people, at their humble post of service, and discovers at last how dear a purpose God was cherishing in them, can be justified in thinking that God has no particular plan for him, because he is not signalised by any kind of distinction?—Bushnell. When we turn from God’s Word to His works, we find the same universal and minute arrangement. Every particle of matter, every force of nature, has a purpose, and is used for the furtherance of a comprehensive divine plan. It is contrary, then, to both these revelations to suppose concerning any man that his Creator has no definite thoughts concerning him, no place prepared for him to fill, no use for him to serve, which is the purpose of his existence. Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God. What dignity does this thought add to life! What support does it bring to the trials of life! What instigations does it add to send us onward in everything that constitutes our excellence! But there is an immense difference between things and us. They all serve their use; they cannot break out of their place. But we are able, as free beings, to refuse our place and the duties God appoints. [1423][1423] Which, if we do, then we sink into something lower and less worthy of us. That highest and best condition for which God designed us is no more possible. We are fallen out of it, and it cannot be wholly recovered. And yet, as that was the best thing possible for us in the reach of God’s original counsel, so there is a place designed for us now, which is the next best possible. God calls us now to the best thing left, and will do so until all good possibility is narrowed down and spent. And then, when He cannot use us any more for our own good, He will use us for the good of others—an example of the misery and horrible desperation to which any soul must come, when all the good ends, and all the holy callings of God’s friendly and fatherly purpose are exhausted. Or it may be now that, remitting all other plans and purposes in our behalf, He will henceforth use us, wholly against our will, to be the demonstration of His justice and avenging power before the eyes of mankind; saying over us, as He did over Pharaoh in the day of his judgments, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Doubtless He had other and more genial plans to serve in this bad man, if only he could have accepted such; but knowing his certain rejection of these, God turned His mighty counsel in him wholly on the use to be made of him as a reprobate.—Bushnell. II. Moreover, as God has for every man a definite life-plan which, being accepted and followed, will conduct him to the best and noblest end possible, so He will appoint for him the best possible manner of attaining it. Whatever you have laid upon you to do or to suffer, to want, to surrender or to conquer, is exactly the best for you. Your life is a school exactly adapted to your lesson, and that to the last, best end of your existence. If your sphere is outwardly humble, if it even appears to be quite insignificant, God understands it better than you do, and it is part of His wisdom to bring out great sentiments in humble conditions, great principles in works that are outwardly trivial, great characters under great adversities and heavy loads of incumbrance. The tallest saints of God will often be those who walk in the deepest obscurity, and are even despised or quite overlooked by man. What comfort there is in this truth for us in circumstances otherwise depressive! What invigoration under sorrows otherwise crushing! (P. D. 3235, 3243). III. But how are we to get hold of this life-plan God has made for us, and find our way into it? 1. Negatives to be avoided. (1.) Never try to be singular. If God has a distinct design for every man’s life, let him seek to be just what God will have him to be, and the talents, the duties, and circumstances of his life require him to be, and then he will be peculiar enough. (2.) Do not seek to copy the life of another. God has as many plans for men as He has men; and, therefore, He never requires them to measure their life exactly by any other life. (3.) Never complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. (4.) While you surrender all thought of making a plan for yourself, do not expect that God will show you the chart of all His purposes concerning you. He will only show you into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, He will show you on still further (P. D. 1440, 1656, 1658). 2. Things we are to do. Consider (1.) the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for all that God designs for you will be in harmony with His character. Many employments are by this first principle for ever cut off. No thought is permitted you, even for a moment, of any work or calling that does not represent the industry, justice, truth, beneficence, mercy of God. (2.) Your relation to Him as a creature. As such it is your general duty to be and to do what He wills; and nine-tenths of your particular duties may be settled, at once, by a simple reference in this manner to what God wills (P. D. 3505). (3.) You have a conscience, which is given to be an interpreter of His will, and thus of your duty and destiny (H. E. I. 1308). (4.) God’s Word is a guide to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan He has laid for you (H. E. I. 543, 558–579). (5.) Be an observer of providence: for God is showing you ever, by the way in which He leads you, whither He means to lead. (6.) Consult your friends, especially those who are most in the teaching of God. They know your talents and personal qualifications better, in some respects, than you do yourself. (7.) Go to God Himself, and ask Him to make clear His will concerning you. He will certainly do so. This is the proper office and work of His Spirit. By this private teaching He can show us, and will, into the very plan that is set for us (H. E. I. 2872, 2875). Application. 1. Has your life been in accordance with the plan of God? If not, let the past suffice, and humbly seek divine guidance for the future. 2. Young man, all your best opportunities are still before you. Seek God, and consecrate your life to Him, knowing assuredly that He will lead you into just that life which is your highest honour and blessing. 3. How sacred, how strong in its repose, how majestic is a life ordered according to the plan God has formed for it! Living in this manner, every turn of your experience will be a discovery to you of God, every change a token of His fatherly counsel. Oh, to live out such a life as God appoints, how great a thing it is!—to do the duties, make the sacrifices, bear the adversities, finish the plan, and then to say with Christ (who of us will be able?)—“It is finished!”—Horace Bushnell, D.D.: The New Life, pp. 1–15. THE UNKNOWN OF GOD Isaiah 45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me. A great Babylonian library, consisting of numerous clay tablets, with arrow-head inscriptions burnt into them, has recently been deciphered. The results are most astounding, confirming once questioned statements of Scripture history, throwing light upon obscure events, and correcting not a few false impressions. Among the principal corrections thus afforded is that of our views regarding the person and religion of Cyrus. Cyrus, it seems, was not a Persian, but an Elamite, and was not a Monotheist, but a worshipper of heathen divinities, adopting Merodach, the god of Babylon, when he conquered that city. The last fact adds great emphasis to our text. Cyrus, to whom the words are addressed, is now proved to be a pagan, a polytheist, an idolater. Yet even he was girded by the unknown God of heaven and earth. Let us consider this unknown influence of God. I. It springs from the Almighty Power of God. God is not merely a passive object of worship. He exerts active influence. He did not only work in the past in creating the world. He is a living, active God now. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto.” Perhaps the poorest definition of God ever framed is that of “A power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” Still even this meagre, shrunken description of Divinity recognises the fact of an active Divine influence. Now, God’s power is not limited by our confession of it, nor by our unwillingness to submit to it. It inspired the eye of the Greek artist and the tongue of the Greek orator as truly as those of a Christian Chrysostom and Fra Angelico. II. It is directed by the Infinite Goodness of God. We circumscribe this goodness to a pale of grace and a day of grace; but it overflows our boundaries and breaks out, free as the air and broad as the sunlight. God does not wait to be called. He is the first to awaken His slumbering children. The grace of God anticipates the faith of man; for if it is dependent on faith for its fullest manifestation, yet even that very faith is a Divine gift (Ephesians 2:8). God thinks of the heathen, and gives strength to those who know Him not. Then, no doubt, if a Chinese Mandarin pronounces a just sentence, or a Hindoo Pundit utters a true thought, or an African Chief vindicates the rights of an oppressed tribe, the goodness of these heathen men is an outcome of God’s goodness to them. Let us take heart; there is more grace in the world than we know of. III. It aims at the execution of the Will of God. Cyrus is called God’s shepherd (Isaiah 44:28). So even Nebuchadnezzar, a man of a very different character, is called by God “My servant” (Jeremiah 43:10). 1. Some serve God when they think to oppose Him. As the gale that seems to be tearing the ship to pieces may be driving her the faster to her haven. So Satan, in Job, aiming at opposition to the right, occasioned the most glorious vindication of it. Persecutors often help the cause they hate. 2. Many, like Cyrus, serve God unconsciously. As the corn ministers to our sustenance unwittingly, and as science reveals the glory of God, even when the naturalists who pursue it are agnostics. God endows us with faculties, not that they may rust in vile repose, but to be devoted to His service. Happy are they who are enlightened to serve God consciously and willingly with the powers which they have derived unconsciously from His broad and liberal grace! Practical conclusions:— 1. The unknown influence of God should lead to our knowing God. We have not to search the heavens for the unseen God. He is nigh us, at our right hand. Our own experience and the blessings of our own life should open our eyes to the goodness of God. Cyrus, trained in heathenism, might be forgiven if to the end he was girded only by an unknown God. Not so we, with light to interpret the providential work of God in our experience. 2. This influence, once recognised, should lead us to trust God. If God girded Cyrus the heathen, will He not gird Israel His people? If He helps those who know Him not, will He not much more aid those who seek and trust Him? 3. This influence should warn us against neglecting the recognition of God. We cannot escape from God. To do so would be our own undoing. We have deep reason for thankfulness that God has not withdrawn His hand from us while we have ignored Him. But the hand which girds can ungird! 4. This influence should prompt us to greater zeal in Mission work. For (1.) God proves that He claims the heathen by His present influence on them. (2.) He has begun the work and will help His servants in it. (3.) It is sad that millions should still be left in ignorance of the hand that girds them with the strength of life.—Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi. pp. 204–206. THE FORMER OF LIGHT AND CREATOR OF Isaiah 45:6-7. I am the Lord, and there is none else, &c.These words occur in the remarkable prophecy of the capture of Babylon by Cyrus; a prophecy fulfilled to the letter. What was the end proposed in bringing Cyrus to Babylon, and in giving him that empire? The usual answer is, that he might deliver the Jews out of captivity. This is true. But if we rest here, we shall see only a small part of the design of God in this providence. There was a greater end to be answered than even the deliverance of the Jews. It is stated in Isaiah 45:5-6. The great end of this particular dispensation was to deliver Cyrus and his people from the delusion that there are two eternal and independent Principles, symbolised by Light and Darkness; the one good, and the source of all good; the other evil, and the source of all evil; the one giving blessings to mankind, the other inflicting on them punishments and miseries. Its chief purpose was to bring the inhabitants of all the provinces of the vast Persian empire to know that Jehovah was the Lord, and that beside Him there was no other God. How was this merciful purpose accomplished? God began in Babylon itself. 1. You recollect the story of the young Hebrews who refused to worship the idol set up there, and were cast into a furnace of fire, from which they were delivered unhurt. We should look beyond that deliverance, great an event as it was in itself, to the end which God intended by it, even to set Himself above the idols of the heathen. The Babylonian idol was put to shame in the presence of its assembled worshippers; and the monarch was led to declare publicly, by a decree, that there was no God like the God of Israel, that could deliver after that sort. All the rulers of the provinces were assembled at that festivity, and what was then done would be spread to the utmost border of Nebuchadnezzar’s dominion. 2. Later on he acknowledged, even more emphatically, that Jehovah is the King of heaven (Daniel 4:34-36). 3. Then there was the capture of Babylon, in exact accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy.—With all these things Cyrus and his Persians would be acquainted; and thus they would be taught the great truth, that there is but one God, far above every power, subjecting all things to His control, and who alone ought to be worshipped. To the worshippers of Ormuzd and Ahriman God declares, in our text, that He alone forms the light and creates darkness; that He makes peace and creates evil; that there is no power beside Him; no power co-equal and eternal with Him; that good and evil are but His instruments, and continually subject to His all-controlling power. Were there any effects of this dispensation of Providence? There were. Cyrus embraced this great truth of the existence of one supreme God, and issued a decree for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, in terms which acknowledge Jehovah to be the God of heaven and earth, who had spoken by His prophet concerning those very events (Ezra 1:1-3). In the same book we have also decrees of Darius and Artaxerxes, in which, under the appropriate and supreme title of “the God of heaven,” Jehovah is acknowledged as the supreme God. Though the religion of the Persians afterwards became corrupted, it is probable that among them some remained holding the vital truths of piety, even to the days of Christ. “The Magi” who came from the East seeking our Saviour were probably Persians, worshippers of the true God, who, having been instructed especially by the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel, were waiting for redemption, and expecting the appearance of the Redeemer. Besides their connection with the history of God’s gracious dealings with man in past times, the words before us contain some great principles that concern us. I. Take this general principle, “I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God beside Me,” and mark a few of the consequences that result from it. 1. As there is one supreme God, whose perfections are infinite, whose glories are unshadowed, our first duty is to keep Him ever in our thoughts, to set the Lord always before us. For this reason, among others, was the Son of God manifested, that our meditations on the Divine character might be more constant and impressive, because brought more within the limits of our conception (H. E. I. 846–848). 2. As there is but one God, so there is but one government and will; and therefore we can be at no loss, when that will is made known to us, to discover the line of duty. Idolaters, acknowledging different rulers among their gods, could have no settled principles. The dominion of one god interfered with that of another. Will was opposed to will, and therefore law to law. To us there is but one God, and therefore but one law. What a foundation for morals does this furnish! and what a foundation for hope! The law comes from an all-perfect Being, and therefore changes not (Psalms 119:152). It is for all men alike. It can never be transgressed with impunity. To think that it may be so transgressed is one of the most perilous of all sins (Deuteronomy 29:19-20). All its forms are forms of the one great law of love (Matthew 22:37-40). And it has its one source in love: “God is love!” II. We have the declaration, I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil.” Light is the emblem of good; darkness the emblem of evil According to the opinion of the Persians, these were eternal and independent principles; a system which afforded no hope of deliverance. But here our God declares that both are His, either by formation or permission; both are under His control, and at His disposal. 1. He is the Author of all light or good. All our blessings, spiritual and temporal, come from Him, in the overflowing of His spontaneous bounty. They place us, therefore, under the greatest obligations of gratitude and obedience to Him. 2. The text refers us to darkness or evil. (1.) Of moral evil He is not the author, but He has permitted it. The heathens knew that it existed, and, unable to account for the fact, invented an eternal being, all evil himself, and the source whence it proceeds. Our Bibles explain this great mystery. We can conceive of two sorts of creatures; either moved by a sort of mechanical impulse, and thus doing what was right, and then what is called virtue could not have existed, and there would have been no more of holiness or virtue in a saint or angel than in the atoms which compose the material universe, moved each to its own place by the appointment of the Divine Will; or possessing will, and sufficient power to choose what is good, and yet liable to the seductions of vice. God chose to create beings of the latter kind. Virtue implies the power of preference and choice, and from the wrong use of this power in creatures whom God endowed with it, evil proceeded. The creature is directly the author of evil; but God has permitted its existence. Even this permission, terrible as it is in its direct consequences, over-ruled for good (H. E. I. 2276–2280). (2.) As moral evil is by His permission, so natural evil is by His infliction. The miseries which have been the consequences of sin have been so by His appointment. They are all evidences that He hates sin. The various afflictions which come upon men in the course of divine providence are all according to God’s appointment, because He is determined to subject man to a state of discipline in reference to another world. And He has connected inward misery with sin, that it might be felt by us to be “an evil thing and a bitter,” that so we might be constrained to ask for deliverance. It is good for us to feel this.—Richard Watson: Works, vol. viii. pp. 478–494. This sublime asseveration is true in the realms both of creation and Providence. It is opposed to the Oriental doctrine of two opposite creators, and may have been intended for the benefit of Cyrus, who was probably a disciple of that doctrine. It affirms the opposite doctrine of our Supreme Being. We use the text as affirming God’s supreme disposal of earthly affairs. I. THE IMPORT OF THE . It is opposed to the doctrine of two creators in its strong affirmation that whatever is done, of both kinds, is done by the one Being who speaks. And it is opposed to the doctrine that God does not interfere in human affairs; it strongly affirms the contrary, and traces all action to Him. For fuller statements of the truth in both its aspects, such passages may be consulted as Isaiah 11:12-14; Isaiah 44:24-28; Acts 17:26-28; Matthew 6:26-34. With such passages as these in our minds, we shall perceive that the divine activity was concerned in the creation of all things in the material universe, and is concerned in their sustentation and control. We shall perceive that He has to do with the nations of the earth, appointing their position, measuring their prosperity, and directing the circumstances that conduce to it. He separated the Jews from other nations and from the land of Egypt. He gave Nebuchadnezzar his commission in connection with their chastisement and captivity. He appointed Cyrus to be the instrument of their return. We shall perceive that each individual man is the subject of His action. The general management of the world includes the special Providential management of the individual. For the whole of life is composed of its numberless minute circumstances. Birth, infancy, the training which influences character and position, prosperity, adversity, alternate light and darkness, sickness, death, its time and manner, with the causes leading to it—all are in His supreme all-controlling hand. II. THE OF THE . The government of the world is in the best hands. 1. It is in the hands of one Person. Government by one supreme mind is, in itself, the best form of government. Monarchy, with unlimited power in the possession of the monarch, is the ideal government. Why is it desirable and necessary to limit the monarchs of the earth by bringing in other counsellors? Because no man is competent to the task of personal government. If one could be found possessed of wisdom that could make no mistake, equity that could do no wrong, goodness that sought only the well-being of all, and power that could give effect to all his decisions, he he would be fit to govern the world. But no such man can be found. The best is imperfect. And the supremacy might fall into the hands of folly or wickedness. Human rulers must be surrounded, therefore, with the safeguards and limitations that are found necessary in experience. But in God all qualifications meet for the centring in Him of unlimited rulership. 2. It is in the hands of One who possesses the competency to govern without being limited. For the wisdom, power, goodness, and righteousness that are requisite to the uncontrolled universal government are possessed by Him. These attributes are esentially in His nature, and their exercise essential to any action He performs. Therefore He makes no mistakes, therefore no difficulty is insuperable by Him; therefore all His methods are arranged with a view to the general good, even although they may not seem so, as storms bring benefit to the atmosphere, and therefore no injustice is done by Him to any of the creatures that are comprehended in His wide dominion. 3. It is in the hands of One who possesses the right to control human affairs (1 Chronicles 29:11-12). He created. He preserves. Man’s sin has not destroyed God’s governmental right. It has created a necessity for darkness as well as for light. It is for Him to determine the measures of light and darkness that shall brighten or cloud the pathway of every one. These truths are capable of important uses. Let us— 1. Acknowledge the divine supremacy. It quiets the soul in the experience of life’s alternate light and darkness. Without this, a man feels that he is like a waif on the waters, driven hither and thither without power of effective resistance. He will chafe. With it, he is like a ship under the guidance of a competent captain. Human life becomes entirely different when we are satisfied that its vicissitudes are not the result of accident, but are controlled by the supreme Intelligence. 2. Submit to the divine arrangements. The question is not speculation. It affects our interests and our feelings. Darkness may envelop us, losses may be sustained. Sorrows, some of them deep, heart-rending, long sustained, may be appointed. There may be rebellion in heart. There may be the mere submission of the heathen, which only means that we submit to our lot because resistance is useless. But there may be Christian submission. It proceeds from the heart’s submission to God Himself. It bows to the will of God because of the confidence in the character that directs the will. It is enough to say “the Lord hath done it.” It is satisfied with the voice of Jesus in the storm: “It is I.” Like the great Example, it says, “Not my will, but thine be done, O my Father.” 3. Accept the divine discipline. When the light shines upon our way, let us be glad and thankful. When the darkness gathers, let us ask, “Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?” “What is the sin on account of which the chastisement is sent?” Believers are chastened with a view to their improvement; to the deepening and enrichment of their spiritual life. Many have found their times of trouble times of richest spiritual fruitfulness. And sinners are visited with dark days as warnings. The sickness and sorrow that rend the heart are meant to show the uncertainty and insufficiency of earthly things, and to rend the heart from sin.—J. Rawlinson.THE ORIGIN OF EVIL Isaiah 45:6-7. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness, &c.This bold unqualified assertion that the Source of all light is also the Fountain of darkness, that evil as well as good is the work of God, must task and perplex every thoughtful mind. No intelligent reader can fail to be struck and impressed by the opening words of the chapter: “Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus.” We have to bear in mind that Cyrus was a Persian. The creed of Cyrus and the Persians, though singularly pure and noble, had one grave defect. They believed in one God indeed, and thought of Him so nobly that their symbol for Him was a circle with wings—the circle to denote the completeness, the perfection, the eternity of God; and the wings His all-pervading presence. But while they believed in one only God (Ahuramazda), the Maker of all that was good, they also, and out of reverence for One to whom they dared not attribute any wrong, believed in an anti-god (Ahriman), whom they made responsible for all that was evil. We may fairly say, that since these words were addressed to a Persian, their main purpose was achieved if they conveyed to him the thought that the universe was not governed by two rival powers, but by one Supreme Person, ever in harmony with Himself, who tolerated and controlled the evil forces of the universe no less than the good, though He did not originate them. But, softened and modified thus, the claim is tremendous; and yet it meets and satisfies the cravings both of intellect and heart as no easier, no dualistic theory does or can do. The intellect demands unity. And how can our hearts be at rest until we know and are sure that God rules over the kingdom of darkness as well as in the kingdom of light? “I am the Lord, and there is none else.” Obviously the words open up the whole question of the existence, the permission, the origination of evil. And, in considering this question, it will be well for us to determine— I. What, and how much, of the evil that exists we can ourselves honestly attribute directly and immediately to God our Maker.1. Much of the evil within and around us is of our own making. A large proportion of the pain, loss, and moral defeat of which we are conscious, has sprung from our own follies and faults. After making all due allowance for hereditary bias, for unhappy and unfavourable conditions, for almost irresistible conspiracies of opportunity with inclination, we are conscious of many faults and sins which we might have avoided and ought to have avoided. God forbade the sins into which we fell. His Spirit strove to hold us back from them. We would give in to them, as we now confess with penitent shame. Candour compels us to exonerate Him from all responsibility for the sufferings they have produced. 2. Much of the evil that has lowered and afflicted our lives has been of our neighbours’ making. We inherited, with much that was good, some evil bias from our fathers. We have often had to breathe an atmosphere charged with moral infections from the corrupt habits of the world around us. Our education was not good, or was not wholly good and wise. As we look back and think of all we have lost and suffered, it is probable that we attribute far more of the evils which have fallen on us to men than to God. Here already is an immense deduction. Take away all the wrongs, pains, losses, temptations, sins, which might and would have been avoided had both we and our neighbours done our best to obey the law of conscience even, and how much do we leave? Very much less than we commonly assume. 3. For much that seems evil to us is not really evil, or is not altogether evil. Cyrus and his Persians had such evils as noxious plants and animals, excessive heat and cold, famine, drought, earthquake, storms, disease, and sudden death in their minds mainly when they spoke of the works of Ahriman. But, as we know, these apparent ills are not necessarily ills at all, or they are products of causes which work for good on the whole, or they carry compensations so large that the world would be the poorer for their loss. This point admits of much illustration, e.g., storms destroy, but revivify the air; the struggle for existence among plants and animals evolves their more perfect species, &c. Much that we call evil is even designed and adapted to call our attention to the true order of human life. Those who are driven towards pessimism could hardly do better than rouse themselves to look on human life as a whole. II. In what sense may we reverently attribute all evil to God? Here we approach a problem which the wise of all ages have pronounced insoluble; and hence it becomes us to move with diffidence, and to bear in mind that the most we can hope to attain is a working hypothesis which will commend itself to our reason, not a final solution of the mystery. The question with us, after all, is not of what we can discover, but of what God has revealed, of how we are to explain and vindicate a claim which He Himself asserts. Science herself admits that, by a thousand different paths of investigation and thought, it is led to the conclusion that, if there be a God at all, there can be but one God. We see most of God in the highest of His works, i.e., in man, and in that which is highest in man, viz., thought, will, affection. In God we have the creative and Supreme Spirit, Maker of all things, the Fountain of all force, the Administrator of all laws, of whom we frame our highest conception when we think of Him as the Source of all that is noblest in man—as the Infinite Mind, the pure Eternal Will, the absolute Love. This being so, we ask— 1. How did evil arise? For the origin of evil we must go back to the creation of all things. There must have been a time when the Great Creative Spirit dwelt alone. In that Divine solitude the question arose whether a creation should be called into being, and of what kind it should be. What, then, is implied in the very nature of active intelligent creatures such as we are? We would not have had God surround Himself with a merely inanimate world, nor tenant that with mere automata, incapable of a spontaneous and enforced obedience. But, if free to think truly, must not active intelligences be free to think untruly? if free to love, must they not be free not to love? if free to obey, must they not be free to disobey? The very creation of beings in themselves good involves the tremendous risk of their becoming evil. Must we not go further, and say that it involved a dead certainty, a certainty which must have been foreseen and provided for in the eternal counsels of the Almighty, that in the lapse of ages, with a vast hierarchy of creatures possessed of freewill, some among them would assert and prove their freedom by disobedience? How else could man, e.g., assure himself that he was free? This being so, how long would it be before he put his freedom to the touch? The poet Cowper says: “I could sit at ease and quiet in my chamber all day long; but the moment I knew the door was locked upon me, I should try to get out at all risks.” Free creatures, again, creatures with intelligence, will, passion, are active creatures, and there is something in the very nature of activity which blunts and weakens our sense of inferiority, dependence, accountability. The Bible affirms that what Reason might have anticipated actually took place. It tells us that both in heaven and on earth the creatures God had made did thus fall away from Him. And it moreover asserts, in accord with philosophy and science, that, by their disobedience to the laws of their being and happiness, they jarred themselves into a false and sinister relation to the material universe; that, by introducing moral evil into the creation, they exposed themselves to those physical ills from which we suffer to this day. 2. How may evil be justified? How can we reconcile it at once with God’s perfect goodness and unbounded power? On our hypothesis we reconcile it with His power by the plain and obvious argument that even Omnipotence cannot at once create freewill and not create it. If God made man free to choose evil, how can He possibly compel him to be good except by taking away his freedom of choice and action? But if we would reconcile the existence of evil with the goodness of God—and this is by far the most difficult achievement—we must take the whole theory of human life and destiny taught by the Bible, and not merely a part of it. The Bible teaches that the lines of human life and destiny are to be produced beyond the grave; that while, in large measure, men do receive the due reward of their deeds here and now, yet a more exact retribution will be meted out hereafter—a more abundant reward for all that has been good in us, a more searching punishment of what is evil; that in His compassion God came down to us, virtually saying to us, “I might much more reasonably attribute the evils from which you suffer to you than you to me. But, see, I freely take them all on Myself. I take away the sin of the world by a sacrifice so great, that you can but apprehend it afar off. I foretell a final, a complete victory over it. And, meantime, it shall have no power to hurt you if you will but put your trust in Me.”—Samuel Cox, D.D.: Genesis of Evil (two sermons), pp. 1–41. THE HEAVENS Isaiah 45:8. Drop down, ye heavens, &c.There is a fulness in the language more than commensurate with the revival of the piety and temporal well-being of the Jews after their return to Canaan. It points to Gospel times; righteousness, and all the blessings of the Messiah’s reign, were to descend as copious showers and refreshing dews upon the earth … so that the desolate wilderness should suddenly become fertile (see vol. i. pp. 364, 399). The evangelic prophet invokes this. Such are the Divine promises. We may observe from the words under consideration— I. That the Divine influence is requisite to the prosperity of religion in the heart of the believer, and in any Christian community. The moment the Church of Christ loses sight of this truth, that moment she becomes shorn of her strength. She goes a warfare at her own charges. With frail human power she attempts what Omnipotence alone can effect. In a work so great our mightiest efforts are powerless when unaided by Divine strength. This truth should be a settled principle in our hearts: “All evil is of myself. I inherit it from my birth,” &c. Sin robbed man to some extent of physical beauty, and does so now. The change in his mental and moral nature was equally great. Sin weakens and debases the powers of the soul. The understanding is blinded and the heart hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, or it would require Satanic wickedness for men to sin against God as they now do. Our sins are unspeakably greater than we can conceive of. All evil is from ourselves, and all good is from God. This is true of saint and sinner. Divine influence is requisite in the conviction of sin, and in the conversion of the sinner (H. E. I. 1477, 1400–1405). Their progress in the Divine life, conquest over every foe, &c., are derived from “the supply of the Spirit of Christ;” in whom they possess all spiritual blessings, and are now the “partakers of the grace of life,” and inheritors of the kingdom of glory. II. That the resources of Divine grace, which God has promised to bestow in order to effect this prosperity, are abundant and inexhaustible. Such prosperity is eminently enjoyed where there are numerous conversions, and where the life of God in the hearts of His people is exemplified in every action by intense affection for one another, and their united continuous effort for man’s highest weal and the Redeemer’s glory. Everything revealed to us of the Divine character and purpose encourages such effort. The promises are pregnant with blessing. They reveal the purposes of Divine love, and warrant the most enlarged expectations and fervent appeals to God that He will “do as He has said.” His gracious and immutable purposes are the universal spread of the Gospel. God shall pour down righteousness, the earth shall receive the abundant blessing and bring forth salvation (Revelation 11:15). III. That human instrumentality is invariably employed, in co-operation with Divine agency, in achieving this prosperity. It is impossible to ascertain the precise point where human instrumentality and Divine agency meet, and how both are united to attain the same purpose. Our duty is to labour in dependence upon God. Would it be possible to find a Christian whose conversion was effected apart from human agency in some form or other? Every outpouring of the Spirit upon the world has been preceded by united supplication. Say not that human instrumentality is unimportant; nothing is so which God deems good to employ (1 Corinthians 1:21). When gracious influences come down like showers and refreshing dew, the sinner should open his heart to welcome the blessing. IV. That such a consummation is to be devoutly desired and sought by the fervent and united prayers of His believing people. The salvation of sinners, and the happiness of believers, should prompt the prayer, “Drop down,” &c. Such a consummation would cause earth to bear a closer resemblance to heaven. “The whole earth shall be filled with His glory.”—T. Jowett, The Christian World, July 31, 1863. AGAINST GOD Isaiah 45:9-10. Woe unto him that striveth, &c.I. That man is formed by God, and that all his affairs are ordered by Him as really as the work of the potter is moulded by the hands of the workman. II. That God has a design in making man, and in ordering and arranging his circumstances in life. III. That man is little qualified to judge of that design, and not at all qualified to pronounce it unwise, any more than the clay could charge him that worked it into a vessel with want of wisdom. IV. That God is a Sovereign, and does as He pleases. He has formed man as He chose, as really as the potter moulds the clay into any shape that he pleases. He has given him his rank in creation; given him such a body and intellect as He pleased; He has determined his circumstances in life just as He saw fit. And He is a Sovereign also in the dispensation of His grace—having a right to pardon whom He will—nor has any man any right to complain. Not that God, in all respects, moulds the character and destiny of men, as the potter does the clay. God is just, &c., as well as Sovereign; and man is a moral agent, and subject to the laws of moral agency which God has appointed. God does nothing wrong. He does not compel man to sin and then condemn him for it (H. E. I. 1779, 1780). He does His pleasure according to the eternal laws of equity; and man has no right to call in question the rectitude of His sovereign dispensations.—Albert Barnes, D.D. THE PEOPLE OF A PRAYER-HEARING GOD Isaiah 45:11-13. Thus saith the Lord, &c.A wonderful promise wonderfully fulfilled. The facts and principles involved in it are of perpetual value. I. God has a people whom He distinguishes as His sons. II. He is specially concerned for their welfare and happiness, present and future. III. He is always ready to interpose for them; you may ask, command. IV. He has ample ability and resources for their help. V. He has made final provision for their final deliverance out of all trouble.—J. Lyth, D.D., Homiletical Treasury, Isaiah, p. 61. THE OF GOD Isaiah 45:15. Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. This is one of many similar declarations (Psalms 18:11; Psalms 97:2; Job 37:23; Exodus 33:18-23). All this concealment proceeds, not from any unwillingness to disclose His greatness, but rather from the fact that, since this greatness is divine, it could not be endured by human vision. Mysteries are necessary portions of the dealing between finite beings and the Infinite, and are forced into God’s dispensations by His unmeasured superiority to the work of His own hands. [1426][1426] Suppose God to make a full and adequate revelation of Himself: there is a point in the examination of that revelation at which man’s understanding must fail; for man’s understanding, at the best, is finite. God is infinite. The finite cannot grasp the infinite; and therefore there must be a point at which the power of the finite understanding that would take in the infinite communication must cease, and at that particular point there would be a horizon to man’s perceptions of truth. That is, to us there would be a point at which the revelations would cease to be explanations, and a man’s view would be bounded, and a mystery would commence. For what is a mystery! A mystery is &revelation unexplained; a truth told distinctly, but net reasoned upon and explained; a truth so told that we can boldly say what it is, but not how it is. The personal existence of God, as declared in Holy Scripture, is a mystery; it is a revelation unexplained, a statement unreasoned; and it presents a horizon to the human understanding. In philosophy, facts hold the place which revelation holds in religion. Experience gives the philosopher his facts, and facts bring him to a point where he must confess mystery. Where is the metaphysician that hath ever explained the action of mind upon matter, and the ready movements of flesh and bone at the secret bidding of the mysterious visitant within? And where is the anatomist who hath discovered its origin with his searching knife? No; there is a mystery in it. For a mystery in philosophy is a fact unexplained, as a mystery in religion is a revelation unexplained. Take another instance. Much has been discovered, and much has been demonstrated, in the science of astronomy. The motions of the heavenly bodies have been made matter of calculation amongst men; the results proving themselves true by periodical returns of infallible observation. But there is a point at which we reach a mystery here. Upon what do all these calculations depend? Upon what do all these motions rest? Upon a quality which Sir Isaac Newton baptized; he gave the mystery a name; he called it “gravitation.” Grant gravitation, and we can reason about the solar system. But what is gravitation? Who can explain that?—M‘Neile.Our text seems to breathe the language of admiration and praise: [1429] it confesses God mysterious, but at the same time its tone is that of grateful acknowledgment. We wish to examine the fact that the God of Israel is a God that doth hide Himself, and to prove that this concealment should move us to admiration, thanksgiving, and awe. Consider— [1429] That God should disclose thoughts of mercy so vast and far-reaching affects the prophet’s mind powerfully. He pauses to say, “How little had I known of God before! Thou art a God that hidest Thyself!” How long the world had lain in darkness, ignorant of these glorious plans of God for its ultimate conversion! Surely the God of such promises should be known by this one great name, “The God of Israel (His own spiritual Zion) the Saviour!” He wears this name most worthily!—Cowles. Compare Romans 11:33.I. GOD’S HIDING OF HIMSELF WITH REGARD TO HIS OWN NATURE AND . We know nothing of God in Himself; we know Him only in His attributes, and His attributes only as written in His Word and shown in His works. But when these are studied most carefully, God remains even then the greatest mystery to man; we know not what God is, nor how He subsists. [1432] Even where God makes announcements of His nature, they are such as quite baffle our reason. For example,— 1. The doctrine of the Trinity. 2. His revelation of Himself as “the Saviour.” What mysteries are involved in the Incarnation and the Atonement! 3. The application of redemption to the individual, by the operations of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is a fact, but who can explain it to us? [1432] H. E. I. 2229–2224, P.D. 1501–1502, 1525. There is nothing that should surprise us in this, if we would but observe how little way our reason can make when labouring amongst things with which we are every day conversant; but we should expect that it would be altogether incompetent to the unravelling the incomprehensible. It will also be evident that we are a mystery to ourselves; that every object around us baffles our penetration; that there is not an insect, a leaf, an atom, which does not master us as we attempt to apprehend its nature and its growth.… If, then, making trial of our powers on the commonest objects by which we are surrounded, we feel ourselves defeated in our philosophy by the worm or the water-drop; can it be rational, when we turn ourselves to the study of God, to expect to find the Almighty a being which we may thoroughly comprehend? It is enough that we observe the most gifted of our fellows applying themselves assiduously to the commonest facts, the most familiar occurrences, and yet able to do nothing more than trace a connection between cause and effect. We ought to be convinced that we possess not the capacity which can allow us to embrace the wonders of the Deity. So that not only the stars in their rushings, and the waters as they flow in their tides, but every sand-grain and every bubble, and every beat of the pulse, and every blade of grass, and every floating insect, all join in preparing us for the fact that the God of Israel must be a God that hideth Himself.—Melvill.It seems unnecessary, after thus considering what God has hidden with respect to Himself, we should dwell at any length on what He hath similarly hidden in the works of nature. Everything within, above, and around us, is matter of inscrutable mystery. [1435][1435] We stand in the midst of a mighty temple, the whole visible frame of nature rising around us, like the walls of a gorgeous sanctuary; and we gaze on the beautiful arch of heaven, on the sun walking in his brightness, on the moon, and the stars, and the dark cloud of thunder; but what know we of this magnificent array? What account can man give of the hidden springs of such vast machinery? Who will tell us what is that light which makes all things visible? Who will explain that secret wondrous energy which retains, century after century, so many worlds, each in its separate orbit? Whose penetration is not utterly baffled by the growth of a blade of grass, by the falling of a stone, by the floating of a feather? When asked, we state reasons, and assign causes, but this is only a shifting of the difficulty. It were easy to talk of the gravity of matter, and the laws of nature: philosophy is at fault: the learned man knows little more than the savage of the amazing processes which go on daily in the laboratory of nature: while he may be sitting on the lofty pinnacle of science, a child shall propose questions which shall perplex and confound him, and bring him down from his lofty eminence, and force him to the humiliating confession that what can be discovered by man bears no proportion to what is hidden by God.… There is nothing teaches us our own ignorance as knowledge when pushed to its utmost limits. In enlarging the sphere of light, you equally enlarge the surrounding sphere of darkness.—Melvill. What we would ever maintain in respect to all this concealment of the Deity is, that it should summon forth our thankfulness. It prevents great evils, and secures great blessings:1. What food would there be to human pride, if reason availed even to the finding out of God! 2. If God did not thus hide Himself, there would be no reason for faith, and consequently none of the glory we render to God when we exercise it, and none of the moral advantage which flows to us from the being required to lean constantly on an invisible staff. 3. We could not then have that conviction that in the Bible we have the Word of the living God which now arises from our perception that the obscurity, of which some complain, is the result of the sublimity of the disclosures there made to us. 4. The wonders of nature, had they been completely unveiled, would soon have ceased to interest and to call forth our admiration and praise; whereas, by being partially hidden, they are made to contribute to the glory of their Creator. [1438][1438] If God had bared the secrets of creation, so that we could exhaust the store-house whose very threshold we are now scarce able to pass, is it not evident that the familiarity would have generated indifference to the skill of the mighty Architect; and that the mere fact that there was nothing to find out would have made us unobservant of the broad impress of Divinity? Under the existing arrangement, as we may term it, of God’s hiding Himself, creation ministers perpetually to our awe and admiration of the Creator; every new leaf, as it is turned over by the intelligence of industry and the guidance of inquiry, presenting a new witness to the wisdom and power of Deity, whilst at the same time it tells out the inexhaustibleness of the volume; so that continually learning, and yet continually finding there is more to learn, we pass on from stage to stage, climbing (so to speak) the magnificence of God, only to know that what appeared the summit is but the basis of a loftier mountain; and thus compelled, as marvel on marvel crowds the vision, to exclaim—oh, not with the tongue of regret and murmuring, but with the tongue of worship and rapture—“Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour!”—Melvill. II. HOW GOD HIDES HIMSELF IN REGARD TO HIS WITH HIS . 1. God conceals much in the dispensations of His Providence; He does not lay open the reasons of His appointments and permissions. But besides the moral discipline that is thus secured for us, will not the ultimate solution of all those mysteries gain more glory for God, than if the whole course of Providence had been made plain from the beginning? 2. God hides from His creatures the day of their death. But this concealment is in many ways a blessing to the individual and to society. 3. God has hidden much from us respecting the nature of a future state. He has given much to exercise faith and occupy hope; but if the veil had been more fully withdrawn, what would have become of a state of probation, with all its present and permanent blessings? [1441][1441] H. E. I. 2178, 2179.4. God has hidden from man the future history of this world. But by means of prophecy this hiding of the Deity has been made to minister peculiarly to our advantage. [1444][1444] Prophecy is the standing miracle of centuries; a miracle so wonderfully constructed, that time, which might be thought to weaken every other, adds only fresh strength to this. The far-off day of its delivery is as surprising as the fact of its fulfilment; but it is clear that the wonder of prophecy is dependent on the combination of our iguorance and of God’s knowledge of the future. It is by His displaying His own acquaintance with that which He has hidden from His creatures, that God makes the hiding to put forth the greatest strength against infidelity; indicating from the very beginning the knowledge of all things proves His own omniscience and His sovereignty. So that if the future were open to man’s expatiation, there would remain no place for prophecy as the distinct prerogative of Deity, and it would remove altogether that attestation to the truth of Christianity which, growing and strengthening as time rolls on, resists, like a rock, the advance of scepticism.—Melvill.5. God has hidden from us the results of our own actions. But this is palpably to our advantage, for thus we are reminded, as we could not have been in any other way, of our dependence upon God, and the necessity of acknowledging Him in all our ways. Especially is this a blessing in the workings of benevolence. We are thus led to carry on our operations in the best possible spirit, in the consciousness that we are but instruments in the hand of God. Besides, it is this very hiding which enables us to honour God by our performance of duty. It were comparatively nothing to labour with the certainty of success; the trial of obedience lies in the being summoned to labour when we cannot be assured of success: and if we prosecute the enterprise, in spite of all that is disheartening in the hiding of results, we glorify God by that best of all offerings—a simple and unquestioning conformity to His will: our own obedience being of a far higher cast than if we were stimulated by the known amount of success, is nothing less than a fresh proof that we should praise God under His character of “the God that hideth Himself.”—H. Melville, A.M., “The British Pulpit,” vol. iii. pp. 142–152. That God is a Saviour is a declaration written in lines of light on every page of the Book of Revelation. What, too, is history, with all its dark passages of horror, its stormy revolutions, its ceaseless conflict, its tears, its groans, its blood, but the chronicle of an ever-widening realm of light, of order, of intelligence, wisdom, truth, and charity? It is a tale of slow, patient, but persistent and victorious progress. Yet there is a destroying power at work in the universe on a scale of enormous magnitude, and to most men the dominant feature in this vast universe seems to be confusion. Shocks and shatterings cause more noise and make more show than the germinations, the uprisings, the upbuildings. The earthquake is long remembered, the soft springing of the corn passes unnoted by. Hence to most men God is hidden. If they believe there is a God, they think of Him merely as the Judge, the Avenger, the Destroyer, not as the Saviour. But why should God hide Himself? If He has purposes of mercy always before Him, why does He not make them abundantly plain to all mankind? Why leave the world to groan and madden under the terror lest a malignant tormentor should be master and ruler of, at any rate, this lower sphere? I. The reason lies partly in the essential mystery of the Divine nature—a nature whose judgments must remain unsearchable by man’s limited intelligence, and whose ways must be past finding out; His nature and methods we can grasp just as an infant can grasp the thought and purpose of a man (Job 11:7; Romans 11:33). II. God hides Himself through His patient, deep, and far-reaching method in the government of mankind. He is governing us as free beings on a profound and obscure but benignant method; the aim being to train us to govern ourselves in the light of His truth and love. The only way to govern in freedom is to allow full play to freedom. We are free to try our paths and see where they issue. But when men go astray by the very misery that succeeds their sin (Luke 15:14), God leads them back to Himself and proves that He is the Saviour. III. The day of the Lord is a long day. His methods work through generations. Consider the years of the right hand of the Most High, and understand how His way must be hidden in each brief generation; while in the generations in which His hand is on the world in judgment, the darkness in which it is buried must be profound indeed. IV. God hides Himself behind the fatherly chastisement with which He exercises and educates the individual human soul. It is in the nature of chastisement to hide for a moment the wisdom and the love of the hand which administers it (Hebrews 12:11). V. There are seasons of darkness in which God seems hidden, which are among the most sacred and salutary experiences of the soul. By them God is drawing out and drawing up its deeper longings and aspirations, exercising its patience, and kindling its hope (H. E. I. 1645–1648, 1656). VI. God hides, must hide, much of His method, but while the Cross stands as earth’s most sacred symbol there can be no utter hiding of His love. He has set the Cross in the midst of us as the sign how much He cares for us. Whatever we suffer, while that Cross abides, we can say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him”—J. Baldwin Brown, B.A., in the Christian World, September 19th, 1879. When Divine manifestations are described in Scripture, two symbols are used, fire and cloud, symbolising light and darkness. The import of this is that we may know God in part, but cannot fathom His perfections. As an old philosopher said, “Nothing is at once so known and so concealed as God.” This union of the knowable and unknowable in God is set forth in the text. Looked at in connection with the context, the words express astonishment and admiration at the mode in which God fulfilled His purposes through Cyrus. The obscurity of His ways, the incomprehensibility of Providence, is the subject. I. The Lord is a God that hideth Himself. His dispensations, though always wise and merciful, are often mysterious. This is in harmony with both reason and experience. 1. From the nature of God, and from the character and situation of man, reason would conclude that the ways of Providence must often be incomprehensible. For God’s wisdom is infinite, His ways above our ways. How can mortals comprehend His counsels and purposes? It is the very height of folly, of profane arrogance, for men to summon the All-Wise to their tribunal. We cannot tell the end He has in view, nor assign reasons for His procedure, nor foreknow the effect of His action. If God were not incomprehensible, faith would lose its value. 2. Experience proves that God hides Himself. Why does He suffer wickedness to prosper? Why does He afflict His own children? Why does He cut off the child and the youth? Why do men of eminent usefulness die prematurely, and worthless men live long? II. Though God hides Himself, He is the Saviour of His people. His inscrutable ways are connected with the salvation of His children. 1. Think of the attributes of God. His love wonderful, His power unlimited, His care incessant, His wisdom infinite. Can He err, or be cruel? 2. Remember His promises. “All things shall work together for good,” &c. In times of darkness and suffering the promises apply. 3. Look at experience. Your own. How has God dealt with you? That of others. Reflect on the sufferings of patriarchs, prophets, and saints, and the end thereof. In conclusion, learn, 1. The guilt and ingratitude of believers when they murmur against God’s dealings. They assume to be wiser than He, and are impatient and rebellious. 2. We may well long for heaven. Here there will ever be darkness; there we shall see light in God’s light. All mysteries will be solved.—Henry Kollock, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 574–580. This chapter contains a prophecy respecting the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. God promises to anoint Cyrus to be the saviour of His people, and to do great things to enable him to deliver them from bondage (Isaiah 45:1-4). Cyrus was to be thus raised up, not for his glory, but for the sake of Jacob (Isaiah 45:4). Though he knew not God, he was to be an instrument in God’s hands (Isaiah 45:4-5, Isaiah 44:28). God can use any instrument He pleases (Daniel 2:21; Daniel 4:35). Contemplating the predicted deliverance of Israel by such a surprising instrumentality, the prophet is filled with amazement, and exclaims, “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself,” &c. God hides Himself in two ways.— 1. In the mystery of His counsel. Instances: His permitting His people to remain so long in such severe bondage, and in the wonderful means chosen for their deliverance. Many similar instances. No one can say beforehand what are God’s purposes in His providences, nor how He will bring them about. History must be their interpreter (Psalms 79:1; Psalms 79:9; Romans 11:33). 2. In His chastisements. At times He withdraws from His people on account of their sins (Isaiah 57:17). Then they seem to be left utterly in the power of their foes (Psalms 42:9). A period of mystery and painful perplexity (Psalms 79:9). But in due time He manifests Himself as “the saviour of Israel.” He uses unexpected means for their deliverance, but those means prove abundantly sufficient (Isaiah 45:17). In our text a complaint is made which may be repeated in our own day. [1447][1447] Most commentators take that view of our text upon which the preceding outlines proceed, but a few incline to that here taken. “The words are an abrupt reflection of the prophet in the midst of the messages he has to deliver. They allude to the strange work of God in breaking down what He had built, the tabernacle of David, and plucking up what He had planted, the vineyard of Israel.” (Birks.) “The words have been variously taken:—(1.) As continuing the wondering homage of the heathen; (2.) as spoken by the prophet as he surveys the unsearchable ways of God. (Compare Romans 11:33.) Through the long years of exile He had seemed to hide Himself, to be negligent of His people (chaps. Isaiah 8:17, Isaiah 54:8; Psalms 55:1) or unable to help them. Now it would be seen that He had all along been as the Strong One (El) working for their deliverance.” (Plumptre.) Though the prophet may have breathed here “the language of admiration and praise” (Melvill and others), the circumstances of God’s people are often such that they may adopt His exclamation as a lament. I. That the Saviour hides Himself is a thing to be lamented. Grave evils result therefrom. In His Church there is deadness, barrenness, contentions, divisions. Sinners are at ease in Zion. The foes of Zion are arrogant and insolent. God’s kingdom makes no advance in the world. Those who love it are disheartened; their work for the salvation of sinners appears to be at a standstill. A cause of great grief to them. The stoppage of any earthly works is not to be compared with it for calamitousness. The stoppage of works which give employment to thousands is a great loss to a country; but a much heavier loss is the stoppage of the work of grace which gives eternal life. What will become of our children, relatives, neighbours, the world at large, should saving operations be at an end? Nothing can revive it but the coming forth of the Saviour. II. The Saviour does not hide Himself without a cause. His sovereignty is not the cause of His concealment, nor of His withholding comforts from His people; for it is His delight to dwell in their midst and to bless them. The cause will be found in them. From below, and not from above, comes the mist that forms itself into thick clouds and hides the face of the Saviour from us (Isaiah 59:2; H. E. I. 1644). We see a father sometimes showing his displeasure towards his disobedient child by refusing him his company, and so deals the Lord with His children as long as they continue contented with a low spiritual state, or a state of transgression into which they have fallen (Isaiah 1:15; Hosea 5:15). This is the cause, and this only; not because His people are poor, ignorant, or in trouble. III. The hiding of the Saviour ought to produce self-humiliation in His people. They ought to inquire into the reasons for their sad and terrible condition, in humble prayer before God (Psalms 44:24). They are apt not to do this; prayerlessness is one terrible result of backsliding (Isaiah 64:7). But until they give themselves earnestly to self-examination, self-reformation, and humble waiting before God, His face will be hidden from them. IV. The Saviour continues the same though He hides Himself. Though He hid Himself in the days of Isaiah, He was still the “God of Israel, the Saviour.” The sun is as full of light and heat when hid behind clouds as it is when seen in all its glory, and so God is as full of grace and mercy when hiding Himself because of the sins of His people, as He is when manifesting Himself in gracious deliverance. In the day of darkness His people may doubt this (Isaiah 65:15). Nevertheless it is true (Isaiah 59:1). Let them return to Him in penitence, and they will find it true. V. The Saviour does not intend to hide for ever. He has graciously made the term of the continuance of His concealment from us to depend on ourselves (Hosea 5:15). We are told what will certainly happen if His people turn to Him (Isaiah 54:7-10). Let us lay these truths to heart. We greatly need that the Saviour should manifest Himself to us. Let us entreat Him to do so. Model prayers are provided for us in His Word (Jeremiah 14:7-9). Let us present them with the humble perseverance that is pleasing to Him (Isaiah 8:17). So doing, ere long He will draw near to us; and when He does so, let us lay hold on Him, saying, “O God, Thou art our God; our souls thirst to see thy power and thy glory, as we have seen Thee in the sanctuary.”—William Roberts: Pregethau, pp. 261–268. Translated from the Welsh by the Rev. T. Johns, of Llanelly. ISRAEL SAVED IN THE LORD Isaiah 45:17. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord, &c.The text contains a promise of “everlasting salvation” to the pious just, and is brought forward among the promises of their temporal deliverance from the Babylonish captivity; and there is a better, greater, and more lasting salvation that affects the soul, preserving it from endless misery, and securing its everlasting happiness, in and through the Lord Messiah. I. THE OBJECT—“Everlasting salvation,” in the Lord. 1. Everlasting salvation includes a deliverance from ignorance, guilt, &c.; and the possession of light, peace, &c.; and this state continued and increased for ever. It is grace consummated in endless glory (Revelation 7:9, &c.) 2. This everlasting salvation is “in the Lord”—the Lord Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is in Him as a possession, purchased by His own blood, in whose right only we can obtain it. It is in Him as an inheritance, kept in trust, and to be conveyed by Him to the appointed heirs of it. It is in Him as in a grand exemplar, in His human nature, of the complete and final happiness of the saints who are predestinated, &c. (Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:21). It is in Him both as a beatific object and a perpetual medium, through which the blessed will see and enjoy God for ever. II. THE OF THE PERSONS TO WHOM IS —“Israel.” 1. Israel is a name of great distinction in Scripture. God Himself gave it to the patriarch Jacob, and in very peculiar circumstances (Genesis 32:28). His posterity bore that name; as we are now called Christians, from Christ. But these were Israelites only by carnal generation—not in spirit and temper imitating the faith and treading in the steps of their progenitors, Abraham, &c. (Romans 9:6). The Israelites to whom everlasting salvation is promised, are such as are so in a spiritual sense: and under the name of Israel, in the sense of it, all true believers in Christ are comprehended. 2. True Israelites are such as have given their unfeigned consent to be God’s people, subjects and servants—such as have “joined themselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant.” 3. In consequence of this, true Israelites are such as live in an unreserved subjection to the laws and government of God and the Redeemer (Romans 8:22). Through faith in Christ they are virtually united to Him, and from Him receive those hourly supplies of grace that qualify men for every good word and work. III. THE GROUNDS OF THE OF THEIR . 1. The possession Christ has taken of it, in the name and nature of all true believers in Him (Hebrews 6:20; John 14:2-3). 2. Christ’s intercession, which He ever lives in heaven to make for them (Hebrews 7:25). 3. His mighty power which is engaged for them (1 Peter 1:4-5). 4. God’s promise (John 5:2; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:17-18). Application. 1. How precious should Christ be to believers! 2. The Lord’s people have good reason to love Christ’s appearance (2 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 9:28). 3. What an encouragement to diligence and perseverance in appointed duty, seeing everlasting salvation will be the consequence of it! (1 Corinthians 15:58).—Sketches of Sermons, vol. iv. pp. 289–294). HOW GOD REVEALS HIMSELF Isaiah 45:18-25 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, &c.In Isaiah 45:17, the promise is made that “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” This gives the drift of the whole passage, Isaiah 45:18-25. In Isaiah 45:18-19, the words of Jehovah begin with the assertion that He is the absolute One; and from this two thoughts branch off— 1. That the prophecy is a revelation of light, no black art. 2. That the love of Jehovah, displayed in creation, attests itself in relation to Israel. Isaiah 45:20-21 declare that the salvation of Israel becomes the salvation of the heathen world. In accordance with this holy and benevolent will, the cry is uttered, “Look unto Me,” &c. (Isaiah 45:22); Jehovah will not rest till His object has been accomplished (Isaiah 45:23); but this bending of the knee will not be forced (Isaiah 45:24); the reference of Isa 45:25 is to the Israel of God out of all the human race. There are three leading ideas that are to be gathered out of the passage. I. God’s revelation of Himself is open and truthful (Isaiah 45:19). In Isaiah 45:15 we read, “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself,” and Isaiah 45:19 seems to answer the exclamation. Both declarations are true; God cannot wholly conceal nor wholly reveal Himself. A man even is always greater than his greatest work. 1. God’s speech in nature is in no secret place. The sun is a mighty word of God; but it can tell us only by feeble suggestion of the Sun of Righteousness; and yet the pure mind can see and hear far more of God in nature than the keenest scientific analyst (P. D. 485, 1526, 2545). 2. God spoke in no secret place when He spoke amid the peaks of Sinai, and on the heights of Calvary. The laws proclaimed to Moses, and shown to be honourable and glorious in the death of Christ, are the offspring of the Eternal Mind; Calvary is the Divine commentary upon Sinai. And all really Divine revelation is truthful. The command, “Seek ye my face,” accounts for the religious nature of man. Not in the grandest of God’s works can we rest content, and realise the joy for which we have been created. Seek ye my face in righteousness of life; this is the Divine law of seeking; and all who thus seek after God shall as surely find Him as the new-born child finds the nutriment of its mother’s bosom. II. God’s revelation of Himself is in reference to the highest practical objects.—“Look unto Me, and be ye saved;” He is “a just God and a Saviour.” God gives us such a knowledge of Himself as avails for the great practical ends of life, but not such as to satisfy speculation (H. E. I. 2229–2244). We know far more of what electricity can do than of what it is. We do not know what God is absolutely; but we know what He can do for us; He is “a just God and a Saviour;” i.e., there is nothing incompatible in this. As a just Being, He is a God of law; but as a Saviour, He does not cease to be a God of law; by law He condemns, and by law also He saves. Grace is the work of a mightier law than even condemnation. Note the two elements of the faith which is essential to salvation. 1. “Look unto Me;” lift up your eyes to the Infinite Strength which is reaching down to help you; that is the active element. “And be ye saved;” accept the Divine method of salvation; that is the passive, trustful element. III. God’s revelation of Himself is to issue in the salvation of the whole earth (Isaiah 45:23).—This has been the inspired assurance of prophets and apostles even in the darkest ages of the world (Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 15:3-4). The ruling idea of these and like passages is not merely that evil shall be conquered at the last and goodness triumphant; but that this final issue of things shall come about through men coming to know God in Christ, coming to worship and love Him as the supreme goodness and beauty. The worship of the gods of this world, now so fervent, will be gradually abolished; and life, as it reaches towards the higher developments in this world, will not only be a higher morality, but a clearer knowledge, and a more passionate and enraptured sense of God.—Charles Short, M.A., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. pp. 120–122. COMFORT TO SEEKERS FROM WHAT THE LORD HAS NOT SAID Isaiah 45:19. I have not spoken in secret, &c.We might gain much solace by considering what God has not said. In our text we have an assurance that God will answer prayer, because He hath not said unto the seed of Israel, “Seek ye my face in vain.” The proposition I come to deal with is this: that those who seek God, in God’s own appointed way, cannot, by any possibility, seek Him in vain; that earnest, penitent, prayerful hearts, though they may be delayed for a time, can never be sent away with a final denial (Romans 10:13; Matthew 7:8). I. I shall prove this, first, by the negative, as our text has it. It is not possible that a man should sincerely, in God’s own appointed way, seek for mercy and eternal life, and yet a gracious answer be finally refused. For several reasons. 1. Suppose that sincere prayer could be fruitless, then the question arises, Why, then, are men exhorted to pray at all? Would it not be a piece of heartless tyranny if the Queen should wait upon a man in his condemned cell, and encourage him to petition her favour, nay, command him to do it, saying to him, “If I do not send you at once an answer, send another petition, and another; send to me seven times, yea, continue to do it, and never cease so long as you live; be importunate, and you will prevail.” And what if the Queen should tell the man the story of the importunate widow—should describe to him the case of the man who, by perseverance, obtained the three loaves for his weary friend, and say to him, “Even so, if you ask you shall receive,” and yet all the while should intend never to pardon the man, but had determined in her heart that his death-warrant should be signed and sealed, and that on the execution morning he should be launched into eternity? Would this be consistent with royal bounty—fit conduct for a gracious monarch? Can you for a moment suppose that God would bid you come to Him through Jesus Christ, and yet intend never to be gracious at the voice of your cry? 2. If prayer could be offered continuously, and God could be sought earnestly, but no mercy found, then he who prays would be worse off than he who does not pray, and supplication would be an ingenious invention for increasing the ills of mankind. For a man who does not pray has less woes than a man who does pray, if God be not the answerer of prayer. The man who prays is made to hunger; shall he hunger and not eat? Were it not, then, better never to hunger? How, then, can it be said, “Blessed are they that hunger”! &c. The man who prays thirsts; as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so he pants after his God; but if God will never give him the living water to drink, is not a thirsty soul much more wretched than one who never learned to thirst at all? He who has been taught to pray has great desires and wants; his heart is an aching void which the world can never fill; but he that never prays has no longings and pinings after God, he feels no ungratified desires after eternal things. If, then, a man may have these vehement longings, and yet God will never grant them, then assuredly the man who prays is in a worse position than he who prays not. How can this be? 3. If God do not hear prayer, since it is clear that in that case the praying man would be more wretched than the careless sinner, then it would follow that God would be the author of unnecessary misery. Now, we know that this is inconsistent with the character of our God. We look around the world and we see punishment for sin, but no punishment for good desires, &c. 4. Should there still be some desponding ones, who think that God would invite them to pray and yet reject them, I would put it on another ground. Would men do so? Would you do so? Can God be less generous than men? 5. Have you forgotten that this is God’s memorial, by which He is distinguished from the false gods? (Comp. Psalms 115:5; Psalms 65:2.) One of the standing proofs of the Deity of Jehovah is, that He does to this day answer the supplications of His people. Could you seek His face, and yet He should refuse you, where would be His memorial? The answer may tarry, but only that it may be the more sweet when it comes (H. E. I. 3895–3898). 6. If God do not hear prayer, what is the meaning of His promises? (e.g., Psalms 50:15; Psalms 91:15; Jeremiah 33:3; Isaiah 65:24, &c.) How shall He make His veracity to be proved if He do not answer His people? But His word must stand, though heaven and earth should pass away. 7. If God hath virtually said to us, “Pray, but I will never hear you; seek ye my face in vain,” then, I ask, what is the meaning of all the provisions which He has already made for hearing prayer? I see a way to God; ’tis paved with stones inlaid in the fair crimson of the Saviour’s blood. I see a door; it is the wounded side of Jesus. Why a Mediator, an Intercessor, &c., &c., if prayer be unavailing? 8. I use the argument which the apostle uses upon the resurrection. If God hear not prayer, what gospel have I to preach? As the apostle said concerning the resurrection, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins.” 9. Where, then, were the believer’s hope? Hang the heavens in sackcloth, let the sun be turned into darkness, let the moon become a clot of blood, if the mercy-seat can be proved to be a mockery. 10. What would they say in hell, if a soul could really seek the Lord and be refused? Oh, the unholy merriment of devils then! I have been arguing against a thing which you know theoretically is not possible; but yet there are some who, when they are under conviction of sin, still cleave to this dark delusion, that God will not hear them. Therefore I have tried, by blow after blow, if possible, to smite this fear dead. II. That the Lord does hear prayer may be positively substantiated by the following considerations:— 1. For the Lord to hear prayer is consistent with His nature. Whatever is consistent with God’s nature, in the view of a sound judgment, we believe is true. Now we cannot perceive any attribute of God which would stand in the way of His hearing prayer. 2. It is harmonious with all His past actions. If you want a history of God’s dealings with men, turn to Psalms 107:3. What does He mean by His promises? As I said negatively, if He did not hear, where were His promises? so I say positively, Because of His promises He must hear. God is free, but His promises bind Him: God may do as He wills, but He always wills to do what He has said He will do. We have no claim upon God, but God makes a claim for us; when He gives a promise, we may confidently plead it. Promises made in Scripture are God’s engagements, and as no honourable man ever runs back from his engagements, so a God of honour and a God of truth cannot, from the necessity of His nature, suffer one of His words to fall to the ground. .—Try for yourself. If you would know that God hears prayer, you must test the fact, for you will never learn it through my saying, “He heard me;” you will only know it through His having heard you; and I therefore exhort you, since it is not a peradventure but a living certainty, that “he that asketh receiveth,” &c., pray to Him even now to save your souls. Pray as if you meant it, and continue as Elijah did, till you get the blessing.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 508. A JUST GOD AND A SAVIOUR Isaiah 45:21. A just God and a Saviour. These words occur in an assertion of the sovereignty of God, which is repeated again and again throughout this chapter, and forms the essential truth around which all its predictions cluster. Isaiah has foreseen that the Almighty would make Cyrus His servant in breaking the captivity of Babylon, and freeing the people from its thraldom. In this he hears the voice of the one Lord above the changes of the world, saying, “I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God beside me.” Again, over the wreck of ancient heathendom—Egypt and Ethiopia—the voice of the Sovereign King rings the proclamation, “I am the Lord,” &c. And then he gazes into a day when all the ends of the earth shall look to heaven for salvation; and once more he hears the chorus, “There is no God beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.” Hence we see the force of these words for Isaiah; God was just because He was a Saviour, and as a just God He sought to save. How may this great truth be illustrated, and what lessons flow from it? I. “A just God and a Saviour.” There is in God an everlasting harmony between the just and the merciful. He is just, because He is a Saviour; He is a Saviour, because He is justice seeking to save. 1. Mark the truth on which Isaiah founded this mighty truth, viz., the supreme and solitary sovereignty of God—“I am the Lord,” &c. The same Lord was over all; in Him was no double nature; He, the one God, was at once the just God and the Saviour. Realise this, and the idea of the atonement which represents Christ as inducing God to be merciful passes away (H. E. I. 390). 2. What is God’s justice, and what His salvation? (1.) God’s justice is not merely the infliction of penalty; God’s salvation is not merely deliverance from penalty. It is true that He does execute penalty and award retribution. He is just to-day. We see it in the stern laws of life. Penalties are the outflashings of a holy anger. (2.) His salvation is more than the mere deliverance from penalty. It is that; but it is the deliverance from evil. God would save men from evil by making them righteous; and thus He is at once the just God and a Saviour. 3. Take the two great revelations of law and mercy, and we shall see how the law is merciful, and mercy holy. The law, the revelation of justice, came to lead men to God the Saviour. To save man from evil two things are requisite. (1.) The sense of immortality. Sin destroys this sense; to awaken him, there is no other voice so powerful as that of the law he cannot obey; the Divine voice in the law speaks to him, and the man feels the sublimity of his nature; and there is the beginning of salvation. (2.) The sense of sin as a power in life. Man thinks of sin as a misfortune, &c.—anything but a power in him; the law, cursing evil, curses him. Christ, the revelation of God the Saviour, came to glorify God the just. Men often lose sight of this. Mount Sinai is less terrible than the purity of the man of Nazareth. Men felt it as they said: “Depart from us, for we are sinful.” Look at His sufferings. Nothing could tear Him from them—nothing alter His course. Where is there a greater revelation of the righteousness of God? Beneath the Cross we read that God would not pardon without glorifying to the utmost the majesty of the just and holy law. Mark the consummate power of Christ crucified. Sin never was so slain as by Him whom sin slew. The law never was so attested as by Him who bare its penalty. II. We infer two lessons from this great truth. 1. The necessity of Christian endeavour. We are forgiven at once. In one sense, we are justified at once; for the germ of a righteous manhood exists in the first act of faith. But the realisation of it is progressive. Every day we have to wash the robes of our spirits in “the blood of the Lamb.” 2. The ground of Christian trustWe are delivered from condemnation; and we are reconciled to God’s purity. We rely on God’s justice; for He will make us righteous and holy in Christ. There are men who trust in the infinite mercy of God, and feel that He will deliver them at last. Remember, to remain in unbelief is to adopt the spirit which killed Christ. To refuse His salvation is to challenge the holy indignation of the Most High: “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh,” &c.—E. L. Hull, B.A.; Sermons, First Series, pp. 112–120. The view we have of the Divine character must have a powerful influence on our own, and will materially affect the whole system of our faith and worship. Everything relating to the perfections and glory of God must be important to us as creatures who live under His government, are dependent on His will, and amenable to His high tribunal. Before Him we must come hereafter, with Him we have immediately to do now. Delightful to know that though just He is still a Saviour, that though a Saviour He is still just. 1. He is a just God. The plenitude of His perfections guards Him from the possibility of injustice. Injustice between man and man is occasioned by the desire of some good which could not otherwise be obtained, or the avoidance of some evil which could not otherwise be warded off. But these things can have no possible application to Him who is infinite in wisdom and power (James 1:13). 2. He is a merciful God. This is plain from His dealings with sinful men both in providence and grace (Matthew 5:45; John 3:17). “A just God and a Saviour!” I. The union of justice and mercy in the character of God is illustrated by the mixed character of His dispensation in every age.—His dealings with our first parents after their sin. He appears a just God in the Deluge, a Saviour in the Ark. In the Old Testament sacrifices justice was seen in the death of the victim, mercy in the forgiveness of the transgressor. A just God in the fiery serpents, a Saviour in the brazen serpent. Just in the plague, a Saviour in the censer of Aaron (Psalms 99:8). II. It appears in the appointment of Christ as a suffering Saviour. Christ’s death respected God as a judge, ourselves as criminals. Here mercy triumphed in the triumph of justice. Justice must have its sword as well as its even balance. Crimes unpunished seem authorised. Had sinners been pardoned without a substitute or a sacrifice, the law and the Lawgiver would have been dishonoured. But in the cross of Christ God has given the most eminent display both of His justice and of His mercy; of His justice in requiring such a sacrifice, of His mercy in providing such a substitute (Romans 5:20-21). Only thus could the law of God and the conscience of man be satisfied. When the conscience is truly awakened, the mind is acute to discern the hindrances and obstacles to salvation. The mind which abused God’s patience before, now painfully discerns the claims of justice; it needs to be shown that God can pardon sin honourably. [1450][1450] To human apprehensions, light and darkness are not more opposed to each other than justice and mercy. We cannot conceive how they can meet together; for as long as strict justice is executed, no mercy is shown, and the very moment mercy is extended, there is an infringement upon the claims of justice. When a criminal is tried and condemned by the laws of our country, if the just sentence pronounced upon him by the judge be permitted to remain in force, then he receives simply what he deserved—he is treated with strict justice, and there is no mercy in the case. But if the king interpose, and exercise his prerogative to set aside the sentence of the judge and pardon the convict, then the man receives simply what he did not deserve—he is treated with free mercy, and there is no justice in the case. The king is permitted to be unjust on the side of mercy, and it is only by reverting the sentence of justice that his mercy can possibly be exercised. He may, indeed, confer a distinguished favour on one of his subjects without any injustice, but this is not what we usually understand by mercy. Mercy implies previous guilt and exposure to just punishment; and we repeat the important statement, that it is only by reversing the sentence of justice that any human authority can extend mercy to the guilty. But God’s “ways are not as our ways;” God can exercise mercy to the uttermost without reversing the slightest jot or title of the sentence of the most even and inexorable justice. He is “a just God,” leaving not the smallest possibility of escape to the smallest sin; and He is “a Saviour,” freely and completely pardoning the most atrocious sinner.—M‘Neile. III. Our perception of it should have a powerful influence upon us.— 1. It should lead us to admire the Gospel, in which these Divine attributes are presented in such glorious harmony. 2. It should give sweetness and solemnity to all God’s invitations and promises of mercy. 3. It should deepen our humiliation and repentance, since it is against such purity and mercy we have offended. 4. It should awaken caution against sin and desires after holiness. 5. It should kindle our desires at length to be admitted to heaven, where we shall see these glorious divine attributes fully displayed.—Samuel Thodey.A CALL FROM THE ONLY SAVIOUR Isaiah 45:21-22. There is no God else beside me, &c.In the words which immediately precede the text, the Lord is showing the gross ignorance and folly of the heathen, whom He represents as setting up the wood of their graven images, and praying unto gods that could not save them. As their idols had not been able to deliver them from the judgments He had inflicted on them for their sins, He calls upon them to take counsel together, that they might be convinced of the vanity of their worship, and of the sinfulness of their conduct; and as He had predicted those judgments long before they were executed, and their idols had not, He appeals to them to acknowledge that it was He alone who could foretell things to come. He then, in the words before us, assures us that there was no god else beside Him; a just God and a Saviour; and invites them all to look unto Him for deliverance from every evil.—Let us consider, I. THE IN OUR TEXT. “Look unto me,” &c. Observe, 1. To whom it is addressed. “All the ends of the earth.” To Gentiles as well as Jews (Matthew 28:19); to you. Your past sins may have been as numerous as the leaves of the forest, or the sand of the sea, but that does not shut the door of mercy against you. 2. What is implied in it. (1.) That “all the ends of the earth” need to be “saved.” Is that true of you? (2.) That there is now no obstacle whatever in the way of salvation. The claims of Divine justice have been fully satisfied, and now mercy can be shown. 3. What it calls upon us to do, in order to secure our salvation. “Look unto me.” Not to any other person or thing, but to Him. The explanation of the phrase we have in Numbers 21:6-9; John 3:14-15. It must be the look of faith. II. THE REASONS BY WHICH IT IS . 1. He who addresses it to us is GOD—God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19). 2. He is a just God—one from whom the guilty cannot hope to escape; one who will show mercy righteously. 3. He is a gracious God, for He is “a Saviour.” Because of what He has done for us, He can dispense grace to the guilty without tarnishing the lustre of His character, and without any disparagement of His justice and holiness. 4. “He is the only God, and consequently the only Saviour.” This important fact is twice referred to in our text. Rejecting Him, there is no deliverance for us from the consequences of our sins. As the bitten Israelites would have died had they refused to look upon the brazen serpent, inasmuch as it was the only remedy provided for their cure, so we also must die, miserably and for ever, if we apply not to Him who is the only Physician of souls. Will you not believingly look to Him who alone can rescue you from destruction? Does the shipwrecked mariner turn away his face from his deliverer? Does he reject the assistance of the life-boat that comes to save him? Look to Jesus, and be saved! Believe, and live!—Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 68–81. I. The Person who thus calls. “Look unto Me.” II. The invitation given. “Look, and be saved.” The command to Naaman: “Wash, and be cleansed,” as if leprosy could thus be got rid of! But obeying that simple command he was cleansed; and obeying this, we shall be saved. [1453] III. To whom it is addressed. “All the ends of the earth.” IV. The reason assigned why we should look unto Him and be saved. “For I am God, and there is none else.”—A. V. Griswold, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. i. pp. 153–160. [1453] This precept implies a sense of personal need, and a reliance upon the Saviour to supply this necessity. For this is frequently expressed by a look. What mother is there who does not know the eye of her child? When unable to speak, an infant will express its wants by a look in a language she perfectly understands. And who has walked in this great city, and has not been moved by the look of a silent sufferer—some poor distressed object, too timid to ask for alms, but yet turning his eye with a look that expressed far more poignant distress than the most vociferous cries? And where is the eye directed? To those on whom they rely for relief. A child looks not upon a stranger, but upon its parent. A poor man looks not to his still poorer companion, for he expects nothing from him. Jehoshaphat, when invaded by the Moabites, thus addressed the Lord: “We have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee.” And David, when he would express the confidence of various creatures, says, “The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them meat in due season.” This sense of our need, and this confidence in the Saviour, are essentially necessary. For never shall we really close with His offers till thus convinced—till we are brought to see that sin has defiled our best performances, and that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. Neither shall we then look to Him, unless we have confidence in Him; unless we believe that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him; and that He is as willing as He is able, freely inviting the chief of sinners.—Stewart. Salvation! A word of large meaning. The soul’s salvation! It suggests the idea of danger, from which rescue is needed. It is pardon for the sinner; holiness for the impure; heaven for the wandering and the lost. Here is— I. AN TRUTH. “For I am God, and there is none else.” This is not merely an assertion of the Divine unity. It expresses the idea that GOD, and God alone, is competent to man’s salvation. Man is not competent to his own. He cannot change his nature any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the river return to the source whence it arose. Nor can he atone for sin. He cannot perfectly keep the Divine law, starting from any point. And even if he could, it would be nothing more than his duty; it would not cover past sins, any more than the felon’s subsequent honesty would cover and atone for his frauds. No creature is competent. Under the Levitical dispensation, sacrifices of animals were Divinely appointed. Yet it is expressly stated that in the nature of the case they were inefficacious (Hebrews 10:4). Their utility consisted in their typical reference to the sacrifice of Him whose offering possessed a Divine element. No mere creature can repair man’s ruin. Yet he need not perish. For God can save. He has personally interposed by means of the incarnation, obedience, death, resurrection, and ascension of His dear Son, by which satisfaction has been made to the demands of righteousness, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to renew the hearts of men. II. A SIMPLE . “Look unto me.” No man understands the care of his soul until he sees his helplessness through sin; nor will he apply to God for salvation until then. God’s work in men begins with the truth respecting themselves. Then it proceeds to the truth respecting Christ. This revealed condition on which salvation becomes possible is that the sinner believes in the Saviour (John 3:16). The metaphor in the text is an expressive one, as setting forth the nature of faith. The Israelites bitten by the serpents were to look to the brazen serpent. You make a promise to a man; he looks to you for the fulfilment. A man is shipwrecked: he looks for deliverance to the lifeboat which he sees making its way to him over the waters. Thus the sinner trusts to the Saviour wholly and only (H. E. I. 1957–1968). III. A . “Be ye saved,” i.e., Ye shall be saved. It is a promise in the shape of a command. The two are inseparable. The believing man is a saved man. The two ideas should be placed together always. Many illustrations of this can easily be collected from the New Testament. The question is, “Do you believe?” Then you are saved, and may rejoice in the fact of your salvation. Your liberty is proclaimed—your pardon written in the Book. If it were possible for a believer to be lost, God’s word would be falsified. Many Christians darken their spiritual experience by failing to see the certainty with which salvation follows upon faith, or by losing themselves in metaphysical inquiries as to the nature of faith. IV. A CALL. “All the ends of the earth.” In ancient times the earth was believed to be an extended plain. By the ends of the earth are meant all mankind, even the farthest inhabited point. The call of the Gospel is addressed to mankind in a similarly universal way (H. E. I. 2417). 1. All the ends of the earth need it. The ruin is universal. The helplessness is universal. The plague is everywhere. The race perishes. In all history, in all the world’s present population, the exception does not exist. You are no exception. Only thus is salvation possible (H. E. I. 2418–2420). 2. It is sufficient for all the ends of the earth. There is no limit to the sufficiency of the salvation God has provided. The value of the atonement can only be estimated by the infinite value of the Son of God, which is the same thing as to say it is immeasurable. The Gospel is compared to a feast which a king has provided. But the provision is so ample that, if the whole world accepted the invitation, it would be sufficient. All things are ready. The universal invitation is issued (2421–2424). 3. It is God’s will that all the ends of the earth be informed of it. One is to tell another. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The disciples of Christ have been from the beginning providentially scattered abroad that they might preach this word. The Church in every age, and every separate church, should be missionary in its character. We must stand in the way, point to the Cross, invite the world (H. E. I. 2448). 4. Its reception by the ends of the earth is predicted. It shall be universally proclaimed, generally received, by all classes and individuals. The present moral desolation shall be fruitfulness and beauty. The desert shall be the garden of the Lord. We expect this on the authority of His word (H. E. I. 2451). We have seen that God is the only source of salvation for sinners; that in the work of salvation God is everything, man nothing; and that He has authorised all sinners to look to Him for salvation. It follows— 1. That all the glory of salvation must be ascribed to God. Human boasting is excluded. In man’s utter ruin and helplessness, God’s love in Christ undertook and accomplished the work. 2. That the personal salvation of sinners turns upon their observing the direction to believe. The implication is that the unbeliever is not saved. Refuse to look by faith to Christ, and you exclude yourself. It is a personal matter. See that you are united to Christ. 3. That it is the duty of ministers to direct all sinners to look to Him and be saved. Nothing short of this is preaching the Gospel. Not that we can command acceptance. But we can convey God’s message to men, leaving the result between Him and them.—J. Rawlinson.(Sermon to the Young.) This is an invitation of surprising mercy to dying, perishing sinners, wherever they may be. It is the great and blessed God Himself calling the Gentile and heathen world to salvation. It is Immanuel, God with us, God who put on our flesh and blood, calling us to look unto Him and be saved. If we are sensible of our misery by nature and practice, if we are weary of sin, and would escape the wrath to come, we must look to Him with an eye of faith and holy dependence as our only Saviour. I. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” This reminds us of the time when the Israelites were bitten by fiery serpents. Moses was directed to lift up a serpent of brass, which shone brightly under the rays of an Eastern sun, and was visible from all parts of the camp. By a miracle, every one who looked at this serpent was healed. No doubt every wounded parent directed his eyes to the appointed remedy, and exhorted his children to do the same. As the cure of the brazen serpent extended to the farthest distant part of the Israelitish camp, so the effect of Christ’s sacrifice extends to those who dwell in the farthest away parts of the earth; God calls upon “all the ends of the earth,” the north and the south, the east and the west. The cleansing power of Christ’s blood has no geographical limits; it is not measured by longitude and latitude. Colour and race make no difference. The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth have an equal claim. All are to come. For what? To be saved. To be saved from their sins; and from the consequences of the crimes they have Committed, the vices they have indulged in, the angry passions they have cherished, from the curse under which they were born, and which many have so well earned for themselves. But who is it that issues this general invitation? This question brings us to the other part of the text:— II. “For I am God, and there is none else.” God here gives the reason why we should attend to the call, because it is made by Him who has a right to make it, and who is alone able to save. I. “I am God:” therefore (1.) I am all-sufficient to save. What is there that the most miserable of creatures can stand in need of, that is not to be found in ample measure in the treasure-house of God? When the Creator undertakes to be a Saviour, the creature cannot perish. There is wisdom enough in Him to make the fool wise; light enough to scatter all our darkness; power enough to make the weakest strong in grace, and active in every duty. (2.) It is for Me to prescribe the means of obtaining salvation. “I am God;” look unto Me, therefore, ye sinners, and be saved; I will give salvation to him that looks; he that believeth on Me shall be saved from sin and death. 2. “There is none else;” there is none that can save beside Me. The salvation of a sinner is too great a work for any except God. A man cannot change a dead sinner into a living saint; he can make a house, a watch, a ship, foretell an eclipse, calculate the distance of a star; but of God alone can it be said, “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” It requires a Divine Power to secure one in temptation, to fit him for the society of God and angels, to bring him through death to eternal glory; and yet all this is to be done if the sinner is to be saved. None but God has a right to declare the terms of salvation. If He says, “Look and be saved,” who shall forbid the banns, or narrow the breadth of the invitation? If the Lord of Heaven says to perishing sinners on earth, “Ye shall be saved, if only ye believe,” who dare impose painful rites or laborious ceremonies, or human absolution? The faith spoken of must be a vital principle, showing itself in repentance and aiming at holiness; for a dead faith cannot save (H. E. I. 1978–1986). .—How broad and glorious is the salvation of Christ! how it answers to the weaknesses and the wants, the miseries, the dangers, and the fears of the awakened sinner! It reaches not only to us, but to even the savage nations, such as our fathers once were. But we must not trust to wearing the name of Christ; we must learn to look to Him with the eye of faith, the heart of love, and the life of sincere obedience.—George Clark, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 279–285. I. THE OFFERED: salvation. II. THE PERSONS TO WHOM IT IS OFFERED: “all the ends of the earth;” Gentiles as well as Jews; every one who needs it. III. THE ON WHICH IT IS OFFERED. “Look unto Me.” IV. THE THE SAVIOUR EMPLOYS TO INDUCE GUILTY SINNERS TO ACCEPT IT. “For I am God, and there is none else;” “a just God and a Saviour.” The argument is twofold: 1. Sinners may trust Christ without suspicion, for He is omnipotent. 2. Sinners should trust Christ alone, for there is none else able to save. .—The duty of all immediately to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that they may be saved It is the voice of infinite love that entreats us to be saved. Shall we then turn away from the invitation of such a Saviour? Besides, it is an authoritative command to us to do our duty. It is outrageous folly to trifle with the injunctions of the King of heaven. To those who are looking to Christ, the text is fraught with the richest consolation. “He is able to save you to the uttermost.”—W. France: The Scottish Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 42–48. Give your most earnest thought to these four great facts: I. All need to be saved. II. There is One who can save. III. The salvation He offers is worthy of Him. It is present, ample, certain, complete. IV. There is only one way by which that salvation can be made ours, by looking to Jesus.—J. A. Spurgeon: The Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 351. THE NATURE AND AUTHOR OF Isaiah 45:22. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.The glorious end which the Spirit contemplates in calling upon all men everywhere to look unto Jesus is their salvation. [1456][1456] There is no intended enriching of men with the titles, honours, incomes of earth; there is no intended extension of the span of mortality, or wisdom, or scientific attainments of man. These are beheld by the Creator of men as scarcely worth a moment’s reflection, while everlasting concerns remain unknown and unravelled, or disproportionately felt by those whom they wholly concern.… If you saw your child sinking amid the waters of the deep, would you feel that the time for gathering pebbles to amuse him, or meditating schemes of improving his mind? Would you not rather dash into the waves, and at the risk of your life rescue the child from his perilous situation? Even so the Almighty sees that the short time that is measured out to humanity needs something better than trifles on which to expend itself.—Cumming. I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS WORD, “AND BE SAVED.”. There is implied in it, 1. Deliverance from the dominion of sin in this world. We argue the necessity of this deliverance from the facts— (1.) That sin is the root and fountain of misery. To remove effects, we must remove the cause: before man can be happy, he must be holy; before he can be saved from sorrow, he must be saved from sin. (2). That they who enter heaven must be identified with heaven in character (H. E. I. 2730–2738). (3.) That deliverance from the power of sin is the very purpose for which the Spirit of Christ is given to them that believe. Hereby we dissipate the false and misleading ideas of those who imagine that salvation is a state into which we are not introduced till we die. 2. Deliverance from the consequences of sin in the world to come. These include, (1.) Irretrievable exile from the presence, and the glory, and the joy of Jehovah—the radiating centre of all happiness and peace. (2.) The righteous punishment of all the sinner’s transgressions. (3.) The extinction of hope. (4.) That bitter remorse which springs from the recollection of having lost a heaven that might once have been won, and plunged into a misery which might once have been shunned. This is the worm that never dies, this is the fire that is never quenched. II. THE WAY IN WHICH THIS IS TO BE SECURED. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” There is in this verse no preliminary required of man, only a look at the Saviour! No preparatory reformation, no preparatory repentance even! Repentance itself is the gift of Christ (H. E. I. 4225–4231, 4249, 4250). Look! when God commands a work, He presents the might to do it. [1459][1459] Men’s regards have too often been tortured and twisted aside and directed to faith, to repentance, and to a vast variety of preparations for learning and living on Christ, instead of being summoned, without restriction and delay, to Christ the Saviour, who is the dispenser of these most precious graces, not the requisitionist of their previous existence. When you are told to look to repentence, to faith, to previous reformation of any kind, you are told to look to an idol, and you stand as far off from the true worship of Jehovah as they who bend the knee to Baal, or they that did homage to the stones, and images, and paintings in the Roman Pantheon. When Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection, many of his auditors supposed that he proclaimed two distinct and equal Deities; and many still, when we preach Christ, repentance, and faith, suppose, though they allow it not, that we preach separate Saviours, to any of which they may look and be saved.… Does not the Scripture declare most pointedly, that Jesus is “exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.” And does not this imply that we must look to Him before we can repent? Man may sorrow when he looks back upon the threatenings of the law of God, and fear and tremble when he looks forward to the awful punishment of hell; but repent, in the Scriptural sense, he never will, till he look to Jesus. Repentance is in fact the expression of a changed heart, the fruit of being born again.—Cumming. III. THE IN WHICH THE SAVIOUR HIMSELF TO SINNERS. Look at Christ, 1. As having borne the punishment which you deserved, and thereby made it inconsistent with the equity of God to punish the believer. 2. As our High Priest who pleads for us within the veil, and sends His Spirit forth to seal us to eternal glory. 3. As able to instruct us savingly in all the will and word of God. 4. As the Sovereign King, whose laws we are unreservedly to reverence and obey. 5. As the source and distributor of all blessings, who has a right to all we hold on earth. IV. How ARE WE TO LOOK TO JESUS? 1. In looking to Jesus, there is involved a looking away from every other ground of pardon, of salvation, of recovery (H. E. I. 1944–1951). 2. We must look under strong convictions of our helplessness and imbecility. 3. Look to Jesus, not only under a conviction of your insufficiency, but of His fulness (H. E. I. 934–941). 4. We are to look intently, just as the beggar looks into the face of him who has the world’s wealth around him; just as the shipwrecked seaman gazes in the face of him that has the means to rescue. 5. We must look continually. It will not do to look at the Redeemer to-day, and to-morrow forget His existence and His claims; we must look to Him from first to last (P. D. 2313, 2314). VI. WHO ARE TO LOOK TO HIM FOR . [1462][1462] H. E. I. 379, 381. We hold the doctrines of election and of predestination to be scriptural and precious truths; but if a man will make these drags upon our efforts to proclaim the everlasting Gospel, and dampers on our zeal in the cause of perishing souls, we will stand up for their defence, and maintain that these doctrines are desecrated and abused, and instead of being, as meant, consolations to all true believers, are made barriers in the way of heaven’s going forth to recover the lapsed children of Adam, and to rescue the heirs of eternity from going down to perdition. We are to act upon the principle that there is sufficiency in Christ for all; that His blood can wash the most inveterate stains of guilt; and we are to bound its saving efficacy by nothing short of the limits of the globe.—Cumming.J Cumming, D.D.: “The British Pulpit,” vol. i. pp. 321–334. LIFE FOR A LOOK Isaiah 45:22. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, &c.The precious truth contained in this statement has been put in this memorable form: “We have here the greatest possible blessing, for the greatest possible number, under the best possible guarantee, and on the easiest possible terms.” While we proceed along these lines, let us breathe the prayer that God would remove the scales from blind eyes, and unstop deaf ears, that His message of grace may be understood and believed. I. THE . Moses was instructed to make a serpent of brass, and set it upon a pole, “that every one that was bitten, when he looked upon it, might live” (Numbers 21:8). Life and salvation are the same thing, for life is salvation from death, and no blessing can bear comparison with this. A patient may have every attention, but there is one blessing he earnestly desires—to have his life spared, his health restored. The shrieking passengers in wild commotion on that burning ship are seeking one thing—to save their lives. And the most urgent need of the soul is life. Every other blessing is included in this salvation. Your sins expose you to the curse of the law; but Christ has redeemed you, being made a curse for you. What greater blessing can there be? It is not mere deliverance from punishment, but also the rectification of your disordered spiritual nature. Nothing deserves the name of salvation which does not purify the heart. Salvation is complete and final (Mark 8:36). II. FOR THE NUMBER. “All ye ends of the earth,” “every one that is bitten,” however far gone he might be. What a significant emblem of the Cross in its far-reaching efficacy (John 3:14-15). Some years ago a terrible story came from sea. Fire was spreading fast along the decks, and left only two boats available for the 477 souls on board. These were soon filled, leaving the large number for whom there was no accommodation to the alternative of death by fire or water. In this fearful plight the captain first threw his wife overboard, and then himself plunged into the waves. If the lost family of mankind were placed in similar circumstances with respect to the salvation of the soul, many of us might with reason plunge into the deeps of despair; but, blessed be God, there is room for all. “All ye ends of the earth.” Where can you go to be beyond the sweep of these words? To what end of the earth can you retire where this voice will not reach? (Proverbs 8:4). There is only one place where it is not heard. It does not run, “All ye ends of hell;” but you are still in a world of hope. III. UNDER THE BEST . “For I am God, and there is none else.” The serpent on the pole was no human device. It was the Divine method of recovery to the suffering Israelites. Moses might have said, How can healing come from a serpent of brass? but he stumbled not through unbelief. God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus was lifted up to draw all men unto Him. Despise the Cross, and there is no other way of recovery, for this is God’s way. If He guarantees life and salvation, who shall gainsay or oppose His will? Here, then, is the highest possible security. The Almighty gives us eternal life through His Son, and signs the deed with His own hand. Anything short of this would be unworthy of our confidence; but when a faithful God thus binds Himself, we may surely rest on His word. It is no hazardous speculation in which we are called to embark; no doubtful venture, for the highest authority in the universe has pledged His honour and faithfulness to make it sure. IV. ON THE EASIEST TERMS. “Look unto me.” We have but to look to Christ to save us; to depend on Him for salvation; to use a good Scotch word, we have to “lippen” all to Him. He has died to secure your salvation. Why, then, should you distrust Him? Look away from your poor sinful selves, away from all your feelings and strivings, to Him the one source of salvation (John 3:36). Nothing can be easier, and it has been made thus easy to be within the power of all. We make it difficult by our prejudices, our ignorance, our despair. There is no deficiency in the provisions of the Gospel. All things are ready. Yet there is room. You dare not doubt the efficacy of the Redeemer’s sacrifice, nor question the boundlessness of His love. Nor can you plead that you are too sinful to be forgiven. Were you not sinful you would need no salvation. It may be you try to make yourself better before you look to Him; but you cannot make yourself better except by looking to Him. The longer you refuse to look the worse you will become. Come to Him as you are, sinful and wretched, and He will take you as you are (John 6:37).—William Guthrie, M.A.It is to the second person in the Godhead—to our Lord Jesus Christ—that we are to look (John 3:14-15). In the language of metaphor, the mind, as well as the body, has eyes. We say, “Look at this fact; look at this or that other historic personage—at Julius Cæsar, Luther, Abraham;” and we all understand what is meant when such language is employed. It is in some such way that we are told to look at the Saviour. I. If you look unto the Lord Jesus, you will see God manifest. How shall we find out the Almighty unto perfection? How shall we know the dispositions and character of that great Being with whom our eternal destiny is linked far more intimately and enduringly than with the dearest friend of our bosom? Philosophy answers: “In nature” (H. E. I. 361). But the Gospel replies: “You will see Him better still in Jesus Christ” (H. E. I. 847, 855–857, 1495–1497, 2243). II. You will see not only God manifest, but Divine love incarnate. According to the medium through which it shines, the same light gives a radiance of a very different colour and influence—it cheers or depresses; through a clear or gold-tinted glass of a lantern it sheds a bright and summer-like ray, through a blue glass of the same lantern it darts a cold, pallid beam. In a sinful world like this, we could easily imagine an awful incarnation from which the Divine attributes should have shone out upon us cold, lurid, or ghastly, just as they do when viewed through that sin-smoked glass which guilt holds up when it tries to look upon God; an incarnation in which the vindictive attributes of the Almighty had come on errands of severity into the midst of our sinfulness. But what was the actual fact? (John 1:14; John 3:17). Look to Jesus, and you will see that God is love. III. Looking unto the Lord Jesus, there is yet another sight with which the penitent sinner is regaled, and that is righteous reconciliation. We behold a Saviour who so completely made satisfaction for us that God’s very righteousness is declared in the remission of the sinner’s transgressions. The Son of God offered a sacrifice so infinitely acceptable that no other offering, no further supplementary sacrifice on the part of the sinner, nay, nor on the part of the Saviour Himself, will ever be required. Now forgiveness is offered to each one of us. Do we accept it? God has set forth His Son as a propitiation for our sin, and whenever the sinner puts forth as his plea, that Christ hath died, the controversy is ended, and God sees no iniquity in the now humble and penitent transgressor. This is the atonement, the at-one-ment: God pacified toward the sinner, and the sinner reconciled to God by the peace-speaking Cross. IV. Whoever looks at the Saviour long enough, will find life transmitted from Him into his own soul. The moment that God’s injunction is obeyed, and the sinner casts himself on Christ for salvation, that moment he is safe; but it may be a long time before he can realise his safety—before the blessings of the Gospel, which are actually his, are also his in conscious possession. When the serpent-bitten Israelite obeyed God’s command, and gazed at the serpent of brass, he lived; in that very look the virus of death was miraculously countervailed, and his recovery began. But just as you can imagine the anguish so intense that one moment could not charm it into ease and ecstasy—nay, the smart so keen that the stings which had been received would mingle for a time with the throbs of convalescence, and in half-slumberous moments the patient might dream that he was still death-doomed; so when you reflect what a malignant malady is sin, how deep it has dug its fangs into our inmost nature, and how long we have been tossing in its consuming torture, you can scarcely wonder that the surviving smart or the returning twinges of the old death-stroke sometimes startle the believer, and make him question if he can be really recovered, or dread a fatal relapse. But what would you have advised the man in such a case to do? To look again, look constantly, eagerly, till every qualm of doubt, every fear of death was drowned in the tide of transmitted life and healing. And you who still feel the discomfort of the old disease, and fear lest the ancient wound should fester afresh and kill your soul at last, look again steadfastly, solely, unto Jesus Christ. As in the old miraculous cure, through the gazing eye health flowed into the poisoned blood, and passed into the twinging nerves; so through the eye that fixes trustfully and lovingly on the Lord Jesus—God’s beloved Son and the sinner’s propitiation—renovation flows into the corrupt nature, and comfort into the wounded spirit, till by and by recovery mantles on the cheerful countenance, bounds in the obedient step, and swells out in the psalm of thanksgiving. V. If you look to Jesus as God reveals Him in His Word, and as He is in Himself, you will see a Saviour who, when He attracts your love, will assimilate your life to His. If you look to a right purpose, and long enough and simply enough, you will not only get sensible, but visible salvation; that is, you yourself will look like one who has looked to Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18).—James Hamilton, D.D.: The Penny Pulpit, No. 1713. CHRIST’S (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 45:23. I have sworn by Myself, &c.To “bow the knee” is to render homage as to a king. To “swear” is formally to accept and profess allegiance. It supposes a monarch. The text finds its fulfilment in Christ, and is applied to Him (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:9-11). It sets forth the glory of His dominion. I. THE WITH WHICH IT IS . By His Godhead, He has a right to the allegiance of all His creatures. His dominion over them can never be relinquished. When such as have rebelled return to their allegiance, they restore the right which has been unjustly withheld. But He has acquired the right of supremacy over the mediatorial kingdom by His mediatorial work. His death on the Cross acquired it. The passage already named from the Epistle to the Philippians, with others, traces the Redeemer’s exaltation to His atoning death. One who has well executed the earlier stages of a great work is likely to be entrusted with its completion. Joseph was the most likely to carry into effect the plans he had indicated to Pharaoh. II. THE TO WHICH IT WILL BE . The terms here and elsewhere are universal. The corresponding passages enter into detail. They specify the world, heaven, the unseen realm of spirits. 1. The inanimate and irrational parts of creation are unconsciously subordinated to His authority. The dominion over the inferior creation was given to the first man. It was weakened by the Fall. Restored and realised in Christ (Psalms 8:4-8; Hebrews 2:6-9). It will be consummated at the resurrection (Romans 8:19-23). They are mixed up with man from the beginning. Therefore subordinated to Christ. 2. The holy and the renewed parts of the universe are willingly subordinated to His authority. (1.) Holy angels (Isaiah 6, compared with John 12:41; Ephesians 1:20-23). They ministered to Him on earth. Would have come in legions to save Him from death, had He willed. An army always at His command. They are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. Beautiful doctrine of their perpetual environment. It is a consolatory thought in perilous crises. (2.) Renewed men. His dominion over them is a spiritual dominion. He reigns in their hearts. Because of what He has done for them, and because of what He is, they love Him. Therefore they willingly subject themselves to His authority. They are zealous for His honour. They stand up for Him against the world’s hostility. 3. The hostile and impenitent part of mankind will be eventually subordinated to His authority. Prophetic Scripture is full of the idea of a universal reign of righteousness in this world through the universal prevalence of the Gospel. Ignorance will be dispelled; idolatry will disappear; indifference and unbelief will be destroyed; sin, if not extinct, will be hated; peace and righteousness will be the universal characteristic of mankind; primitive purity will be combined with high civilisation. The poetry of the Bible description of the latter day is well worthy the attention of all who are interested in the progress of mankind and in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (H. E. I. 979–1162). III. THE WITH WHICH IT IS ASSURED. The text is the strongest form of asseveration. It rests on the word of God which cannot be recalled or falsified, and on the oath of God which He sometimes uses for confirmation. On certain solemn occasions, when the greatness of the blessing and the difficulties in the way of its realisation rendered it desirable, He has confirmed His word of promise by a solemn oath (Genesis 22:16-17). Thus here. And this word is being fulfilled:— 1. In the mission and work of Christ. In order to its fulfilment, He became incarnate, lived His life on earth, offered the sacrifice of Himself. This is the power which is destined to attract all men to Him. He is exalted to the throne, where He reigns until all His enemies shall be subdued. 2. In the dispensations of His Providence. In the exercise of His royal authority, He gave the command to preach the Gospel; a command which is permanently binding on His disciples. He opens doors of entrance in every part of the world; in India, China, and many other countries now, as in the Roman empire at first. He fills the Church with requisite power. Men are raised up with Christ’s love in their hearts and a sacred willingness to enter these doors. Money is placed in the possession of the Church sufficient for the occupation of the fields of usefulness that are from time to time opened. It is His will that by means of His Church the prediction shall be accomplished. 3. In the work of the Holy Spirit. Whatever of sovereignty must be assumed in contemplating the principle on which the Holy Spirit is bestowed in order to the world’s subjection to Christ, it is certain that as much of the Spirit is bestowed as the Church is at any time prepared for by labour, prayer, faith. Now all this is in the course of being accomplished. It seems slow. Creation was slow. Almost all great works are accomplished slowly. Yet it is really proceeding. See how the principles of the Gospel and the men of the Gospel are leavening society. Our duty is clear. Bow the knee to Christ. Believe in Him. Work for Him. Support His cause. Pray for its extension.—J. Rawlinson.THE FUTURE OF THE GOSPEL Isaiah 45:23-24. I have sworn by Myself, &c.These words announce— I. A . “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.” 1. “I have sworn by Myself.” It is implied that God has a right to this subjection. This right is peculiar and perfect; superior to that of any master to a servant, or a sovereign to a subject, for God has an entire and absolute property in us all. Our very existence is owing to Him. We breathe His air, eat at His table, wear His apparel, and are daily living upon His bounty. If He were to call you to Him, and say, “Take that thine is, and go thy way,” what would you take? You could not take even yourself, but would relapse into non-existence (Acts 17:28). 2. This submission is not natural. “Unto me shall every knee bow, and every tongue shall swear.” Their previous condition was a state of alienation and rebellion. The Bible, throughout, assumes that this is man’s present state (H. E. I. 3390–3396). 3. This submission is to be universal. “Unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Christ had no doubt that His kingdom, though small in its commencement, would spread far and wide (Matthew 13:31-33). Hitherto the progress of Christianity has been comparatively small, and its success much confined. There is no country, or town, or village, where even the majority are as yet governed by it. But it is not to be so always (Psalms 72:11; Zechariah 14:9; H. E. I. 979). 4. This submission is Divinely assured. How strong is the pledge here given! “By Myself have I sworn. The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return.” If it be a righteous thing for God to do, He will do it. Some of God’s words have returned to Him, but they were threatenings, and threatenings are conditional (e.g., Jonah 3:4). But here the engagement is absolute: it is nothing less than an oath. But was it necessary for God thus to bind Himself down? No; but “an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife,” “wherein God, willing therefore to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things”—for His word is as immutable as His oath—we might be encouraged to look forward with confident hope to a brighter future for our world. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS IS TO BE . “Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength; even to Him shall all men come.” This shows us that that universal homage is to be eventually paid to God in Christ. For it is with God in Christ that we have to do (John 5:22; Philippians 2:9-11). “Even to Him shall all men come.” To whom should men go for help, but to Him in whom all power is to be found? If there were but one well in a neighbourhood, all the inhabitants around would flock to it for water. If there were only one refuge from a cruel and victorious enemy, thither would all the people hasten. When the famine was in Egypt and the surrounding countries, Jacob said in effect to his sons, “Go unto Joseph; he is in possession of the corn.” All that these symbols set forth is to be found in Christ. “To Him,” said dying Jacob, “shall the gathering of the people be.” III. THE OF TO SUBMIT TO OUR KING. “And all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed.” 1. It seems strange that such characters as these could be found; yet such is the case (Psalms 2:2-3). You are mistaken, if you suppose that the men of the world will love and admire your religion. They hated its Founder, not only “without a cause,” but for the very excellences He displayed. Heathen philosophers thought that if Virtue appeared incarnate, all the world would fall in love with her. It did appear; thirty-three years “the image of the invisible God” was seen going about “doing good,”—and what was the result? The men of the world pursued Him with remorseless malice, and hung Him on a tree! In like manner, the Church of Christ was opposed by them from its earliest commencement. They employed every kind of persecution against His cause and disciples. So it is still. In every self-righteous character there is a settled opposition against the sovereignty and grace of God (H. E. I. 2677–2679). 2. The future of these foes of Christ. “All that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed” (Revelation 17:14; Isaiah 60:12; Luke 19:27). “All,” whether high or low, the moral as well as the profligate. “All!” There may be many of them, but though hand join in hand, yet shall not the wicked go unpunished. Their multitude will not afford any alleviation to their misery. “The way of transgressors is hard” ever here, and it leads down to the chambers of eternal death. But there is a Saviour able and willing to save the chief of sinners, and who will in no wise cast out any who come unto Him.”—William Jay: Sunday Evening Sermons, pp. 33–40. AND Isaiah 45:24. In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. One distinguishing praise of the Gospel dispensation is its completeness. All the spiritual wants of those who embrace it are therein provided for. This completeness is all in Christ. In Him are all the believers’ supplies treasured up; out of His fulness they must daily receive “grace for grace.” The great variety of their necessities, and of His gifts, may be reduced to the two mentioned in the text. All they want is a title to heaven, and a qualification for the enjoyment of it; whatever gifts comprehend both these, comprehend all they can require; and righteousness is their title to heaven, strength secures their meetness for it. I. In the Lord the Believer has Righteousness. In himself, he has none. There is hardly anything more plainly taught in Scripture than this. Nevertheless men are apt to suppose they have a righteousness of their own—a righteousness of the law. Such a righteousness St. Paul had at one time: if you would learn what value he put upon it when he was instructed in the truths of the Gospel, read Philippians 3:8-10. He counted such a righteousness loss, instead of gain. His prayer was, that in the last day he might be found, not in it, but in “that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” This is the only righteousness which will avail us anything then; and this the believer has in the Lord. It is this, because Christ is his. He has not wrought it himself: Christ has wrought it for him. But though he has not the glory, he has the benefit. The reward of righteousness is his also. Being justified in Christ, he shall also be glorified with Him. II. In the Lord the Believer has Strength. In him dwelleth no good thing. He cannot produce from the stock of nature one truly holy fruit. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” What one action truly good and pleasing to God can enmity produce? The enmity must be first removed, and the principle of love implanted in the breast, before the work of love can proceed from it. Man, in his natural state, may imitate good actions, but his actions cannot be really good, however well they may look. The tree must be made good ere the fruit can be good. For this the Saviour’s strength is necessary (John 15:5 : 1 Corinthians 15:10; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 4:13; H. E. I. 2391, 4080, 4081). Thus simple and intelligible is our religion. It presents us with one great object, JESUS CHRIST; and bids us seek all we need in Him. In doing this day by day, lies the art of maintaining peace of conscience, and of acquiring a growing victory over every lust within and every foe without. — 1. Renounce all other righteousness but that of Christ. Otherwise, you dishonour Him and injure your own souls. If you do not trust wholly to Christ’s righteousness, on the ground of your acceptance with God, you do not trust it at all to any saving purpose (H. E. I. 1960, 2411, 2412). A clearer vision of the law would show us that nothing but the righteousness of Christ can satisfy its demands. 2. Renounce all dependence on your own resolutions. So long as you trust in them, the offer of Christ’s strength must be superfluous to you. What have your resolutions amounted to? To anything really holy and spiritual? And what has been the effect of them? How often have you carried them out? Have you not repeatedly failed to do so? Will you go on risking your eternal welfare on those expedients which already have failed you a thousand times? True holiness is within your reach, but not by any strength of your own. You must believe in Jesus for it, if you would be partakers of it in truth. And in Him only must you trust (H. E. I. 932, 933, 4766). 3. Be diligent in making use of Christ for both righteousness and strength. It is not enough that you renounce false grounds of peace and rejoicing. The work of every day must be to live on Christ, that by His righteousness you may have peace, hope, and joy; by His strength, victory and holiness. Does conscience trouble you? Endeavour to get a clearer sight of and a firmer hold on the righteousness of Christ (H. E. I. 1893, 1894, 3350). When worldly cares press upon you, when temptations beset you, when you find it very difficult to walk in the way of duty, lay hold on the Redeemer’s strength. Practical Christianity is, from beginning to end, nothing else but living a life of faith on the Son of God. Let this one thing, then, be the business of every day. Every day brings its trials, its snares, its peculiar duties, its advantages, its opportunities—go forth to meet and use them only in the name and power of Christ. So each day will be a day of victory. To overcome the world is a great thing, a far greater thing than many suppose; but in the strength of Christ it shall be accomplished by the believer (1 John 5:4; Romans 8:37; H.E.I. 1078, 1098, 938, 945).—John Fawcett, A.M., Sermons, vol. i. pp. 74–89. IN THE LORD Isaiah 45:24-25. Surely, shall one say, &c.Even from the gospel of the Old Testament we may derive an answer to the interesting inquiry, “How can a man be just with God?” I. THE ’S SOURCE OF . The text contemplates men as sinful, i.e., polluted, weak, and guilty; accordingly it describes the Lord as being— 1. The source of his “righteousness.” Both the principle and practice originate in the grace of God. And in every stage of the process “salvation is of the Lord” (John 20:1-6; Ephesians 4:24; Philippians 1:11; Isaiah 26:12). 2. The source of his “strength.” There is a wide difference between perceiving what is right, or even de siring to act aright, and actually performing the will of God. The Lord imparts the energy by which we do His will (Philippians 4:13); the fortitude by which we suffer His will (Romans 5:3-5); and the persevering and unconquerable firmness with which we sustain the attacks of our enemies (Romans 8:37). Strength, suited and proportionate, is promised (Isaiah 40:29; Deuteronomy 33:25; Isaiah 41:10); and these promises are verified by the experiences of the faithful (2 Samuel 22:40; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10). 3. The source of his “justification.” Not personal and perfect innocence, for, Romans 3:23; but that state which results from forgiveness. Of this “the Lord” must have the “glory,” for He has provided the means of pardon (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:25); He propounds the terms of pardon (John 3:16; Romans 3:26); He bestows that grace by which we obtain pardon (Ephesians 2:8; Colossians 2:12); He grants the pardon desired (Romans 3:24; Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:13); He blesses with a sense of pardon (Galatians 4:4-6); and He will attest their pardon, in a public justification of His servants at the last day (Romans 2:4-10; Matthew 25:34-40). II. THE ’S HUMBLE . This is— 1. The language of humble confession; of weakness and inability. The text may refer to the past and the present. 2. The language of humble gratitude. 3. Or the text may respect the future; and then, by way of anticipation, this is the language of humble confidence (2 Corinthians 1:10). 4. This is also the language of humble but exulting triumph (Isaiah 51:9-11; Romans 8:35-39; Psalms 23:4; 1 Corinthians 15:55; Romans 2:7-10; Revelation 1:5-6). This language is rendered all the more striking by contrast, “all that are accursed,” &c.; shall be confounded at their stupid infidelity, &c.—Sketches of Sermons, vol. iii. pp. 54–58. THE SEED OF ISRAEL Isaiah 45:25. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. I. WHO ARE THE OF THIS PROMISE? “All the seed of Israel.” To Jacob this name was first given, and you know how he obtained it; how he was knighted on the field of battle. It is a name of high honour: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel” [i.e., a prince with God]; “for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” The promise is to his “seed.” “The seed of Israel” may be viewed under two aspects. First, as Jews, the natural descendants of Jacob. They nearly always were, and are now, very far from being the people of God, unless by a national covenant. But the period will come when the veil will be taken away from their hearts, and this promise will then be fulfilled to them. But there is another aspect under which we may view Israel. Observe the distinction which our Saviour makes when speaking of Nathaniel: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.” In speaking of him as “an Israelite,” He distinguishes him from men of other nations, and by calling him “an Israelite indeed,” He distinguishes him from men of his own nation (Romans 9:6). All along there were some in Israel who, like their ancestors, were partakers of faith and humility. These were peculiarly “the Israel of God,” and the ground of their being so called was not their natural relationship to Jacob, but their spiritual relationship to him (Romans 2:28-29). Therefore, if your hearts are circumcised—if you are renewed in the spirit of your minds—you are “the Israel of God” (Philippians 3:3; Galatians 3:29). But who of this “seed of Israel” are entitled to the promise? All of them! “In the Lord shall all,” &c. 1. The expression seems to imply number. Though the righteous have always been few when compared with the wicked around them, yet collectively considered, and when gathered out of all nations and tongues, they will be “a number which no man can number” (Hebrews 2:10, and especially Isaiah 53:11, “satisfied!”). 2. It expresses impartiality. There is no difference here as to country, condition, or complexion (Romans 8:14; Galatians 3:26-28). Children differ in age, size, strength, feature, but they form one and the same family. Before the time of harvest the wheat grows in various places, and is separated by hedges and walls, but when it is reaped it is carried home and gathered into the same garner, while no inquiry is made whether it grew in this enclosure or that. “All the seed of Israel” have one Father, are all included in the same eternal purpose, redeemed by the same precious blood, justified by the same grace, destined to the same glory. Therefore you should love them all, and never be ashamed to hold communion with those with whom Christ holds communion. III. WHAT IS THE OF THIS PROMISE? 1. The dignity of the Benefactor. “In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” Who is the person here spoken of? A very important inquiry. Wherever you see “the LORD” in capitals in the Bible, you are apprised of the word JEHOVAH in the original. This name is therefore applied to Christ; for it is certainly of Him that it is said in the preceding verse, “Surely shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness,” &c. “Why, then, you would make Jesus Christ to be God?” No, I do not make Him to be so: I find Him to be so. And it is necessary that He should be so, for without this there could not be an all-sufficiency of worth to expiate our offences, or of power to save us from the dominion and pollution of sin. It is necessary for us that we should be able to say, “My Lord and my God!” 2. The relation on which the blessedness here promised depends: “In the Lord. Of this “in” much is said in Scripture (Isaiah 45:24; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 3:8). Between Christ and all His people there was a virtual union before the world began, and there is now a vital and a visible union—a vital union, when they are enabled to receive and embrace Him by faith; a visible one, when they join His Church, and make a profession of His name. Not only is He the source of blessedness, but we can be partakers of it only by being in Him. A refuge is a place of safety, but you can be secure only by being in it. The ark preserved Noah and his family, but had they been out of it when the rain descended, they would have perished along with the unbelieving world; but “the Lord shut him in,” and therefore he was preserved. Consider also our Saviour’s teaching in John 15:4-5. 3. The privilege here promised. It takes in two things:— (1.) Justification. “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.” Does this mean that they shall be justified from imputations and slanders? Yes, in a sense this may be implied, so that the Christian may say, “He is near to justify me” (see Psalms 37:5-6). So Joseph and David were in due time cleared from the calumnies that were cast upon them. So shall it be with all God’s people who have borne reproach for His sake (P. D. 3114). But the greater blessing here promised is justification from sin. This is the blessing that descends on all believers in Christ Jesus (Acts 13:39; 2 Corinthians 5:21). How was Christ “made sin for us?” By imputation only. Our sin was reckoned to Him, and He became responsible for the consequences (1 Peter 3:18). How are we made righteous before God? In the very same way. Christ’s righteousness is reckoned to us, and in consequence of it we are absolved and justified. How far does this justification extend? For answer, see Romans 8:1; Jeremiah 50:20. All true believers in Christ are now “accepted in the Beloved,” both as to their persons and their services, and are not only freed from the curse of the law, but are invested with a title to everlasting life. (2.) Exaltation. The exultation of which our text speaks will be the natural result and expression of the exaltation which God has in reserve for His people. Poor, mean, despised, they may be now, but then the shout of a King shall be heard among them. Is that King ours? Let us never be ashamed now to own, to talk of, to publish Him in whom we then shall glory. Soon “He will come again to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in them that believe.”—William Jay: Sunday Evening Sermons, pp. 41–47. THE OF THE DELUDED FROM THEIR Isaiah 46:1-2. Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, &c.I want to fix your attention on the point where this prophecy stops. In vision Isaiah sees the gods whom the mightiest nations had long worshipped manifestly enfeebled, unable to protect, not merely their worshippers, but also the costly images in and through which they had been worshipped. These, which had been reverently carried in solemn procession by their priests, he sees ignominiously included among the spoils of the conqueror, and packed in common with other spoil on his beasts of burden. The idols to which prayers and sacrifices had been offered, in the hope of thereby securing deliverance from the invader, he beholds carried away into a foreign land. And all that he saw in vision literally occurred. Doubtless he saw much more than this, but he says nothing more. He does not add, “And those that worshipped these captured idols worshipped them no more; they acknowledge that Jehovah is the only living and true God, and Him only do they serve.” This he does not say, because he knew the idolaters would go on worshipping such images as those their own hands had made, and to which they had in vain offered prayers for deliverance. How strange that men should be guilty of such folly under such circumstances! But the folly has not been of rare occurrence. It is not yet a thing of the past. E.g., Her Majesty’s Hindoo subjects worshipping the very same gods whose help their fathers sought in vain when the power of Great Britain was being exerted for their subjugation. What an extraordinary fact! What other fact is there behind it? For behind every extraordinary fact there is an explanatory fact. This, that it is a supremely difficult thing to deliver the deluded from their delusions. I. Of this fact the history of idolaters is not the only illustration; there are others in almost every realm of human thought and action. 1. The political realm, e.g., the delusion that “protection” is a good thing for a nation. 2. The social realm. How long it took to convince even a Christian people that slavery is an evil, a crime which Scripture condemns! In like manner, how difficult it is to deliver even intelligent Christian people from the delusion that strong drink used in “moderation” is a good thing, notwithstanding (1.) that they admit that to those who use it immoderately it is an evil thing; (2.) that it has been scientifically placed beyond dispute that alcohol is neither food nor fuel; that used in any degree it unnaturally and undesirably increases the work of the heart; and that there is no medical benefit that can be secured by it which cannot be secured by other drugs to which no such moral peril belongs; (3.) that more moral as well as material evil is caused by its use than by any other destructive force at work in society. In spite of the clear demonstration of all these things, many intelligent and religious people go on using alcohol without compunction of conscience! 3. The scientific realm, e.g., the delusion that vaccination is an evil. 4. The ecclesiastical realm, e.g., the delusion that connection between Church and State is necessarily a blessing to both, or that disestablishment would necessarily be mischievous. 5. The religious realm, e.g., the delusion that Romanism is not a vast unscriptural and superstitious scheme. Its hold upon the Irish; upon many educated English people. Or the delusion that happiness of heart and peace of soul can be found in any other path than that of humble and earnest service of God—in the pursuit of wealth, or rank, or fame, or amusement. Or the delusion that those blessings can be secured by diligence in religious ceremonialism and stern asceticism. Look where we will upon our fellow-men, we see parallels to that which struck us with surprise when we first looked upon idolaters who continued to worship idols the inability of which to help them had been placed beyond doubt. II. In view of this fact, what are the duties that press upon us? 1. Honest personal examination of our own beliefs and practices (1 Thessalonians 5:21). 2. The maintenance of hope for the future of the great human family to which we belong. The fact we have been thinking about must not be allowed to smite us with despair. Difficult as it is to deliver the deluded from their delusions, one by one the delusions do lose their hold upon them—e.g., idolatry to a large extent, witchcraft, slavery; and in the future truth will achieve still greater triumphs (chap. Isaiah 45:23). 3. Consequently, it is the duty of those to whom any truth has been revealed to go on declaring it, in spite of the seemingly hopeless stupidity of most of those whom they address. By their faithful proclamation of it, they do really, however imperceptibly, further the dispersal of the mists and fogs in which the minds of their fellow-men are enshrouded, and hasten on the day when the unclouded light of truth shall shine upon all men. In that proclamation let us do our part! GOD’S PROMISE TO HIS AGED Isaiah 46:4. And even to your old age I am He, &c.The design of this chapter is to caution the Israelites against the idolatry of the Babylonians, and to prevent their fears of any mischief which idol-gods could do. For this purpose, Isaiah describes the desolation Cyrus should bring upon Babylon, and foretells that he should carry captive their gods, who would be insufficient to help either their worshippers or themselves. And then God calls upon His people to consider whether He was such a god as these (Isaiah 46:4-5). He reminds them of what He had already done for them in their formation and their support; that He had shown all the care and tenderness of a parent to them; and assures them that He would continue His care of them. But our text may have been particularly designed to comfort God’s aged servants, who should live till near or quite to the end of the captivity; those whose eyes saw the ruin of the first and the dedication of the second temple (Ezra 3:12). To comfort and animate their hearts who expected to die in a strange land, and were greatly distressed at the remembrance of Zion, God encourages them still to hope in Him. To God’s ancient saints to-day we may lawfully apply the same promise. I. GOD’S PROMISE TO HIS AGED SAINTS. 1. God promises to support them under their burdens, and carry them through their difficulties. “I will carry you.” The word signifies to sustain any pressure, or bear any burden. It intimates God’s readiness to help them, when they seem likely to be overborne and pressed down. How many are the burdens of old age from without! From the world, which still hangs too much about them. Sometimes their circumstances are such, that they cannot get rid of its cares and hurries. Their fellow-creatures are often a burden to them. Those with whom they are obliged to have dealings are apt to take advantage of their decays to deceive them. Some in whom they place confidence disappoint them. Some from whom they have good reason to expect assistance, ungratefully forsake them. This is the most grievous burden, and would be too heavy for them to bear, were it not that “the eternal God is their refuge, and underneath them are His everlasting arms.” Nay, events that in the vigour of life would have given them little concern now hang as a heavy weight upon them (Ecclesiastes 12:5). Every little thing is ready to overset them, but God will carry them by supporting their spirits, and putting strength into them, so that they shall not faint and sink (Deuteronomy 33:25). 2. He will comfort them under all their infirmities and sorrows. “I will bear.” The word sometimes signifies, as the former did, to support and sustain; but more frequently, to exalt or elevate. It may denote lifting up the soul in joy or comfort; and so it may be considered as an advance upon the former thought. The aged need the fulfilment of this promise. The infirmities of nature come upon them apace; the senses grow weak; the active powers decay: they need the help of others almost as much as they did in their infancy. Often the faculties of the soul languish. Their relish for company, business, and pleasure is gone (2 Samuel 19:35; P. D. 103, 113). Nay, they find their thoughts confused, their affection for divine things flags, and they cannot serve God with such fixedness of heart, such warmth of zeal and love as they have done. What they hear and read quickly slips away; and their minds are no longer easily impressed with divine truths. In these melancholy circumstances, God will bear and lift up their souls. He sometimes in a most wonderful manner strengthens the powers of the mind. Under the infirmities of nature, He will afford them the consolations of religion; elevate their minds above the trifles of earth and sense; strengthen their faith in His promises; and enlighten the eyes of their understandings, to see the glorious inheritance of the saints, and their own title to and qualification for it (2 Corinthians 4:16). 3. God will deliver them out of all their fears and tribulations. “Even I will carry you, and will deliver you.” Many of God’s aged servants, through the languor of their spirits or weakness of their faith, are continually distressed with anxious fears of poverty, of increasing afflictions, of the temptations peculiar to old age, of apostacy in their last days, of death. But the Lord will deliver them from all their fears, will strengthen their hearts, and will make them desire to depart and be with Christ (H. E. I,. 322, 1602, 1642, 1643). And at length He will give them an everlasting release from everything painful and distressing (H. E. I. 1629). II. REASONS WHY THEY SHOULD CONFIDE IN THIS PROMISE. 1. He is your Maker. “I have made,” saith He, “and I will bear.” GOD formed your bodies and souls. Why, but to communicate happiness to you, that you might serve Him on earth and be for ever with Him? He who freely gave you your life, will surely grant you every needful good (Matthew 6:25). God made you: must He not therefore be a very wise Being? Must He not know all your needs, distresses, and fears? God made you: must He not therefore be a very powerful Being? Is there any evil so great that He cannot deliver you from it, any good so valuable that He cannot confer it upon you? (Isaiah 26:4). 2. He hath been careful of you and kind to you hitherto. This is intimated in the text, which is a promise of continued care and favour; and it is plainly expressed in the preceding verse. Have you not reason to acknowledge, with aged Jacob, that the God of your fathers has fed you “all your life long” to this day, and redeemed you from evil? What stronger argument can there be to encourage your faith in His promises, than your long experience of His goodness? To distrust Him will be peculiarly unreasonable, and highly ungrateful. Holy men of old thought it a very substantial reason to exercise faith in God, that they had long experienced His care (Psalms 76:7-8; 2 Timothy 4:18). Hath God carried you sixty or seventy years, and will He cease His care and withdraw His kindness? How unreasonable such a conclusion! God hath been an old friend to you, a tried friend, and you may be assured He will never leave nor forsake you; especially when you consider— 3. He is an unchangeable God. “I am He”—an expressive word elsewhere rendered “the same” (Psalms 102:27). “I am He that I was of old to the saints in former generations, and will continue the same through every succeeding age, and not like the idols of the heathen, that were made yesterday, and are destroyed to-morrow.” This renders God the proper object of our trust. Creatures change, but He is the same. When men grow old they often find that their friends forsake them; their old acquaintance look shy on them; their children sometimes turn their backs upon them; the world is almost weary of them, and wisheth them gone. But their God remains the same powerful, wise, and gracious Being, whose affection for His aged servants does not lessen. It was a remarkable saying of Cardinal Wolsey, at the close of his life, “If I had served my God as long and as faithfully as I have served my prince, He would not have cast me off in my old age.” The unchangeableness of God adds the strongest security to His promises and covenant, and is a sufficient encouragement to His people to hope in Him, whatever changes and alterations there may be in the world about them (Psalms 89:34; Psalms 48:14). III. . 1. How unreasonable and unbecoming is it for aged saints to sink under their burdens and infirmities! Be they ever so many and great, you have the promise of God to depend upon, that He “will bear, and carry, and deliver” you. We have seen that it is a sure promise. Therefore, instead of fretting and complaining in the midst of trial, plead it, and it will be fulfilled to you. 2. Aged saints are under great obligations to God, and should be faithful unto death. To Him you are under innumerable obligations as your creator, preserver, and benefactor. Therefore proceed vigorously in His service, and let not your infirmities be made an excuse for negligence and sloth (P. D. 2598). Labour to maintain the seriousness and spirituality of your devotions. Let your hoary heads never be spotted with any sin. If God gives you ability for active services, abound in them, for death is at hand. If you cannot do this, adorn and recommend religion by patience and resignation to His will, and by quietly waiting for His salvation. Glorify Him by calm faith in the final hour. I heartily wish your souls and mine may then be in the same frame as that of a pious Scotch minister, who, being asked by a friend during his last illness whether he thought himself dying, answered, “Really, friend, I care not whether I am or not; for if I die, I shall be with God, and if I live, He will be with me.” 3. Young persons should choose God as the guide of their youth, if they desire that He should be the support and comfort of their age. If this great choice is not made in youth, it probably never will be made (H. E. I, 1457, 1458).—Job Orton, S. T. P: Practical Works, vol. i. pp. 373–382. These words were addressed to God’s ancient people in view of the time when Babylon would be brought to ruin. Bel and Nebo, its gods, would be carried away, unable to defend themselves. In contrast to them Jehovah, who had, like a mother, carried His people, would continue to carry them, through all the duration of their existence. To the end it would be as it had been from the beginning (Deuteronomy 32:11-12). The words were spoken to the nation, but they contain a truth equally precious to every individual; and in this view we will consider them. We will notice I. THE THEY . They are those incident to old age and its prospect. While no one can be certain that he will reach old age, no reflecting man can fail to think sometimes of the possibility that he may. At such times we remember several things, as that it is a period 1. When a man’s pecuniary resources are likely to be diminished. Where an inheritance has been derived from ancestors, and where successful commercial enterprise has realised wealth, it is not so. Where it is possible to provide for old age, it is dutiful. But in the majority of cases, it is impossible. The family swallows up all. The decline of power to perform customary work means diminished income. This is the case of the labouring poor, and of many widows. Yet old age is the period of life when there is diminished ability to endure privation. The elasticity of youth rises above a change of circumstances; old age sinks under it. There is then a tendency also to greater anxiety about worldly comfort and sufficiency. 2. When friendship is less available than in youth. If poverty comes with it, it is too often found that “the world forsakes whom fortune leaves.” Most of the friends of earlier days have gone whence there is no return; and there is neither equal disposition nor opportunity to make new ones. The old man feels himself becoming less important to the community. In private life he often becomes less capable of affording happiness. He may be garrulous; but it is about things not of present interest. Thus he is in danger of sinking into neglect; perhaps he is too sensitive, and fancies himself neglected and forsaken when it is not really the case. 3. When the physical powers fall into decay. It is not necessarily so with the intellectual and spiritual powers, which are often most vigorous in advanced life. But the body is like a house, it falls into ruin after a number of years. Its powers decline. Its capacity for action lessens. The enjoyment of existence departs. 4. It is the period nearest to the hour of death. True, death is also near the young; only to them he does not show himself so plainly. But he cannot be far from the old. Death stands before them; a dark enemy who must be faced; a dread moment when, amidst unknown suffering, all that has made life interesting must be left behind. These gloomy anticipations crowd upon the contemplation of old age. Happy is it for those who in full faith can pray: “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.” To God the words of our text direct us. Notice II. THE THEY . “Even to your old age I am He: and even to hoar hairs will I carry you.” They encouraged the exiled Jews to put their trust in the Lord. They may encourage us in the like manner in spite of the presence or the gloomy prospect of old age. He will be our God. He will lead and carry us through life to old age; and in old age will relieve the darkness by the brightness of His presence, the sufficiency of His power, and the tenderness of His love. The text reminds us of 1. His permanent existence. “To your old age I am He.” His life runs through all ages and generations. The care of earthly parents gradually dies away as their children reach maturity. Parents usually die before their children. Should they survive until their children become old, they are themselves cast on the care of their children. However great his solicitude, no parent can guarantee that his own life will continue as long as his children need his care. But our heavenly Father will continue to exist through our lives and beyond. He can undertake the charge of His children to the end of their lives. 2. His enduring ability. “I will carry.… I will bear.” The help rendered by any man may be discontinued from loss of ability. Human promises must be conditional on the continuance of ability. But God’s ability suffers no diminution. You cannot survive His power to help. 3. His unchanging purpose. God says, “I will.” It is a purpose formed in infinite wisdom. It will be executed with unfailing faithfulness. He will not change His mind as men sometimes do. The purpose is formed in the tenderness of unchanging love. Who can measure the duration of the mother’s love for the child she has carried in her womb? Long as life lasts, it is in her deepest heart. Even though he go astray, and others cast him off, the mother will not give him up. This is the love with which the Lord here says He follows His children, notwithstanding their numerous follies and faults (Isaiah 46:3). May we not regard this declaration as a sufficient antidote to the apprehensions we are apt to entertain in prospect of the various anxieties and inconveniences of advancing years? You who are advanced in life can bear testimony to the Lord’s faithful love, which has attended all your days. Have we not heard the aged speak in terms of satisfaction and thankfulness, notwithstanding the trials they have experienced in their life journey? (Psalms 71:6; Psalms 71:15). See that you honour God to the end by trusting yourselves to His disposal. You who are young, make the Lord your confidence from your earliest days. Friends, health, business capacity, opportunities may fail. Lean on One who is independent of changes. Make Him your friend. Say to-day, “My Father, Thou shalt be the guide of my youth.”—J. Rawlinson.The words “I am He” mean “I am still the same: I will not alter. My love will not grow cold, my care for you will still continue.” The God of our youth and manhood will be the God of our old age, losing none of the tenderness with which He has guided us through previous stages. What a consoling promise! Though originally made to Israel, and applied to them in a national sense, each believer can make it his own (2 Corinthians 1:20); and it is good for us, not only to rest on such a promise as we pass into the future, but to mark its fulfilment in our past experience, and in the experience of others who at life’s close have borne testimony to the continued goodness, the sustaining power, the unfailing faithfulness of Him whom they trusted and served. I. THE PERIOD OVER WHICH GOD’S CARE EXTENDS.—“Even to your old age,” “to hoar hairs.” God engages to be our life-long Friend. He will tend us all the way from infancy to old age, and then He will not forsake us. This golden thread of divine care runs through the whole web of our life, brightening its most sombre colours. God engages, 1. To be our Friend to old age. Some of us may think we can dispense with His help on the way to old age, though when we reach it, with enfeebled powers and diminished comforts, we may be glad to have recourse to His help. But God’s promise is larger than our poor thoughts. He takes us up in His supporting arms as soon as we draw our first breath, and never leaves us, if we do not leave Him, until we have drawn our last. 2. To be our Friend in old age. Having conducted us to this period, He will not cast us off (Psalms 71:9; Psalms 71:18). Old age is often a time of feebleness and neglect, with few friendships and enjoyments, but with His presence and support we may be peaceful, serene, useful in it. Instead of being repulsive, as we often see it, it may be beautiful, attractive, and honourable in us (Leviticus 19:32; Proverbs 16:31). It is pitiable to see an old man who has missed the object of life. “To pass out of the world in the world’s debt; to have consumed much and produced nothing; to have sat down at the feast and gone away without paying his reckoning, is not, to put it in the mildest way, a satisfactory transaction” (Earl of Derby). Such a spectacle is not uncommon; but, even then, a change may come. “God can put a fresh kernel into an old and worn-out husk.” The sun of God’s favour may shine on the declining days of a life spent in the darkness of unbelief, but such a case does not fall within the scope of this promise. Only those whom God has guided to old age can count with certainty on His support and blessing in old age. Many an aged saint can testify to the continued goodness of God. Is old age a second childhood? God is a tender parent, unwearied in His attention. Is it a time of diminished comforts? One great comfort is still left, all the more soothing when others are gone. Is the old man lonely, like the last leaf which the storm has left clinging to the tree? The life-long Friend still remains, “when other helpers fail and comforts flee.” And the result is that the aged believer is often a “grand old man” still bringing forth fruit, counselling others from his ripe experience, cheered by happy memories and glowing hopes, not frowning on the happiness of others, contented, trustful, loving, kind. “On he moves to meet his latter end,Angels around befriending virtue’s friend:Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay,While resignation gently slopes the way.And, all his prospects brightening to the last,His heaven commences ere the world be past.”—Goldsmith.II. THE NATURE OF THE CARE WHICH GOD OVER US, expressed in the words “carry,” “bear,” “deliver,” which stand in contrast to what is said (Isaiah 46:1-2) of the idol-gods of the Chaldeans. Idolaters carry their gods, but our God carries us. Images are borne about in procession, or are packed up and laid on beasts of burden—a withering exposure of the folly of idol-worship (Isaiah 46:7). The same may be said of creature confidences. Earthly possessions, instead of a help, often become a burden and a snare. Trust in man is often met by faithlessness. Sinful pleasure proves a clog and a hindrance. Unable to support or deliver, these gods become burdens, drags, encumbrances which must be supported. But these words express the character of God’s care for us. He is both father and mother to us (Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 66:13; Psalms 27:10). Expressive and tender though the image is, it does not fully exhibit His affection. Not only does He nurse us in infancy and childhood, but even to old age (Psalms 48:14). What deliverances, too, He works for us, from accident and sickness, from the burden of sin and the onset of temptation! How marvellous have been His patience with us and His providential care! He will preserve us in old age, and deliver us from death. To the Christian pilgrim old age will be a Beulah land whence he can descry the shining glories of the heavenly city. III. THE BY WHICH GOD US TO EXPECT HIS CARE. “I have made, and I will bear.” As the Creator of our bodies and the Father of our spirits, God acknowledges His obligation to guide and care for us. Does an earthly father love his child, and shall not the Universal Parent care for the children whom His hand hath formed? The argument becomes stronger when addressed to those whom God has created anew in Christ (Psalms 56:13; Psalms 138:8; Philippians 1:6). Behold, then, how gracious is our God! Not only does He assure us of His tender support all through life, but He also condescends to give us a strong reason for counting upon it. In conclusion— 1. On this promise God rests His claim to our undivided trust. If He engages to do all this, ought we not to give Him the entire confidence of our hearts, abandoning every refuge of lies? There is everything to invite our firm reliance (2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:18). 2. There is a call here for gratitude. God has brought some of you well on in your journey to old age, and will you not acknowledge His goodness? and you who have reached old age, are you not thankful for the mercies of the past? 3. The subject inspires us with hope. At whatever stage we stand in the pilgrimage of life, here is a voice of encouragement.—William Guthrie, M.A.Old age most wish to attain, but those who reach it are generally disposed to complain about it. Very various are the circumstances and feelings in this period of life, but, with all who attain it, it is the time when their “strength faileth;” and with numbers it is a time of gloom and sadness, of labour and sorrow. Caleb could say, “Now, lo! I am fourscore,” &c. But how few can adopt this language! I. Old age has its peculiar afflictions. 1. Physical deterioration (Ecclesiastes 12:1, &c.) 2. It is usually embittered by the recollection of many distressing bereavements. 3. How utterly forsaken and destitute are some of the aged! 4. Poverty is a frequent accompaniment of old age.—Such a termination of human life, when viewed apart from religion, is cheerless and melancholy. Religion, the best companion of our youth, is the only effectual support of the aged. II. Old age has its peculiar duties. The foundation must be laid in those great principles of religion, “repentance towards God, and faith,” &c. Until then you cannot possess a Christian character, nor can you experience the supports and consolations connected with it. Have you repented, &c.? If you have received the remission of sins, &c., let your mind be directed to those duties which arise from the peculiarity of your present circumstances. 1. Daily familiarise yourself to the thought of your approaching end. 2. Endeavour in the midst of your trials to cultivate a thankful disposition. 3. Guard against the temptations incident to your condition. 4. Earnestly seek after an increasing meetness for future and eternal glory. III. Old age, when connected with piety, admits of many consolations. Consider— 1. That there is nothing peculiar in the afflictions which you endure, or which need prevent the enjoyment of internal peace and comfort. 2. If old age has its afflictions, it has also its immunities. If the circle of your enjoyment is contracted, you have less to ensnare your affections, and draw you away from God, &c. 3. You have the promise of effectual support and of complete deliverance. 4. The nearness of salvation should reconcile you to affliction and death. 5. How blessed is your condition contrasted with that of the aged transgressor!—T. H. Walker: Companion for the Afflicted, pp. 309–335. THE GOD OF THE AGED Isaiah 46:4. Even to your old age I am He, &c.I. The doctrine of the text I hold to be the constancy of God’s love, its perpetuity, and its unchangeable nature. God declares that He is not simply the God of the young saint or the middle-aged saint, but that He is the God of the saints in all their ages from the cradle to the tomb. “Even to old age I am He;” or, as Lowth beautifully and more properly translates it, “Even to old age I am the same, and even to hoary hairs will I carry you.” 1. That God Himself is unchanged when we come to old age, surely I have no need to prove. Abundant testimonies of Scripture declare Him to be immutable. If we need proofs, we might look even abroad on nature, and we should from nature guess that God would not change during the short period of our mortal life. Had God changed, we should need— (1.) A new Bible. But the Bible which the child readeth is the Bible of the grey head. (2.) A new form of worship. That God is still unchanged, we learn from the sweet experience of all the saints. They testify that the God of their youth is the God of their later years. They put their trust in Him because they have not yet marked a single alteration in Him. 2. Not only is God the same in His nature, He is the same in His dealings; He will carry, deliver, and bear us the same as He used to do. God’s promises are not made to ages, but to people, to persons, and to men. II. Consider the time of old age as a special period, needing manifestations of the constancy of divine love. 1. Old age is a time of peculiar memory. In fact, it is the age of memory. What a peculiar memory the old man has! How many joys he can remember, &c. And yet, looking back upon all, he can say, “Even to old age He is the same,” &c. How frequently has he been forced to exclaim, “Though friends have departed, yet there is a Friend who sticketh closer than a brother; on Him I still trust, and to Him I still commit my soul.” 2. Of peculiar hope. The old saint hath few hopes of the future in this world; they are gathered up into a small space; and he can tell you, in a few words, what constitutes all his expectation and desire. But he has one hope, and that is the very same which he had when he first trusted in Christ; it is a hope of an inheritance that is “undefiled, that fadeth not away,” &c. 3. Of peculiar solicitude. An old man is not anxious about many things, as we are, for he hath not so many things for which to concern himself. But (1.) he hath more solicitude about his bodily frame. He fears every now and then that the pitcher will be “broken at the cistern;” for “the noise of the grinders is low.” But in this peculiar solicitude you have another proof of divine faithfulness; for now that you have little pleasure in the flesh, do you not find that God is just the same; and that, though the days are come when you can say, “I have no pleasure in them,” yet the days are not come when you can say, “I have no pleasure in Him?” (2.) There is another solicitude—a failure of mind. They forget much which they would wish to remember; but still they find that their God is just the same; that His goodness does not depend on their memory; that the sweetness of His grace does not depend upon their palate. (3.) The chief solicitude of old age is death. Young men may die soon. Old men must die. His one solicitude now is, to examine himself whether he is in the faith. But God’s faithfulness is the same; for if he be nearer death, he has the sweet satisfaction that he is nearer heaven; and if he has more need to examine himself than ever, he has also more evidence whereby to examine himself. 4. Of peculiar blessedness. The old man has a good experience to talk about. He has peculiar fellowship with Christ. There are peculiar communings, openings of the gates of paradise, visions of glory, just as you come near to it. The nearer you get to the bright light of the celestial city, the clearer shall be the air. But all this only proves that Christ is the same; because, when there are fewer earthly joys, He gives more spiritual ones. 5. Of peculiar duties. (1.) Testimony. I remember hearing the late Mr. Jay. I fancy that if I had heard the sermon preached by a young man, I should not have thought so much of it; but there appeared such a depth in it because it came from an old man, standing on the borders of the grave; it was like an echo of the past, coming to me, to let me hear my God’s faithfulness, that I might trust for the future. Testimony is the duty of old men and women; they should labour whenever they can to bear testimony to God’s faithfulness, and to declare that now also, when they are old and grey-headed, their God forsakes them not. (2.) Comforting the young believer. No one is more qualified than kind-hearted old men to convert the young; when the young Christian comes to them, they say, “Do not fear: I have gone through the waters, and they have not overflown me,” &c. (3.) Warning. The warnings of the old have great effect; and it is their peculiar work to guide the imprudent, and warn the unwary. .— 1. What a precious thought, young men and women, is contained in this text! Here is a safe investment. A rock may be dissolved, and if I build a house on that it may be destroyed; but if I build on Christ, my happiness is secure for ever. How blessed it is to begin in the early morning to love and serve God! The best old Christians are those who were once young Christians. 2. You middleaged men are plunged in the midst of business, and you are sometimes supposing what will become of you in your old age. But is there no promise of God to you that you suppose about to-morrows? Middle-aged man, give thy present years to Him. 3. Venerable fathers in the faith, and mothers in Israel, take these words for your joy. Do not let the young people catch you indulging in melancholy, but go about cheerful and happy, and they will think how blessed it is to be a Christian, for so will you prove to them—to a demonstration, that even to old age God is with you, and that when your strength faileth He is still your preservation.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 81–82. “Even to your old age, I am He.” That is, “I am the same; I remain unchangeable, with the same tenderness, affection, and care.” The proper study of man is God. Though apart from a divine revelation we may acquire some knowledge of His character and perfections, His full-orbed character is only to be found in the revelation He has been pleased to make of Himself in His Word. All things, &c., change; but God is ever the same. “I am He, the same yesterday,” &c. I. THE OF GOD. He is subject to no change whatever in His manner of being, His perfections, purposes, promises, or threatenings. Whatever He was millions of ages before the worlds were made, He is now; and what He is now, He will be for ever. That He is thus unchangeable is clear from— 1. Reason; 2. Nature; 3. Moral government; 4. The repeated and explicit declarations of Holy Scripture (H. E. I. 2254, 2256, 2324, 2341). II. SOME OF THE LESSONS WHICH THIS TEACHES. 1. It furnishes encouragement to prayer. The Atheist makes another use of this doctrine, and infers from it that it must be in vain to pray, because our petitions can produce no change in the divine mind. But this inference is as repugnant to sound reasoning as it is to the precepts of the Bible, and the spirit of piety (H. E. I. 2255, 3750–3753). If the Lord were fickle like earthly monarchs, then, indeed, it would be vain to pray, for He might grant a petition one day, and deny it another, or He might change His purposes and plans altogether. But if a prince promised to confer some great benefit upon a certain condition, and you knew his promise to be unchangeable, what man in the world would think of saying, “It is no use to seek the benefit, because it depends upon the fulfilment of a prescribed condition?” 2. It encourages our personal confidence in God, amidst all the changes and decays of this mortal state. We cannot trust a changeable being. God is worthy our utmost confidence, for He is immutable (Isaiah 26:4). [1465][1465] His people always need His protection and care, and He will never leave nor forsake them (Hebrews 13:5). He who is the God of infancy and childhood will be the God of age. “The second childhood of man will find Him no less certainly a protector than the first.” “Man travelling upon the road espies some great castle; sometimes it seems to be nigh, another time afar off; now on this hand, anon on that; now before, by and by behind; when all the while it standeth still unmoved. So a man that goes in a boat by water thinks the shore moveth, whereas it is not the shore but the boat that passeth away. Thus it is with God: sometimes He seemeth to be angry with the sons of men, another time to be well pleased; now to be at hand, anon at a distance; now showing the light of His countenance, by and by hiding His face in displeasure; yet He is not changed at all. It is we, not He, that is changed. He is immutable in His nature, in His counsels, and in all His promises.”—Beveridge.3. It should stimulate us to seek freedom from all fickleness—a steadiness of principle, purpose, action (Psalms 57:7; Psalms 108:1). 4. It infallibly secures the punishment of the finally impenitent. Every threatening as well as every promise must be fulfilled. “Faithful in Thy promises,And in Thy threatenings too.”—Alfred Tucker.THE LORD’S CARE OF HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 46:4. And even to your old age, &c.What a consolatory declaration—sufficient to silence all our fears, and to afford us quietness and peace for ever. I. THE OBJECTS OF THE DIVINE CARE. 1. The whole creation. God is ever present and ever active, and all the operations of nature are the manifestations of His living care (Psalms 104:10-28; Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:24, &c.) 2. More especially man—made in His image, formed for eternal existence, and endowed with capacities of eternal enjoyment. Even those who are unthankful and evil (Matthew 6:4-5). 3. In a yet more special sense His own believing people (1 Timothy 4:10). These He calls His “beloved,” &c. None are overlooked or neglected. Remember your individual interest in the special care of your Heavenly Father. II. THE OF THE DIVINE CARE. 1. It is most tender. “I will carry you, and I will bear.” Surpasses the tenderness of a fond mother for her helpless infant (chap. Isaiah 49:15). 2. Active and effectual. “I will deliver.” He will accomplish that which concerneth us (chap. Isaiah 14:24). His care is not an idle sentiment, but an operative principle, and being connected with almighty power, cannot exert itself in vain, but accomplishes with infinite ease all its purposes. Human care is often inefficient, for want of power, but with God to will is to perform, &c. 3. Unwearied. “Even to your old age,” &c. Surpasses that of the most tender parent, which naturally dies away as the child reaches manhood. God’s people are always the objects of His tender solicitude. Age does not make them less dependent, and experience only teaches them more and more their need of His sustaining grace. Human care is variable according to our changing circumstances and situations, but God’s care is constant under all circumstances: affliction, temptation, &c. III. THE GROUNDS AND OF THE DIVINE CARE. 1. The relations He sustains to us. He is our (1.) Creator. “I have made you,” and (chap. Isaiah 44:2). Whatever motive induced Him to create us, still induces Him to care for us. (2.) Proprietor. He cares for His own lawful possession. (3.) Father. He cares for us with infinitely more concern than the very best earthly father. (4.) Redeemer (chap. Isaiah 41:14, &c.) The former arguments apply with double force. What greater proof can there be of His care? The cross is its measure. 2. The teaching and promises of His Word (Psalms 103:13; 2 Samuel 23:5; Isaiah 49:15; Hebrews 6:17-18, &c.) 3. The experience of His people (Deuteronomy 32:7). Could we ask those who inhabit the celestial mansions, ‘doth God care for His people?’ they would all reply, with loud and grateful rapture, ‘He doth care for His people,’ &c. Those who are now on the way to heaven can testify to God’s loving care. This is the most obvious and impressive evidence. .— 1. The wonderful condescension of God (Psalms 113:5-6). 2. The obligations that rest upon us to love and serve Him who thus cares for us. 3. The privilege of casting all our “care”—anxieties—“upon Him who careth for us” (1 Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6-7). This is the universal heart’sease—the only cure for care [1468]Alfred Tucker. [1468] “Does my heavenly Father really care for me?” The words came from a lady sitting by an open window; her brow bore the trace of care and sadness; her eyes were suffused with tears. Within two years death had thrice entered the home circle. The husband and two children, whose smiles made home happy, were sleeping in the graveyard near by. As her bereavement, her loneliness, her blighted prospects, recurred to her mind, she exclaimed, almost with a spirit that questioned its Maker’s goodness, “Does my heavenly Father really care for me!” A servant girl, who perhaps scarcely knew she was doing anything for the Master, passed by the window singing:— “Though waves and storms go o’er my head; Though strength and health and friends be gone; Though joys be withered all and dead; Though every comfort be withdrawn— On this my steadfast soul relies, Father, Thy mercy never dies.” The cadences of those beautiful words, borne on the still summer air, found an echo in that stricken soul. She rose from her reverie of sadness, wiped away the falling tears, and looking not toward the silent tomb where bodies were crumbling to dust, but to the spirit-land whither her loved ones had gone, she said, with a faith she had never before known: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” THE HUMAN CRY AND THE DIVINE Psalms 71:18. Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not. Isaiah 46:4. Even to your old age, I am He; and even to your hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. I. THE CRY OF THE AGED SAINT IN TIME OF (Psalms 71:18). 1. Aged saints are sometimes in distress. The Psalmist was, and others often are. Secular embarrassment, personal or family affliction, spiritual trials, &c. 2. Such distress has a tendency to weaken their confidence in God. To be God-forsaken implies utter loneliness, helplessness, friendlessness, hopelessness, agony. II. THE OF THE -KEEPING GOD (Isaiah 46:4). This promise to Israel is especially applicable to every aged Israelite. 1. The purport of this gracious promise.—God’s perpetual presence with His people (Hebrews 13:5). He will never abandon them to the caprice or malice of their enemies, or leave them to be the sport of circumstances. He will ever succour them under their trials. The promise guarantees God’s constant presence. To direct by His wisdom; to protect by His power; to comfort, strengthen, and sustain by His Spirit; to supply all need by His all-sufficiency; to support in death by His rod and staff (Psalms 23:4). 2. The security of this glorious promise. (1.) The character of God—Almighty, Faithful, &c. (2.) The mediation of Christ. “If God forgets His people, He must forget His own Son who stands continually before Him as a lamb newly slain, pleading, “Father, remember my people.” (3.) The promises of His Word. “I will.” Tried and proved in the experience of His people. Learn: Contentment with the allotments of providence. Confidence in God (Hebrews 13:5). Courage in view of death (Psalms 23:4).—Alfred Tucker.OLD AGE Isaiah 46:4. And even to your old age, &c.I. Long life is promised as a blessing (Exodus 20:12, &c.) Desired by most men, yet shrunk from by many of these in their meditative hours. Why? Because they see that to most people old age means— 1. Diminished strength of body and of mind. 2. Physical infirmities and pains. 3. Increased needs, and yet diminished resources. 4. Increasing incapacity for enjoying the pleasures that remain to them (2 Samuel 19:35). 5. The children who were their joy then causes of anxiety and sorrow (Genesis 42; Leviticus 10:1-3; 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 18:33). 6. Solitude continually increasing. 7. Exclusion from the services of the sanctuary (Psalms 42:4). 8. Diminished capability for usefulness. 9. A feeling that those round about them would be glad to get rid of them.—In a word, TIME AGAINST THEM, more and more! So it may be with us, if we reach it. II. How are we to strip old age of these terrors, and transform it into a pleasant evening of life?1. A life of usefulness will go far towards it. But it is not safe to trust to this exclusively and too confidently. Men are ungrateful. They are also mortal. The generation we can now serve is passing away, and that which will then be round about us may know nothing of us. 2. A life of financial success will not accomplish it. The wealthy aged are apt to be haunted and irritated by consideration. 3. God only can enable us to accomplish it. It can be done only by laying hold of the promise of the text.—What a great promise this is? In it God engages to be our friend— (1.) until we have grown old; and (2.) when we have grown old.—Its fulfilment means the securing for us— (1.) The circumstances most needful for our true welfare. (2.) All the inward dispositions that will make us conquerors over our circumstances. (3.) The happiness that comes from ability to glorify God—in a different way, but as really as now.—This is a great promise, but God can fulfil it (Jeremiah 32:19). And He will do it. Note the facts of which we are reminded, in order to help us to trust in Him. (1.) He made us, and having done this will not be likely to forget us, as children do the top they have made with great eagerness and glee. (2.) He has cared for us ever since He did make us: “Borne by Me from the birth, carried by Me from the womb!” And in His friendship there is no fickleness (James 1:17). Make the friendship of God now (H. E. I. 1457, 1458, 4246). Never let it go. So if old age is reached by you, you will find that you have indeed solved the problem of transforming it into a season of true blessedness. THE ’S OLD AGE Isaiah 46:4. And even to your old age, &c.A life devoted to the service of God is a treasure of bliss, as abundant as the wants of the soul, as enduring as its immortality. The aged Christian must be happy, I. In contemplation of his past conduct and influence. While there is here and there a page of sorrow in his history, it is contemplated as a whole with gladness. It contains the record of long years of allegiance and service—of many a purpose which had its origin in a love that embraced both God and man; of many a scheme of usefulness, &c. Happy the man! II. In the contemplation of the blessings which have marked his history. Blessings both of providence and grace. III. In the contemplation of his life’s history, because of the lessons it has served to teach. Life is a school, and experience is a teacher. He has learned by a thousand proofs that “all things work together for good,” &c. IV. In the continued possession of his life’s chief good. Not so is it with the ungodly. But that which the godly man chose many years ago as the chief portion of his soul, is still the light and joy of his being. Even amid the infirmities of age, his cup of happiness must be full. “Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.”—G. Macdonald.V. In the near prospect of realising his life’s brightest hopes. Not so the aged transgressor. To the Christian the brightest and happiest period in his history. Aged disciple of Jesus! be profoundly grateful.—J. Guernsey: The American National Preacher.THE ALL- OF GOD (Sermon to the Young.) Isaiah 46:4. And even to your old age I am He, &c.This is one of the promises of God. A minister in the last century collected all the promises of Scripture, and published them in a book by themselves, so that the Christian might consult them at all times and in all states. A wise thing to do. The promise of the text will show you, if you live to be old, how God will be your friend in that needful time, if you put yourself in the way of the promise. “What do you mean by putting ourselves in the way of the promise?” This. If you are children of God through Jesus Christ, all His promises are your inheritance and estate. His promises are made to His friends; His threats to His enemies. If a man forgets God, and disobeys Him all his lifetime, it would be foolish to suppose that God intended His promises for him; it would be encouraging him in his sin, and others who are like him. Let us proceed with the text by way of question and answer. I. What has God done for us already? He tells us, “I have made you.” He seems to mention it with pleasure, then let me think of it with gratitude. Is my body fearfully and wonderfully made? Have I not an intellectual part, which distinguishes me from the brute creation? Have I not a soul which shall never die? You are paying attention, but it is not your bodies which are doing this. The inhabitant within peeps out at the windows of your body, sees and hears, is collecting knowledge on which it may live and be happy when the house of the body totters with age, and is crumbling into dust. The Psalmist says, “He has made me and fashioned me;” He has made me what is called a man. But there is a higher sense of the expression, “I have made.” Has He made you a new man? (2 Corinthians 5:17). Have you had a second birth? (John 3:3). This second creation far exceeds the first; it is the best of God’s works,—the creation of a Christian out of a mere man. II. What will God do for us in future? He says, “I will bear, I will carry, I will deliver you.” This implies weakness and inability in us, support and assistance from Him. Did you ever see a little child hanging upon its mother’s gown, crying to be carried, and the cry answered with a kind word and many a kiss? It is thus God bears and carries His children in their journey, when fatigued with trials.—God delivers us in trouble. A state of trouble is a state of trial. It is mentioned to the honour of Job in his great affliction, that in all this he sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. God delivers us also by trouble (Psalms 119:67). III. How long will God bear, carry, and deliver us? To old age and hoary hairs. The Scripture calls age the needful time, and the evil days, when the heart shall say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Then we are naturally deprived of many who took an early interest in our welfare. Where are the father, the mother, the friends, whose counsels guided our youth? They are gone, and we must soon follow them. Then, in our loneliness, we shall need the friendship of God. If you would have it then, you must seek it now, in your childhood, and live in it in your youth and your manhood. Cardinal Wolsey, the Minister of Henry VIII., was deserted and disgraced by the king in his old age. In the agony of his mind the Cardinal exclaimed, “Had I but served my God with half the zeal I have served my king, He would not have forsaken me in my old age.” Serve God now, in the place of your service; and if you live to be old, He will perform to you the promise of the text; even to hoary hairs He will carry you, He will deliver you.—George Clark, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 415–423. LESSONS OF THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR Isaiah 46:4. Even to your old age, &c.The end of the year brings home to us the fact that we are getting older. I. Acknowledge the fact of advancing age. Not, if you can help it, in casting off the duties you owe to the world and the Church. Not by getting hard, gloomy, uninterested. Still, with a heart as young as ever, and even younger, look the fact of advancing age in the face. It is cowardly and unwise to blindfold yourself before a fact, however unpleasant it may be. II. Provide for advancing age. Men do so in many respects. They insure, &c. These are well, but they are externals. Now, old age is driven more and more in upon itself. Clearly, then, the mind and heart and conscience should be prepared. It is well to have pleasant guests in the house, when we must stay almost wholly within doors. III. Ask all proffered comforters and guides if they will stay by you in old age. “Even to,” &c. There is no use for a pilot who will not conduct you to port; of a guide who will leave you at the most critical part of your journey. Business, pleasure, &c., do not meet that essential condition. God does, and He alone. He “made, and will bear.” He redeemed, and will lead to perfect rest and joy. IV. To those who are already old. Remember that old age is near the confines of another world. Prepare!—The Homiletical Library, vol. i. p. 319. GOD Isaiah 46:5. To whom then will ye liken Me? &c.I. THE TAUGHT BY THE PROPHET. Evidently that God is incomparable. He is so— 1. In the splendour of His perfections. He is self-existent, omnipotent, &c. (Exodus 34:6-7; Psalms 83:18; P. D. 1502, 1508). “Who by searching,” &c. “This awful God is ours,Our Father and our Love,He will send down His heavenly powers,To carry us above.”—Watts.2. In the universality of His dominion. “Created beings have only a limited and confined sway, but God’s kingdom ‘ruleth over all.’ ” 3. In the transcendence of His beneficence. He is “abundant in goodness and truth” to all, even to the unthankful and evil (Matthew 5:45), but His believing people are the special objects of His munificent grace (1 Timothy 4:10). They have “a peace that passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7); a “joy unspeakable,” &c. (1 Peter 1:8); a hope blooming with “immortality and eternal life” (Romans 15:13); and the glory reserved for them is so great that “it doth not yet appear” (1 John 3:2). II. THE IT SHOULD INCITE IN US. 1. The deepest reverence for God (Psalms 89:7). Where this does not prevail, there is no true worship. 2. The profoundest attachment to God (Psalms 18:1). 3. The sublimest confidence in God (Psalms 46:1-7). He is infinitely worthy of our confidence.—Alfred Tucker.THE AND OF Isaiah 46:5-9. To whom will ye liken Me? &c.Its prevalence has been common to every age and to every people. I. THE OF . 1. It is the greatest dishonour that can be put upon God. It is the open denial of His supreme authority and exclusive claim on the worship of His creatures. It is the utterance of a falsehood against all His attributes. The number of the gods worshipped is a lie against His unity; their corporal character is a lie against His pure spirituality, &c. 2. It is connected with all that is debasing to the mind and character of its votaries. This debasement is its natural effect. Its worship is vicious. Its system of human sacrifice—degradation of woman and the sacred institution of marriage—infanticide. Hence idolaters are degraded in intellect, polluted in heart, miserable in life. II. THE OF . This appears— 1. In God’s hatred of it. His perfections require Him to hate it. His language concerning it, and His conduct towards those who commit it, as recorded in His word, exhibit the detestation in which it is held in the divine mind (Jeremiah 14:4; Jeremiah 16:18; Ezekiel 8:6; 2 Chronicles 15:8; Ezekiel 16:26; 1 Peter 4:3). His hatred of it appears in His prohibition of it (Exodus 20:3, &c), and in the threatened punishments connected with it (Deuteronomy 7:2-5, &c.) 2. In God’s earnest and repeated entreaties to the Jews not to commit it (Jeremiah 44:4, &c.) These entreaties are the expressions of— (1.) His regard to His own glory. He is jealous of His honour. (2.) His compassionate desire for the welfare of those to whom He speaks. He does not look with unconcern upon them. .—These considerations furnish the strongest motives to missionary enterprise and zeal.—J. Johnston, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 336–360. THE TWO-FOLD OF GOD (For Trinity Sunday.) Isaiah 46:9-10. I am God, and there is none else, &c.Between the Old and New Testaments there is essential doctrinal agreement. The older revelation prepared the way for the newer, while the newer is the fulness of the older. The New Testament writers assume the Divine inspiration and authority of the Old. They refer to institutions, incidents, and historical characters in the Old as illustrating, confirming, or enforcing their own instructions. The Jew and the Infidel would possess an immense advantage, if the two parts of Scripture were in essential disagreement. If they made opposite representations of the Divine character, both could not be true. The Supreme would not contradict Himself about Himself. In the literature of the day we sometimes meet with references to the God of the Jews as different from the God of the Christians; so that it is worth while to show that they are one and the same (H. E. I. 633–635). The Divine existence is assumed. When a sovereign makes a treaty with a distant nation, he does not, in any part of it, announce his own existence. It is already known. “The invisible things of Him from the creation are clearly seen—even His eternal power and Godhead.” But nature cannot teach everything we desire to know respecting God. It leaves us longing for further information which it cannot supply. Divine revelation supplies it. God has condescended in His Word to reveal Himself. What may be gathered from the two parts of Scripture respecting the Divine nature? I. THE DIVINE UNITY. When revelation has been absent, men have glided into polytheism and idolatry. To the numerous effects of Divine power they have assigned separate divinities. Finding themselves ignorant and sensuous, they have persuaded themselves that worship can be best maintained by representations of these divinities in wood, stone, silver, and gold. Hence the testimony of Judaism to the unity and spirituality of the Divine nature (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6). By the first preachers of the Gospel these points were emphasised in opposition to the polytheism and idolatry of the Greek and Roman world. They demanded that men should turn from dumb idols to serve the living and true God. And yet it is a unity that is consistent with the idea of Trinity. It is in accordance with the idea of Old Testament Scripture to prepare the way for the fuller revelation of truth in the New, rather than complete the revelation. The names of the Divine Being are put in the plural number although associated with singular verbs. The determination to bring the human race into existence is announced in the plural form: “Let Us make man.” The wonderful and mysterious Angel of the Covenant appears on several special occasions. In many passages the phrase, “the Spirit of the Lord,” occurs as descriptive of attributes, qualities, and acts which belong to a Divine Person. In Isaiah 63:10 the three persons of the Godhead seem to be mentioned. In the New Testament, while there is a similar distinctness of testimony to the Divine unity, there are still clearer intimations of the Divine Trinity. The Father is spoken of as God; so is the Son; so is the Holy Spirit. There is the formula of baptism. There is the Apostolic benediction. There is the place of each in the economy of redemption (H. E. I. 4816–4821). II. THE DIVINE . We find the same teaching in both Testaments respecting this. Essentially separated from evil, He hates it, and delights only in what is pure. Old Testament presentations of this great fact (Leviticus 19:2; Isaiah 6:3, &c.; H. E. I. 2275). Thus the New Testament, representing the Divine redemption as intended to restore its subjects to the pristine image of God, exhorts Christians to seek after holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16; Ephesians 4:24). In the moral and providential government of man, He proceeds on the principle of law, righteousness, judgment (Deuteronomy 32:4). Thus the New Testament points out to believers that their bodies, being delivered from sin, are made “the instruments of righteousness.” The Judgment Day is “a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” The awful death of the Son of God on Calvary has its mystery explained by reference to God’s righteousness (Romans 3:24-25). III. THE DIVINE . His purposes are unchangeable as His nature. They are formed with perfect intelligence of all they involve. They stretch through all time and eternity. They are firm as the everlasting hills. “I am the Lord; I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The history of the Jewish and the establishment of the Christian Church is an illustration of God’s unswerving faithfulness to the purpose He has formed. IV. THE DIVINE LOVE. His disposition is to show kindness. Both Testaments are full of this. Nature is filled with arrangements for the well-being of His creatures. Remember, it is goodness to a world of sinners. It is goodness that has deepened into pitying love, and has provided forgiving mercy at the extremest cost. What does the Old Testament say? (Exodus 34:6.) What says the New? (Romans 5:8; John 3:16.) The two parts of Divine revelation agree respecting the Divine nature. We may learn hence— 1. The value of the written word. The continuity of Scripture is an important element. The fringes of Deity may be seen by the mere student of nature, but the inner glory can only be known to the student of revelation. Fearful to think of being in the hands of One of whose disposition you are ignorant. Without the Bible you could know nothing satisfactorily nor certainly of God. Prize and study it, that God may grow into your thoughts. 2. The importance of sympathy with God. How do you stand affected toward this great and glorious Being? Do you approve of Him, i.e., of His revealed character? Do you love Him? Is it a pleasant thing to think of and hold communion with Him? Do you thank and trust Him? 3. The blessedness of an interest in God. Through sin, He may become the condemning Judge. But His present attitude is that of the redeeming God. His counsel stood through the ages, and it was His pleasure to send His Son in the fulness of time. If you accept Christ, you are reconciled to Him; you have all spiritual blessings and full salvation.—J. Rawlinson.THE SEVEN ; OR, THE USES OF OF THE PAST Isaiah 46:9-10. Remember the former things of old, &c.There is a legend of the early Christianity, whose ready acceptance within a few years of its origin is not less remarkable than its wide diffusion through every country from the Ganges to the Thames. In the middle of the fifth century, the resident proprietor of an estate near Ephesus was in want of building-stone. His fields sloped up the side of a mountain, in which he directed his slaves to open a quarry. In obeying his orders they found a spacious cavern, whose mouth was blocked up with masses of rock artificially piled. On removing these, they were startled by a dog suddenly leaping up from the interior. Venturing farther in, to a spot on which the sunshine, no longer excluded, directly fell, they discovered, just turning as from sleep, and dazzled with the light, seven young men, of dress and aspect so strange that the slaves were terrified, and fled. The slumberers, on rising, found themselves ready for a meal; and the cave being open, one of them set out for the city to buy food. On his way through the familiar country (for he was a native of Ephesus) a thousand surprises struck him.… Before his errand is quite forgot, he enters a bread-shop to make his purchase; offers the silver coin of Decius in payment; when the baker, whose astonishment was already manifest enough, can restrain his suspicions no longer, but arrests his customer as the owner of unlawful treasure, and hurries him before the city court. There he tells his tale: that with his Christian companions he had taken refuge in the cave from the horrors of the Decian persecution; had been pursued thither, and built in for a cruel death; had fallen asleep till wakened by the returning sun; and crept back into the town to procure support for life in their retreat. And there too, in reply, he hears a part of the history which he cannot tell: that Decius had been dethroned by death nearly two centuries ago, and Paganism by the truth full one. It is added, that the young man conducted certain persons to the cave; and that the seven sleepers, having given their parting blessing to those present, sank in the silence of natural death. For the purpose of experiment, fable is as good as fact. The citizens and the sleepers were awestruck at each other; yet no one had been conscious of anything awful in himself. The sleepers were proofs that the old, dead times were once alive. Would not the men, returning to their homes, be conscious of understanding life anew? Would they not look down upon their children, and up at the portraits of their ancestors, with a perception from which a cloud had cleared away? Would the nearness of God, spoken of by the prophets, appear any more as idle words? No; the revelation of a reality in the past, would produce the feeling of an unreality in the present. Whence would spring an influence like this? The essence of it is simply this: The Past stood up in the face of the Present, and spake with it: and they found each other out: and each learned, that he beheld the other with true eye, and himself with false. The lesson is not set beyond our reach. Our ties with other days are not broken. The legendary youths are but the impersonations of history. The story is a parable of the relation between historical perception and religous faith. The great end of religion is to distinguish in our existence its essential spirit from its casual forms. This its great end is its great difficulty. Experience mixes the two, and arranges nothing according to its worth. The dress that clothes the body, and the body that clothes the soul, appear always together, and tempt us to exaggerate the trivial and depreciate the great. That which a man has, and that which he is, move about together and become confounded with each other. It is the business of faith to see all things in their intrinsic value. Time is apt to take away a truth for each one that he gives. Insight often tarries with the child. It is an abuse of the blessings of experience, that it stupefies us with its benumbing touch. The great use of custom is to teach us what to expect; this is the true school for the active, working will. But for the thoughtful, wondering affections, a higher discipline is needed. Only by baffled anticipation do we learn to revere what is above us. In shaking off the heavy dreams of custom, religion receives the greatest aid from history. Religion strips the costume from the life that is: history restores the costume to the life that was; and thus may we see where the mere dress ends and the true life begins. The habit of realising the past is essential to that of idealising the present. II. A more direct influence of knowledge upon faith intensifies it. Time, like space, cannot be appreciated by merely looking into it; we need objects for the one, events for the other. And for the ends of faith, they must be moral vicissitudes, the deeply-coloured incidents of human life; or the vastness we see we shall not love; we shall traverse the infinite, and never worship. The two states,—that in the picture of history, and that on the map of faith,—recede almost equally from our immediate experience: and the conception of the one is a sensible help to the realisation of the other. And when we invoke this aid to faith, we give it an ally, not, as might seem, accessible to learning only, but singularly open to the resources of ordinary men. Records of human affairs are supplied in the sacred writings, from which we learn the lessons of Providence. There is no grander agent than the Bible in this world. It is a discipline of priceless value; and from the extension of it, according to opportunity, whosoever is vigilant to keep a living faith will draw ever-fresh stores; and that He may better dwell in heart with Him “who declareth the end from the beginning,” “will remember the former things of old.”—James Martineau; Endeavours, pp. 475–486. THE SCOPE AND THE OF GOD’S PLAN Isaiah 46:10. My counsel shall stand. I. God has a purpose or plan in regard to human affairs (H. E. I. 4015–4023; P. D. 2894). If He had not, He could not predict future events, since a contingent event cannot be foreknown and predicted; that is, it cannot be foretold that an event shall certainly occur in one way, when, by the very supposition of its being contingent, it may happen either that way, or some other way, or not at all. II. God’s plan will not be frustrated. He has power enough to secure the execution of His designs, and He will exert that power in order that all His plans may be accomplished. III. These facts should fill His people with great joy. For, 1. if there were no Divine plan in relation to human things, the mind could find no rest—everything would have the appearance of chaos, and the mind must be filled with doubts and distractions. But our anxieties vanish in regard to the apparent irregularities and disorders of the universe, when we feel that all things are under the direction of an Infinite mind, and will be made to further His great designs (H. E. I. 4024–4030; P. D. 2906). 2. If His plans were not accomplished, there would be occasion of equal doubt and dismay. If there was any power that could defeat the purposes of God; if there were any stubbornness of matter, or any inflexible perverseness in the nature of mind; if there were any unexpected and unforeseen extraneous causes that could interpose to thwart His plans, then the mind must be full of agitation and distress. But the moment that it can fasten on the conviction that God has formed a plan that embraces all things, and that all things which occur will in some way be made tributary to that plan, the mind can be calm in resignation to His holy will (P. D. 2898).—Albert Barnes, D.D.I. THE DIVINE . It is impossible for us to receive, as we do from the word of God, authentic information that there are counsels in the Divine mind as to our world, and all that dwell therein, without perceiving how much its revelations rise above the low conceptions of the wisest men of heathen antiquity, and of all who in our own day prefer their darkness and doubt to the light and certainty of heavenly truth. For— 1. We know that God, who made all things, does concern Himself with our world; that He has not left it to itself, as they thought necessary for His honour; that His regards are not confined to what men call great; that even individuals are noticed by Him (Psalms 33:13-15; Psalms 33:18-19, &c.) 2. This interposition is one of counsel,—of deliberation and wise purpose. It is not the intervention of a blind power; not of an intelligence which some have fancied to be bound by what they have called a fixed and determinate plan; but one of counsel; that which possesses infinite resources, &c. Of this, all nature is a standing indication, but still more clearly and impressively, the divine government. 3. God’s counsels are supreme and uncontrollable. This it is which gives to good men so entire and joyful a confidence (Proverbs 21:30). There is a frequent contest of counsel between His creature and God. But they are weak, because they are bounded as to extent, and time, and power. II. THE OF THE DIVINE . Illustrated by— 1. Ancient instances of the fulfilment of delayed purposes—Abraham, the promise of Canaan to his seed, expiration of Judah’s captivity, Daniel, the first promise of the seed of the woman. 2. The steadfastness of His holy law—the same in all ages and dispensations. 3. The constant connection of painful fear and misery with sin. 4. The established order of human salvation—as of old, so now. And God will never change it. 5. The uniform experience of good men. Take the effects of prayer—as of old, so now. .—What encouragement we thus have to trust God, not only for ourselves, but also as to His Church and the world! (Psalms 33:11). R. Watson: Works, vol. iii. pp. 298–305. THE OF GOD Isaiah 46:10. And I will do all My pleasure. To most men this assertion is exceedingly distasteful. It shows that God has His purposes, and that they will all be accomplished. Men are willing that God should reign in heaven, but they are infinitely unwilling that He should do His pleasure with them. The fierce cry that comes up from the rebel heart is, “Let me manage my own concerns—let not this God have rule over me!” Notwithstanding this opposition of men, God still reigns. And He will rule in all ages and in all worlds. He will do all His pleasure. This sentiment is proved— I. By the testimony of Scripture (Ecclesiastes 8:3; Daniel 4:35; Isaiah 14:24, &c.) Surely, if there is a doctrine in the Bible, prominent as the sun in the heavens, it is God’s sovereignty as a ruler. II. By the grand characteristics of God. He is the only self-existent being in the universe. He is everywhere present. Not only can He plan in accordance with infinite wisdom, mercy, and justice, but He has omnipotent power to execute these purposes. He knew from eternity what would come to pass. In reference to the future there is neither ignorance nor doubt. We must either deny His foreknowledge, or admit that His plans are fixed, and that He “will do,” &c. Not that He taketh pleasure in the sins of men—His soul abhorreth them. He made man free to choose. He knew that he would choose evil as well as good; and, for reasons satisfactory to His own mind, He determined to allow it (H. E. I. 2275–2282). III. By the history of God’s universe.1. The history of the fallen angels shows it. When they sinned, God banished them from heaven. This was the just punishment of rebellion. It was the act of a sovereign; for when man rebelled against the same God, and the same punishment was threatened, a voice was heard in heaven, “I have found a ransom.” 2. The history of nations shows it. Those nations most prospered, most arrogant, and most likely to trample down the weak, have toppled over. They have become a wonder and a warning to the nations of the earth, while God has strengthened the weak and established the feeble. How prominent has been the intervention of God in the birth, infancy, and growth of our own nation! He made us and kept us a Christian nation. 3. The history of each man proves it. How many things in that history are beyond man’s control!—his birth, &c. All these different persons have within them a consciousness of right and wrong. They are free to learn and to choose. If they do wickedly, they will be punished in accordance with the light which they may have. And yet, how stupendous is the difference! And God has allowed it. Let not man complain of God’s sovereignty, but rather praise Him, that He has made you to differ from those who have been given up to poverty, superstition, degradation, and crime. (1.) The plans of men depend for success upon the pleasure of God. No man can control events that are future; for these results may depend upon a thousand incidents that can neither be seen nor avoided. Man may possess the most consummate wisdom, &c., and yet he may fail. Like Pharaoh, Absalom, and Haman, evil men everywhere are doomed to disappointment. (2.) The conversion of men depends upon the pleasure of God. He has provided salvation for all; has given to all the power of securing it; desires that all should have it; and yet He allows some to reject it, while He induces others freely and earnestly to seek it. Every Christian must exclaim with the apostle, “By the grace,” &c. Not that God converts man by almighty power, without the use of means; or that He moves minds and worlds by the same force. Neither did He make some on purpose to be destroyed. [1471][1471] The utmost wisdom is necessary in the statement of this part of this subject. Inexperienced preachers should be silent concerning it. Whoever refers to it in the pulpit should have clearly in his own mind, and make clear to others, the truths in H. E. I., 1776–1797, 2276–2284.—R. A. B. (3.) The pleasure of God will be accomplished in the death of His creatures. How strangely and unexpectedly do men die! But the time and the way are settled by the pleasure of God. .—Do you object to the will of God? You cannot prevent it, and why resist it? Is it not His pleasure to do you good? Resistance is futile and fiendish. Yield.—W. Newell, D.D.: The American National Preacher, vol. vii. pp. 135–142. The dominant facts in this chapter are these—that God had determined to deliver His ancient people from their bondage in Babylon, and that He was strong enough to carry out this purpose. To us even the mention of His strength seems unnecessary; but those to whom the deliverance was promised needed to be assured of the power of Jehovah to carry out His purpose. Humanly speaking, their deliverance seemed impossible. How would a similar promise seem now to the few Poles included in the German empire? God always meets the needs of His people, and therefore the whole chapter is so constructed as to produce faith in its climax: “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;” and then there is added a symbolical explanation of the manner in which the Divine purpose would be accomplished (Isaiah 46:11). History tells us that these Divine promises were literally fulfilled. Cyrus, carrying out his own plans, unconsciously accomplished the plan of God with regard to Israel. Remembering what God is, this does not surprise us. Read historically, this declaration gives us no trouble whatever, but pleases us; but if we enlarge its reference, and read it prophetically, it causes us much perplexity. Two things tend to perplex us— 1. God has promised to accomplish great things in the future for this human race of ours (Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 11:9, &c.) 2. In the condition of the human race now, there are many things which we find it difficult to believe can be in accordance with God’s pleasure. E.g., in the Ten Commandments He has shown that certain things are pleasing and other things displeasing to Him; but in the conduct of men His pleasure in regard to all these things is set at nought. In the New Testament we are told that it is not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to knowledge of the truth; but the majority of the human race live and die ignorant of the salvation which His Son purchased for them at so great a cost. Remembering these things, there springs up in our minds a difficulty which shapes itself thus: If God could not order things according to His pleasure now, what guarantee have we that He will be able to order things according to His pleasure hereafter? A great assumption here! Another consideration seems at first somewhat to relieve the difficulty, viz., that nothing could exist were it not God’s pleasure that it should exist, for nothing could exist without His permission. But afterwards it appears to increase the difficulty, for what awful things He permits! Along this line we do not find that which dispels the mystery; no morning-sun dispersal of the mists that have lain all night along the valley. But we do find that which calms and strengthens us even when the mystery is full in our view. For the mystery has been permitted. By God, who is more than infinite in wisdom and irresistible in power; He is also absolute in righteousness and perfect in love. This, through faith, we are sure of. Therefore we are sure of another thing—that the pleasure which gave the permission that puzzles us was wise, righteous, merciful. Our faith goes beyond the old declaration concerning the mystery of evil, that it is a necessary result of the choice God made in the alternative that lay before Him—that of being content with the creation of a material universe, or of adding to it a moral universe, with all its tremendous evil possibilities. He was pleased to choose the latter, we believe also, because He foresaw that the blessings ultimately thus secured would infinitely transcend the evils that might temporarily result from it. Therefore it was a good pleasure. In this faith we are confirmed by the clear teaching of His Word that it is His custom to regard the results of a process or of an act more than the process or result itself. This is clearly brought out in what we are told— 1. As to the purpose of His dealings with His children. He often subjects them to purposes involving great pain, but the result is more than a compensation for all the pain (Hebrews 12:10). 2. As to His dealings with His Son. “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.” What an amazing declaration! What woe was involved in the “bruising!” It pleased Him, because He did not look only at the hours during which Jesus hung upon the cross.—In like manner, He was pleased to make the choice out of which woes so terrible have sprung, because He looked at the ultimate result, and saw that it would justify the choice. It will do more than that! At length, moreover, it will be seen that His pleasure was good, not only us it concerned the great family to which we belong, but also as it concerned each individual in that family. There is yet to be such disclosures concerning God’s complete dealings with such cases as are referred to in the preceding outline, as will show us that God’s providence is not like Turner’s paintings—pleasant when looked at only in the mass. We are sure, then, that the pleasure of the Lord is always a good pleasure; and 2, that it will be found to be a victorious pleasure. It will be found that it is not in vain that in Him omnipotence is allied to wisdom, righteousness, and love. This will be seen, 1, in regard to the redemptive work now in progress in each of His children (Jude 1:24). 2. In regard to the redemptive work now being carried on in the world by Christ (chap. Isaiah 53:6-7). The results will be a glorious fulfilment of a preceding prophecy (chap. Isaiah 45:23-25). Out of all this there should be practical outcomes. 1. As Christian men we should be valiant in our personal struggle against temptation (Romans 8:37). 2. As Christian workers we should be always diligent and hopeful, knowing that however hard our work may be, the success of that work is certain (1 Corinthians 15:58). A MEETING Isaiah 47:3. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. Little did Babylon think with whom she now had to contend. This was no empty threat. It was carried into full and fearful execution. Thus it has fared with other nations, and will, at last, with every impenitent sinner. There is a time of vengeance, as well as of mercy. Then God will meet His enemies, but not as a man. 1. When men are about to meet their enemies, it is generally their policy to keep up the show of peace and friendship as long as they can; and to make their preparations secretly, so that when they strike, the blow may fall without warning—without affording any time for escape. But it is not in this manner that God meets His enemies. He gives them warning upon warning. 2. God does not meet His enemies in vengeance, till He has tried every means to recover and reclaim them. The crime of rebellion is commonly visited, by earthly rulers, with immediate condign punishment. 3. God never meets His enemies in vengeance, without a just and sufficient cause. Men often do. 4. God’s anger is infinitely removed from that which burns in the breasts of His fallen creatures. He has no private resentment to gratify, no bye-ends to answer. He acts as a moral governor, as guardian of the interests of the universe. 5. When God will meet impenitent sinners, there is no hope of resisting Him. 6. When He does meet His enemies, it is with a fixed determination to crush them. He will not spare. 7. Men sometimes, when they undertake to crush an enemy, leave the work unfinished. But it is not thus that God will deal with His enemies. Wherever His vengeance strikes, the blow will be fatal. 8. After an earthly prince has subdued his rebellious subjects, and laid them under his high displeasure, he may be moved by their entreaties and sufferings to release them from prison, and restore them to favour. But God will never show favour in another world to those who refuse submission to Him in this, and die with arms in their hands. “Behold, now is the accepted time.” When God shall have cast the impenitent into hell, the last ray of light will be extinguished for ever.—Heman Humphrey, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. iv. pp. 269–274. THE BOAST OF BABYLON Isaiah 47:7. I shall be a lady for ever. The utterance of proud Babylon is identical with that of the vain and self-confident in all ages (Revelation 18:7). The delusion prosperity produces in such men, or nations, is always of this sort. This expression suggests that lengthened prosperity in the case of the ungodly leads to— I. False security (Psalms 49:6; Job 29:18). The tendency of riches and honour is to blind the heart to the future; and too often to steel it toward God. Who is so unconcerned about death as the miser? Who is so indifferent to the claims of God, as those (like Herod) who live upon the breath of popular applause? (H. E. I. 3997–4014.) II. Presumption. “A lady for ever,” i.e., in my own right, “no contingency can arise to deprive me of my title and wealth.” The prosperous man is tempted to forget he is as dependent upon God now as he was in the days of his adversity (Proverbs 30:8-9). III. Boasting. The vernacular of pride—“a lady,” superior to others. Prosperity leads its slaves to imagine they are a higher order of being. In God’s sight too! IV. Self-satisfaction. “A lady.” “I am that now. None will dispute it. I need aim no higher. I am rich, increased in goods,” &c. (Revelation 3:17). How dreadful the delusion! “Thou art wretched,” &c. (Revelation 3:17). V. Abandonment to luxury. “A lady for ever,” i.e., “I mean to be at ease, to enjoy life.” Let us beware, if our worldly position be prosperous, lest we live on the gifts, rather than on the Giver. Let us beware lest we appropriate the talents God has given us to our own ends. That is robbery. If the man who hid his Lord’s money was condemned, what shall be the doom of those who use it for self-indulgence? VI. Spiritual blindness. The certain future of man is declared. But the vain and foolish will not consider their latter end! Prosperity dazzles the eye; the future is wilfully disregarded. The cry of the world, though uttered in other dialects and in different words, is the boast of Babylon, “I shall be a lady for ever.” The boast is its belief. .—Remember the desolation of self-confident Babylon—widowhood, childlessness, poverty, famine, shame, disease, insanity, exile, death. Nor shall the future of those who disobey the Gospel be less dreadful or severe.—R. A. Griffin: Stems and Twigs, p. 256. THE NEGLECT OF Isaiah 47:7. Thou didst not lay these things to heart, neither didst thou remember the latter end of it. God warns before He strikes. He gives tokens and premonitions of His approaching judgments, before He proceeds to the fulfilment of His threatenings (Amos 3:7; Genesis 18:17, &c.) He would have men forewarned that they may be forearmed; that “that day” may not come upon them unawares. He condescends to forewarn His enemies as well as His friends. The men of the old world were warned by the preaching of Noah; the inhabitants of the cities of the plain by Lot; Babylon of her doom and desolation by Isaiah and the other prophets. It was a great enhancement of the guilt of Babylon, and the cause of a great aggravation of her doom, that these merciful warnings were despised; and woe will be unto us if we follow in the same track, and neglect the warnings that are addressed to us. I. THE COURSE OF CONDUCT . “Thou didst not lay these things to heart.” Though the desolation of Babylon was distinctly foretold—by Isaiah 160 years before the event; by Jeremiah fifty years; and by Daniel when the event was just at hand—yet she took no heed. Let him that is without sin cast the first stone! This insensibility to the threatened judgments of Heaven is— 1. Very common. It is the miserable result of depravity that we delay to the last what we ought to seek first. Though God warns us in every possible way—by His Word, by His providence, by the death of friends, by the calamities that occur around us, by the consequences of sin in the family circles of others—we continue blind and thoughtless. We see this in the young; in the busy, the enterprising, the prosperous; in those who are troubled and tried; in the confirmed and hardened transgressor. 2. Very sinful. It arises from guilt, and leads to greater guilt. It cannot be a trivial thing that God should speak to man, and that man should refuse to hear. 3. Very foolish. To the Babylonians the fabric of their power seemed so fair and strong that no human power could shake it; and they were much too far gone in presumption to dread the divine indignation. Their arrogance and conceit of their extended dominion and invincible prowess was so great, that it never entered into their mind that there was One above them, or that it was possible for them to fall into such calamities as were here threatened. But Babylon was not the first, and will not be the last, in whom the saying will be made good, that “pride goeth before a fall” (Psalms 10:4-6; Psalms 73:11-19). 4. Very dangerous. Dangerous because it hardens the man in sin, closes the heart to all heavenly influences, and opens it to those that are earthly and carnal: commits the man to the downward road, all his habits, pursuits, and tendencies impelling him in the one direction; does the work of Satan in the soul; darkens the light of reason and conscience; paves the way for greater departures from God, and blocks up the avenues of return (H. E. I. 1446–1456, 4232–4252). Dangerous because it grieves the Holy Spirit, and provokes Him utterly to depart from us. The business of salvation must be done in God’s time. Where has He given any man leave to put off repentance for a single day? He who bids you repent at all, bids you repent to-day. Those who put off repentance for another day, have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. II. THE FEARFUL —a type on a large scale of the overthrow of sinners. 1. The certainty of it. “Therefore hear now this.… these two things shall come to thee.” As certainly as she was guilty, careless, and impenitent, so certainly should the wrath of Heaven fall upon her, and fall the more heavily by reason of her hardened impiety and presumption. Impenitent sinner, think of the certainty of your overthrow! It is not more certain that he that believeth shall be saved, than that he that believeth not shall be damned; that the righteous shall go away into life eternal, than that the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment. 2. The suddenness of it. “Those two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day.” Your ruin may come from the quarter least expected: from the treachery of an accomplice; from your nearest and dearest friend; from an unguarded word from your own lip (Isaiah 47:11). Nothing heightens ruin like unexpectedness. The foolish virgins left in the outer darkness; Haman overthrown at the banquet of Esther; Belshazzar feasting with his nobles when his doom was written upon the wall; the Philistines triumphing when Samson pulled down the pillars of the temple; the man without the wedding garment who had actually taken his place at the wedding feast; Jonah had made good all his plans and preliminary movements, and was asleep when the storm came on (Proverbs 29:1). 3. The retributory character of it. An exact proportionment of the punishment to the crime. No undue severity shown even to Babylon (Isaiah 47:6; James 2:13; Revelation 18:5-6). Nor even to the chief of sinners. Always a just recompense of reward. 4. The utter hopelessness of those on whom it comes (Isaiah 47:12-15). .—The blessedness of those who have given wise heed to God’s merciful warnings. They have the best friend (Isaiah 47:4). The surest promises (Isaiah 48:15; Isaiah 48:17). A heavenly home.—Samuel Thodey. ATHEISM AND GENUINE PIETY Isaiah 47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me. Genesis 16:13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. Here is— I. ATHEISM. “Thou hast said, None seeth me,” i.e., God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine Omniscience (Psalms 10:11; Psalms 94:7). That the self-existent and eternal God should not see is a palpable absurdity (Psalms 94:8-10). This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature. “This practical atheism is very prevalent and pernicious at the present time. Immense numbers utter the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ regularly, who exclude God from almost every province of their life. In the formation of their plans, in the management of their business, in their relations to society, &c., ‘God is not in all their thoughts.’ ” They act as if God did not see them. They are no more restrained in their conduct than they would be if this was their deliberate conviction, or than if they had settled it in their minds that God is regardless of human actions. “The causes of this tendency are not inherent in human nature, but are (1.) Dislike of God. (2.) Dread of God.” II. GENUINE PIETY. “Thou God seest me.” Heb.: “Thou (art a) God of seeing—of vision.” God sees as well as hears (Jacobus). This pious utterance suggests a solemn fact in human history—that God sees us. 1. The very nature of God implies this. The supposition that there is anything that God does not see involves a contradiction. 2. The Bible teaches this (Job 34:21-22; Psalms 139:1-4; Psalms 139:11-12; Psalms 139:15-16; Jeremiah 23:24; Amos 9:2-3; Acts 17:27-28; Hebrews 4:13). The case of Hagar is a remarkable illustration—a sudden and surprising conviction that God sees and knows all (Genesis 16:13-14). III. GENERAL WHICH THIS SUBJECT CONVEYS. Such as these:— 1. It warns the wicked. Secret as their sins may seem, they are all discerned and known by Him who is their Judge (Job 34:21-22). 2. It should restrain us from evil. “The eye of a child will effectually check the execution of some evil purposes; more the eye of man or woman; yet more the eye of a holy man or woman. But God’s eye sees all things everywhere. And He is perfectly holy!” 3. It should incite us to a beautiful and useful life—beautiful in its spirit, and useful in its moral influence. “The athletes of Greece and Rome were inspired to run or wrestle by the knowledge of the fact that they were surrounded by a vast assembly of spectators (Hebrews 12:1). Oh! if we but, realised God’s presence, our life would become brave and beautiful and holy. God is not only present everywhere, but everywhere present to inspire, and aid, and bless.” 4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. There is One who knows all things that relate to them, and who can with the utmost ease adapt all circumstances and events to their good. They are always under their great Master’s eye.—Alfred Tucker. IGNORED Isaiah 47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me. I. This notion has great influence upon the conduct of man. Such a notion is convenient. Offenders against man retire to the dark when they mean to perpetrate their evil deeds. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. Because they sometimes, perhaps often, escape the most watchful human eyes, they fancy it possible to escape the eye of God. They would have no interest whatever in reaching this conclusion, if they never wished to do anything wrong. The sinner persuades himself of two or three things: he has gained his end; he has escaped observation; he has avoided the punishment. It is not necessary that all this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt. II. This notion is utterly untruthful and delusive. Whether our sinful deeds are seen by man or not, there is One to whom they are open as the day. If there is a God at all, this must be so. If you persuade yourself that God does not see, you persuade yourself that God is not. That part of the universe which God does not know, has no God. He who does not know everything is limited; therefore he is not God. But you cannot see Him. When you cannot see a man, you infer that he is not present. So with God. Thus you require that which would argue Him nothing more than a man after all. The spirituality of the Divine nature makes it possible for Him to be everywhere and see everything. III. God has often, in human experiences, shown the delusiveness of this notion, and the time is fixed for the complete demonstration of its delusiveness. 1. Character is often seen through by man. 2. Retribution often follows man’s deeds in the present world. Joseph’s brethren, Achan, and Saul. 3. The future state will show that God saw. At the judgment day the books will be opened. What is written there will prove that sin was seen. Hell will be an everlasting proof. .—Sinner, God sees you; has seen you all along. Be warned, Christian! 1. Be encouraged and comforted by the thought that God sees. He sees the good and their goodness. Be more constantly influenced by this thought. (1.) Let it restrain from sin. (2.) Let it stimulate to holy obedience and earnest work (H. E. I. 2257–2267).—J. R., in the Pulpit Analyst.It would probably be an aid to excellence of life, if we would suppose some distinguished person always looking upon us. We are often deterred from evil by fear of the disapproval of some one whose good opinion we value. The thought of the Divine observation exerts an important influence on the conduct of such as believe it. It is unspeakably pleasant to those who regard Him as an ever-present friend, with whom they are in full sympathy, whom they desire to please. To those who do not regard Him as their friend, who are not in sympathy with Him, and who pursue a course of conduct contrary to His nature, it is repugnant. Hence men who desire to live in sin persuade themselves that He does not see their actions. This persuasion of sinners is convenient to them, but it is delusive and mischievous. I. IT IS A . 1. It is adopted because of its convenience. It is on that account open to suspicion. The mind, in taking it, was not in the most favourable condition for the ascertainment of truth. Why is it convenient to say God does not see? Because there is a desire to do what He does not approve. When the fraudulent merchant remains alone in his office, manipulating his accounts so as to defraud his creditors; when the impure retire behind the curtains of the night and of the chamber; when the burglar disguises himself, and in darkness plies his nefarious occupation; when the murderer watches for his victim in the depths of the forest, it is for the same reason. 2. It rests on an insecure negation. In its most pronounced form, it amounts to a denial of the Divine existence. We will not say that all Atheists are persons whose immoral lives have rendered it impossible to retain comfort along with belief in God (H. E. I. 369); but it is certain that a large proportion of the Atheism around us has no better ground than this. A man in conflict with God’s character takes refuge in the denial of His existence. Or, while not formally denying it, he persuades himself that the Divine Being is too great to concern Himself with the small affairs and acts of mortals. Or, perhaps more frequently in the strong confidence that no human eye is upon him, the sinner crowds out of his mind the fact that the Divine Eye is upon him. He does not distinctly deny it, but he practically ignores it; and, hurried on by the strength of passion, forgets that he should have taken more than his fellow-men into consideration. Hence— 3. It becomes a welcome encouragement to sin. The heart is inclined to sin, and only restrained by the fear of punishment. Then if the fear of punishment is removed by the persuasion that there is no witness, the barrier is thrown down, the sinful inclination will be indulged. Gehazi never thought that the watchful eye of God had been upon his proceedings. Beware upon what grounds you release yourself from the restraint imposed by the recognition of God’s personal presence everywhere. II. IT IS A . The sinner says none sees him. But there are moments when he suspects that he may have deceived himself. Conscience will sometimes whisper the question, “What if God, after all, has been observant of the sin?” How frequently do transgressors find that they have not been so secluded from man as they supposed! Some unclosed crevice through which the deed has been seen. Subtle links of evidence are discovered and placed together so as to make a chain by which the most hidden crimes are dragged to light. And it is unquestionably a delusion that GOD does not see. The sinner forgets the immense difficulties in the way of his convenient persuasion. He forgets that before he is in a position to say there is no God to see, he must know everything in the universe. Because the thing beyond his present knowledge may be this—that there is a God. Or if he supposes that, a God existing, He does not concern Himself with men, he forgets that the idea of a personal God carries with it this notion of His intimate acquaintance with everything about His creatures.—(H. E. I. 4015.) What does He say about Himself in this respect? Does not the idea that He sees man’s acts run through His Word? (Psalms 94:9; Psalms 139:1-12). In other words, God’s acquaintance with our life and ways comprehends everything, however minute. Men practise a delusion on themselves when they imagine He does not see them. III. IT IS A . Inasmuch as human nature is so largely influenced by the fact that there are witnesses of our conduct, it is a mischievous withdrawment of influence for good when the witness whose approbation is the most important is supposed to be withdrawn. From those who are only deterred from evil by the consciousness of being seen or the fear of punishment, it is like the withdrawment of the master’s eye from the unfaithful servant. It opens the way to the commission and multiplication of sin. It increases the danger and the measure of punishment. Sin is the material out of which punishment is made. It sometimes overtakes sinners in the present world. For the most part it is deferred to the future state, perhaps to afford time and opportunity for the sinner’s repentance. It only falls in its full weight when the sinner has finally rejected the overtures of God’s grace. However secretly sin may have been committed, the judgment-day will reveal it (Matthew 25.; H. E. I. 3055). The conduct we are building up in our daily life is preparing the sentence of the Judge. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. It fascinates with its eye, but it destroys with its sting. It will find out the sinner, though he retire to the deepest darkness or the remotest corner of the earth. Cherish the belief in God’s constant presence and inspection. The very fact of unwillingness to be seen by Him shows a consciousness of something that dare not meet His eye. But is it not better to abandon that something, whatever it is, than delude ourselves with the persuasion that God does not see? Drusus would have all the city see his manner of life. Oh that we all so lived that the thought of God’s constant supervision could be a joy! The eye of His infinite holiness is upon us. With infinite approbation He sees the struggle against evil. With sorrowful condemnation He sees the sin. Fear to sin. Cultivate the disposition to please God. Suppress the inclination to the thing that would wish to elude His eye (H. E. I. 2257–2261).—J. Rawlinson. (Sunday School Sermon.) Isaiah 47:10. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee. Heavy are the charges laid against the great and guilty city of Babylon. Not only had she dealt unmercifully with God’s people (Isaiah 47:6), but her profligacy, luxury, pride, effeminacy, and wickedness were excessive (Isaiah 47:7-8; Isaiah 47:10). she was withal superstitious and idolatrous in the highest degree (Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12-13). What was the fruitful cause of all these abominations? Was it brutal ignorance, or barbarous uncultivation? No: it was just the reverse. Alas for the philosophers and wise men of this world! all the abominations of Babylon are here traced to human wisdom and science: “Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.” A proposition which runs counter to many prevalent opinions and prejudices. Let us, then, I. EXAMINE AND THIS . 1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! The same which opposed Moses in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Paul at Athens: secular learning, the cultivation of the intellect, philosophy in its deepest and most subtle forms; for to this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners! in a word, it was all that the mind of man could attain without revelation. 2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting men’s minds in morals and religion. This is expressly done in this chapter. Ezekiel affirms the same of the great mercantile city of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:3-6). St. Paul came more into contact with this worldly wisdom than any of the Apostles, and he was perhaps more capable of appreciating its true character; and he uniformly condemns it (1 Corinthians 1:21-27; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; Romans 1:22-23). 3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims. Superstitions, vices, and infidelity have prevailed in those countries where, and exactly at those times when, carnal wisdom has been most highly cultivated. Egypt was the birthplace and cradle of science; and in no country was idolatry more degrading. The scriptural account of the state of Babylon, where science was nurtured and developed, is corroborated by profane history. Its abominable vices could not be here detailed. The greatest sages of Greece are all chargeable with either practising or inculcating the grossest vices. The moral atrocities of the French Revolution, when Reason was deified in the person of an infamous woman, prove that time cannot alter the deteriorating tendency of unassisted human intellect. 4. All this is accounted for by the Scripture account of the fall of man. If that account is correct, no other results can follow (Job 14:4). Equally with his other powers, the intellect of man was impaired by the fall of Adam, and became the ally of his polluted heart. The first example of its exercise was an instance of false reasoning against God Himself (Genesis 3:12). See also Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Ephesians 4:18. Hence it follows that intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power. 5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue; but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can. Let us therefore consider— II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH AGAINST ALL THESE EVILS. Because we declare the moral powerlessness of merely human knowledge, our enemies affirm that we are the patrons of ignorance and bigotry, wish the mind to stagnate, and desire to repress scientific inquiries. Groundless charges. We fear not the progress of philosophy, if she be guided by religion; nor the wisdom of man, if it be in subordination to the wisdom of God. This is the remedy of the intellectual and moral evils of our time. 1. The supreme need of this generation is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men (see vol. i. pp. 373–378). 2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted to mankind by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. The preaching of the Gospel. The instruction of children in Divine truth (H. E. I. 793, 794, 803–806, 1751, 1771). REMARKS.— 1. Let us beware of the pride of mental cultivation. 2. Let all our knowledge, and all our mental powers, be consecrated to the service of God. 3. Let the poor and simple rejoice that moral and spiritual excellence are attainable by them.—F. Close, A. M.: Fifty-Two Sketches of Sermons, pp. 177–183. THE OF PROUD SINNERS Isaiah 47:10-11. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, &c.In the Babylonians we have types of proud sinners in every age—both in regard to their fancied security and the end of it. I. THEIR FANCIED . “I shall be a lady for ever. I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isaiah 47:7-8). The calamities that might come upon other men would not touch them! They were vainly confident of the perpetuity of their pomps and pleasures. Observe— 1. The cause of their fancied security. They thought themselves safe and out of danger, not because they were ignorant of the uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments, and the inevitable fate that attends states and kingdoms as well as particular persons, but because they did not lay this to heart (Isaiah 47:7), did not apply it to themselves, nor give it a due consideration. They lulled themselves asleep in ease and pleasure (chap. Isaiah 56:12). They did not remember the latter end (Isaiah 47:7) of their prosperity, that it is a fading flower, and will wither; of their iniquity, that it will be bitterness; and that the day will come when their injustice and oppression must be reckoned for and punished. To-day ungodly men are easy in their sinful ways, because they never think of death, and judgment, and their future state. 2. The ground of their fancied security. (1.) Their power and wealth, which they had gotten by fraud and oppression, were their confidence (Isaiah 47:10). Like Doeg (Psalms 52:7). Many have so debauched their own consciences, and are got to such a daring pitch of wickedness, that they stick at nothing; and this they trust to, to carry them through those difficulties which embarrass men who make conscience of what they say and do. (2.) Their policy and craft, which they called their wisdom, were their confidence. They thought they could out-wit all mankind, and therefore might set their enemies at defiance; but their wisdom and knowledge perverted them—made them forget themselves and the preparation necessary to be made for hereafter. 3. The foolish boastings into which their fancied security betrayed them. (1.) “I shall be a lady for ever” (Isaiah 47:7). Babylon looked upon the patent of her honour to be not merely during the pleasure of the sovereign Lord, the fountain of honour, or during her own good behaviour, but to be perpetual (cf. Revelation 18:7). Those great ones mistake themselves who think they shall be exalted for ever; death will shortly lay them and their honour in the dust. Saints shall be saints for ever, but those who are merely this world’s great ones will be what they are only for a little while (H. E. I. 1537). (2.) “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isaiah 47:8), i.e., she would never lack a monarch to espouse and protect her, nor would there be any diminution in the numbers of her people. Those that are in the height of prosperity are apt to fancy themselves out of the reach of adverse fate (Psalms 10:4-6). (3.) “None seeth me” (Isaiah 47:10), i.e., “No one sees me when I do amiss, and therefore there will be none to call me to an account.” It is common for sinners to trust to their wicked arts and designs to stand them in stead, because they think they have carried them on so plausibly that none can discern the wickedness and deceit of them. How foolish are they in their wickedness! (Psalms 139:11-12.) II. ITS END. It will be ruin (Isaiah 47:11) 1. It will be a complete ruin—the ruin of all their comforts and confidences. “These two things shall come upon thee (the very two things thou didst set at defiance), loss of children and widowhood. Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so that thou shalt be no more a government, no more a nation.” Note, God often brings upon secure sinners those very mischiefs which they thought themselves least in danger of; “they shall come upon thee in their perfection, with all their aggravating circumstances, and without anything to allay or mitigate them.” What a contrast between the afflictions of the godly and of the godless! 2. It will be a sudden and surprising ruin. The evil shall come in one day, nay in a moment (Isaiah 47:9), which will make it much the more terrible, especially to those who were so very secure. “Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt have neither time nor way to provide against it, or to prepare for it; for ‘thou shalt not know from whence it rises,’ and therefore shalt not know where to stand upon thy guard.” “Thou shalt not know the morning thereof;” so the Hebrew phrase is. We know just when and where the day will break and the sun rise, but we know not what the day, when it is come, will bring forth, nor when or where trouble will arise; perhaps the storm may come from that point of the compass which we little thought of. Babylon pretended to great wisdom and knowledge (Isaiah 47:10), but with all her wisdom cannot foresee, nor with all her wisdom prevent, the ruin threatened (Isaiah 47:11). Fair warning of this desolation was indeed given them by the prophets of the Lord; but they slighted that notice, and therefore justly is it so ordered that they should have no other notice of it, but that, partly through their own security, and partly through the swiftness and subtility of the enemy, when it came it should be a perfect surprise to them. Those that slight the warnings of the written Word, let them not expect any other premonition. 3. It will be an irresistible ruin (Isaiah 47:11). There is no opposing the judgments of God when they come with commission. Babylon herself, with all her wealth, power, and multitude, is not able to put off the mischief that comes.—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco. FALSE Isaiah 47:11-15, Therefore shall evil come upon thee, &c.I. Look at this picture of utter and painful bewilderment. This is the necessary and inevitable result of sin. 1. We have been warned of it. 2. A way of escape has been made. II. Hear the divine challenge addressed to the false powers in which we have trusted, as money, chance, self-confidence, atheism. 1. They ought to be most useful when most needed. 2. They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness. See text. (1.) There is to be a great collision. (2.) In that collision only the true can stand. III. See the doom of false securities. 1. Let no man complain of want of opportunity of estimating the value of his moral securities; or, 2. Of having been allowed to live unwarned. .— 1. We cannot escape the trial of our securities. 2. If we set ourselves against God, we challenge all the forces of His creation—fire, wind, flood, pestilence, &c.—J. C. Gray: Biblical Museum, in loco.THE PORTION OF THE UNGODLY. [1474][1474] A minister, living at Wisbech, authenticates the following singular case of conversion through our sermon on “The Portion of the Ungodly,” No. 444. The writer says in a recent letter to us, “Seventeen years ago it pleased the Lord to permit me to dream that the end of the world was come, and in my dream I saw the saints rising with the Lord Jesus to glory. I was left, and near me, upon a large quantity of stubble stood an acquaintance who addressed me thus:—They used to say in the other world that we should be in fire, but it is not so.’ In a moment flames burst out, and in my fright I awoke. A few days after my dream my friend and I heard you preach at the Tabernacle. Judge how great was our surprise when you announced for your text, Isaiah 47:14, ‘Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.’ ” In August, 1876, a severe affliction, the dream, and our sermon resulted in our friend’s conversion.—Rev. C H. Spurgeon, in the Sword and Trowel, vol. xv. pp. 294, 295. Isaiah 47:14. Behold, they shall be as stubble, &c.Part of a terrible description of God’s judgment upon Babylon and Chaldea. It is a truth beyond dispute that God’s justice is not partial; that the description of the destruction which He awards to one class of sinners is a most fair picture of what He will do with others, for God hath not two or three ways of dealing with men in His justice. The ruin of Chaldea is to us, to-day, a representation and metaphorical description of the destruction which shall surely come upon impenitent sinners when the Lord cometh out of His place to “judge His enemies,” &c. At first sight the figures in our text seem contradictory. I. THE FIRST FIGURE. The punishment of the wicked will be, 1. “easily inflicted.” “They shall be as stubble.” Nothing can be more easy than to kindle stubble when it is fully dry. So shall it be with impenitent sinners. (1.) The power of memory shall become a vehicle of sorrow. (2.) Conscience. (3.) Increased knowledge. Now you know enough to leave you without excuse, but then your knowledge shall increase so as to leave thee without pretence of apology. (4.) Companions. 2. Most searching and terrible. The metaphor of fire is used in Scripture, because it is that which of all things causeth most pain, and is the most searching and trying. 3. Most inevitable. “They shall not,” &c. There is hope now; there shall be no hope then. How can it be avoided? Man has no strength to match the Most High; no wisdom to invent another plan of salvation; no ability to hide from God’s presence. If you profess to be a Christian nominally, you believe this—one of the fundamental truths of revelation. II. THE SECOND FIGURE. “There shall not be a coal,” &c.; by which is meant that there shall be nothing in hell that can give the sinner a moment’s comfort. Nothing as the soul lifts its eye to heaven, for that is lost. Nothing in hell itself, for the more there are, the more wretched. Nothing in themselves, nor in their thoughts. Nothing in God, for the sting of all the punishment will be—“I deserve it; I brought this on myself.” Nothing in the past, for that will give agony. Nothing in the soul’s present condition. Nothing in their future condition, for they shall never see the shadow of a hope. III. “BEHOLD.” Turn not away your eyes from this meditation. Children of God, behold it; it will make you grateful; make you love poor sinners. Unconverted sinner, behold it. Better to think of it now than to think of it for ever. If false, reject it; but if real, meditate upon these things; and may God lead you out of self to Christ. “Turn ye,” &c.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 444. A CALL TO THE (Fourth Sunday in Advent.) Isaiah 46:12-13. Hearken unto Me, ye stout-hearted, &c.Referred at first to local and national circumstances, but addressed to the men of every generation—to ourselves in our own circumstances, rendered more obvious and striking by the near approach of the joyful season of Christmas. I. God’s dealings with mankind have been all of a character which may be called unexpected. No reason can be given why men should be redeemed, rather than fallen angels, save that it so pleased Him who “worketh all things,” &c. Suppose that God had left the world to itself for many ages; suppose Him breaking the silence of centuries, of what nature would the world expect the summons to be if roused in the midst of its profligacy by the call, “Hearken,” &c.? Would it not be a message of wrath, &c.? It never could have been expected, that after such a summons would follow such words as are found in the text. II. Having summoned the stout-hearted to hearken, the words that follow are specially adapted to their case—contain the motives which are most likely to bring them to contrition and repentance. The nearness of salvation is made an argument with the ungodly why they should turn from evil courses, just as preached by the Baptist—“Repent ye, for,” &c. The argument may not seem at first to be one of extraordinary force, but there is an energy and a persuasiveness in the approach of a Redeemer which may vainly be looked for in the approach of any other persons, or any other event. Apply this argument. God goes on to speak with more distinctness of His purposes of mercy: “And I will place,” &c. Refers originally to what Christ would accomplish at His first appearing in Judea, and also what He would effect at His second advent. But if we confine our thoughts to what has been already effected, we have sufficient material from which to prove the accomplishment of the text. “Righteousness” is the salvation which God promises to be at hand. This is the most faithful description of the deliverance provided through the mediation of Christ, for that deliverance to righteousness which God provided for His own honour whilst providing for our rescue (Romans 9:30, &c.) And not only is salvation the righteousness of all, because it provides that God shall be just while the justifier; it is emphatically “God’s righteousness,” inasmuch as it communicates a righteousness to man which by his own strivings he could not have attained. It does this in two ways—by imputing Christ’s righteousness, and by working righteousness in us by the operation of the Holy Spirit. And this salvation God placed in Zion, for it was only by the going up of the Mediator as a victim to the altar that the curse of the law was exhausted and the honour of the Divine attributes secured. Ages have no power to weaken or remove it. Still is virtue going out from Zion mighty as when the first Atonement was made. But we look for a yet nobler and ampler accomplishment of the prophecy (Isaiah 25:6-8; Isaiah 63:1). “For Israel my glory.” Wonderful words! That fallen man should be His glory is an inexplicable mystery apart from Redemption. A redeemed creature is emphatically the glory of God.—H. Melvill, B.A.: Sermons, 1853, pp. 562–568. I. A CALL OF GOD TO THE AND . “Hearken unto Me ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness.” 1. This call may be said to apply to three classes— (1.) To the spiritually deaf; (2.) To the spiritually obdurate; (3.) To the spiritually destitute—“Far from righteousness.” 2. This call is entitled to our immediate and most earnest attention. (1.) Because it concerns our eternal destiny; (2.) Because it is God’s call. II. WITH THIS CALL IS THE AND OF . “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry.” Of this salvation, thus provided and so easily available, we reremark that— 1. It is Divine in its origin and nature. “I bring;” “my salvation.” 2. It is prompt in its announcement and delivery. The text signifies anything but delay, anything but cold and indifferent pauses. God makes haste to be gracious. He observes due time. and sent His Son in the fulness of time, He is slow to anger, but plenteous in mercy. As the prodigal’s father ran to meet him, so does God to save man. 3. It is mercifully adapted to the sinner’s condition. (1.) He deserves threatening, but obtained instead mercy’s rich promise. God might justly have followed the call by threatening; but rather than this, there is a beautiful transition from the severe to the tender, from the prelude of thunder to the sweet and gentle music of love. It is a beautiful gradation from law to grace. (2.) He deserves the loss of redemptive privileges, but is offered a near salvation. (3.) He deserves present punishment, but is offered a timely pardon. III. GOD HIS CHURCH THE OF THIS . “I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.” Here we see— 1. That the church is the world’s house of mercy. 2. That the church is entrusted with the most solemn responsibilities. 3. That the church is God’s glory and object of honour. “For Israel my glory.”—Thomas Colclough in the “Lau Preacher,” vol. iii. p. 123. I. THE OF SINNERS. 1. “Stout-hearted”—stubborn, obdurate, hard. In Ezekiel 11:19 we have a striking and instructive figure describing the condition of unconverted sinners: “The stony heart”—as hard, as cold, as barren, and as dead as a stone! 2. “Far from righteousness”—rightness in heart, in habit, and in life. Morally wrong. Alienated from God. All are naturally wrong (Romans 3:10). Yet some talk of moral excellence in fallen creatures, &c. The Bible acknowledges no real excellence but what arises from a work of grace upon the soul. Sin has defaced the moral excellences of man (Jeremiah 17:9; Genesis 6:5; Romans 8:7). “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”—fallen, corrupt, subject to the law of the Fall. “Ye must be born again.” II. THE MERCY OF GOD. Has provided a method of deliverance from this deplorable condition. “I bring near my righteousness,” &c. This deliverance God brings near (Romans 10:6-9). Your wrongness may be brought to a final end. The gospel is the grand provision for the restoration of righteousness in fallen and sinful men (2 Corinthians 5:21, &c.) Though by nature “far off,” you may be brought “nigh by the blood of Christ.” III. THE DUTY TO WHICH SINNERS ARE . “Hearken unto Me.” When God speaks, it behoves us to listen (Hebrews 2:2-3). Hearken to His voice—immediately, earnestly, practically, constantly. “Hear, and your soul shall live.”—Alfred Tucker. A SAD Isaiah 48:1-2. Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, &c.Here is, I. Privilege. II. Form. III. Profession. IV. Yet no religion.—J. Lyth, D.D.: The Homiletical Treasury, Isaiah, p. 65. THE AND USE OF Isaiah 48:3. I have declared the former things, &c.I. Is it quite plain that any being that is distinguished above others must be exalted, either by knowledge or by power, or by both? Hence God is known in this way, and chiefly by knowledge. II. The uses of inspired predictions. 1. Study the book that contains them. 2. Watch God’s providence, and see how it fulfils His word. 3. Learn from hence to admire and adore the omniscience and faithfulness of God. 4. Expect all that God has predicted, both for time and eternity.—Dr. J. Bennett. Biblical Museum, in loco. GOD’S TO MANKIND Isaiah 48:6-8. I have showed thee new things, &c.I. The manner of God’s communications. Prophetic, addressed to the ear, and concerning things hidden from human reason. Providential, addressed to the eye. (In dealing with Isaiah 48:7, show— 1. Man’s tendency to intellectual pride. 2. How this is checked by God’s method of revelation.) II. The manner in which they are received. With inattention; without understanding; with wilful impenitence—all arising out of natural corruption.—J. Lyth, D.D.: The Homiletical Treasury, Isaiah, p. 65. GOD’S OF MAN’S SIN Isaiah 48:8. Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not, &c.The ancient people of God were most vexatiously stolid; and although the Lord taught them very plainly and repeatedly, line upon line, &c., yet they would not understand His will. Though taught by God-sent prophets, yet the people refused to be instructed. As in a looking-class, let us see ourselves! Let the unconverted man see his own picture! God has spoken quite as pointedly to you as ever He did to the seed of Israel. He has called you by providences, &c. Three times a yea is put into our text, as if to show God’s wonder at man’s obstinacy, and the certainty that such was the state of the heart. More painful still is it to remember, that in a certain degree the same accusation may be laid at the door of believers. Even they have not such a degree of spiritual sensibility as they should have. Alas! we may well bewail ourselves that we do not hear the voice of God as we ought. Having thus reminded you of your sin, trusting we may be led to confess it with deep humility, I have now an encouraging truth to tell you, a very simple one, that all this folly, and ignorance, and obstinacy, and rebellion on our part, was foreknown by God; and notwithstanding that foreknowledge, He yet has been pleased to deal with us in a way of mercy. I. I ADDRESS THIS TRUTH TO THE . 1. A mournful fact, “I knew,” &c. That word “treacherously” is one which a man would not like to have applied to himself in the common transactions of life; he would feel it to be very galling, and if there were truth in it, very degrading; and yet I question whether it will produce the same effect upon our minds when it is applied to us in relation to unfaithfulness to God. How treacherous we have been to our own vows and promises when we were first converted! This is not all. It is not merely that we have failed in promises which were made in a period of excitement, but we have been treacherous to obligations which were altogether apart from voluntary vows on our part; we have been treacherous to the most blessed relationships which mercy could have instituted. Have you not lived as if you were your own? As soldiers, by cowardice, disobedience, and desertion, we have been treacherous to a very shameful degree. Worst of all is the fact that we have been treacherous to our Lord in a relationship where fidelity constitutes the very essence of bliss, the marriage bond which exists between our soul and Christ. 2. The Divine statement of the text, that all this was known. It was no secret that we were transgressors from the womb. As the Lord foreknew the fountain of sin, so He knew all the streams which would gush from it. There are no things unknown to God. We never have surprised the Most High; we never have brought Him to such a position that He could say, “I did not know this.” We have never gone into any sin of which it could be said concerning God, that He did not know that it would so be wrought by us. 3. Seeing that this is most certain and sure, adore the amazing grace of God. You have dealt very treacherously, and yet you were redeemed not with silver and gold, &c., and you have been adopted into the Lord’s family. 4. This truth is very important to us, because in the light of it our security is clearly manifest. God can never be obstructed by a circumstance in us which can create surprise in His mind, or throw His course out of His reckoning. 5. This truth, also, should tend very much to enhance our sense of the fulness which is treasured up in Christ Jesus. The Lord our God has provided for us in Christ for all the necessities that can occur, for He has foreknown all these necessities. II. I APPLY THIS TRUTH TO THE . You have discovered lately the natural vileness of your heart, &c. You have a deep regret for your long delay in seeking mercy. You are willing to acknowledge that there have been special aggravations in your case. Now, the gospel of Jesus Christ is sent to you in the state in which you now are. All these sins, delays, aggravations, and rebellions of yours, were all foreknown to God; therefore, since He has sent the Gospel to you, be not slow to accept it, since it is not possible that your sins, whatever they may be, can at all militate against the fact that, if you believe and receive the Gospel, you shall be saved. Why invent a scheme by which a rebel might be saved, if He foreknew that on account of sin that rebel never could be pardoned? Do you think God would have gone farther—gone to the vast expense of providing a Saviour, if really the Gospel were null and void? He maketh not an exception. Though a man had daubed himself a thousand times with the blackest filth that ever came from hell, yet, if he believes in Jesus, God must be true to His solemn promise (H. E. I. 2332–2337).—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 779. THE OF GOD’S Isaiah 48:9. For My name’s sake, &c.It is possible that the design of this verse may be to answer an objection. “If the character of the nation is such,” it might be said, “why should God desire to restore them again to their own land?” To this the answer is, it was not on their account—not because they were deserving of His favour, nor was it primarily and mainly in order that they might be happy. It was on His own account—in order to show His covenant faithfulness, His mercy, &c. And this is the reason why He “defers His anger” in relation to any of the children of men. His own glory, and not their happiness, is the main object in view. And this is right. The glory, the honour, and the happiness of God, are of more importance than the welfare of any of His creatures. 1. God acts with reference to His own glory, in order to manifest His own perfections, and to secure His praise. 2. The reason why the wicked are not cut off sooner in their transgressions is, that He may show His forbearance, and secure praise by long-suffering. 3. The reason why the righteous are kept amidst their frequent failures in duty, their unfaithfulness, and their many imperfections, is that God may get glory by showing His covenant fidelity. 4. It is one evidence of piety, and one that is indispensable, that there should be a willingness that God should secure His own glory in His own way, and that there should be a constant desire that His praise should be promoted, whatever may befall His creatures.—A. Barnes, D.D.: Commentary on Isaiah, in loco.MERCY’S MASTER MOTIVE Isaiah 48:9-11. “For My name’s sake will I defer Mine anger,” &c.The people of Israel, in all their generations, were full of evil. The Lord falls back upon Himself, and within Himself finds a reason for His grace. “For my name’s sake,” &c. Finding a motive in His own glory which was bound up in the existence of Israel, and would have been compromised by their destruction, He turned unto them in love and kindness; Cyrus wrote the decree of emancipation, the Israelites came back to the land, and once again they sat every man under his own vine and fig-tree, and ate the good of the land. So far we give the historical meaning of the passage. We shall now use the text as an illustration of Divine love in other cases, for from one deed of grace we may learn all. As God dealt with His people Israel after the flesh, in the same manner He dealeth with His people Israel after the spirit; and His mercies towards His saints are to be seen as in a mirror in His wondrous loving-kindness towards the seed of Abraham. I shall take the text to illustrate— I. THE OF THE SINNER. 1. God finds him so utterly ruined and depraved, that in him there is no argument for mercy, no plea for grace. You have been obstinate in sin; impudent in your dealing with God; your brow has been brass. You have behaved very treacherously towards God. You have broken your vows of repentance, &c. 2. God Himself finds the reason for His mercy. Here is the drift of the thought—the Lord is a patient God, and determines to make His patience glorious. God also would illustrate in the salvation of a sinner, not only His patience, but His sovereign and abundant mercy towards sinners. God can, by saving such a one as thou art, not only glorify His patience and grace, but display His power. It is evident that it is not an easy task to conquer thee. But now, it may be that a soul here present is saying, “Well, I can see that God can thus find a motive for mercy in Himself, when there is none in the sinner, but why is it that the Lord is chastening me as He is?” Possibly you are sick in body, have been brought low in estate, and are grievously depressed in mind. God now, in our text, goes on to explain— 3. His dealings with you, that you may not have one hard thought of Him. It is true He has been smiting you, but it has been with a purpose and in measure. “I have refined thee, but not with silver.” You have been put into the furnace of affliction, but not—note the “but,”—“but not with silver.” Now, when silver is refined it requires the most vehement heat of all metals. God has not brought upon you the severest troubles. You have been chastised, but not as you might have been, nor as you deserved to have been. 4. The Lord declares that the time of trial is the chosen season for revealing His love to you: “I have chosen thee,” &c. God seeth the things that thall be as though they were; everything is now with Him. 5. Lest the soul should forget it, the Lord repeats again the point He began with, and unveils the motives of His grace once more. What is the 11th verse but the echo of the 9th? God cannot save you, sinner, for your own sake; you are not worth the saving. Yet the Lord declares that He will refrain from wrath. He will have mercy upon you, O broken heart, for His own sake. Plead the merits of Christ, &c. If you will go to Him in Christ Jesus, though you be all but damned already, and feel that your death-warrant is signed; He will not, He cannot, reject you. Throw yourself at the cross-foot, and say, “Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief;” and God will never tarnish His name by thy destruction. And then He adds, “And I will not give my glory unto another.” But if a soul should perish while trusting in the blood of Christ, the glory of God would go over to Satan. II. THE OF THE . 1. Backsliding professor, your case is more evidently meant in the text even than that of the sinner, for God was speaking to His own people Israel in these remarkable words. Now your crime, if anything, is a more censurable one than that of the sinner. I can see no more reason why God should have mercy upon you than upon the ungodly; indeed, I see more reason for punishing you, for you have made a profession and belied it. How great your guilt! You see there is no reason for God’s grace that can be found in your person or in your character, but it is found in the divine heart. 2. Observe, that God, having thus declared the reason of His love to the backslider, goes on to tell him that the present sufferings, which he is now enduring as the result of his backslidings, should be mitigated. “I have refined thee, but not with silver,” &c. 3. Then comes His next word: “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Though you are not open backsliders, perhaps you may be worse than those who are. .—Let us go one and all, whether we be unsaved sinners or backsliders, or may suspect ourselves to be either the one or the other—let us go to the dear fountain of His blood, whose open veins are the gates of healing to us; and together let us rejoice that He for His mercy’s sake can save us, and magnify Himself by the deed of mercy.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1041. THE FURNACE OF Isaiah 48:10. I have chosen thee, &c.No one can read the history of God’s ancient people without perceiving the wonderful compassion of God. Their numerous transgressions frequently call for the exercise of His justice; but He spared them in mercy. Sometimes He exercised them with heavy trials, placing them in the furnace of affliction; and it appears from the context that a consignment to such an ordeal has been salutary in its influence. A furnace is a fireplace or crucible for melting and refining gold or other metals (Proverbs 17:3; Proverbs 27:21). Sometimes it is the emblem of cruel bondage (Deuteronomy 4:20; Jeremiah 9:4). Also of judgments and severe and grievous afflictions, by which God punishes the rebellious (Ezekiel 22:18-20). By the furnace of affliction He also tries and proves His people, as in the text. I. This furnace is afflictive. It is composed of numerous severe trials. 1. The scantiness of temporal things. 2. Bodily afflictions. 3. Bereavements. 4. Domestic trials of various kinds from ungodly relatives—refractory and disobedient children, &c. &c. Thousands of God’s people have been in this furnace. Even Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. II. This furnace is divinely appointed. Afflictions are not the result of chance (Job 5:6); not to be traced to mere natural causes; not the works of our enemies merely. They imply the moral government of God, and the wise and gracious arrangement of His providence. Every event is either His appointment, or has His all-wise permission (see Isaiah 45:7; Job 2:10; Job 34:29). Such views of the subject have reconciled and supported the minds of the godly under their various afflictions (Job 23:14; Psalms 31:15; Lamentations 3:27). What a blessing that all is arranged by infinite wisdom and love! (H. E. I. 143, 179–188, 3675, 3676). III. For God’s people this furnace is not vindictive, but gracious. Divine chastisement may be a kind of punishment for sin committed. It frequently supposes some fault, which it is intended to correct. But sometimes men are persecuted “for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10). God will suffer affliction to befall us when we are cold and indifferent in His cause. But such punishment is not like that inflicted on the wicked. Punishment may be vindictive or corrective. The one is in wrath, the other in love; the one is for the good of society, the other for the good of the individual, to recover from the evil which affliction is intended to correct. God may be angry with His child, and not hate him. He may chastise him with His rod, yet love him with His whole heart (Hebrews 12:5-11; H. E. I. 56–74, 116, 189–196). IV. This furnace is proportionate. That is, God will regulate its heat according to the circumstances of His people who may be placed there (Malachi 3:3; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Isaiah 43:2; Zechariah 3:9; Hebrews 4:15; H.E. I. 198, 3677). The paternal relation He bears to His people will not permit Him to deal with them after the manner of the “fathers of our flesh.” There can be no caprice, no unwise or intemperate anger in Him; He treats them tenderly (Psalms 103:8-9; Psalms 103:13-14). Compassion is mixed with the severest dispensations, and a wise distinction made between the different members of His family. V. The tendency of this furnace is beneficial. “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” A more proper translation would have been, “I have tried thee,” &c. [Delitsch: “I have proved thee”]. By affliction of various kinds I have proved thy faith, hope, patience, and love (H. E. I. 75–84). Observe, God has nevertheless chosen some in the furnace of affliction. He has met them there, and by His Spirit has subdued them, and brought them to repentance, faith, and consecration to Himself. The furnace of affliction has been instrumental in their conversion. The design of a position in this furnace is to purify the Christian from sin, to wean from the world, &c. The believer emanates from this furnace improved, refined (James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7, &c.; H. E. I. 85–90, 204–212, 3696–3702). Afflictions exercise the graces of the Christian (Romans 5:3-5). They preserve from sin. They assimilate the soul to Christ, who was “a man of sorrows.” They show the frailty of human life, and the vanity of the world. They teach sympathy with others (H. E. I. 135, 136). They make very humble, and break the haughty mind, and bring down the lofty thought (Isaiah 38:15). They induce a spirit of prayer (Psalms 77:2, &c.) In short, God, by placing His people in the furnace of affliction, is educating them for heaven (H. E. I. 112–115, 215). .— 1. Let the sublime design of this furnace induce patience and submission. 2. Remember the time of trial is but short. Called the day of adversity—the hour of affliction—but for a moment (H. E. I. 217, 218, 3705, 3706).—Helps for the Pulpit, 1st series, pp. 175–178. Affliction as a furnace [1477][1477] See also outline: “The Fiery Ordeal of the Church,” vol. i. p. 347. 1. A furnace is prepared for gold (Proverbs 17:3). So afflictions are appointed for the saints, who are compared to gold. 2. A furnace refines gold, and makes it much purer than before; so afflictions refine and make more holy (Job 23:10). 3. A furnace is made sometimes very hot, according to the kind and condition of the metal; so are afflictions, sometimes, very grievous, heavy, and trying, as the case requires. [1480][1480] It requires an excessive heat to purify silver, and to consume all its dross. Were God to keep His people in the furnace till all their dross, sin, and corruption were removed they would be utterly consumed. His chastisements are, therefore, not fierce, but gradual; in mercy, and not in rigid justice.—Dr. Gill.4. A furnace melts the gold, and makes it soft before it is refined; so afflictions those whom they are meant to purify. 5. A furnace will destroy tin, lead, &c., and also the drossy part of gold; so afflictions burn up the loose and hypocritical, and purge from His people all their corruptions. 6. The metal, when it comes forth from the furnace, is more prepared for its proper use; so are the people of God when they come forth from affliction. Therefore, let us be cheerful and hopeful while we are in the furnace.—B. Keach. GOD’S Isaiah 48:12. I am He; I am the first, I also am the lastHaving called on the Jews in Babylon to attend to what He was now about to say by His servant the Prophet, God begins by asserting that He is the same, the true and only God, who existed before all things, and therefore was able to accomplish all His purposes and promises of deliverance. The text introduces us to a subject of tremendous import—God’s unchangeableness throughout eternity. “The eternity and immutability of God are in their own nature inseparable, and are so generally united in the Holy Scriptures, that the passages which declare the one, declare or imply the other also.” I. GOD IS ETERNAL. 1. Reason itself claims this attribute for God. Nor was it unknown even to the heathens. Proclus, a follower of Plato, proved God to be eternal, because He exists of Himself. Thales defined God to be a being that is without beginning and end; before all things; and who was never born (H. E. I. 2253; P. D. 1492, 2536). 2. What reason teaches, the Scriptures assert. They represent God’s eternity to be— (1.) An eternity of duration, “I am He; I am the first, I also am the last” (Psalms 90:2). Not merely everlasting, but eternal! He had no beginning, even as He shall have no end. This is the difference between the eternity of God and that of the angels and of “the spirits of just men made perfect.” They are, by the will of God, never to end; but, by His will also, they came into being. But to His being there was no beginning! (2.) An eternity of perfection. There has been in Him no development of excellence, as in Him there will be no diminution of it. “From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art GOD!” All that is involved in that great name He always was, and always will be! (See pp. 187, 188, and outlines on Isaiah 57:15). II. GOD IS —eternally unchangeable. “I am He,”—the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 1. Unchangeableness is an essential perfection of God. If He were subject to “variableness or the shadow of turning,” He would not be a perfect and eternal being, &c. When, therefore, it is said that God repents or alters His purpose, it must not be supposed that His nature changes, but that the Holy Spirit accommodates His language to the general comprehensions of men, &c. (H. E. I. 2254–2256). He continues always the same— (1.) In His existence He cannot cease to be (Psalms 102:27). (2.) In His nature or essence—He cannot cease to be what He is in every perfection. (3.) In His purposes (Isaiah 46:10; Isaiah 14:24). (4.) In His promises to His people; in His threatening against the wicked; and in all His predictions (Numbers 23:19). 2. All these declarations are in harmony with the teachings of Scripture and the conclusions of Reason. (1.) Scripture (Malachi 3:6; Psalms 33:11; Isaiah 44:10; James 1:17), &c. (2.) Reason. As God is self-existent—caused by none, so He can be changed by none. As He preceded all and caused all, so His sovereign will determined the relations which all things are permitted to sustain to Him. As He is infinite in duration, He cannot know succession or change. As He is infinite in all perfection of knowledge, &c., therefore He cannot change; for nothing can be added to or taken from the infinite—any change would make Him less than infinite before or after. The unchangeableness of God is confirmed (1.) by the stability of His natural government; (2.) by His moral government and the identity of the several dispensations of grace. But it does not exclude the exercise of dispositions and affections, nor involve a stoical indifference to the welfare of His creatures generally, or the character which may be assumed by moral agents. Nor does it involve uniformity of action or relation, much less fatalism, &c. (H. E. I. 3750–3753). III. SOME LESSONS WHICH THIS GREAT SUBJECT TEACHES. 1. It assures us of the essential Divinity of the Christ. The application to our Lord Jesus Christ of the terms here used by God to describe Himself, places His Deity beyond doubt (Revelation 1:8; Revelation 1:17; Revelation 22:13; and many other passages which express or imply eternity). Hold fast the vital fact of our Lord’s Divinity. That gone, all is gone. “A divine Christ is the central sun of Christianity; quench it, and all is confusion, worse confounded.” Revelation 1:8 did more than any other passage towards preventing Dr. Doddridge from assenting to the Socinian theory, which reduces our Lord to a deified creature. 2. It assures us of the fulfilment of God’s promises, and the accomplishment of His plans. (Jeremiah 10:10; Daniel 4:34; Isaiah 60:19; 2 Peter 3:8-9). 3. It affords “strong consolation” amid all the trying changes of this mortal state. To this eternal and unchanging God we may commit ourselves with unwavering confidence, assured that He is both able and willing to sustain, &c. 4. It should stimulate us to seek stability of character. (Ephesians 5:1; Psalms 77:7; Psalms 108:1). How reasonable and weighty is the admonition which follows the declaration of our Saviour’s unchangeableness in Hebrews 13:9. 5. It should alarm the impenitent. What folly and audacity is there in rebellion against God, since an eternal being is offended thereby! How dreadful to lie under the displeasure of an eternal God! (Jeremiah 10:10.) We are charged by this glorious Being with a message of reconciliation to you (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).—Alfred Tucker. THE CREATOR Isaiah 48:13. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation, &c.It seems to be an axiom of modern philosophy that all human knowledge has been progressive, from the roughest fanciful guesses to the safely applied science of our days. Assuming this, we can only account for the recognition of the Oneness of the Creator and the Unity of Creation, not only in the age of Isaiah, but in that of Moses and in that of the Patriarchs, by attributing it to God’s own revelation of Himself to man. This verse brings to mind the sublimely simple and authoritative declaration with which that revelation opens, and it claims our attention in the same calm way to the terrestrial and celestial manifestations of the Divine handiwork. I. THE OF THE EARTH. The solid earth has been regarded in all ages as the type of all that is “sure and firm set.” But how does its enormous axis remain unbent? Why does not its crust fall in upon the attracting centre, or why do not the resisting forces shatter it? Because matter and forces have been balanced and adapted by Infinite Wisdom and Power (see Isaiah 40:12; Job 38:4-7). But it is not merely a dead weight and bulk. There is incessant physical and chemical action from the outermost aerial limit to the inmost metallic core. Change, decay, renewal, progress, are incessantly busy upon it. Individuals, races, and types all yield place to more advanced successors. The writer of the Book of Job saw the mountains falling and coming to naught, and the rivers wearing the stones. Close research reveals even land and sea changing positions. “The mountains depart and the hills are removed.” Earthquake, volcano, ice, storm, flood, all contribute to the constant ruin— “The hills are shadows, and they flowFrom form to form, and nothing stands:They melt like mist, the solid lands,Like clouds they shape themselves and go.”Yet the earth, the platform of all these changes, continues stedfast and intact: through all seeming change there is real establishment. Day follows night; spring follows winter. Mountain ridges always lift up their crests on the continents; rivers flow down to the seas; varied life peoples the plains, the forests, the air, the waters. New dynasties, civilisations, faiths replace the old. And there is continuous progress; from “chaos and old night” to light and order; thence to beauty and life; thence on to consciousness, sensation, will, thought, soul, worship. It requires a stronger foundation to keep principles firm, while details change, than if all change were impossible. Strongest, when all changes are dominated into orderly measured advancement, “With ebb and flow conditioning their march.” The conditions are met by the declaration that God’s hand “hath laid the foundation of the earth,” of life, of human society (Psalms 119:90-91). II. THE OVER-ARCHING HEAVENS. “My right hand hath spanned the heavens.” The mind is utterly lost in the attempt to realise a personal Being as ordering and dominating only the earth’s changes throughout all time. What, then, of One who not only “sitteth upon the circle of the earth,” of which “the inhabitants are as grasshoppers;” but who “stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them abroad as a tent to dwell in;” who extends them from system to system throughout the space depths, and rules them from eternity to eternity? Thought dies in trying to realise only unoccupied immensity, much more in grappling with the interaction of interminable forces on the atoms of numberless worlds ranging in streams and galaxies throughout it, or scattered in solitary grandeur. “End is there none,” exclaim the angels in the poem of Richter, “whereof we ever heard, neither is there beginning.” Philosophy on such grounds declares a personal God unthinkable. But this is only a testimony to the weakness and limitation of thought, and disqualifies it at once as the sole judge of Divine truth and Divine possibility. The demonstrated unity of material and action throughout space and time establish the existence of one everlasting directive Mind. Otherwise Night and Nothingness have evolved all the living wonder within us and around us, which is more “unthinkable” yet, than that one guiding Being, who “Lives through all life, extends through all extent,Spreads undivided, operates unspent.”Telescopy reveals this infinity of worlds as to number. God here declares that His right hand grasps them all. The universality of gravitation and the teachings of the spectroscope emphasise the unity of Matter, Force, and Law. The microscope reveals that bountiful Wisdom which extends to creatures beneath our visual ken. Logical and mathematical deductions from observed physical and chemical phenomena are taken to prove that the infinitesimal atoms are the originators of all forces, and that all things thus appear to create themselves. Either, then, every atom is a deity, and these free and powerful agents must at some distant epoch have conferred and agreed upon their future action under all possible conditions, with a view to the successive ends to be produced, and each must ever since have kept infallibly faithful thereto, or there is One God, wise enough and powerful enough to “call unto them,” and to cause them to “stand up together.” This is the view which has stood the test of the ages. “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things” (1 Corinthians 8:6; H. E. I. 353–359, 1491–1494). There is no part of nature, not even the whirling nebula, the flying comet, or the solitary wandering meteorite, in which law and force are not. Therefore no point of space is without God. And nothing has leaked out from the hollow of His hand. The infinitely great and the infinitely little have not. In spite of all the apparent contradictions of life and of history, man has not. The believer realises that he has not, and will not. In the midst of darkness and perplexity we may well remember that our restless, pain-fraught circumstances never shall. We may remind the sinner that he has not and cannot. Even “hell is naked before God, and destruction hath no covering.” This truth may be ignored for a while, but rocks and mountains shall be powerless to hide it one day. God’s grasp will soon tighten itself irresistibly. Shall it prove the embrace of the all-loving Father, or of the consuming unquenchable fire? III. THE DIVINE PURPOSE IN THESE GREAT WORKS. God has founded the earth and His right hand spans the heavens. He has not done His marvellous work without well-determined purpose. But “who hath known the mind of the Lord?” The soul can gather hints. Upon the laying of earth’s corner-stone, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Why? Could it be at the forecast of all the sin, the misery, and death of which its surface was to become the theatre, and upon which the heavens continue to look down? Has any human heart ever experienced that high degree of happiness and satisfaction here, which could have inspired by anticipation their rapturous strains? Or can we believe that they arose in response to any such cheerless vision as that final future to which science looks as the most hopeful prospect she dares to cherish from the long interaction of her all-potent all-promising atoms? Sir William Thompson has expressed it for us:—“That the sun, with all his planets fused into his mass, shall roll a black ball through infinite space.” That is, that life having worn itself out in the weary struggle from form to form, shall at last fruitlessly inherit only the blackness of darkness for ever. Their visions were brighter than these, or no joyous shouts would have applauded the work of creation. But whatever were their visions, these are facts:— 1. The heavens have been God’s grand lesson-books for the instruction and elevation of His children (Psalms 8, 19) 2. The earth has been the scene of revelations of His character, which we cannot believe to be surpassed by any vouchsafed to any other portion of His universe: His judgments on sin; His manifestations of mercy; His tabernacling amongst men in the person of His Son; the death on the cross for the redemption of lost humanity; the nobleness, sincerity, patience, unselfishness, and forgiveness of God manifested in the spiritual education of His children. 3. The long process of sin and redemption shall at length have a glorious consummation. “The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” God works in nature by stern and relentless agents; and sin, pain, and death will be found one day to have borne necessary parts in elaborating the new creation, which shall know them again no more for ever. Whether the same grand laws working in the same matter shall continue to evolve ever-new phases of order, life, and beauty out of “the infinite resource of the divine mind,” or whether matter and laws themselves along with us shall be gloriously changed, we know not. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.—William Seward. THE UNITY OF THE GODHEAD Isaiah 48:16. Come ye near Me, hear ye this, &c. [1483][1483] Some refer this whole verse to Isaiah (Kimchi, Hitzig, Knobel), and many the second clause of it alone (Calv., Zuingl., Musculus, Gesen., Meyer, Hengst., Umbr., Hahn). Others think there is a confusion of style (Jarchi, Rosenm.) But the only consistent view makes the Son of God the Speaker here, as in the last verse (Augustine, Basil, Jerome, Œcolamp., Vitr., Alex., Herd., Stier). The same is true throughout the chapter, though the distinctness of Divine Persons comes into full relief only here at the close. “All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made that is made” (John 1:3). The voice of love is here the same as in the appeal to Jerusalem in the Gospel, “How often would I have gathered thy children together!” (Matthew 23:37). The Word of God “has not spoken in secret from the be-beginning,” but from the hour of creation has been the Revealer of the Father’s will. The limit “from the time it came to be,” is the same as in Proverbs 8:23; Proverbs 8:27, “from the beginning, or ever the earth was,” when creation came into being. The construction, “the LORD hath sent me and His Spirit” (Orig., Vitr., Knobel, Gesen., Herd., Alex., Hahn), is disproved by the loss of emphasis, the last clause having thus neither the same subject nor object with the rest of the verse, by the harshness of the construction, and the want of the objective sign. The Word, who speaks, is the mental object of the whole statement, first, as the Divine Revealer, and next, as divinely sent and revealed. The mission here is not the Incarnation, but the signal providence of the Return from Baby lon. So in Zechariah, “After the glory hath He sent me to the nations that spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye, … and ye shall know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me” (Zechariah 2:7-9.) This mission of the Word to deliver captive Israel was an earnest of that fuller and later message, when “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”—Birh: Coram., pp. 246, 247. There can be little doubt as to the real character of the personage who utters these words. (Context.) Can it be questioned that the personage who claims such attributes as these claims also to be divine? Yet it is equally clear that although He is divine, there is some sort of distinction to be observed between Him and Jehovah, for He was sent by Jehovah. We have here the mystery of one Divine person sending another. And we are irresistibly reminded of the passages of the New Testament in which our Lord asserts that He cometh forth from the Father, and also that He is furnished and equipped by His Spirit for accomplishing the great work of human redemption. It is clear, then, if we appeal to such statements as those of our text, that we are justified in affirming the fundamental truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be imbedded in the teaching of the Old Testament Scripture. This, it may be, is what is meant by the expression, “I have not spoken in secret from the beginning.” Our Lord, during His ministry upon earth, when arguing with certain of the Sadducees, pointed to a saying of Moses, and told them that it implicitly contained the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead (Luke 20:37). It may be, then, that the Messiah meant to indicate, by the expression just quoted, that the doctrine of His true and essential Godhead, although latent in the sacred page, was yet not so much of a secret that it could not have been brought to light by the earnest and diligent search of a God-directed and God-illuminated inquirer. But whether this be so or not, we may be perfectly confident that the doctrine in some form or other is contained in the elder revelation. If it could not be found there, grave doubt would be cast upon it. But there are traces of it to be found—truth, as it were, in embryo, waiting for development—and some of these I shall make it my endeavour to point out. My contention is simply this: that simultaneously with the grand revelation of the unity of the Godhead which was given to Israel, there was revealed in shadowy outline, in hidden rather than in plain and explicit statement, a distinction of persons existing in that Godhead; there was the full stream of doctrine, and side by side with it there was the little rill, but both of them equally proceeding from the throne of God. In the background of the picture, projected before the eyes of the chosen people, stood a second majestic figure, which did not interfere with the main purpose of the scene, but still made itself felt; was seen, though dimly seen; emerged more and more into the light as the ages rolled on, and at last stood out to the view in all the full proportion of its magnificence and its beauty. Abraham was the great founder of Monotheism at a time when the world was overspread by the worship of gods many and lords many; once in all probability a sharer in the general ignorance and superstition, he was brought by God to a knowledge of the truth, and sent forth as a witness to it amongst the nations of the earth. Now, it was obviously of extreme importance to keep such a man’s conception of the Unity of the Godhead distinct and clear, and yet, on a certain occasion, an incident occurred which must have tended in no slight degree to confuse and to bewilder him if his conception of the Unity of the Godhead prohibited his believing in the distinction of persons (Genesis 18.) It is hard to believe, that unless this personage was divine, he would have addressed Him and pleaded with Him as he did. Who was the person here spoken of as “the Lord,” spoken of as “communing with Abraham,” and spoken of as finally departing from him? And no less so when he was upon Mount Moriah (Genesis 22.) “From me!” What a singular confusion there must have been if there be no distinction of persons in the unity of the Godhead, &c. Pass with me now to the story of Jacob (Genesis 32.) Compare with the narrative in Genesis the comment upon it given in Hosea 12. Now, who was this “angel” whom Jacob saw face to face? If he was not divine, I say again, what a frightful mental confusion and perplexity the Monotheist patriarch must have been involved in! Pass on to the time of Moses (Exodus 23.) Very singular language indeed if the angel be only a created angel. But yet, what do we find in chap. 33? We find Moses prostrate on his face before God in an agony of supplication pleading for the restoration of the angel in whom the name of God is. Advance to the book of Joshua (chap. 5.) Who is the speaker? A created angel do you say? Nay, no created angel that was ever created would dare to receive worship. These passages are merely specimens, a few amongst many. In the life of Jacob, of Moses, and of Abraham, especially in that part of it which refers to the Egyptian handmaid, Hagar; in the story of Manoah, at the birth of Samson; in the book of Daniel, where, not Gabriel is the angel of Jehovah, the messenger of the covenant, but the mysterious person “clothed in linen,” &c. In all these and in many similar statements, I might find the corroboration of the view which it has been my desire and endeavour to set before you. In passage after passage of the ancient Scriptures, a personage appears who claims the attributes of Jehovah, who speaks as Jehovah, and directs and commands as Jehovah, who accepts homage and sacrifice as Jehovah, who is, in fact, to use the language of my text, Jehovah sent by Jehovah. Jealously as the Scripture guards the unapproachable majesty of God, is it conceivable that such an intermingling could have been possible if the personage in question had no right or title to be considered divine? Surely not; and I venture, therefore, to consider it satisfactorily established, that together with the great revelation of the Unity of the Godhead came, not as plainly and as explicitly, but quite as truly, not indeed in the development, but in the germ, in shadow, and in outline rather than in solid substance, a revelation of a distinction of persons existing in that unity, a revelation which prepared the way for the great doctrine of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God. We are told that we degrade Deity by supposing God to be incarnate. On such a subject I think it is most suitable for such people as we are to keep a reverent silence, for none amongst us is competent to express an opinion as to what is suitable or unsuitable, appropriate or inappropriate, to the Divine essence. But may we not go a step farther, and say that such an objection as this has its root in our human inability to conceive adequately the love of God? (H. E. I. 851, 852, 4809–4815).—Gordon Calthorp, M.A., The Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii. 33–35. A OF GREAT TRUTHS Isaiah 48:16-17. Come ye near unto me, &c.It is God in Christ who here speaks to us (see preceding note by Mr. Birks). A treasury of great truths; we can look only at a few of them. I. THE GOD GIVES US. “Come ye near unto me.” In all the means of grace God comes very near to us, and would have us approach Him. He says to us, as Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near to me, my son, that I may bless thee.” He would not have us stand at a distance, but draw nigh; not treat Him as a stranger, but as a personal friend; not be content to be outer-court worshippers, but advance as to a footing of holy personal intimacy (1 John 1:3; H. E. I. 3427, 3428, 3448, 3449). God would have us close the ear to the voice of the tempter and the seductions of the world, and open the ear to the whispers of His Word and the pleadings of His Spirit within us. Those who would learn the lessons of heavenly wisdom must approach near to Him, and desire immediate communications from Him. Moses went up into the mount, while the elders stood afar off; we are permitted to imitate Moses, and we should do so. While Martha was troubled about many things, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. The tendency of irreligion and worldliness is to separate the soul further and further from God; the tendency of all the influences of the Spirit upon the spiritual mind is to bring us nearer to the God we worship. There should be one continual desire: “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” &c. II. THE NEEDFUL WORK WHICH GOD IN HIS PEOPLE. 1. He is their Teacher. “I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit.” No one can do this effectually but God. None but He has wisdom, patience, or power enough to deal with these hearts of ours which are always prone to depart from Him. The labyrinth of human ignorance has such a maze that none but He can penetrate it. Divine teaching consists in opening the eyes of the understanding to perceive spiritual objects, and inclining the will to choose and pursue them. It is most needful. God never acts in vain; unless His children needed His help as their teacher, He would not undertake to help them in this form. The necessity for His teaching arises from our spiritual blindness and native distaste for divine things; through sin all the faculties of the soul are left in the same condition as the body would be without light. Hence certain important Scripture sayings (Psalms 119:8; Isaiah 42:6-7, &c.; H. E. I. 3399, 2877–2882). 2. He is their Guide. “Which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.” He leads them as well as instructs them, and makes dark providences the means of giving them spiritual light; for His Word and His providence are mutual interpreters. How did He teach Job? By philosophical lectures and a large scientific apparatus? No; but by strange and trying providences (H.E.I 99, 100, 133, 134). III. THE HE TO THEM. 1. He is their Lord—the sovereign of the Church. Let past experience encourage future hope. “This God is our God for ever and ever:” a changeless friend, an endless portion. 2. He is the Redeemer of the Church. He had redeemed the Israelites from Egypt; He was about to redeem them from Babylon. He will finally redeem His people from sin, death, and hell. However much the world overlooks the mystery of redemption, God Himself places the greatest stress upon it. It is that work from which He derives the highest glory, and the Church the noblest comfort. “The Lord thy redeemer” is a title in which He rejoices, and we should too. 3. He is “the Holy One of Israel.” This expresses at once His own perfection and the influence He exerts on His people—not only holy, but also the author of holiness. To produce that in them is the purpose of all His dealings with them (Hebrews 12:10; Titus 2:14; H. E. I. 2842, 2843). 4. He is thy God. Let this crowning and all-comprehensive fact be kept constantly in mind, prompting us to devout worship and thankful service of Him to whom we owe life, breath, and all things that minister to our present well-being, and enable us to look forward without fear to the eternal future.—Samuel Thodey.DIVINE NAMES AND DIVINE WORK Isaiah 48:17. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, &c.These words were spoken in dark and troublous times. They are fraught with instruction and comfort. In them we have— I. DIVINE NAMES. They convey ideas of overwhelming greatness and glory, mingled with awful mysteriousness, and are worthy our careful consideration. 1. “Lord.” That is, Jehovah, the proper and incommunicable name of the Most High God. Represented in our version by the word LORD, printed in capitals. In the Pentateuch it is God’s personal and covenant name. It is indicative of the attributes of self-existence, eternity, immutability, and perfect independence. How great and glorious is our God! (See outline on Isaiah 42:8.) 2. “Redeemer”—vindicator or deliverer. Isaiah addresses his countrymen as being actually in a state of captivity. (1.) Man is in a state of spiritual captivity—the worst sort of captivity. He is in bondage to sin (John 8:34). Sin rules and reigns in him. He is a slave to his lusts (2 Peter 2:19). To Satan (2 Timothy 2:16; Ephesians 2:2). To the law. Not having performed the requirements of that law, he is placed under arrest to it (Galatians 4:24-25; Galatians 3:10). To death (Hebrews 2:15; John 3:36). (2.) God, in Christ, is the great deliverer. No other way (Acts 4:12; John 8:36). The Gospel is glad tidings of salvation to poor, guilty captives ready to perish. Deliverance has been effected through Christ. By a great ransom (1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18-19). By conquest. He not merely paid the ransom price, but He destroyed the power of man’s enslavers. See the argument of Christ (Luke 11:21-22; cf. 1 John 3:8). He rescues sinners from the thraldom of Satan, and gives them the liberty of the sons of God. Multitudes have been delivered, and are now in a state of perfect freedom (Romans 8:1). You may be delivered. Is realised by faith. No other way. 3. “The Holy One of Israel.” This name is often applied to Him in Scripture. “There are other beings in the universe that are in a sense holy—angels and saints are holy, but He is ‘the Holy One.’ His holiness is essential and underived. It is the eternal source and the absolute standard of all holiness in the universe. Other holy beings to Him are only as the dim stars of night to the unclouded sun of day. He is the immaculate fountain of all holiness, the Father of lights whence every ray of purity in the universe proceeds.” His holiness is incomparable (Exodus 15:11; 1 Samuel 2:2; Isaiah 40:25; Revelation 15:4). His holiness is manifested in His words and His works, especially the work of human redemption. Is pledged for the fulfilment of His promises (Psalms 89:35). Should produce reverential fear (Exodus 15:11; 1 Samuel 6:20; Psalms 5:7; Revelation 15:4). II. DIVINE WORK. 1. Teaching. (1.) The need of a divine teacher, for we are ignorant as to spiritual knowledge (Ephesians 4:18). Naturally our understanding is so darkened that we see no beauty in Christ that we should desire Him (1 Corinthians 2:14). (2.) We have a divine teacher. God, by His Spirit (Luke 12:12; John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27). By His incarnate Son. “God’s great lesson-book is the cross of Christ. All truth is condensed there. Everything you have to learn, or to do, or enjoy, is written upon that page. It is the babe’s alphabet, and it is the philosopher’s compendium. There are the glories which are to be expanded throughout eternity. God holds the clue to that divine labyrinth of awful, blessed mystery. Only the Holy Spirit can unlock those spiritual passages.”—J. Vaughan.2. Leading or guiding. “I am thy conductor and guide.” (1.) We need a divine guide. “We are pilgrims to eternity. We are in the labyrinth of error and sin. Life is like a heath with paths stretching in various directions. Many appear pleasant and safe that lead astray. We are often bewildered, and often choose wrongly.” (2.) We have a divine guide. God Himself engages to be our guide. He is the only infallible guide—infinitely wise, powerful, good, gracious. He guides His people by His Word. Its precepts instruct; its revelations enlighten; its examples encourage and warn us. By His Spirit, acting directly upon our spirit (Isaiah 30:21). By His providence, pointing out the way by the indications of circumstances and current events. By the example of Christ. By the counsel of His servants (Psalms 77:20). The wise and good are here to direct us. (3.) God guides His people in the way they should go, not in the way they would go—that is man’s interpretation. There is a way in which we should walk—a divine way, clear to those who will see it. God’s way is not always our way, but it is always the right, the best, the safest, and the happiest way. This assurance should always cheer and comfort us. Unconverted sinner! you must move forward—you must “go,” it is the law of your being. But how will you “go”? with God, or without Him? You are free to choose which you will do. Take God as your guide, the wisest, the best of all leaders. To refuse divine leadership is to grope in darkness, and ultimately to perish.—Alfred Tucker.GOD OUR TEACHER AND LEADER Isaiah 48:17. I am the Lord thy God, who teacheth thee to profit, &c.How beautiful and impressive are the “I am’s” of God! Only from God has the declaration “I am” its full meaning. But God does not isolate Himself. What He is, He is for His people. We must go out of ourselves to get real blessing for ourselves; and to whom shall we go? The heart must have a Person to love, to lean on, to live for. No doctrine, no idea, no creed can take the place of the Person—“I am the Lord thy God.” The apostle of love seems to have taken special heed of the self-revelations of Christ; for in his pages we meet with some of the glorious “I am’s” of Christ (John 8:12; John 6:35; John 14:6; John 10:7; John 15:1; John 8:58; John 11:25). In the text God is revealed as our Teacher and Leader; and “Learn of Me,” and “Follow Me,” are two most important commands of Jesus Christ. I. There is an important relation between these two offices of our Divine Master. Not every teacher is a leader, not every leader a true teacher. Theory and practice are often divorced; words and works are not always wedded. But Christ is like a general who trains his soldiers in the barracks and leads them on the field, or like a traveller who braves the dangers and endures the toils of opening up a country, and then describes its beauties, dilates upon its capacities, and adds to the common fund of scientific knowledge. Does Jesus teach us to “pray and not to faint?” He also leads (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12); does He teach us to glorify God by our “good works?” He “went about doing good.” Does He teach us to love our enemies, and pray for those who despitefully use us? How grandly are we led by His dying prayer, “Father, forgive them!” Are we to “seek first the kingdom of God,” according to His teaching? It was His meat and drink to do His Father’s will. He truly “teaches us to profit, and leads us by the way we should go.” These are the two great forces which aid in the formation of Christian character, and the development of Christian life (H.E.I. 894–899). The teaching of our Master is sometimes out of the book of affliction and sorrow. We have been drawn away from Him by much resting in creature strength; He is jealous for our sakes; so He teaches us our folly, and weakness, and sin; and then leads us into His wisdom, and strength, and holiness. Perhaps His lesson comes out of the book of poverty and distress. He strips us, that we may be clothed with change of raiment. In multitudes of ways does our Lord teach His people, but ever to the end that He may lead them in the way in which they should go. All the way along He is Teacher and Leader, and we love to have it so. The thought of His instruction encourages us, while His leadership emboldens us. II. Contemplate the words “who leadeth thee.” Read them in the light of Scripture thoughts and incidents. How they remind us of God leading His people from the thraldom of Egypt (Exodus 13:21). In Moses’ song there is a beautiful figure to help us in understanding our Lord’s leading (Deuteronomy 32:11-12). Passing on, we come to the poem of the shepherd-king (Psalms 23) And then we find David’s putting into the lips of wisdom the words, “I lead in the way of righteousness.” Take another example; now from Isaiah (Isaiah 42:16). How soothing the words of Jeremiah! (Isaiah 31:9). III. What spirit shall we manifest in view of this truth? “Suffer thyself, O Christian, to be led! Presume not at any time either to linger or to precede. Follow thy Shepherd patiently, gladly, and constantly. Keep close to His footsteps. Go unhesitatingly through this dry and thirsty land of sorrows, trials, and disappointments. Let no hurry of business delay, no burden of care prevent thee. Let not the sorrows of thy heart prove too overwhelming to deter, no joys of this life too captivating to detain thee from thy God” (Stephenson on Psalms 23) “When we cannot see our way,Let us trust and still obey;He who bids us forward goCannot fail the way to show.”.—Let us take our place by the psalmist, and with him in a spirit of humility, resignation, trustfulness, and hope, put up these petitions (Psalms 5:8; Psalms 26:5; Psalms 27:11; Psalms 31:3; Psalms 61:2; Psalms 139:24; Psalms 143:10). Thus shall we on earth have a true foretaste of the blessedness of that sinless place, where “the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall lead them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”—Walter J. Mayers: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. pp. 228–230. THE BENEFIT OF Isaiah 48:17. I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit. God can make all the objects by which men are surrounded, and all the scenes through which they are called to pass, produce just such effects in their minds as He sees best. He can blast prosperity, and bless adversity. He can make afflictions instructive and beneficial. It was while His people were in a state of adversity, and despairing of relief, that He undertook to comfort them, by reminding them of His power over them, His relation to them, and His tender regard for their spiritual good (Isaiah 48:12-13; Isaiah 48:16-17). We find no intimation here that God would put an end to the afflictions of His people, but only that He was able to sanctify them, or cause them to have a salutary and desirable effect. I. Afflictions may be profitable to the children of God. They are not in themselves joyous, but grievous; it is natural to dread them; even our Saviour recoiled from the prospect of His approaching sufferings; nevertheless they may eventually prove very beneficial:— 1. By turning off their attention from the world. Living in the world, and compelled in some measure to its concerns, they are prone to “mind earthly things” too exclusively; but afflictions have a direct tendency to turn away their eyes from beholding vanity, and to prepare them to attend to things of everlasting consequence. 2. By turning off their affections from the world. Many of its objects have an immense fascination for the human heart, and we are always in danger of giving them that place in our hearts which is due to God alone. But in the time of affliction men learn that in the world there is nothing to soothe and comfort them. When they find how little it can do for them, how apt it is to deceive them, and rob them of superior happiness, they learn to hate rather than to love it. 3. By raising their affections to God, the source of all good. By taking away every other ground of dependence and consolation, they may be said to drive them to the Fountain of all good. Thus they operate even upon the ungodly (Psalms 107:17-19). Much more is this likely to be their effect upon the righteous. II. GOD is able to make afflictions profitable to His children. Afflictions do not necessarily sanctify; they make some men worse, and not better (2 Chronicles 28:22; Revelation 9:20; Revelation 16:9; Revelation 21; H. E. I. 229–233); but God is able to teach each of His children how to turn them into sources of blessing:— 1. He is able to bring Himself into their view. As when the sun rises men cannot see the stars, so when God presents Himself before the minds of His people, they cannot see anything else. Or rather, they see Him in all things—in the providences and afflictions which have befallen them. But barely bringing Himself into their view, and turning off their attention from all created objects, will not afford relief; because men may behold God and be troubled (Exodus 14:24). It is therefore necessary to observe— 2. That He can draw their affections as well as their attention towards Himself. When He brings Himself into view of the afflicted, He can awaken every holy affection in their hearts, and give them a sensible enjoyment of Himself, which is far better than the enjoyment of sons, or of daughters, or of any earthly good (H. E. I. 116–142, 204–221). III. These facts are fountains of consolation for God’s afflicted children. What a deep and exhaustless well of comfort is this, that God bears a covenant relation to them, and has engaged to treat them as children! All His dispensations towards them are the genuine expressions of His fatherly care and kindness (Hebrews 12:6; Job 5:17-19; Job 5:27; 2 Corinthians 4:17). It is not necessary that they should know that their afflictions shall be removed or diminished; they may exercise faith, confidence, submission, patience, and even joy, while they know that the Lord is their God, and will certainly teach them to profit by those things which would otherwise sink them in sorrow and despair. :— 1. Since God makes use of afflictions to keep His children near Him, it is clear that they are extremely prone to forsake Him. He does not grieve nor afflict them willingly, but only because they will not regard His milder means of instruction. It is a certain sign that a child is very undutiful and disobedient, if nothing but repeated and severe corrections will restrain or reclaim him. We should humble ourselves before God because of our waywardness. 2. Seeing that God chastises His children for their good, and teaches them to profit under His correcting hand, those who are suffered to live on in uninterrupted prosperity have reason to inquire whether they belong to the household of faith. Prosperity is a thing to thank God for; but it is as frequently granted to the evil as to the good; and those who have been long in the enjoyment of it have good cause seriously to inquire whether their hearts are right with God, and whether He has not been granting their requests for outward prosperity and sending leanness into their souls. 3. Since God afflicts His children only for their good, they have the best of all reasons for being submissive and cheerful in seasons of sorrow. 4. Since God afflicts His children only for their good, the severer the sufferings through which they are called to pass, the greater is the profit they may expect to derive from them in the end. The oftener He puts them into the furnace of affliction, and the longer He continues them there, the brighter He means to bring them out. 5. Since God teaches His children to profit by their afflictions, afflictions afford us a means of determining whether we belong to His family or not. 6. Since God can make afflictions profitable to His children, we may justly conclude that He can make them profitable to others also. Though sinners hate instruction and despise reproof, yet they are not beyond the reach of divine power and divine grace. God has often used affliction as an instrument for the conversion of sinners (2 Chronicles 33:12).—Dr. Emmons: Works, vol. iii. pp. 52–66. THE PROFIT OF LIFE (A New Year Motto). Isaiah 48:17. I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. Inscribe these words on the banner that waves over our heads as we march through the year, that they may be always in sight, ready for use in all the varying turns of our experience. They are stored with rich promise, wise direction, sustaining comfort. This is a voice from heaven to explain God’s dealings with us, to elevate our aims and to encourage our trust. I. The end which God has in view in the guidance of our lives, “profit.” This is His aim, and He would have us make it ours. “Profit” in heaven’s vocabulary has not the meaning it bears on earth. The profit which the world pursues is material, but this is spiritual. That is often lost, and must be left behind at death; this endures unto life eternal, and is the only real profit, for it is a part of our very selves. The solemn utterance of Christ on this matter runs (Mark 8:36-37)—a statement which is reversed by those who mind earthly things. Not what you will get, but what you will become should engage your attention. Your greatest wealth lies in yourselves, in your being renewed and sanctified. All other profit is of no value in comparison. Every advantage, talent, opportunity, which is not minted into this coin is wasted. Is this, then, the lofty purpose which you are throwing into your life? How few inquire—What will tell upon my spiritual interests? how many—How can I add to my worldly gains, and make a comfortable livelihood? I do not say you should never ask such a question, but only that it should have a subordinate place. Lot had an eye to worldly gain in selecting the plain of Sodom for his residence. The religious disadvantages and dangers of the step did not enter into his calculations. He first “pitched his tent toward Sodom,” and then thought it would be a fine thing for his family to be settled in the city, where he would be held in consideration as a man of growing wealth. But spiritual profit—growing sympathy with what is pure and beneficent, closer resemblance to Christ—is the loftiest aim in life, and all our plans should be formed with a view to its acquisition. If this profit be wanting as the years roll by, life is a losing concern, leading to spiritual bankruptcy. II. God engages to teach us how to extract profit from life. Everything may yield us profit, if we learn the happy art of taking the profit out of it. A naturalist has said that “the seeing eye is never in want of its proper aliment;” and the Christian soul never lacks the means of spiritual profit. The bee may find it delightful to roam far and wide through the long summer day, looking into the flowers and breathing their fragrance; but he is an idle drone if he bring home no profit for the hive. One man has neither the will nor the power to extract the honey from life’s experience, while another finds profit in all that meets him. Two persons take a tour through an interesting country. One sees but little, and carelessly hurries past the grandest scenes and through the finest cities. The other comes home with large additions to his information, and with scenes impressed on his mind which he can recall long after with delight. Let me specify some of the departments of our life, and show how real profit may be derived from them. Take our daily Bible-readings and our visits to God’s house. These are occasions of richest profit, but many miss it. Not to speak of those who lay aside the Bible for books that have a stronger interest for them, and rarely, if at all, frequent the sanctuary, to others these privileges come as a matter of course. No wonder there is small profit when none is expected. Believing prayer makes the Lord’s day a day of blessing, and extracts profit from the poorest sermon. By the sorrows and difficulties of the week God sometimes sends us to His house with quickened appetite.—Our joys and sorrows may be made springs of profit. This is the very purpose of the Divine chastenings (Hebrews 12:10).—Our intercourse with others may furnish contributions to our spiritual wealth. Our closest friends should be the friends of Jesus, and from such companions we may get much profit by the interchange of thought and the influence of example; and even those who are otherwise minded may teach us to be gentle to the erring.—Our very temptations, if met with a firm resistance, will bring us a return of strength.—Our daily work may be made to yield us a better renumeration than mere wages, if we accept it as our God-appointed task.—In all these departments, if we take God for our teacher, life, with its changing scenes, will become a school of precious instruction, and a mine of solid wealth. III. God engages to lead us by the way in which profit may be found. By “the way that thou shouldest go” we are to understand the experiences through which God sees it needful to lead us. “God has His plan for every man.” Each requires a special discipline. Since God has taught His children the happy secret of profiting from the experiences of life, they may be sure that the experiences will be such as to yield the profit which they most need, as the bee’s faculty and instinct do not lack flowers. This assurance ought to nerve us alike for life’s trials and life’s work. It should silence every murmur. All envying of the lot of others, all impatience with our own, will vanish when we feel that we are where God placed us. Even in the severest afflictions this thought will stay the soul. It is part of God’s plan to send trials upon us; they stand in His programme of our lives. Were any of them withheld we should lose their intended profit. Our very work has been pre-arranged (Ephesians 2:10). We are disposed to think that if our talents were better, our opportunities more favourable, we would serve God to greater purpose; but these are precisely what God sees we can use. Be it ours to inquire at every step, What good may I get here? what profit may I acquire? Would it not bring a truly happy year to import these principles into your life? Do they not furnish a sufficient answer to the question that has recently been discussed—“Is life worth living?” If you live while you live, if you have been taught of God to extract profit from life’s experience, certainly life is well worth living. The ship constructed at great expense does not lie anchored in some quiet bay. The owners expect a return, and send her across the seas to trade in the ports of many lands. Their end is profit, and every day their vessel is laid up is a serious loss. So it is with our lives. If there is no real profit, there must be a sad, a fatal deficit.—W. Guthrie, M.A. SECURED BY ONLY Isaiah 48:17-19. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, &c.Whatever may be the reason, in the Church there are frequently mournful complaints of the want of prosperity, both general and individual. Viewing the case only under one aspect, this might appear strange. For is not God with His people? &c. Whence, then, these complaints? Their true cause is in man, not in God. The terms here employed show us, that though the complaint is in accordance with fact, the fact might and ought to have been avoided. The real cause is found in negligence and disobedience of man. God’s complaint implies censure; and teaches us that the limitation of the blessing which was promised in the most abundant fulness, is a reproving judgment, calling us to “consider our ways,” and by renewed obedience and carefulness to remedy the evils which we ourselves have occasioned. Observe the remarkable manner in which it pleases God to address His people. It is not said, generally and alone, “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!” He speaks as sustaining certain characters, performing certain works. And in examining the terms employed in this divine record, we shall find that they include and suggest the reasons why the required obedience should be rendered. We have thus— I. THE WHICH GOD IN TO HIS PEOPLE, AND AS WHICH HE THEIR . 1. “The Holy One of Israel.” Redemption chiefly implies mercy, but by no means exclusively. It is set before us in the New Testament, with the strongest emphasis, as that exhibition and proof of love which, for its vastness and grandeur, claims to be regarded as the highest of all. But men are apt to take false views of love. These false views generally tend to very dangerous issues. With men, love is often an indulgent fondness, seldom rising above the limits of natural instinct, and possessing in its character nothing distinctively moral. 2. “Thus saith the Lord.” This is the basis of the whole (Exodus 3:14). He is essential being, independent, perfect, eternal. Whatever exists, exists by Him and for Him; every faculty, by Him given, should be for Him employed. No creature possesses the excellence for which we are commanded to love, worship, and serve Him. As far as possible, there must be a difference as complete and manifest between the service we render to any creature, and that which we render to God, as there is between the creature itself and God. 3. “Thy Redeemer.” Thus has He made Himself known to us. Thus will He be acknowledged, worshipped, and served by us. True, He is our Creator, our Preserver, our Sovereign; none of these truths are set aside by the evangelical revelation; still it is our duty to remember that the chief of His royal styles and titles, is that of Redeemer. It is as our Redeemer that we are to behold His glory, study His character, acknowledge, love, worship, and serve Him. In Himself, our true and highest good, He only becomes so to us when we approach Him as our Redeemer; acknowledging all the wickedness and weakness in us which that term implies. But there is one character which the Scriptures teach us God always must sustain,—that of the most exalted moral excellence. We must never forget that He is “the Holy One of Israel” (H. E. I. 2316, 2317). This, then, is the character in which God addresses to us the commandments to which He requires us to hearken. II. A IN WHICH IT PLEASES GOD, AS THIS , TO HIMSELF AS . “I am the Lord thy God which teacheth,” &c. 1. God teaches us. Advert to the principal methods which He is pleased to employ. But in whatever way the instruction is communicated, the object of it is always the same—our benefit and advantage. 2. God is also our Guide. “Which leadeth,” &c. Distinctly asserted in the Word of God. The wisdom of ancient philosophy could never realise the doctrine of a particular providence. To the wisdom of the world it is still a stumbling-block. Observe the character of the guidance: “In the way that thou shouldest go.” That we may perceive what that way is, let us remember what man is, and for what he is destined. There is nothing merely casual. Everything is wisely appointed or wisely permitted. And thus, putting together all these representations, is a foundation, broad and stable, laid for that enlightened, that deliberately chosen obedience which He requires. III. THE WHICH HE FROM US. 1. God teaches us for our profit; it is therefore our duty to be learners, and that from first to last. 2. God leads us, &c.; it is therefore our duty to follow His guidance. But how? No pillar of cloud and fire goes before us, marking the way to sense. We walk by faith. What are the indications which faith must follow? (1.) His revealed will. He never leads in opposition to that. (2.) The specific duties indicated by every particular providence must be fulfilled. Let there be unhesitating submission, unreserved devotion. The old Vulgate employs a word that may suggest an illustration. Gubernans te in viâ. A vessel sails from harbour destined to a certain port. To guide her safely is the task of the pilot, the Gubernator. In modern times, when navigation is so well understood, such a person is usually only employed where the navigation is difficult, from dangers known to himself, but unknown to the crew—perhaps close by the port where the voyage terminates. 3. God condescends to speak to us! it is therefore our duty continually and reverently to hearken. “O that thou hadst,” &c. It is not said, “O that thou hadst obeyed!” but, “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!” Of course, obedience is implied, but the word actually used teaches us the real character of the obedience. The master issues his orders. The servant stands by attentively. He hearkens to them, perceives his duty, and goes to perform it. And thus must it be with us. (1.) We must hearken to His commandments in their evangelical order; (2.) universally; (3.) attentively, thoughtfully, so as to make their very meaning our own; (4.) exclusively. Other voices will sound in our ears. To none must a moment’s heed be given; (5.) supremely and constantly. IV. THE RESULT OF THAT . Great shall be the prosperity you shall thus certainly secure. “Your peace,” &c. The imagery is as instructive as it is beautiful. (See other outlines on this text.) .—Assume the existence of religion in some degree. Seek to realise it in all its blessed fulness as here set forth. Wherever personal religion revives, zeal for the spread of religion revives also. Then efforts to do good will be better sustained, and the prospering blessing of God will be more richly given. The consequence will be numerical increase. (Note Delitzsch’s translation of Isa 48:19.) Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, 1849, pp. 913–934. THE LOST IDEAL Isaiah 48:18. O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! &c.Exile and home-coming, captivity and deliverance, judgment and mercy, these are the things of this chapter. In the immediate context there is an expression of the deepest regret on God’s part that it had been necessary to bring on His people heavy judgments; while the text is a tender wish and longing that they had chosen the better way. Three thoughts are suggested for our instruction— I. THE LOST IDEAL. What might have been, and ought to have been. There had been an unattained national, and, therefore, individual possibility, which was now unattainable, at least to the extent that things could never be exactly as if they had attained it. So, too, there is to each man an ideal life as a matter of abstract possibility, not abstractly imaginable, but real and true as the life of God. The ideal life is the life. But what is it? There is a natural outline in every man’s life. Sin depraves, but it does not obliterate the organic powers and the natural peculiarities and tendencies of the individual. There is an outline of what might have been left in each man. There are diversities; but the question is about each man’s own ideal. What is it each of us has missed all these years—getting a glimpse of it now and again? This lost self is the self that must be found, else happiness cannot be found. It is descried in some of our best states, in elevated moods, or in quietness; and also in working earnestly towards some good practical object; or when, weary with all this world’s wilfulness and folly, we can, notwithstanding, leave it all with Him who made and can rule the world: in these, and like exercises or states of mind, we can get some glimpses of the wonderful picture that stands clearly out in the Divine ideal, and from which it will never fade away. II. THE DIVINE OVER IT. God continues to have a Divine preference concerning human life. What depths of love and compassion are in the words, “O that thou hadst hearkened,” &c. Certain images are chosen because they are known to all the world: “Peace like a river; righteousness like the waves of the sea.” According to the Divine idea, a man’s life should be deep, and wide, and clear, and voluminous, and refreshing, and fertilising, and progressive—like a river; and, like the waves of the sea, possessed of a righteousness that cannot be measured, and that can never end. God has not forgotten the ideal, which is ever-present to Him; and at sight of the actual, so unlike these grand images, Jehovah laments. Natural goodness, without the special help and grace of God, is, at best, a sorry sight to Him. III. THE DIVINE FOR . Can the Divine lamentation be turned into Divine song and rejoicing? Are there any who are rising up from their fall? We know the answers to such questions, and how they touch the very core and substance of the Gospel (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 2:13). We are God’s husbandmen; we are God’s building (Isaiah 48:20). In the text God stands as with uplifted hands, pathetically lamenting over a great loss, a great disappointment, a great ruin; the might have been has not been realised. But what means the next word in the next verse, “Go ye forth of Babylon?” &c.; God will continue His work, He will restore the ruins of it, and carry it on to ultimate success. “Go ye forth of Babylon;” that means when interpreted, just begin where you are, do the nearest thing, forsake the sin that is strongest, rectify the wrong that is nearest, take the path that is open, make room in your heart for all that God will give you, and especially for the renewing Spirit. And in all this, look unto Jesus, and press towards Him as you look, and you are a new creature in Him; the ruin is restored, Eden blooms again, the dead is alive, the long-lost self is found. “Have we not all, amid life’s petty strife,Some ideal of a noble life,That once seemed possible? Did we not hearThe flutter of its wings, and feel it near?And just within our reach it was; and yetWe lost it in this daily jar and fret;And now live idly, in a vain regret.But still our place is kept, and it will waitReady for us to fill it, soon or late.No star is ever lost we once have seen;We always may be what we might have been.”—Alexander Raleigh, D.D.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv. pp. 269–371. These words would be sad from the lips of man, but coming from God they are inexpressibly touching and solemn. They are the cry of a wounded heart. They tell not of the wrath of justice, but of the sorrows of love. There is, indeed, mystery, as there must be whenever we have to do with the Infinite, but that very mystery makes the lament the more affecting and impressive. In this pathetic verse there is a threefold lament:— I. A LAMENT OVER LOST HOPES. Once there was hope and fair promise. God’s beautiful ideal might be realised. But that is all gone. God only knows what has been lost. He is, so to speak, alone with His sorrow. Think of Aaron’s grief for his sons (Leviticus 10:3); of David’s lament for Absalom (2 Samuel 18:33); of the tears of Jesus over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). In these we may see reflected the sorrows of disappointed love. How dreadful must be the cause that produces such effects (Psalms 81:13-16; Jeremiah 44:4)— “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,The saddest are these, It might have been.”II. A LAMENT OVER . God is speaking here in the character of “the Redeemer—the Holy One of Israel.” He recalls what He had done, and what might and ought to have been the happy results. But the precious opportunities had been abused. 1. Gracious instruction, “I am the Lord which teacheth thee to profit.” 2. Infallible guidance, “Which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.” 3. Holy blessedness, “Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” How beautiful are these emblems! Deep and tranquil as the Euphrates, the noblest of the rivers of Asia, is the peace of the believer. Noble and majestic as the waves of the great sea, ever moving in harmony with law, and ever manifesting new forms of loveliness, is the righteousness of God’s saints. All this, and more, might have been realised, if only God’s commandments had been regarded. But the time is past. The glorious vision has faded away for ever. Neglected opportunities bring sure and terrible retribution. O man, consider thou hast been God’s enemy. He has made thee gracious offers of peace. He has called thee to place thyself under the leadership of His Son, when all shall be well. And what has been the result? Reconciliation a failure. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3; cf. 2 Chronicles 36:15-17.) III. A LAMENT OVER RUIN. Sometimes evil comes in spite of us. It is a calamity, and not a crime. Borne aright, it turns to good. We see in it the chastisement of a loving Father, and learn to be content. But, alas! rarely can we hold ourselves blameless. If we suffer, it is because we have sinned. If we perish, it is our own fault. Reason, conscience, and the Holy Scriptures combine in testifying that man’s ruin is not of chance or fate, far less of God, but exclusively of himself. The sinner feels, and must feel for ever, that if he had only hearkened to God’s commandments, ruin would have been impossible. God’s commandments in the law are all good. To keep them is life and blessedness. But we have sinned. Righteousness by the law is no more possible. God’s commands in the Gospel are also good (1 Timothy 1:15; John 6:29; John 3:16). When we consider who and what. Jesus is, and how great things He has done for us, is it not the most reasonable thing in the world that we should love and trust Him? If we have not eyes to see His beauty, we are blind. If we have not the heart to commit ourselves to Him and to choose His service, as the most free and rightful and blessed of all services, it must be because we wilfully prefer evil to good, and the pleasures of sin for a season, to the love of God for ever (cf. Isaiah 5:1-7; Ezekiel 33:11; Proverbs 1:24-33; Matthew 23:37).—W. Forsyth.When God smites men on account of sin, it gives Him no pleasure. The voice which speaks here is not that of the seraphic prophet, but the voice of the Lord God of the prophets. The manner is not merely the majestic formula, “Thus saith Jehovah,” but it is supplemented with words intended to remind us of His graciousness and His goodwill (Isaiah 48:17). Nor is this the only lesson which lies on the surface of the text. Observe, the Lord addresses words of poignant regret over the prize the sinner has lost, as well as the penalty he has incurred. So did Jesus Christ look upon Jerusalem. Musing on the desolation to which she should shortly come, He reflected on the preservation in which she might have safely stood, &c. God looks upon the “peace” you might enjoy, and the “righteousness” that would enrich you, did you hearken to His commandments, and obey His great mandate, “Believe, and live.” Sinner! the infinite heart of my Divine Master yearns over you. What loss is that which God bewails on thy account? “Peace like a river,” and “righteousness like the waves of the sea,” are not within the limits of thy comprehension. There is a privation which you unconsciously suffer. 1. You are a stranger to peace. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” There are two kinds of peace into the secret satisfaction of which no unconverted person can enter—peace with God, and peace in the heart. Yet both of these are the inalienable right of the believer; for the peace which our Lord Jesus Christ made by the blood of His cross has sealed his acceptance with the Father; and the peace which is produced in his conscience as the fruit of the Spirit, calms the troubled passions of his breast. This is a peace which no man can attain unto except the man who hearkens to the commandment, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” But if you hearken to it, you shall have peace, and that peace shall be like a river. The metaphor is full of beauty, and not wanting in instructiveness either, by which peace is compared to a river. What does this mean? Several things. Peace like a river, for (1.) continuance. For ever, throughout all generations, the river speedeth to its destined place. Such is the peace of the Christian. He is always at peace. (2.) Freshness. The peace which a Christian has is always fresh, always receiving fresh supplies. (3.) A river increases in breadth, and its waters augment their volume. Such is the Christian’s peace. It will go on increasing till it melts into the infinite peace of the beatific vision, where “Not a wave of trouble rollsAcross the peaceful breast.”(4.) Its joyful independence of man. Habakkuk’s song: “Although the fig-tree,” &c. The devil cannot rob us of the peace which comes from God, neither can the world take it away. What would some of you give to have such a peace as this? Such peace you shall have if you hearken to God’s commands. 2. Thou hast not the righteousness which is “as the waves of the sea!” Notice how this metaphor surpasses the previous one in dignity, if not in delicacy. We can all see a sort of comparison, and yet at the same time a strong contrast, between the water of an inland river and the collection of waters which make up the wide expanse of the sea. One, for the most part, is tranquil, the other always heaving and surging to and fro. So I suppose, as the words were originally addressed to the Jewish nation, and referred to their temporal welfare, the river would represent the beauty and happiness of their own land, like the garden of Eden, watered by the river of God’s pleasure; and the sea, with its waves rolling in majestically one after another in unbroken succession, would set forth that progress which is the renown of righteousness. Generation after generation would witness the rising tide of prosperity. Oh! what did that rebellious seed of Jacob lose by forsaking the Lord! Apply this metaphor of the waves of the sea, like that of the flowing of the river, to the happiness of the believer. Look at this precious doctrine of the Gospel through the glass of that Old Testament symbol. The man who believes in Jesus Christ has the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, that is to say, the obedience of Christ is considered by God as his obedience. So, if I believe in Christ, I am as much beloved and as much accepted as if I had been perfect in a rectitude of my own; for the righteousness of Christ becomes mine. But how is this righteousness like the waves of the sea? It is like the waves of the sea (1.), for multitude. (2.) For majesty. What an illustration of overwhelming power! Who can withstand the power of Christ’s righteousness? “Who shall lay anything to God’s elect?” &c. Then it is majestic because it is profound, and because of its ceaseless energy. (3.) For sufficiency. (4.) For origin. That some of you have not got this righteousness is owing to this, that you have not hearkened to God. When the Gospel has been preached, have you listened attentively? &c. I know how some of you hear; it is always with procrastination. Even now, hear ye the voice of the Lord!—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 609–610. OF GOD’S Isaiah 48:18. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, &c.There are moments of reflection on the past. What would have been the history of this island, if Cæsar had not invaded it? if the Stuart kings had been inspired by different ideas? if the first Napoleon had not arisen? Similarly, we reflect on our own life. What would have been our career, if we had not, at some time, made such a mistake, or committed such a fault?—Thus also we think of some one whom we have known. With his talents and opportunities, what he might have become, if he had not spoiled everything by his folly or misconduct! Many a father laments over the son who has thrown away all his chances. Thus God lamented over Israel. He had dealt with them as with sons; had bestowed upon them counsel and culture; but they had followed their own devices. And the consequences had overtaken them in diminished resources, a weakened empire, and eventual subjection to a foreign yoke. Had they hearkened to His commandments their state would have been different (Isaiah 48:18-19). There are multitudes over whom He is pouring this lamentation to-day. He has not left them without instruction and direction. He has given them His word, His commandments, His Gospel. He has surrounded them with gracious influences. But they have been regardless of Him and of His efforts to save them. They have indulged their natural disposition to sin. Confident of themselves, and heedless of warning, like children ignorant of themselves and of the world, they have fallen over the rocks into moral ruin. There may be some here over whom He thus laments. As you look back on your “wasted lives,” your “sins indulged while conscience slept, your vows and promises unkept,” you see that He has good reasons to do so. We invite you to consider what might have been, if you had hearkened to the calls of the Gospel and formed your life according to the Word of God; what it might have been in contrast with what it is— I. IN YOUR . Disregard of God’s commandments has led to many sins which need not have stained your life. One by one they have grown beyond all power of computation, as when debts grow until the position is irretrievable. After all allowances for the weaknesses of human nature, and the sins which would have been committed in spite of your endeavours, how many of them could have been prevented if you had hearkened to God’s commandments!—Moreover, these sins and the habit of mind which led to them have exerted a deteriorating influence on your character. Every wilful sin weakens the power of conscience and lowers the moral tone, so that the more sins a man commits the more likely is it that he will commit sin. It is a gradual descent towards the lowest point of moral being (H. E. I. 1527, 1528, 4500, 4501). Multitudes have become so degraded in conscience that they are living lives, the future of which, if shown to them some years ago, would have shocked them and called forth the indignant protest of Hazael, “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?” Contrast this with what might have been. The habit of obedience, associated with love to the commander and approbation of the command, exerts a gradually formative influence on the character. Good principles become more firmly rooted, the conscience is trained to a quicker perception of moral differences, the inclinations are more completely engaged on the side of goodness, the holy life becomes natural, the entire moral tone is elevated. Like a tree which was at first only a slip, but has grown (Psalms 92:12-14). II. IN TO YOUR . All seek for happiness. Have you really found it in disregard of God’s commands? Has not sin often involved you in trouble? Has it not left the stinging conscience? Are you not often conscious of dissatisfaction and disappointment with the world?—It might have been so different! You might have been enjoying “the peace of God.” The troubles of life might have been to you channels of superior consolation. The blessedness of a conscience at rest through the pardoning and renewing grace might have been yours. Your heart might have been at rest, fixed, settled, centred in God, instead of being storm-driven. You might have had the happiness of friendship and fellowship with God. Instead of the gloom of the future, the thought of which is unwelcome, your future might have been radiant with the glorious Christian hope. III. IN TO . For all have influence over others. If you have not hitherto hearkened to God’s commandments, your spirit and example has fallen on some one as an evil shadow. Within the circle of your influence, you have sown the seeds of evil and prevented good to an extent you can never calculate. You will never, at least in this world, know how many sins have been committed through you, and how many persons are morally worse than they would have been had they never known you. Some may have been irretrievably ruined. They have exceeded their exemplar. Instead of this, had you been a Christian, consistent, earnest, your influence on these persons would have been quite different. It would have been a recognised and valued, as well as unconscious influence for good. Your own children. Not they alone. Some Christian work. The Church of Christ. The young. Society around you. You might have had the satisfaction of knowing that you had plucked some brand from the burning, and that you would be welcomed on the eternal shore by some who had passed through the golden gates because of your influence upon them. All this, and more, might have been if you had hearkened to God’s commandments. Would it not have been unspeakably better if you had? Better for God to give us His Gospel and require obedience, rather than leave us to ourselves. Better for the gardener to train the plant than leave it wild. Better that the elder brother remained at home and obeyed his father, than that he should have ruined himself, like the prodigal. Better that Manasseh, and David, and Peter had not stained their memories with sin, even though they repented. Can you recall any of your sins which would not have been better uncommitted? But lamentation cannot undo the past. There it lies, and will lie for ever. But one thing can be done. You can repent; confess; forsake; sue for mercy through the Cross. God laments it, that He may attract your attention to this. Listen and turn. Let the young ponder His lamentation as a warning voice. Let your character, happiness, influence be what the Gospel secures.—J. Rawlinson.It is one of the simplest and most impressive laws of the Divine government to render to every man according to his works. The operation of this law is strikingly illustrated in the history of God’s dealings with the Israelites, to which reference is made in this chapter. But He has infinitely more pleasure in dispensing mercy than in executing judgment. When, through the impenitent obstinacy of the sinner, He arises to judgment, it is with reluctance and regret—a regret which finds expression in words of profound and tenderest pathos—“O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!” Consider— I. IN ITS HUMAN ASPECT. 1. It involves a serious loss. A man may lose a sum of money, and, by a simple process of arithmetic, be able to tell the exact amount. But there are losses which no figures can adequately report, or words describe; they are all the more keenly felt because of the reeling, bewildering sense of indefiniteness that surrounds them. More especially is this the case when we reflect upon the spiritual loss occasioned by a course of disobedience to the Divine commandments. We are conscious of a loss of something, though in what form, or to what extent, we cannot precisely say. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/phc/ THE RIGHT USE OF THE HISTORY OF GOD’S WITH HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 48:20-21. Go forth from Babylon! Flee ye from the Chaldeans! With the voice of joy tell this, &c.Isaiah had prophesied that his fellow-countrymen would be led captive into Babylon; but he was able to look forward to the termination of their captivity, and could speak thus confidently because he knew—1, that God, who was about to consign them for a time, and for corrective purposes, into bondage, also purposed to deliver them therefrom; and 2, that every purpose which God has formed is certain to be accomplished. Assured of these facts, there rises before his prophetic vision two others:— 1. He sees the gates of the prison-city thrown open; yea, the prison-city itself falling; and, standing in spirit before them, he bids them flee from the peril involved in its destruction, into the freedom which the mighty change had once more rendered possible for them. “Go forth from Babylon! Flee ye from the Chaldeans!” 2. He sees the flight accomplished, the pilgrimage from the land of captivity completed safely, and his fellow-countrymen settled down peaceably in the good land promised to their fathers, and he exhorts them to proclaim to the whole world what God has done for them, “With the voice of joy,” &c. His exhortations are in themselves prophecies of what would happen to them, and the terms of those predictions as to what God would do for His people in the future were suggested by the history of what God had done for them in the past. Those prophecies must not be too literally interpreted; there is no record that God wrought any such miracles for His people during their march from Babylon homewards. What Isaiah wished to impress upon them was, that God would do everything necessary to perfect His deliverance of them, and to sustain them throughout it; and he did this in terms which reminded them how in all the trials through which their fathers had passed they had found God able to deliver them. How terrible was the difficulty to which he refers, and how marvellous the deliverance therefrom (Exodus 17:1-6; Numbers 20:1-11). Isaiah was enabled thus to instruct and cheer them, because he knew how to make a right use of the history of God’s dealings with His people. He remembered that that history is more than a history; that it is also a revelation and a prophecy—a revelation of what God will always be found to be; a prophecy of what He will always do for His people. I. The use that Isaiah made of that history, we also ought to make. Two ways of reading the Bible—with a literary interest, with a personal interest. Geology—what it means to an earnest student; what it means to the intelligent owner of a vast estate. With like personal interests we should read the Bible, remembering that God is un changeable, and that the laws on which He has made human welfare and happiness to depend are the same in every age. Reading the Bible thus, 1. we shall love it more and more, for the fullness of its treasures will become more and more clear to us (H. E. I. 613). 2. Fears suggested to us by the difficulties of the Christian pilgrimage, and that otherwise might greatly trouble us, will be driven away; for the history will convey to us the prophetic assurance that in every stage of our pilgrim age, and in every emergency that may arise therein, the grace of God will prove sufficient for us. II. We are reminded also of our duty in regard to our own experience of God’s dealings with His people. Isaiah here teaches that it would be the duty of redeemed “Jacob “to make known to the whole world what God had done for them. This is the duty of God’s redeemed ones in every age; collectively, and hence the necessity of mission work of various kinds; individually. Let us not forget this (Psalms 66:16). 1. Gratitude should move us to do this. 2. Compassion for our fellow-men should teach us to do this. Heaven will be eternally the realm of song, because there the redeemed of the Lord will never grow weary of making known what He has done for them. “Go forth from Babylon! Flee ye from the Chaldeans! With the voice of joy tell this,” &c. WATER FROM THE ROCK Isaiah 48:21, and Exodus 17:6. Narrate the instructive fact recorded in Exodus 17 This wonderful fact suggests— I. That human life has its great emergencies. Abraham, Jacob, David, Paul, &c. So with us. Christianity does not exempt us from the sorest trials. Sooner or later, every Christian has his Rephidim in his way to Canaan. Secular misfortunes, family trials, personal spiritual conflicts, &c. Such emergencies are needful for the testing of our principles, and the maintenance and increase of our spiritual vigour. “We need as much the cross we bear,As air we breathe, or light we see:It draws us to Thy side in prayer,It binds us to our strength in Thee.”II. That deliverance often comes from most unlikely and unexpected sources. Water from a flinty rock. Redemption from the carpenter’s son at Nazareth. The promulgation of the gospel by fishermen and tentmakers, and in modern times by Carey, the shoemaker; Williams and Thomas, the blacksmiths; and Moffat, the gardener, &c. [1489][1489] “God can bring good to His people from the most unlikely sources. Nothing seemed more unlikely to yield water than the barren rock of Horeb. So God often brings refreshing streams of comfort to His people out of hard circumstances. Paul and Silas could sing in the dungeon, and their imprisonment was made the means of adding to their converts in Philippi. The lot of John in Patmos seemed hard and dreary indeed, but at the bidding of Christ, streams of living water gushed forth there, which refreshed the soul of the Apostle at the time, and have followed the Church until the present. Out of the sufferings of the martyrs came joy to themselves and blessings to their descendants. Above all, out of the hard circumstances of the crucified Lord of glory, God has brought forth waters of everlasting life.” Learn: To confide in God in the greatest emergency. He can help you, whatever it is—however dire. He has promised to support and deliver. Let your trust be determined, heroic, constant.—Alfred Tucker.I. THE SOURCE OF THE WATERS. 1. Its durability and unchangeableness. It was a rock, and one of peculiar solidity and strength. Time has not been able either to destroy or materially alter it. So the Rock of Ages (Hebrews 13:8). 2. It was chosen by God Himself. So Jesus is a Saviour of His appointment. 3. It was opened according to Divine appointment by the hand of man. It was a smitten rock. So Jesus “gave His back to the smiters.” And man gave the blow. II. THE STREAM THAT FLOWED FROM THE ROCK. 1. It saved Israel from perishing. This was its chief use. And it saved them when nothing else could save them. So with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. It did more than save. Enabling them to wash away the defilement of the desert, it cleansed the Israelites. Sin pollutes while it destroys. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, because by it He obtained for His church the gift of the Holy Ghost. 3. It refreshed them. Their strength was so renewed that they rose up, and after fighting a whole day with the Amalekites, they overcame them, and passed on with fresh vigour to Canaan. In like manner the waters of life refresh the people of God.—C. Bradley.This fact reminds us that Jehovah is the God of providence, working even miracles for the accomplishment of His purposes; while the great Apostle of the Gentiles directs us to Jehovah as the God of grace, when, pointing to it, he exclaims, “that rock was Christ.” View the occurrence— I. As a seasonable, providential interposition. 1. A period of great distress; myriads of men and women and much cattle without water. 2. An instance of the omnipotence of God—a flinty rock yields water at His command. 3. Encouragement to hope in God, though we see no prospect or way of supply. II. As an illustration of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. The rock is an emblem of Christ, in solidity, strength, shelter, and duration. 2. The smiting of the rock prefigures Christ’s sufferings. He was stricken, smitten of God, that He might bear our sins and carry our sorrows. The body of Christ was indeed smitten, His soul was made an offering for sin. 3. The waters that flowed from the smitten rock represent the benefits we derive from Christ’s atoning sacrifice. How suitable was this supply, how abundant, how lasting! Let there be grateful remembrance of the smitten rock, vigorous prosecution of our journey; we drink to be refreshed and press on. Invite, and bring, our children and friends. Come sinner, thou! “See from the Rock a fountain rise!For you in healing streams it rolls;Money ye need not bring, nor price,Ye labouring, burdened, sin-sick souls.Nothing ye in exchange shall give,Leave all you have and are behind;Frankly the gift of God receive,Pardon and peace in Jesus find.”—John Hirst: The New Evangelist, p. 185. THE OF PEACE Isaiah 48:22. There is no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked. “There is a caveat put in against the wicked, that go on still in their trespasses. Let them not think they have any benefit amongst God’s people, though in show and profession they herd themselves among them—let them not expect to come in shares. What have they to do with peace that are enemies to God? Their false prophets cried peace to them to whom it did not belong; but God tells them that there shall be no peace to the wicked.” Whatever the reason for its introduction here, this verse contains a most important truth which demands universal attention. I. WHAT THE TEXT ASSERTS—that there is no peace to the wicked (H. E. I. 2296–2301). 1. Who are the wicked? (1.) Enemies of God (Psalms 37:20; Psalms 87:1-5; Romans 1:30; James 4:4). (2.) Enemies of the Cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18). (3.) Evil-doers (Psalms 28:3; Psalms 36:12; Psalms 37:1; 1 Peter 2:14). (4.) Men of the world (Psalms 17:14). The wicked are “not only all who think and feel and do wrong, but all who have not the right spirit within them—supreme sympathy with the supremely good. There are degrees in wickedness as well as in goodness. All bad men are not equally bad. Sin has its blade, its ear, its full corn in the ear.” 2. The wicked have no true peace. They may have the semblance, but even that is transient and vain (Job 20:6; Luke 12:20; Ecclesiastes 2:1; Ecclesiastes 7:6). They have no real peace— (1.) In the act of wickedness. There can be no happiness in sin—simply the gratification of bad passions. (2.) In the business or pleasures of life. The world in none of its forms or modifications can afford solid, substantial, elevated peace. “Pleasures pall upon the sense;” riches take wings; disappointment comes, and the highest earthly and sensual pleasure leaves a sad sense of want—a feeling that there is something in the capacities and wants of the undying mind which has not been filled (H. E. I. 4969–4974). (3.) Of conscience—no conviction that they are right. Indeed there is often the reverse of peace—care, distress, alarm, apprehension. “They and their consciences are ever and anon at drawn daggers; … their consciences are still galling and terrifying them for imprisoning their convictions” (Flavel). This world can furnish nothing which will give peace to the heart that is agitated with a sense of unforgiven sin (Isaiah 57:20; H. E. I. 1321–1324). (4.) In death. There may be callousness, insensibility, freedom from alarm, but that is not peace, any more than sterility is fruitfulness, &c. Often, however, the mind is filled with alarm, and the death-bed is a scene of blank despair (H. E. I. 1567, 1568, 1590–1593; P. D. 684). (5.) Beyond the grave. “A sinner can have no peace at the judgment bar of God—no peace in hell. In all the future world there is no place where he can find repose.” It is not man but GOD who says the wicked have no peace—God who made them, redeemed them, knows them; God who has no interest of His own to serve, who is “abundant in goodness and truth.” The urgent necessity of repentance and faith. “The quarrel sinners have commenced with God, if not taken up in time by repentance, will be an everlasting quarrel.” Christ has procured peace. Realised by penitent faith in His all-meritorious atonement (Romans 5:1, &c.) How earnestly should all who have not this peace seek it, since the world can neither give it nor take it away. It is necessary to the enjoyment of life (Psalms 34:12; Psalms 34:14, with 1 Peter 3:10-11). II. WHAT THE TEXT IMPLIES—that the godly have peace. 1. Who are the godly? They are frequently described in the Sacred Word (e.g., Isaiah 1:10). They fear the Lord, obey His commandments, and amid providential darkness they trust in Him. 2. The godly have peace. God’s word everywhere declares it, and Christian experience uniformly confirms its statements. (1.) They are justified by faith in Christ, and have peace with God (Romans 5:1). Once at enmity with God, at war with the law and perfections of God, with all the truths of religion and with conscience; but now they are reconciled to God, and they acquiesce in all His claims. (2.) They are Christ’s disciples, and the peace which He has left He gives—He breathes it into their hearts (John 14:27; P. D. 2666–2669). Peace such as Jesus only can impart. Not such as worldly objects, pursuits, and pleasures give. Not such as systems of philosophy and false religion give. But such as meets and satisfies the soul’s deepest needs, silences the alarms of conscience, abides amidst all the changing scenes and circumstances of human life, and in the hour of death and for ever. (3.) They love God’s law, and have great peace (Psalms 119:156). They have great calmness of mind. They are not troubled and anxious. They believe and feel (Romans 8:28). Great because divine, satisfying, abiding (P. D. 2673, 2677). Great because powerful: “It keeps the heart and mind.” Great because incomprehensible. “It passeth all understanding.” (4.) They cultivate the devotional spirit in relation to “everything,” and consequently have “the peace of God” (Philippians 4:6-7). How desirable in a world of anxiety and care to possess this peace—this rest from corroding care and distressing anxiety (Isaiah 26:3).—Alfred Tucker. OUR SAVIOUR AND THE WORK OF OUR Isaiah 49:1-6. Listen, O isles, unto me, &c.It is to the Gentiles, to us, that Christ here speaks concerning Himself and the work of salvation (Isaiah 49:1). What is the information to which He would have us “hearken?” This— I. For the work of redemption He was appointed and set apart by God (Isaiah 49:1. Cf. Matthew 1:21). From the womb of eternity, before all worlds, He was called to this service. From this divine appointment comes His authority for its prosecution (Hebrews 5:4). II. God had fitted and qualified Him for the service to which He had designed Him (Isaiah 49:2. Cf. Revelation 1:16; Revelation 19:15; Hebrews 4:12). [1492][1492] The sword and arrow were the chief weapons of the ancients, and were emblems of powerful and persuasive speech. The Tartars proclaim a powerful prince thus:—“His word shall be as a sword.” Of Pericles it is said, “His powerful speech pierced the hearer’s soul, and left deep behind in his bosom its keener point infixed.” Such is the power of the Gospel.—Thodey. III. For the service to which He was preferred, God had reserved and protected Him (Isaiah 49:2). “In the shadow of His hand hath He hid me, in His quiver hath He hid me,” denotes— 1. Concealment. The Gospel of Christ, and the calling in of the Gentiles by it, were long hidden in the counsels of God (Ephesians 3:5; Romans 16:25). 2. Protection. The house of David was the particular care of the Divine Providence, because that blessing was in it. Christ in His infancy was sheltered from the rage of Herod. IV. That God had Himself announced to Him His election and its ultimate result (Isaiah 49:3). V. That when He shrank discouraged from the prosecution of His work, God had strengthened His heart (Isaiah 49:4-6). 1. There came to the Redeemer a period of discouragement (Isaiah 49:4). This seems to point to the obstinacy of the Jews, among whom Christ went in person, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, laboured and spent His strength, and yet the rulers and the body of the nation rejected Him and His doctrine; so very few were brought in, when one would have thought that none should have stood out, that He might well say, “I have laboured,” &c. His prophets had passed through the same trial (Isaiah 6:9; Jeremiah 20:9). It is the complaint still of many a faithful minister. (1.) Let not ministers think it strange that they are slighted, when the Master Himself was. (2.) Every faithful minister passing through such a trial, may be sure of the sympathy of Christ (Hebrews 4:15-16). 2. In this period of discouragement, He comforted Himself by remembering that it was the cause of God in which He was engaged, and the call of God that engaged Him in it, and that by God Himself His efforts would be judged (Isaiah 49:4-5). 3. In that trying time He was comforted by a gracious communication made to Him by God Himself (Isaiah 49:6). If He seemed for a time to fail in the small work to which He was called, in a work much greater He should be successful.—Matthew Henry, Commentary, in loco. THE SHARP SWORD Isaiah 49:2. And He hath made My mouth like a sharp sword. The prophet having, in the foregoing chapters, comforted the Church by promises of deliverance from captivity, goes on, in this and the following chapters, to comfort it with promises of its restoration by Christ, of which all outward deliverances were but as types. The text brings before us the furnishing of Christ for the work to which He is separated, together with God’s protecting of Him in it. Christ’s fitness for the work is set out metaphorically by a double resemblance. In considering the first part of it, let us inquire— I. What resemblance is there between Christ’s mouth and a sword? By Christ’s mouth we are to understand here the words or doctrine of His mouth. It is frequent in Scripture for the mouth to be put for the doctrine or words of the mouth (Genesis 45:21; Leviticus 24:12; Numbers 3:16). In the vision of Christ which the evangelist saw in Patmos, it is said, that “out of His mouth went a sharp sword” (so Revelation 19:15); the word of God in the mouths of ministers is compared to a “two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12); much more is it so in the mouth of Christ. 1. A sword is a killing weapon. And the mouth of Christ has a killing power; by it is sin killed in the hearts of His people; by it is the head of pride cut off, and the heart-blood of unbelief let out; by it are all the noisome lusts which fight against the soul put to death (Hosea 6:5; Isaiah 11:4). There is a twofold killing of men about which the sword of Christ’s mouth is employed; the one is a killing of sin in them,—this killing is a making of the soul alive; the other is a killing of them for sin,—to the wicked, it becomes a soul-destroying sword. 2. A sword is a conquering weapon. By the power of the sword did Alexander conquer the world. Christ did not use the material weapon; but “from conquering to conquer” He used, and uses, the sword of His mouth (Psalms 110:2; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5; Revelation 6:2). The sinner yields himself up when this sword reaches his conscience; it subdues him, and reveals to him Christ’s right to exercise dominion, to dethrone usurpers, and to introduce men to the delights of His kingdom. 3. A sword is a weapon of defence. It is offensive to the enemy, defensive to him who has skill to manage it (Proverbs 6:22). (1.) In case of sin. By it is the soul preserved from falling into sin (Psalms 17:4). (2.) In case of temptation (Ephesians 6:17). As Christ did, so Christians may preserve themselves by the word of Christ’s mouth (Matthew 4:4; Matthew 4:7; Matthew 4:10). II. In what respects does this sword differ from others? 1. It reaches not only to the outward, but to the inward man. No sword can prick the heart but the sword of Christ’s mouth (Hebrews 4:12; Acts 2:37). 2. There is no defence against it. There is hardly any harness but is sword-proof. What is said of the behemoth and the leviathan may be said of the unconverted hearts of men (Job 40:18; Job 41:24); and yet also, “He that made them can make His sword approach to them” (Job 40:19). 3. It is a healing as well as a wounding sword. What the prophet says of God, “He hath smitten, and He will heal,” may be said of the sword of Christ’s mouth. When the 3000 were pricked in their hearts, nothing but the sword of Christ’s mouth could cure them again. 4. It can do execution on many at once. It can as easily pierce a thousand as one man (John 8:30; Acts 2:37). 5. It is never the worse for the using. It contracts no rust, it never loses its edge (Isaiah 40:6-8). 6. It is all edge (Revelation 2:12). His precepts have a sharpness to direct, inform, command the conscience; His promises are acute to revive, comfort, raise up; His threatenings are sharp to affright, terrify, cast down, and wound the guilty. 7. It has no dross in it. The purest metal is not without some coarse mixture; but this sword is all pure metal (Proverbs 8:8). A pure heart sees nothing but purity in the word of Christ (Proverbs 30:5). 8. It is of God’s own framing. God has made the sword of the word for Christ’s mouth, and filled His mouth to manage it for our good.—Ralph Robinson: Sermons, pp. 429–436. THE SHAFT Isaiah 49:2. And He hath made me a polished shaft. The mouth of Jesus Christ is like a polished shaft. A shaft or arrow is a military weapon used to wound the enemy; formerly it was held in high esteem. As great victories have been obtained by the bow and shaft as by the sword. The old Latin and the Greek read a “choice shaft,” and the word sometimes signifies chief or choice (Son 5:10). Others read a “bright shaft,” which our translators have well rendered a “polished shaft.” We find in Scripture the word of Christ’s mouth compared to the shaft, as well as to the sword (Psalms 45:5); and Jesus Christ, as He manages the Gospel, is said to have a bow in His hand (Revelation 6:2). Let us inquire— I. Why is the word of Christ’s mouth compared to a shaft? 1. The shaft does execution at a farther distance than the sword. When the enemy is fled from the reach of the sword, the shaft can follow him. There is no heart at such a distance from Christ but His word can easily reach it; though men be far off in place, or in state and condition, yet they are not out of the command of the polished shaft (Ephesians 2:13). 2. The arrow comes with greater force than the sword. The word of Christ’s mouth pierceth, like the shaft, into the very bowels of the soul (Hebrews 4:12). 3. The shaft is not so discernible as the sword. It goes so silently and swiftly to its mark, that it is often lodged in the heart before it is perceived. So with the word of Christ’s mouth; the heart is pierced often before it is aware (John 8:30). 4. The arrow can enter where the sword cannot. The shaft can screw itself in at the least hole (1 Kings 22:34). The word of Christ’s mouth is compared to light (Psalms 119:105). II. Why is it called a polished shaft? 1. To show its fitness for the work for which it is designed. A shaft that is untrimmed is unfit for service. When God calls His archers against Babylon, He commands them “to gather the shields and make bright the arrows.” The mouth of Christ is always fit for holy service. 2. To show the constancy with which it is used. Things that are often used are bright and shining. Christ does not keep His arrows in their quiver, but makes daily use of them as the people stand in need. 3. To show the glory of it. The best refined gold is but dark compared with the word of glory (1 Timothy 1:11). III. In what respects does this shaft differ from others? 1. In the swiftness of its flight (Psalms 147:15). We read of the immediate effects of the word of Christ (Matthew 8:3; Mark 10:52). No sooner does Christ say to the soul, “Be enlightened, be quickened, be comforted,” than the work is done. 2. In the certainty of its execution. This arrow never misses its mark. E.g., the eunuch under the ministry of Philip; Christ and Zacchæus; the Philippian jailer; Saul, when Christ forced him to cry, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” .— 1. How dangerous it must be to oppose Jesus Christ! (Acts 9:5). 2. Christ is able by His own power to defend His people against the strength and rage of all their enemies. He hath both sword and shaft which He can use for the defence of His Church.—Ralph Robinson: Sermons, pp. 436–442. ON THE OF [1495][1495] For many fine words of encouragement for Christian workers, see my Dictionary of Poetical Illustrations (usually referred to as P. D.), 1006, 2011, 2013, 2181, 2182, 2443, 2645, 2767, 2851, 3205, 3278, 3491. Isaiah 49:4. Then I said, I have laboured in vain, &c.Man will not only work, but he will sit in judgment upon the results of his labour. Accustomed to take the harvest-field as his rule of adjudication, he is not content merely to sow the seed and leave results with God; he must needs see an adequate return for the labour of his hands, else he will complain loudly and bitterly of misspent strength. This anxiety about results is not vicious in itself; it is, indeed, indicative of acute sensitiveness, and when properly controlled may keep a man from carelessness and stagnation. On the other hand, it may be abused and turned into an instrument of daily torture. The idea of a wasted life strikes horror into the reflective spirit. A man should truly be careful about this kind of thing—about the possibility of facing the King without any token that life has been well spent—about the possibility of having no proof that he ever lived, except that he is dead! But some persons give themselves much unnecessary pain by underrating their real service in the world. They mistakenly say—“I have,” &c. It has been very common to rebuke persons who over-estimate their position and service, and very bitter contempt has most justly been poured upon those who have used the words of modesty without having felt its spirit—under-rating themselves to entrap society into the payment of compliments. Still, there are some who throw their spirits into great disquiet by under-calculating their influence and falsely imagining that they have done little or no good in the world. This question of good-doing is one of great subtlety. Quiet workers are apt to envy the man who lives before society in a great breadth of self-demonstration, and to under-rate themselves. There are mothers of large families who have no time to do what is generally known as church-work, who are shut up within the sanctuary of home to do work there which attracts no public attention, &c. Do you mean to say that you have spent your strength for nought and in vain? Far from it. Here is a young woman who for years has been afflicted; the day has been long and the night wearisome to her suffering flesh. When she hears of the doings of other people, the tear starts into her eye, and she says—“I have laboured in vain,” &c. Nay! she passes harsh judgment upon herself, &c. The sister, too, is apt to under-rate her influence, and mistakenly to mourn over a mis-spent life. The same principle applies to different classes of spiritual labourers. It applies to the teacher in the day-school and to the teacher in the Sunday-school. It applies to preachers of the Gospel in a peculiar sense. If they are truly called of God, they thus pass false judgment upon their lives. The text shows the true comfort of those who mourn the littleness and emptiness of their lives—“My judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.” The whole case is referred to Him who judgeth righteously. God knows our purposes, our opportunities, and our endeavours, and He will perfect that which concerneth us. The intention of the heart which it was impracticable to realise will be set down to our favour as if we had accomplished it all. This subject is fraught with very delicate, yet most potent comfort; it is also fraught with warning and rebuke. This is the children’s bread, and not a crumb of it must be given to dogs! Chief among those who must be warned of this comfort are the idlers—those who neglect themselves, neglect home, and neglect the church; and next to them must stand those who are conscious of doing much, yet who covet praise by depreciating their own labour. The text must be reserved for hardworking, faithful people, who are not favoured with the immediate and visible results which gladden and strengthen some of their fellowlabourers. In the name of Him who did not lift up His voice, or cry in the streets, I would bid such people stand to their work till the bell strikes the ceasing hour. 1. Other men do not see the full result of their labour—they know not how many lamps are kindled by their torch. Did you ever hear of Thomas Barber? Probably not. His name is written but in pale ink on the world’s scroll, yet that man was the means of converting DR. ADAM CLARKE, one of the world’s deepest scholars and most luminous expositors of the Divine Word. Did you ever hear of Robert Burnard? Probably not; yet that good man laid hold of a drunken mason’s son in Plymouth workhouse, and watched over him with ever-helpful generosity, until that deaf pauper was known throughout the world as DR. JOHN KITTO. These are but two names out of a long roll. They show how even obscure names may be associated with stupendous results. Here is encouragement to continue all good work; “for as the rain cometh down,” &c. 2. I say with reverence that the Almighty Himself often appears to be spending His strength for nought and in vain. To Israel He saith, “All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” Again and again He uttered the voice of complaining: “The stork in the heavens,” &c. We are, then, as merely human labourers, not alone in our apparent failure. “My beloved hath a vineyard,” &c. This is apparent failure. Judge not the Divine worker by one thread of the immeasurable web which He is working, or by one stone of the majestic fabric which He is building. He carries great breadths of work before Him, and by reason of its vastness, delicacy, and grandeur, time is required. There are many signs of failure, but they are temporary, not final. Why, then, art thou cast down? &c. If I be true to my work, I can fail only as God fails—if the Church be sincere, she can fail only as Christ fails—if the spirit be upright, it can fail only as the Holy Ghost fails.—J. Parker, D.D.: Pulpit Analyst, vol. i. pp. 661–670. I. The most faithful labourers may be for a time unsuccessful. Not absolutely, but comparatively. If our Lord and Master had occasion to say that He had laboured in vain, &c., we should not be surprised that we have occasion to use the same language. Is the servant above his Lord? It may not be our fault. The opposition of Satan and wicked men may be of such a character as for a time to frustrate our plans, and prevent our success. II. Faithful labourers will ultimately be crowned with abundant success. It has been so, and will be so to the extent desired, with the Saviour (Isaiah 53:11). It will be so with His faithful workers. Not only can no true work done for God be in vain, but it will be rendered abundantly successful sooner or later. This we know from the promises of the “sure word” (Isaiah 55:10-11; Ecclesiastes 12:1, &c.; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 6:10). III. Faithful labourers should commit their work to God in the assurance that they and their work will be accepted. Not on the ground of success, but in proportion to their faithfulness and self-denial. Let us never doubt— 1. God’s approval of our work. In all our labours, pursued with singleness of eye to His glory, we have His approving smile. He is not only acquainted with all we do, but He approves—takes pleasure in our services (Psalms 149:4; Hebrews 6:10; Hebrews 13:16; Revelation 2:2). “I know thy works;” i.e., I approve of them—the meanest as well as the mightiest; the cup of cold water alike with the most costly sacrifice, &c. 2. God’s ultimate and full reward of our work (Galatians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:58). It is not as if we were to die, and never live again. There will be a resurrection, and we shall be fully recompensed then. In view of this we should be “in labours more abundant” and self-denying (Revelation 2:8-10). “I will give thee a crown of life”—an unfading, imperishable crown; life in its highest forms and manifestations; life eternal and ineffable, ever developing in all strength, and beauty, and joy, and perfection. This reward is certain, for He says “I will,” whose authority is indisputable, whose power is supreme, whose faithfulness is unchallenged. He will accomplish His own Word. .— 1. Let us not yield to discouragement, even though our work is comparatively unsuccessful. Jesus never did, and He is the model worker. Success is not the rule of action, but God’s command to “go work in My vineyard.” Press every energy into this service. Let no obstacles deter, no difficulties drive from the field. “Do all the good you can,In all the ways you can,To all the folk you can,At all the times you can,And as long as you can.”—Mrs. S. Glover.3. Notwithstanding all the labour and prayer expended, some of you have not been prevailed upon to “repent and believe the Gospel.” “We then, as workers together with God, beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain” (1 Corinthians 6:1-2).—Alfred Tucker. THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S GREAT GIFT Isaiah 49:6. And He said, It is a light thing, &c.The chapter refers to gospel days; and the meaning of the text in particular seems to be fixed by good old Simeon, who, when Jesus was presented to the Lord, hailed Him as God’s “light,” and His “salvation” (Luke 2:28-32). We regard this passage, therefore, as an epitome of the scheme of redemption; and recognise in it God’s gift to man, and His intention in that gift. I. GOD’S GIFT TO MANKIND. “I will give thee,” &c. As this gift is bestowed for moral purposes, the subject is calculated to lead our thoughts to the Giver, as our Supreme Lord and moral Governor. It shows in Him an infinite condescension to interest Himself about us, for, Isaiah 40:15. Two things here invite our notice— 1. The person given (Matthew 12:15-18). His dignity (John 1:1; Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31; John 14:10-11; 1 John 5:7). Hence it follows that this is a great, an incomparable gift. He is God’s “only-begotten Son,” &c. (Romans 8:32). Yet this, great as it is, is a free gift; not conceded to the powerful, but granted to the impotent, the needy, the perishing; not conferred on the deserving as a reward of merit, but bestowed on the rebellious; not yielded to importunity, but given to “the evil and unthankful,” unasked and undesired. 2. The office or undertaking to which He is appointed. This office of “servant” may be one of honour, but is always one of subordination (Philippians 2:6-8). II. GOD’S MANKIND. 1. “To raise up the tribes of Jacob,” which are fallen from their religious honours and pre-eminence, and from national independence into dispersion and disgrace and contempt (Deuteronomy 28:37); and to restore “the preserved of Israel”—wherever scattered, or howsoever persecuted, still preserved from extermination, and still preserved a distinct people; to restore them to the favour of God, and to His spiritual service; and perhaps to their country and independence (Luke 1:69-75; Romans 11:26; Isaiah 49:13-23; Jeremiah 23:5-8). 2. But seeing that the Jews are but a small part of the whole family of man, their restoration “is a light thing,” in comparison with the enlightenment of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the ends of the earth. The Gentile world was enveloped in the darkness of ignorance, error, and superstition, of misery, guilt, and condemnation (Isaiah 49:9; Luke 1:77-79; Luke 4:18). To them Jesus was, by His doctrine, a light—concerning the invisible world, teaching the unity and perfections of God, &c.; concerning the future world; teaching the immortality of the soul, which even their wise men doubted, and a resurrection of the body, which they reckoned impossible. Besides this He may be considered as affording light on most important subjects, by His holy life, His vicarious death, &c. He enlightens still by His Spirit, &c. (2 Corinthians 4:6; Matthew 5:14-16; Philippians 2:15). But further, He is God’s salvation, and therefore, in all respects, a salvation suited to man’s necessities. He finds us guilty, &c., and He saves us by bearing our punishment for us (1 Peter 2:24). He finds us enslaved, defiled, and unfit for heaven; and He saves us from thraldom and pollution by His Spirit working in us (Romans 8:2; Titus 3:5; 2 Peter 1:4). He finds all men, everywhere, poor and helpless, and He saves to the end of the earth, fully, freely, &c. (Hebrews 7:25; Revelation 22:17). .— 1. We ought very highly to value our souls: God does. If we lose them, we lose all. 2. We should accept the salvation which God has so kindly sent to us (Isaiah 55:1). 3. We should love Him who has manifested such love to us, and give proof of our love, by submitting to Him who submitted to shame, &c., in our stead (John 14:15; 1 John 5:3). 4. We may confidently expect “all things necessary for life and godliness” (Romans 8:32, et seq.) 5. We should employ both our example and our influence to open the eyes of our fellow-men to behold God’s light, and their hearts to receive His salvation (Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 62:1).—Zeta: Sketches of 400 Sermons, vol. ii. p. 84–88. CHRIST OUR LIGHT Isaiah 49:6. I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles. Not here only, but elsewhere, in many places, our Lord Jesus is held forth under the notion of a light. Show— I. WHAT KIND OF A LIGHT JESUS CHRIST IS. There are several kinds of light” There is glow-worm light, &c. But there is one light that is far beyond them all, and that is sun-light, between which and the former there is no comparison; and that light Jesus Christ is—sun-light (Malachi 4:2; Psalms 84:11; Luke 1:78). Now sunlight hath these properties; it is— 1. Glorious light (1 Corinthians 15:41; Matthew 13:43; Matthew 17:2). And is not Jesus Christ of all others the most glorious? (Son 5:10; Colossians 1:8). Let this advance your esteem of Him more and more. 2. General light. It shines everywhere (Psalms 19:6). One sun serves all the world, &c. There is but one Christ, but that one is a universal Saviour to all the world (1 John 2:2; Luke 16:15; Romans 10:18; John 12:36). 3. Fountain-light. What light the moon and the planets have, they derive it all from the sun. So Jesus Christ is the spring-head and fountain from whence every good and perfect gift comes. Gifts of nature do all flow from Him (John 1:2). So also gifts of grace (John 1:16; Hebrews 12:2). And therefore, in all our wants we must have recourse to Him; and in all our receivings we must give Him the praise. 4. Free light. It costs us nothing. What is more free than the light, and what is more free than grace? (John 4:10; Romans 5:15; Isaiah 55:1-2; Revelation 22:17). Therefore ye are inexcusable, if you go without it. 5. Enlightening light. The sun hath not its light for itself, but for the world, and it communicates it accordingly. It rises every morning, and dispels the darkness of the night, and shines all day; and very sweet and useful it is. So Christ (Luke 2:32; Revelation 3:1). He opens blind eyes (Isaiah 42:6-7; Malachi 4:2; Revelation 3:18). Pray as the blind man that came to Christ for eyesight. 6. Increasing light. By degrees, as the sun gets up, mists, &c. vanish, and noonday comes. So it is with the souls that Christ enlightens (Proverbs 4:18; Isaiah 30:26). II. WHAT ARE TO BE DRAWN FROM THIS SUBJECT? 1. What a miserable condition is a sinful Christless condition! Those who are out of Christ are out of the light (2 Corinthians 4:6; John 3:19-20; Job 24:13; Job 21:14). But wherein lies the misery of a blind and dark condition? (1.) It is very uncomfortable (Ecclesiastes 11:7; Proverbs 2:10). (2.) It is very unsafe. Thou hast a journey to go, that will not be gone without light. There are many by-ways, &c. (John 12:35.) Thou hast work to do that will not be done without light, nay, not without sun-light (Luke 10:42). (3.) It is miserable here (Ephesians 6:12; Isaiah 42:7; Acts 26:18). It will be miserable hereafter. Make the application to yourselves: Is not this my condition? (John 9:25; John 9:40). 2. What an unspeakable mercy then was the giving of Christ to save us from all this misery; to be a light to lighten the world! What a dungeon were the world without it! Therefore thank God for this unspeakable gift (Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 1:12-13). 3. Of what concernment it is to come to Christ to be enlightened by Him! Only by coming can we have the true light (Revelation 3:18). Delay no longer; away quickly to the throne of grace, and beg for this eye-salve;—to the means of grace, and seek it there. 4. What is to be done by those on whom this light is risen? As Christ is the light of the world, so ye also are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). Then (1.) let your light shine before men (Ephesians 5:8; Romans 12:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:5-8) (2.) Let your light be increasing more and more—especially concerning the evil of sin, the weakness of self, the excellency of Christ, &c.—Philip Henry: Christ All in All, pp. 81–90. CHRIST’S FUTURE REIGN Isaiah 49:7. Thus saith the Lord, &c.In this and the subsequent verses we have a direct promise from Jehovah to the Messiah, of the ultimate success of His mediatorial work. Consider— I. THE GIVEN OF THE MESSIAH. 1. As despised, rejected, and contemned by men. “Him whom man despiseth”—literally, whom the soul despiseth. It was a characteristic of Him that He was despised and rejected; and the prophet, in this verse, has given a summary of all that He has said respecting Him in chap. 53. (John 1:10-11). “Despised by the mere animal passion of man, which judges according to the outward appearance; and is therefore carnal, and not spiritual.”—Wordsworth.2. As abhorred by the Jewish nation. “Him whom the nation abhorreth” (cf. chap. Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 10:6). He was regarded as an abomination by the people (Luke 15:2). “This man”—this fellow—“receiveth sinners”—is in secret sympathy with them. In Matthew 26:67; Luke 23:18-26, Isaiah 53:3-4 is literally fulfilled. He is still abhorred by the Jews. His name excites the utmost contempt among them, and they turn from Him and His claims with the deepest abhorrence. They contemptuously call Jesus Tolvi, the crucified; and nothing excites deeper abhorrence and contempt than the doctrine of salvation by the merits of the crucified Nazarene (1 Corinthians 1:23, and others). 3. As “a servant of rulers.” Though He was ruler of all worlds, He voluntarily submitted Himself to human power, and yielded obedience to human rulers—the constituted authorities of His day. He conformed to the institutions of His country (Matthew 17:27; Matthew 26:52-53). He submitted to an unjust trial and verdict. In the strictest sense He was “a servant of rulers,” for “He was deprived of His liberty, comfort, and life at their caprice.” II. THE PURPOSE OF GOD THE MESSIAH’S REIGN. 1. He is “chosen of God” to accomplish the world’s salvation. “He shall choose thee.” He was elected to diffuse light and truth among all nations (Isaiah 49:6; also chap. Isaiah 42:1-10). 2. All shall bow to His sceptre. “Kings shall see,” &c. That is, kings shall see the fulfilment of the Divine promise by which He is destined to be the light of the nations, and they shall rise up with demonstrations of respect and reverence; they shall render Him honour as their Teacher and Redeemer. They shall do homage to the great King-Saviour. “Kings, being usually seated in the presence of others, are described as rising from their thrones; while princes and nobles, who usually stand in the presence of their sovereigns, are described as falling prostrate”—(Hitzig). The universality of His reign is distinctly foretold (Psalms 2:6; Psalms 2:8; Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 42:4; Zechariah 14:19; Revelation 19:6; Revelation 19:11-17; and others). The text has been fulfilled. Kings and princes have bowed before the Redeemer, and the time is hastening on when throughout the world they shall adore Him. 3. God in His faithfulness will accomplish His gracious purpose. “Because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel.” His purpose shall assuredly be brought to pass. For this He pledges the veracity of His word. The universality of Christ’s reign shall be traced entirely to the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God. .— 1. What a glorious period is approaching! All the world shall see the salvation of God. He who is now despised and rejected by so many, shall be universally honoured, loved, adored. All shall bow to Him, as the ripe fields of autumn do to the winds of heaven. The day of His triumph draws nigh—all things betoken it! Glorious prospect! (H. E. I. 979, 1161, 1162; P. D. 475). 2. What encouragement have all Christian workers—Ministers, missionaries, &c. The success of our efforts is certain. What honour is conferred upon us as the instruments of diffusing light and truth! Christ deemed it the highest honour, so should we. Let us with all possible earnestness seek the advancement of His reign, and the increase of its glory. They who do most for the conversion of the world, are most like Christ, and will have the greatest reward in heaven. 3. What is your relation to this great King-Saviour? Is God’s gracious purpose accomplished in your salvation? Does He reign in your heart? Do you despise and reject the crucified Jesus, or do you receive Him as your prophet, priest, and king? It is of infinite importance that you belong to His kingdom. Without this, there can be no real holiness, happiness, security. Hostility to Christ, the Divinely appointed Saviour-King is utterly useless. He must and will be victorious (Psalms 2:4-5, and others). How fearful will be the condition of all who refuse allegiance to Him! Let Him become without delay your Saviour and your King (Psalms 2:11-12). “O Thou Almighty Lord,My Conqueror and my King,Thy sceptre and Thy sword,Thy reign of grace, I sing;Thine is the power: behold, I sitIn willing bonds before Thy feet.”—Dr. Watts.—Alfred Tucker.THE THE SOURCE AND OF TO HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 49:7-12. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer, &c.I. THE AND OF THE MESSIAH (Isaiah 49:7). He who had always taken care of the Jewish church, and wrought out for it those deliverances that were typical of the great salvation, here speaks to Him who was the Undertaker of that salvation. 1. He takes notice of His humiliation (Isaiah 49:7). “Whom man despiseth,” &c. (cf. Isaiah 53:3; Luke 23:21). “A servant of rulers.” Pilate boasted of his power over Him (John 19:10). 2. He promises Him exaltation. Honour was done Him, even in the days of His humiliation. Noblemen, rulers, centurions came and kneeled to Him; but this was more fully accomplished when kings received His Gospel, submitted to His yoke, joined in His worship, and called themselves His vassals. Not that Christ values the rich more than the poor (they stand on a level with Him), but it is for the honour of His kingdom among men, when the great ones of the earth appear for Him, and do homage to Him. II. THE SUCCOUR AND SUCCESS HIM. 1. The succour. God will hear His cry for help (Isaiah 49:8; Hebrews 5:7). In the days of His flesh Christ knew that His Father heard Him always (John 11:42; John 17:24). He will also help Him to go through with His undertaking. The Father was always at His right hand, and did not leave Him when His disciples did (John 16:32). 2. The success. He is assured (1.) that He should be the Guarantee of the treaty of peace between God and man: “I will give Thee for a covenant of the people” (see pp. 113–115). (2.) By Him the decays of the Church should be repaired, and the Church itself established on a “rock” (Isaiah 49:8). “Establish the earth,” or rather, “the land,” the land of Judah, a type of the Church. (3.) To Him should be gathered those who were farthest from God and the good land He had promised to His people (Isaiah 49:12). The Jews were dispersed into several parts of the country of Babylon, as enemies pleased, to prevent any combination among them. But when God’s time is come to bring them home together, one spirit shall animate all them that lie at the greatest distance from each other; and those also that had taken shelter in other countries shall meet them in the land of Judah. This promise was to have a further accomplishment in the great confluence of converts to the Gospel-church, and its full accomplishment when God’s chosen shall come from the east and the west, to sit down with the patriarchs in the kingdom of God (Matthew 8:11). III. THE IN STORE FOR ALL THOSE TO WHOM HE IS MADE . It was by the foresight of these that He was encouraged to prosecute the great and costly work He had undertaken. He is assured— 1. That by Him the souls of men should be freed from the bondage of guilt, and brought into the glorious liberty of God’s children (Isaiah 49:9). 2. That He should be enabled to provide for the comfortable passage of those whom He set at liberty to the place of their rest and happy settlement (Isaiah 49:9-11). These verses refer to the provision made for the Jews’ return out of their captivity, who were taken under the particular care of Divine providence; but it is applicable to that guidance of Divine Grace which all God’s spiritual Israel are under, from their release out of bondage to their settlement in the heavenly Canaan. (1.) They shall have their charges borne and shall be fed at free cost with food convenient. “They shall feed,” &c. Now, as formerly, God leads Joseph like a flock. When God pleases, even highway ground shall be good ground for His sheep to feed in. Their pastures shall be not only in the valleys, but “in all high places,” which are commonly dry and barren. Wherever God brings His people, He will take care they shall want nothing that is good for them (Psalms 34:10). So well shall they be provided for, that “they shall not hunger nor thirst;” for what they need they shall have seasonably, before their need of it comes to any extremity. (2.) They shall be sheltered and protected from everything that would incommode them. “Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them,” for God causes “His flock to rest at noon” (Son 1:7). No evil thing shall befall those who put themselves under Divine protection; they shall be enabled to bear “the burden and heat of the day.” (3.) They shall be under God’s gracious guidance (Isaiah 49:10). He will lead them, as He did His people in the old time through the wilderness. The world leads its followers by broken cisterns, or brooks that fail in summer; but God leads those that are His “by the springs of water.” He will furnish them with suitable and seasonable comforts. (4.) Those whom God guides shall find a ready road and all obstacles removed (Isaiah 49:11). He that in times past made the sea a way, now with as much ease will make the mountains a way, though they seem impassable. The causeway shall be raised, to make it both the plainer and the fairer. The ways in which God leads His people, He Himself will be the overseer of, and will take care that they be kept in good repair, as of old the ways that led to the cities of refuge. Though there be difficulties in the way to heaven, which we cannot by our own strength get over, yet the grace of God will be sufficient to help us over them, and to make even the “mountains a way.”—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco.CHRIST AND Isaiah 49:7. Thus saith the LORD, … to him whom man despiseth, &c. This verse has been called “a prelude of chap. 53.” It anticipates that minute and graphic exhibition of the Messiah’s sufferings and glories, which we have so often pondered, and prize so highly. In brief compass it states the leading points presented in that chapter. This is the twig which is there expanded into a magnificent tree. Here, as there, the prophet transports himself into the time when our Lord lived and suffered on earth, and stands at the point of transition between the humiliation and the exaltation. The shame, the indignities, the rejection, the cruel sufferings are stated as present facts: the glory, the honour, the worship, the world-wide influence are viewed as future. When Jesus died upon the cross, and His body was consigned to Joseph’s tomb, His degradation seemed complete, His cause hopeless. His persecutors never dreamt that He would ever be heard of again, and even the faith of His disciples was shaken (Luke 24:21). Never were surmises more signally falsified; never were fears and doubts more effectually relieved than when the Redeemer rose on the third day, and, after showing Himself to His disciples, ascended to the seat of honour and power. From this time onward His career is an entire reversal of the circumstances connected with His previous earthly course. I. View the prophecy in its historical fulfilment. “The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” form the great theme of Old Testament prediction, and in this one verse, which contains the substance of chap, 53, both the sufferings and the subsequent glory are clearly foretold. 1. Look at the features of His humiliation. The Messiah is spoken of as one “whom man despiseth (or of contemptible soul), whom the nation abhorreth, a servant of rulers.” In these successive clauses the number of Christ’s enemies is narrowed from men to the Jewish people, and from the Jews to their rulers; but the feelings of hostility and the active opposition became more intense, passing from contempt to abhorrence, and from abhorrence to the infliction of cruel sufferings and abject degradation, culminating in the death of a slave. In Him men saw nothing to attract their admiration,—none of that earthly greatness and outward display which captivate the mob. His meekness and holiness repelled them, and His lowly station rendered Him an object of contempt (Isaiah 53:2-3). By the Jews he was regarded with abhorrence. He did not answer to their carnal notions, He shocked their prejudices: they reasoned from His sufferings and mean condition to His character, inferring that for some sin He was the object of the Divine displeasure, not knowing that the sin was their own. In fanatical zeal their rulers condemned Him to die a shameful death. Thus was He rejected by all classes. His cross was an offence. His mission, character, and work were strangely misunderstood. The ignorance and blindness of His adversaries explain their treatment of Him (Acts 3:17; 1 Corinthians 2:8). The power and passions of the world were arrayed against Him. 2. His subsequent honours and influence. Behold how changed is the estimate formed of Him! Even kings rise from their thrones to pay Him homage, and princes worship Him, implying that if those of highest rank acknowledge His claims and bow before His throne, those of meaner position will likewise do so. Already we can witness the fulfilment in part of this prophecy, but more remains (Psalms 72:11). The King of kings and Lord of lords has won the love and allegiance of all ranks, and sovereigns have given Him their personal service and the homage of their hearts. Crowned heads have appeared in the meetings of the Evangelical Alliance, and shown a deep interest in its proceedings. The Redeemer has won His conquests from all classes; all ranks grace His triumph. “The servant of rulers” has become their Master. 3. The explanation of this surprising change in men’s attitude towards Christ. All hinges on the word “see.” That is the secret of the transition. Men are brought to see the truth in reference to Christ’s person, character, and work. The veil is removed from their heart (2 Corinthians 3:14-16). They see the glory of the cross, the love and justice displayed in redemption. The Godhead of Christ, the surpassing beauty of His character, and the necessity and efficacy of His sacrifice flash upon their minds, and revolutionise their views and feelings. The real cause of their hostility was that they would not “come and see.” Honest inquiry removes every stumblingblock in the way of faith. The lowliness of the suffering Saviour would become His strongest attraction, for to this He condescended in His love for the guilty (2 Corinthians 8:9). 4. The result of this transition. “Because of, or for the sake of the Lord, who is faithful.” It manifests the Father’s faithfulness to His Son in crowning Him with the promised reward of His work (Isaiah 53:10-12), and to mankind in accomplishing the long-foretold redemption. When “every knee shall bow to Christ,” it will redound “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). II. View the prophecy as a description of our own spiritual history. Once, it may be, we were indifferent to Christ and despised Him in our hearts, evading the very thought of Him. But now we have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. God has shown us the madness of despising His Son (Galatians 1:15-16). Our experience resembles that of the Jewish converts as expressed in chap. Isaiah 53:2-6. They who hid their faces in shame at the sight of the Messiah now own Him as their Saviour. There is nothing in Him to draw the carnal eye. The sensual mind has no appreciation of His excellence; the self-deluded and impenitent can dispense with His sacrifice; the sin-loving soul is repelled by His holiness; the ignorant and indifferent disregard Him. If the unbeliever studies Christ at all, he is forced to maintain that He is not the Son of God, and that His death was the merited punishment of His claim to be the Son of God. But he whose eyes have been opened is entranced by the vision of His divine glory and self-sacrificing love (Ephesians 5:8; John 9:25; 2 Corinthians 5:17). “Would that all of us could see the glory of the cross, the true character and dignity of the Redeemer! As preachers we do all in our power to draw aside the veil of ignorance and prejudice, that the glories of Christ might break upon the benighted soul. What think ye of Christ, then? Do you despise Him, or do you worship Him?—William Guthrie, M.A.THE OF GOD Isaiah 49:7. The Lord that is faithful. This verse contains a promise of the future honour that should await the Redeemer, and of the success which should crown His work. Because Jehovah is faithful in the fulfilment of His promises, He will assuredly bring this to pass, and the fact that the Messiah shall be thus honoured shall be traced entirely to the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God. I. THE NATURE, , AND OF THE DIVINE . 1. What is faithfulness in relation to God? It is that absolute perfection of the Deity by which He is true in Himself, and by which it is impossible for Him not to fulfil whatever He has promised, or not to bring to pass whatever He has purposed. “It is the attribute that pledges to man in infinite condescension—for it is the most anthropopathic of all His attributes—the fulfilment of every specific promise based upon the economy of His righteousness” (Dr. Pope). It is necessarily implied in His holiness. Testimonies of Scripture at once explain and prove this view of Divine truth, and place this topic in a clear and convincing light (Numbers 23:19; Psalms 36:5; Psalms 6; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; 2 Thessalonians 3:2; Hebrews 6:16-18; Hebrews 10:23; Titus 1:2; 1 John 1:9). 2. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the Divine faithfulness? It is declared to be—Established (Psalms 89:5). Unfailing (Psalms 89:33; 2 Timothy 2:13). Great (Lamentations 3:23). Incomparable (Psalms 89:8). Infinite (Psalms 36:5). Everlasting (Psalms 119:90; Psalms 146:6). 3. How is the Divine faithfulness manifested?(1.) In the triumphs of Christianity in the world. See text and context, with records in “The Acts of the Apostles.” Modern triumphs of the Gospel at home and abroad. (2.) In forgiving sin. Sinners repenting of their sin, and confessing it, are assured that God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). (3.) In the preservation and establishment of believers. Believers oppressed by the weariness of the way, and their own instability, are reminded that “the Lord is faithful,” &c. (2 Thessalonians 3:3). (4.) In the entire sanctification of believers. The saints, encouraged to aspire to perfect holiness of body, and soul, and spirit, are assured that faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24). (5.) In the relations which He sustains. As a King, Friend, Father, &c. (6.) In the afflictions of the godly (Psalms 119:75). (7.) In the fulfilment of His promises. However apparently improbable (1 Kings 8:20; Psalms 111:5; Psalms 132:11; Micah 7:20; Hebrews 10:23). “There is not a promise which God has made but what either He has kept it, or else, being dated for the future, He will keep it when the time appointed comes.” “If God were to forget His engagements, He would cease to be God.” These passages carry the Divine fidelity into the entire process of personal salvation from beginning to end. II. THE LESSONS WHICH THE DIVINE SHOULD TEACH US. 1. How it ought to warn the wicked! It is remarkable that this attribute is never expressly connected with the Divine threatenings, though equally applicable to it. God will inflict the punishment which He has denounced against sin (H. E. I., 2180–2184, 2296–2299, 4603–4610). 2. How it ought to encourage the penitent! The promises of forgiveness and grace are to be relied on with the utmost possible confidence. 3. How it ought to promote the abiding graces of the Christian life! Increase and strengthen our faith. Why mistrust Him? [1498] Raise and animate our hope (Psalms 39:7; Psalms 146:5; Jeremiah 17:1). Augment and intensify our love. [1498] “What makes you think that God will never forsake them that trust in Him?” was asked of an aged Christian. “Because He has promised,” was the reply. “And what makes you think that He will keep His word?” “Because He never yet broke it.” Here is encouragement for us all! Here is cause to cry aloud,—“Though He slay me,” &c. The past declares God’s faithfulness, the present confirms it, and the future will only make more clear His fidelity and truth. 4. How it should encourage pleading prayer! (Psalms 143:1). “We should turn God’s promises into prayers, and He will turn His promises into performances, for with God saying and doing are not two things, as they often are with men. God will do as He hath said”—(Henry). “Thou hast said”—a mighty plea in prayer. 5. How it should incite us to bear our personal testimony! Every trusting soul can say, like Joshua (Joshua 21:45). This testimony we should bear (Psalms 40:10; Psalms 89:1). 6. How it should teach us to cultivate faithfulness in all its forms and degrees! (1). To God. “Be ye followers”—imitators—“of God as dear children,” Faithful as servants, &c. Faithful to His word—in holding it, and in seeking to spread it. (2.) To our fellow-men. “The fruit of the Spirit is faith”—fidelity (Galatians 5:22). True religion makes a man faithful—as a neighbour, friend, father, husband, son. He is faithful to his fellow-men. All pretensions of being the subject of the renewing influence of the Spirit, when such fidelity does not exist, are deceitful and vain.—Alfred Tucker. THE WORLD GIVEN TO CHRIST (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 49:8-13. Thus saith the Lord, &c.The prophet was looking forward, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to the Messiah and His times, and here states several important truths respecting His great mission. Customary for some kings to grant to favoured ones whatever they requested. God says to His kingly Son, “Ask of Me, and I shall give,” &c. (Psalms 2:8). Here He is represented as having asked, and this is the answer, and the assurance that JEHOVAH would in His own good time make Him the means of salvation to all mankind. Consider— I. THE OF THE GOSPEL. 1. It was commenced in the apostolic age. “The word of the Lord grew and mightily prevailed” over the various forms of error, superstition, idolatry, &c. 2. It has been continuing through the ages to the present hour. Rapidly and extensively during the present century. [1501][1501] Look at America, with its 25,000 ministers and millions of Church members. Look at the Fijian Islands. Half a century ago the blackest spot upon the map of the world, but if you ask the watchman, “what of the night” that brooded on these islands, he answers from the watch-towers of Omniscience that it is gone! “Poor Fiji,” the by-word of the nations, is become more Christian than the land that sent her Christ. Look at India. Contact with Western civilisation, education, and missionary enterprise, like the secret waters of three mighty subterranean tides, have sapped the ancient temple of Indian superstition; it trembles to its fall, and all kingdoms are shaken that that which cannot be shaken may remain. The Spirit broods over the profound depths of the heart of India, and the light is breaking. India is in search of a religion, and not long since a leading Hindu gentleman said to a famous Indian missionary that, “so far as he could see, the future sovereign of India would be Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” It is thus the Gospel is rapidly and extensively spreading.—W. J. Dawson.3. It will be fully accomplished in “the fulness of time.” Innumerable triumphs have already been gained over sin and Satan, and the gospel will go forth conquering and to conquer. The most distant nations shall submit to Christ (Isaiah 49:12; Matthew 8:11; H. E. I. 979, 1161–1168). [1504][1504] India, with her 240,000,000, and China (“Sinim,” most commentators are agreed that this refers to China) with her 400,000,000 inhabitants, shall gather round the central point of bliss—the largest kingdom of the world shall be converted (Isaiah 49:12). “Many thousands have looked upon ‘The Dream of Pilate’s Wife,’ that great picture of that great commentator in colour, Gustave Doré, and have marked as its most wonderful conception the distant Calvary with its empty cross bathed in mysterious light, and the innumerable throngs that toil upward to it with their shining faces, and the deep night-sky that seems to over-brim with angels. So the cross will shine at last above the dark continent where Moffat lived, and Livingstone died praying; over India where Carey planted his forlorn hope, and grand old Samuel Wesley would have gladly laid his dust; and the shining hosts shall be the souls of all the saved, and the wondrous light the morning of the new heaven filling the new earth; for Christ will have drawn all men unto Himself.”—W. J. Dawson.What reasons have we for believing this? We have— (1.) The faithful and unerring promises of JEHOVAH (Psalms 2:8; Psalms 22:27; Psalms 72:17; Isaiah 40:5; Isaiah 44:2 &c.) Believe these promises. Labour and pray for their accomplishment. Especially pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to render all the means which are employed effectual. Ponder them as a source of continual encouragement. (2.) The adaptation of Christianity, above all other forms of religion, to be universal. [1507][1507] H. E. I. 1152—In all the forms of false religion with which our world is filled, there is something which renders them unfit or impracticable for universal adoption. Some are adapted to particular climates only; others to particular states of society; a third class to particular orders of men; so that, in their very nature, they cannot be universal. But when we examine the religion of Jesus Christ, in its New Testament form, we find it divested of every feature and circumstance adapted to confine it to any particular territory or people. Its doctrines, its worship, and its system of moral duty, are all equally adapted to universality.… “Christ gives to the soul of heathendom that which it wants, and that which none other can give. (1.) A Deity in which all hearts can unite in supreme love. (2.) A creed in which all intellects can repose with unwavering confidence. (3.) A law which all consciences can approve without suspicion. (4.) An enterprise in which all souls can work without hesitancy or lack of interest.” (3.) The present aspect of the world furnishes much reason to hope that the accomplishment of this promise is drawing nigh. The whole world is practically open to the missionaries of the Cross. The progress of various forms of improvement throughout the civilised world—facilities for intercourse between the nations—extension of commerce—numerous translations of the Bible. The progress of public sentiment in regard to the conversion of the world. The probable prevalence of the English language, &c. II. THE OF THOSE WHO SHALL EMBRACE IT (Isaiah 49:9-10). The figure is taken from the shepherd leading home his flock, &c. “It is a most beautiful image of the tender care of the Great Shepherd of His people in a world like this—a world, in its main features, in regard to real comforts, not unaptly compared to barren hills, and pathless, burning sands.” The promise includes— 1. Abundant provisions. 2. Careful protection. 3. Unerring guidance (see p. 336). III. THE PRAISE WHICH SUCH SHOULD AWAKEN (Isaiah 49:3). It is common with our prophet thus to interject a song of praise on the announcement of any great and glorious event, and to call on the heavens and the earth to rejoice together (ch. 12; Isaiah 42:10-11; Isaiah 44:23). We should raise this song— 1. Because of the glory which the fulfilment of this promise will bring to the Triune Jehovah. Here we have a test to apply to ourselves. Every true child of God spontaneously rejoices in this expectation, just as every true patriot rejoices in any certainty of the future glory of his country. 2. Because of the blessings the Gospel will bring to humanity. The universal prevalence of righteousness—peace—benevolence—social elevation and secular prosperity. Wherever Christianity is received, it effects great changes in the moral and social condition of the people. What has it done in our own and other lands? Christ will rectify all wrongs, and when God is glorified man shall be honoured. “Truth shall spring out of the earth,” &c. Animating, delightful, glorious prospect! When will it be realised? Not informed. All calculations respecting it vain. .—Has this Gospel come to you, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance? It has come in word, but unless it comes in saving power also, it has not accomplished its design, &c. (Psalms 2:10-12).—Alfred Tucker. THE CHURCH BY CHRIST [1510][1510] See pp. 24–29. Isaiah 49:9-10. They shall feed in the ways, &c.“The comparison of God’s care to that of a shepherd was first used by Jacob (Genesis 49:24); then by Moses (Deuteronomy 32:6; Deuteronomy 32:12). From these passages the prophets borrowed the same figure (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:12-13; Micah 7:14). In the New Testament Christ is compared to a shepherd (John 10:11; 1 Peter 2:25; 1 Peter 5:4; Hebrews 13:20). Travellers in the East and others record the peculiarly close and tender relationship of the Oriental shepherd to his flock.” The Saviour is here represented under the image of a shepherd, who leads forth His flock in green pastures, &c. I. The Divine Shepherd nourishes His flock. “They shall feed in the ways,” &c. A shepherd’s express engagement to feed, tend, keep. When one pasture was bare he would lead the sheep to another, and when the herbage was deficient he would cut down the tender shoots of trees for them to eat, and he would see that they had water to drink. In thus providing for them he frequently underwent long and severe labour. Jesus provides for all the wants of His people—temporal and spiritual. He opens before them unexpected sources of supply. The Divine life must be fed, nourished, sustained. Our Good Shepherd’s provisions are plentiful, adapted, exhaustless—Himself His Word, His ordinances, &c. With Jehovah-Jesus for our shepherd, whose hand rests on all sources of supply, we can lack no temporal or spiritual good. II. The Divine Shepherd protects His flock. “Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them.” They shall be sheltered from suffering like that of the intense heat of the burning sun reflected from the sandy wastes. The idea is, the Divine Shepherd will protect—shelter—His flock. This is the doctrine of the Bible, of the Old Testament as well as the New. “Whatever charge He gives His angels, He has not thereby discharged Himself, so that whether every saint has an angel for his guardian or no, we are sure he has God Himself for his guardian, and what higher consolation can we desire?” Those are well protected who have the Lord for their protector. He has manifested Himself as the protector of His people in all ages. Did He not deliver the stripling David out of the paw of the lion and the bear? (1 Samuel 17:34-36; &c.) Our good Shepherd’s protection is ever watchful, ever present, all-sufficient, never-failing (Psalms 121:3-8, &c.) Have not you experienced this protection? What He has been, and what He has done in the past, He will be, and do in the future. Let us trust in the protection of our Divine Shepherd, and rejoice. III. The Divine Shepherd leads His flock. “He that hath mercy on them shall lead them.” With infallible knowledge and tender care, He goes before His people in all their journeyings. No longer by the mystic and majestic pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night does He lead them, but by the indications of His providence, by His Word, and by His Spirit, &c. He shall lead them, not drive them. “He”—what a leader! It is a long and perilous way, but He knows every step. Let us cheerfully follow His gracious guidance, and be assured “He leadeth us in right paths” (Psalms 23:3). “The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them.” IV. The Divine Shepherd refreshes His flock. “Even by the springs of water shall He guide them.” The faithful shepherd leads his flock beside cooling streams. When panting and breathless, he leads them to the “little green glen, with a quiet brooklet, and a moist lush herbage all along its course, while the ‘sunbeams, like swords’ are piercing everything beyond that hidden covert.” So Jesus leads His flock beside many a cooling spring. The spiritual life is liable to exhaustion. But our Divine Shepherd refreshes, vivifies, quickens the spirit when wearied and exhausted and troubled—worn down with toil, and conflict, and care. The blessings of the gospel are often compared to water; they are the rivers of soul-life.” .— 1. Is Jesus your Shepherd? Have you been convinced of your far and perilous wanderings? Have you heard and obeyed the Shepherd’s voice? 2. If you acknowledge Jesus as your Shepherd, then follow, love, obey, and trust Him.—Alfred Tucker.THE OF EARTHLY Isaiah 49:10. Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them, &c.One of the blessings promised to Christ’s people in the latter days. The promise is fulfilled now to those who depart hence believing in Him. This promise reminds us— I. That the best things when bestowed in excess become great evils. What a glorious gift to man is the sun! How essential is its heat to human life and happiness! Yet how oppressive are the heats of summer! With what terrible blows the sun sometimes smites men! Let us remember that the measure of a thing is as important as its kind. “Moderation in all things,” is the wise man’s motto. How necessary to remember it in regard to food, sleep, work, recreation; in the household, in regard to kindness and to severity, &c. II. That all earthly blessings have their drawbacks. The heats of summer are great blessings; without them how poor would the harvest be in the autumn! Yet what a strain they often are on human strength! How fatal they often are to human life! Noteworthy that it can be said as a promise, “Neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them.” So with other things; “every rose has its thorn.” Wealth, its moral dangers (H. E. I. 4358–3364, 4389–4399, and social inconveniences (H. E. I. 4381, 4387, 4388). Learning; how dearly it is often purchased (H. E. I. 3089). Domestic happiness; what possibilities of profound sorrow are bound up with it. “Every possession renders us capable of loss.” Long life; how much there is in connection with old age that is undesirable. III. That in heaven we shall have all the blessings without any of the drawbacks (H. E. I. 2721–2727). Some practical lessons:— 1. Let us not grumble at the natural and providential drawbacks of our earthly lot. Let us remember that, so to speak, they are the prices of the blessings, and that if we are called to endure the drawbacks the blessings will not be withheld. Many men grumble that they have to pay an income-tax, and forget to thank God that they have an income. If they had not that, the tax-gatherer would never knock at their doors. So with the drawbacks of other blessings. Murmuring is unwise and wicked. 2. When the conditions of our earthly life press on us most heavily, let us comfort ourselves by the remembrance of the perfect life towards which we are hastening. The prisoner is sustained by the knowledge that the hour of his liberation is drawing nigh; the mariner, by the fact that every gale blows him nearer to the “desired haven.” It is a good thing to walk now by faith and hope in that land where neither the heat nor the sun shall smite us (H. E. I. 216–218, 2766–2770). 3. If the future life for God’s people will be all perfection without abatement, how little should they dread that event which will introduce them to it! Are we prepared for that wonderful transition which we call death? If so, why should we fear it? If we are not prepared for it, how shall we excuse ourselves for the insane unpreparedness in which we are living? Prepare for it, and the: all the great and precious promises concerning the future life will be promises made to you, and that event of which the very name has been disagreeable to you will be the beginning of inconceivable joy (H. E. I. 1623–1635; P. D. 667, 694, 745). FROM AFAR (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 49:12. Behold there shall come from far, &c.Whatever bearing this prophecy may have had upon the time of Isaiah, or the time immediately after him, it has an important bearing on the time of the Messiah and the course of His kingdom. The prophet sees multitudes coming into that kingdom from every quarter of the globe. Taking his position in Palestine, he mentions the north and west by name; the far country may be regarded as the south, beginning with Egypt, and running down to Southern Africa; while the east runs through Persia and India to China, which many expositors consider identical with Sinim. The sentiment of the text is that the redeemed Church of Christ shall come from every part of the earth. I. This sentiment is in accordance with the genius of the gospelThe gospel is in the world. It exerts an immense influence over the best portions of the human race; whose excellence, indeed, is directly owing to its influence. What is its nature? It is the manifestation of God’s love to man. It is not a mere declaration of the Divine existence and character, nor a mere exposition of human nature and its obligations. It. is a revelation of the Divine character in its relations to man. It unfolds the way in which God deals with human sinfulness. Instead of sweeping it away by sweeping man away, He provides salvation from sin and its doom. That provision consists in the incarnation of the Son of God’ who has obeyed the law and endured its curse for man. The good news is the proclamation of God’s forgiving mercy to as many as believe in Him, repenting of their sins; and the further proclamation that all needful influences and help will be supplied by the Holy Spirit for their complete regeneration and purification. Now this is not a story likely to be concealed in the hearts of those who happen to know it. It is of such a nature that those who know it and have acted upon it instinctively desire to communicate it to others. Why? 1. Because it is true. 2. Because it redounds to the honour of its chief Personage, whom they have learned to love with supreme devotedness. 3. Because it is closely connected with the interests and destinies of the human race. Their participation of its blessing, their falling under its influence, has brought them into sympathy with the love of God to man, which, like a spark from the central fire of love, has fallen on their susceptibility and set it aflame. Men need the gospel, in life and in death; and the gospel inspires its recipients with the benevolence which cannot rest until the blessing has been universally received. Nor is it conceivable that He who provided the gospel should not desire men to avail themselves of its provisions; having prepared a home for the wanderers, He desires them to come into it. II. This sentiment is in accordance with the spirit of prophecyThere is a marked difference between the Christian and Jewish dispensations. The Jews, with a narrow strip of territory, were separated from the nations. Their religion was intimately associated with their national life and being. It was given to them; adapted to them. No wonder that they became possessed of the idea that God never meant to bring other nations into His Church; that therefore they never sought the conversion of the heathen, nor welcomed the idea when it was propounded. Yet in their own Scriptures there was abundant evidence that the time would come when God would both welcome and seek the heathen. Intimations in the earlier Scriptures. Isaiah prolific of passages. He dwells on the idea, delights in it as if he had already caught the spirit of that Gospel time whose advent he was inspired to predict. Our Lord distinctly enunciates the idea in terms almost similar to those of the text (Matthew 8:11; Matthew 24:14). Paul anticipates the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles. His labours were conducted with that view. The assumption is everywhere that in the great future the gospel shall be universally prevalent. III. This sentiment is in accordance with the course of eventsHas the genius of the Gospel vindicated itself? Have the predictions of its attracting the heathen been verified? Take the history of the Church from the earliest time to the present. Its course has been one of steady advancement towards the point at which the predictions of its extension will be fully accomplished. During the apostolic age, although to a less extent than subsequently, the Gospel travelled north and south and east and west of Palestine. Beginning with a very small handful of Jews under persecution, before three hundred years were over it had made itself so felt that the Emperor of Rome found it his advantage to adopt it publicly. Through the centuries since, it has gradually covered a larger area. And the text is now in course of fulfilment. With a map in your hand, survey the parts of the earth in which the Gospel has been preached. You will find that it has planted its foot in every quarter, and that its converts are gathered from almost every land. China must not be overlooked. It is probably specially mentioned here. Christian missionaries of various names are attracting numbers of that multitudinous and remarkable people. As the completed fulfilment of the prophecy, there will be in heaven “a multitude which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, who will stand before the throne and before the Lamb.” Two points may be mentioned as suggested by this subject:— 1. It recognises the brotherhood of man. For the purposes of this prophecy, every man must be regarded as belonging to one great family, equally capable of and needing redemption. God has put the highest honour on human nature by giving His dearest and best. Let not the most degraded be supposed beyond our reach. 2. It imposes a stupendous obligation on the Church. God works by means. Are we doing all in our power to help those who are labouring among the heathen?—J. Rawlinson.CHINA FOR CHRIST Isaiah 49:12. Behold these shall come from … the land of Sinim.Most commentators are agreed that this refers to China. “The Arabians and other Asiatics called China Sin or Tchin; the Chinese had no special name for themselves, but either adopted that of the reigning dynasty or some high-sounding titles. This view of ‘Sinim’ suits the context which requires a people to be meant ‘from far,’ and distinct from those ‘from the north and from the west’ ” (Gesenius).In these words we have a promise of the conversion of China, the spiritual needs and claims of which the Churches of Christendom will do well to consider most prayerfully. Observe—1. The population, extent, and religion of China, &c. Next to the Russian Empire, the Chinese Empire, including Mantchuria, Mon golia, and Thibet, is in extent of territory the largest in the world. China itself is one-third the size of Europe, seven times the size of France, and is equal to eleven of Great Britain and Ireland. The population is estimated at 400,000,000—twenty-two times the population of England; or more than one hundred and thirty times that of Scot land. Were all the subjects of the court of Pekin to march past a spectator at the rate of thirty miles a day, they would move on and on, day after day, week after week, month after month; and more than twenty-three and a half years would elapse before the last individual had passed by.The number is inconceivable—the view is appalling. The daily mortality of China Isaiah 33,000! Think of it—a mortality which in less than three months exceeds the whole population of London;—which in a year and a half exceeds the total number of the inhabitants of England. The thought is overwhelming.The State Religion is founded on the ethical and political maxims of the sage Confucius. His writings ignore the existence of a God and a future state, consisting mainly in the advocacy of what is expedient and useful and proper, &c. Various species of idolatry prevail—Taouism, Buddhism, ancestral worship, &c.2. We cannot say that the amazing population of China has been altogether neglected by the Christian people of Europe and America. For some years the London Missionary Society, hoping against hope, and exhibiting a perseverance worthy of all imitation, sustained the only Mission in China, begun by the honoured Morrison in 1807. China can never again be isolated as heretofore. We have long prayed that China might be “open” to evangelical effort. Prayer has been answered; “the fields are white to the harvest,” but as yet “the labourers are few,” and bear no proportion to the magnitude even of the initiatory work which remains to be accomplished.3. Among the obstacles which oppose themselves to Christian missions in China, may be mentioned— (1.) The theocratic assumption of the imperial government. (2.) The ignorance, immorality, conceit, and superstitiousness of the population. (3.) The system of ancestral worship—a plausible custom, but one which is a most unequivocal form of idolatry, &c. (4.) Sundry superstitions. (5.) The opium traffic, which has created a most power [n] prejudice against us among the best men in the country. A Wesleyan missionary, writing home (in 1884) said, “It would interest the supporters of our society if they could hear the various objections the Chinese make on the one hand against abandoning old customs, and on the other, against becoming Christians. To give just one specimen of each kind. At the close of a service held some weeks ago at Fatshan, and when the congregation were requested to ask any questions they might wish on the address just delivered, or on the new religion generally, one man maintained very strongly that it would be wrong in him not to worship idols, for his parents had worshipped them before him. He must do as they did, or be unfilial. This reasoning (if such it may be called) was easily disposed of, but not to his satisfaction, for he still held to his point. Another man seemed, however, annoyed that nothing stronger could be urged against the Gospel, and, leaning forward, he touched the man—who was so afraid of being unfilial—on the shoulder, and said, ‘You will do no good arguing that way. I tell you what to do, you just ask the foreigner, Where does the opium come from?’ And with that he ran out of the chapel, and we saw him no more. Whether he thought he had really vanguished us, or he was afraid of being vanquished, I don’t know. I suppose his reasoning was something like this: ‘opium is from abroad, and is injurious; the Gospel is from abroad, and it is, ergo, injurious.’ Or, ‘The Gospel is not much good, or it would keep foreigners from hurting China; and if it has not made them good, why do they bring it here?’ Opium, the impure lives of foreigners, and brandy, are the staple objections against the Gospel, when none can be found against its doctrines and morals. If opium could be got rid of, and the lives of Europeans and Americans were at all in accordance with the Bible, I am persuaded that our work would make greater progress. But as it is, opium (grown in British territory) is eating out the very life of the nation, physically and morally, among both high and low, and the ungodly lives of foreigners cause the adorable name of Jesus to be every day blasphemed among the heathen.”4. There are some advantages on the other hand. The press is a powerful instrument; and the circulation of the Scriptures and other books is furthered by the cheapness of printing and paper, so that the entire Bible can be sold for less than a shilling, and the New Testament for fourpence. One cheering sign of the times is the organised opposition to missionary teaching which has recently appeared; a proof that the new opinions are beginning to move the apparently inert masses of the Chinese population.5. The ultimate conversion of China’s teeming millions to Christ. Unprecedented opportunities now offer for Christian enterprise. Success has attended the labours of the past—upwards of 20,000 Chinese are now in Christian communion in Protestant Churches. A vast preparatory work has been done in a much wider circle, opening the way for the missionary reaper. Many fields are white already unto harvest. Let the Churches of Christendom obey the imperative command of their Lord. “Go ye,” &c., and the stupendous work shall be accomplished in due time, for “Thus saith the Lord, behold, these shall come from the land of Sinim.” Blessed be God, they are coming and shall come, until the word of promise is completely fulfilled.“Faith, mighty faith. the promise sees,And looks to that alone;Laughs at impossibilities,And cries. It shall be done!”—Alfred Tucker. GOD’S CARE FOR HIS CHURCH Isaiah 49:13-17. Sing, O heavens, &c.I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and thanksgiving than the tender care God has of the Church (Isaiah 49:13). Let the whole creation join with us in songs of joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption (Romans 8:19; Romans 8:21). II. The care which God has for His Church is never to be doubted by us. True, the troubles of the Church have given some occasion to question His concern for it (Isaiah 49:14). The case of His people may sometimes be so deplorable that they seem to be forsaken and forgotten by Him; and at such a time their temptation may be alarmingly violent. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, “God has forsaken us,” &c. But we have no more reason to question His promise and grace, than we have to question His providence and justice. He is as sure a Rewarder as He is a Revenger. Away, therefore, with those distrusts and jealousies which are the bane of friendship. The triumphs of the Church, after her troubles, will in due time put the matter out of question (Isaiah 49:17). III. Be assured that God has a tender affection for His Church and people (Isaiah 49:15). In answer to Zion’s fears, He speaks as one concerned for His own glory; He takes Himself to be reflected upon if Zion say, “The Lord hath forsaken me;” and He will clear Himself. As one concerned also for His people’s comfort, He would not have them droop and be discouraged, and give way to uneasy thoughts. You think that I have forgotten you; “can a woman forget her sucking child?” 1. It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot, but be concerned for her own child. for it is her own, a piece of herself, and very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be tender of her sucking child. But 2. it is possible she may forget. A woman may be so unhappy as not to be able to remember her sucking child; she may be sick, dying, and going to the land of forgetfulness; or she may be so unnatural as not to have compassion on it (Lamentations 4:10; Deuteronomy 28:57). But, says God, “I will not forget thee.” His compassions to His people infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents toward their children (P. D. 1499). IV. Be assured that God has a constant care of His Church and people (Isaiah 49:16-17). “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands,” alludes to the custom of wearing signet or locket rings in remembrance of some dear friend. If we bind God’s law as a sign upon our hand (Deuteronomy 6:8-11), He will engrave our interests as a sign on His hand, and will look upon that and remember the covenant, “Thy walls shall continually be before Me;” “thy ruined walls, though no pleasing spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion.” Or, “The plan and model of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before Me, and they shall certainly be built according to it.”—Matthew Henry. Commentary: in loco.A Isaiah 49:14-15. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, &c.I. The believer, like Zion of old, is sometimes led to form suspicions concerning the Lord’s goodness. Such suspicions are apt to arise— 1. In periods of deep spiritual temptation: times of dark and mysterious providences; days in which God’s people “walk in darkness and have no light.” Such times are apt to come upon us through neglect of prayer, through neglect of some known duty; and then, instead of blaming ourselves, we are apt to distrust God. 2. In times of deep temporal trial. II. The love of God for His people renders all such suspicions utterly unreasonable. A mother’s love for her child is tender and strong; many mothers have contentedly laid down their lives for their children; but history is full of proofs that a mother’s love for her child may utterly pass away. But God’s love for His people will never fail. “Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget; yet will not I forget thee.” How tender, comprehensive, and touching is this figure! There is much to be considered in it: the tenderness of the tie, the helplessness of the child, the very posture of the child. 1. The tenderness of the tie. [1513] The tie between God’s children and Himself is infinitely closer than that between a child and its mother. True, the child derives its life from the mother, as the medium by which the Lord doth communicate it; but God is the life of His saints. They live and move and have their being in Him, and He lives in them. [1513] The young of all creatures are lovely and attractive always: but let us survey the image here. Here is a child, a harmless object, a helpless object, an endeared object, and towards which any one may feel compassion and tenderness. But you will observe that the child here is the mother’s own—“the son of her womb;” lately a part of herself, and endeared by the anxieties of bearing it, and the pain and peril of bringing it forth. Nor is this all; for the mother is a nursing mother. Isaiah scorned to take an image of exquisite tenderness from those wretches who, when they have it in their power, devolve this pleasing and (ask all the physicians) this salutary duty upon others, upon strangers, and upon hirelings; no, it is a nursing mother, and the child is a “sucking child,” looking up with ineffable satisfaction to his benefactor, and with his little hands stroking the cheeks of her who feeds him.—Jay.2. The helplessness of the child. The helplessness and dependence of the believer is still greater. In a few months it will be able to walk alone; in a few years we shall find it not only walking and running, but labouring independently of its mother. But look at the believer—at those most advanced in the life of God, most filled with heavenly wisdom; look at “Paul the aged.” He is as feeble, as dependent, as helpless in himself as at the first moment (1 Corinthians 15:10). 3. The posture of the child: that is more touching still. There are few sights more endearing, as every mother will acknowledge, than that of a child hanging on her bosom, deriving the support of its physical life from herself. It is one of the most touching pictures that can be presented to our eye. And yet, compared with that of a believer, it is as nothing. His is not an unconscious hanging upon the author and sustainer of His being; His is a conscious, glad dependence upon God for those supplies that come from His Father’s heart, and minister to His spiritual life—that life which is the commencement of life eternal. Who can compare the one with the other? It is a closer tie, a tenderer tie, a more dependent object, and a posture infinitely more endearing. No wonder God gives the strong assurance which our text contains. III. God’s love for His people manifests itself in a constant remembrance of their condition and needs. “Yet will I not forget thee,” is only another way of saying, “I will always remember thee.” 1. He does not forget their persons (Isaiah 49:16). 2. Nor the work of grace that is in them. It is described as His poem: “we are His workmanship”—His poem (Ephesians 2:10). A man takes care of his book; but if he has his own poem, will he be likely to forget that? 3. Nor their trials (Isaiah 43:2). 4. Nor their returns to Him (Jeremiah 31:18). 5. Nor their obedience (Isaiah 64:5; Hebrews 6:10). 6. Nor their needs in death (Psalms 116:15). Blessed truth, it is full of unutterable sweetness. The subject is full of instruction. 1. It should lead to self-examination. Are we of the number of those whom God knows, in the sense of reproving and acknowledging as His? If He does not thus know us, how can we expect Him to remember us? 2. A sight of the helpless child hanging upon its mother’s breast should show us our own dependency, and take away every thought of self-sufficiency. 3. The fickleness of the tenderest of human affections brings out more clearly into view the glory of God’s love for His people. 4. The constancy of the Divine love should make us ashamed of our despondency and distrust in times of trial. 5. If God never forgets us, we should never forget Him.—J. H. Evans, M.A., Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 305–316. I. A (Isaiah 49:14). The wicked think too much of the goodness of God, in reference to themselves; they mistake the effects of His general bounty for evidences of His peculiar friendship (H. E. I. 3977–3980). The very reverse of this is the disposition of all subjects of Divine grace; they know that self-deception is tremendous, probable, common, and are therefore afraid of it; they often carry their solicitude beyond the point of duty; they apply to themselves what was intended for others, and sometimes think themselves forsaken of God. 1. This arises sometimes (1.) from the weakness of their faith ([1516]. H. E. I. 2014–2017). (2.) From ignorance; they have a knowledge of God, but it is very imperfect, and therefore they form mistaken apprehensions as to the manner in which He is likely to deal with them. (3.) From a suspension of divine manifestation. The sun is always in the sky, but it is not always visible. God hides Himself from the house of Jacob; and if you are part of the house of Jacob, you will be affected thereby (Psalms 30:7). When He does this, it is not in the mere exercise of Divine sovereignty, but either as a prevention of sin, or as correction for it (Isaiah 59:2; Hosea 5:15; Job 15:11; H. E. I. 1644–1659). (4.) From conflict with the troubles of life. It is forgotten that these are really proofs that God has not forsaken us (Proverbs 13:24; Hebrews 12:6; H. E. I. 189–196, 3692–3695). (5.) Sometimes from God’s delay in the accomplishment of prayer. Distinguish between the acceptance and the answer of prayer; God always immediately hears, but does not always immediately answer the prayer of faith (2 Peter 3:9; Lamentations 3:26; H. E. I. 3884–3899). [1516] Our comfort must always be according to our faith. “In whom,” Bays Peter, “believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” There is always consolation in God’s riches of glory by Christ Jesus; but these can only be perceived and apprehended by faith. There is always fruit enough upon the tree of life, but faith in the hand by which alone we gather it. There is water enough always in the wells of salvation, but by faith we must draw it.—Jay, H. E. I. 1252–1285.2. Who can find language to express the wretchedness such a false conclusion causes? The misery produced by it in a child of God is due to three causes:— (1.) He loves God, not perfectly, but supremely; and love can never be reconciled to the absence of its object. (2.) He entirely relies upon Him, and therefore feels that if God has withdrawn from him, all must be darkness, dreariness, desolation, and death. (3.) He has enjoyed Him already, and therefore nothing can satisfy him but God (H. E. I. 1018, 2378–2387). II. A ANSWER (Isaiah 49:15). Notice, 1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed. The case supposed is not likely, but it is possible. But the tenderest feelings of nature are as nothing when compared with the kindness of God. 2. The certainty of the assurance. “Yet will not I forget thee.” With God there is no fickleness (Numbers 23:19).—H. E. I. 2324, P. D. 815. 3. The all-sufficiency of the truth established; that is, the perpetual regard of God for us. If His favour is set upon us, it secures everything else (Psalms 84:11-12). Concluding remarks.— 1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion (H. E. I. 339–346, 2907). 2. See how concerned God is, not only for His people’s safety, but for their comfort also. Let His people fall in with this design (Psalms 42:11). 4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character.—W. Jay: “The British Pulpit,” vol. v. pp. 221–230. We have here two assertions; Zion’s and God’s. I. ZION’S . “The Lord hath forsaken me,” &c. Observe four things which may cause this complaint:— 1. The mysteriousness of Divine providence. 2. The long duration of Zion’s troubles. 3. Lack of success. 4. Zion’s own sinfulness and weakness. II. GOD’S . “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” &c. “Yet will I never forget thee.” Why? 1. He is too nearly related to Zion. 2. He bestows too much thought upon Zion. 3. He has done too much on behalf of Zion. 4. He has given too many promises—great and precious—to Zion. 5. He expects too much from Zion. 6. He hath ordained that Zion shall for ever dwell in His immediate presence. “For ever with the Lord.” God, then, cannot forget His people. Improvement. 1. Zion should at once withdraw her complaint. 2. As God will never forget Zion, Zion should never forget her God. 3. Zion should never despond in the presence of any untoward event which may overtake her.—W. Roberts, Penybontfawr, “Pregethau.” 1. God’s love is like a mother’s love. There is no love in this world like a mother’s love. It is free, unbought, unselfish (P. D. 2357). God’s love to a soul in Christ is stronger (Psalms 103:13-14; Malachi 3:17; Isaiah 66:13; H. E. I. 2322–2333; P. D. 1499). Be not cast down in affliction (H. E. I. 189–196). Deserted souls, God’s love cannot change unless His true nature change. Not till God cease to be holy, just, and true, will He cease to love the soul that hides under the wings of Jesus (H. E. I. 2324). 2. His love is full love. A mother’s love is the fullest love which we have on earth. She loves with all her heart. But there is no love full but that of God toward His Son; God loves Jesus fully—the whole heart of the Father is as it were continually poured down in love upon the Lord Jesus. But when a soul comes to Christ, the same love rests on that soul (John 17:26). True, a creature cannot receive the love of God as Jesus can; but it is the same love that shines on us and Him—full, satisfying, unbounded love. How can God forget what He fully loves? A creature’s love may fail; for what is a creature?—a clay vessel, a breath of wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But the Creator’s love cannot fail—it is full love toward an object infinitely worthy of His love—in which thou sharest. 3. It is an unchanging love. A mother’s love is, of all creature-love, the most unchangeable. But far more unchanging is the love of God to Christ, and to a soul in Christ: “I am the Lord; I change not.” The Father that loves has no variableness. Jesus who is loved, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How can that love change? It flowed before the world was; it will flow when the world has passed away. If you are in Christ, that love shines on you (Jeremiah 31:3; Romans 8:38-39).—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sketches of Sermons.These words apply, first of all, to God’s ancient people, the Jews, but they are equally true of all believers. I. There are times when believers are apt to think themselves forsaken.1. In time of sore affliction. So it was with Naomi, Hezekiah, Job. It is a sad thing when the soul faints under the rebukes of God. They were intended to lead you deeper into Christ—into a fuller enjoyment of God (H. E. I. 66–70). 2. When they have fallen into sin. As long as a believer walks humbly with his God, his soul is at peace. But the moment that unbelief creeps in, he is led away into sin—like David he falls very low. A believer generally falls lower than the world; and now he falls into darkness. When Adam fell, he was afraid; and he hid himself from God among the trees of the garden, and he made a covering of leaves. When a believer falls, he also is afraid—he hides from God. 3. In time of desertion. Desertion is God withdrawing from the soul of a believer; so that His absence is felt. Sometimes it pleases God to withdraw from the soul, chiefly, I believe, to humble us in the dust; or to discover some corruption unmortified; or to lead us to hunger more after Him. Such was the state of David when he wrote Psalms 42 (Job 6:4; Job 29:1-2; H. E. I. 1644–1659). II. God cannot forget a soul in Christ: “Can a woman,” &c. TO THE . 1. Comfort downcast believers. Your afflictions and desertions only prove that you are under the Father’s hand. There is no time when the patient is an object of such tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is under his knife; so, you may be sure, if you are suffering from the hand of God, His eye is all the more bent on you (Deuteronomy 33:27). 2. Invite poor sinners to come and taste of this love. It is a sweet thing to be loved. I suppose the most of you have tasted a mother’s love; but this is nothing to the love of your God. Oh! it is sweet to pass from wrath to love—from death to life. That poor murderess would leap in her cell, when the news came that she was not to die the murderer’s death; but, ah! ten thousand times sweeter would it be to you, if God were, this day, to persuade you to embrace Christ freely offered in the gospel.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 99–105. GRAVEN UPON JEHOVAH’S HANDS Isaiah 49:16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. The prophets were more than half poets. The language here is highly figurative. It is a bold anthropomorphism. The words are used of Zion, the Church of God. That glorious building, complete in the Divine idea, is regarded as graven upon God’s hands. Each individual member of the spiritual Zion has his own place therein marked out by Jehovah. It is to the individual reference implied in the text that attention is invited. I. Amid temptations to regard ourselves forgotten of the Lord, how consoling is the reflection that the life of the true believer in God is linked with the life of the Eternal! “Where there is no eye to see reality,” it has been said, “there is ever an eye-brow waiting to rise in scornful wonder at the name of it.” And again, “Where the substantial hand to grasp things worthy is wanting, there is always some thin shadow-hand to wave them off with mocking gestures.” But spiritual discernment embraces the fact, that man, and especially the Christ-like man, lives in God. The being of the godly is bound up with the being of God; they are specially dear to God, shall never be lost sight of by Him, have their life hid with Christ in God, and go forward to the fulness of life, to the pleasures, which, according to another use of the same figure, are said to be at God’s right hand for evermore. To speak after this manner is no doubt mysticism to the unspiritual. But the obscurity is in them. Not always is this momentous truth quite clear even to the spiritual; but it is peculiarly dark and unintelligible to those whose understanding has not been enlightened from above: for it is one of those things which “are spiritually discerned.” II. Why it is often hard for even the believer in God to realise this union. Many reasons might be suggested. Consider one. The world is but a small part of the universe, and man’s life on earth bears but a small proportion to his God-given immortality. Hence the obscurity resting upon the purpose to which all things tend, and also upon the tendency itself as residing in the means to the end. Chance and accident seem to rule widely in this world. The goal is reached by much of seeming waste, sacrifice, and sorrow (H. E. I. 4033, 4034). As for the world, so for the individual, there is a divine idea, but it is a mosaic, beautiful as a whole, we may believe, yet tesselated with innumerable fragments. Why trouble ourselves unnecessarily, complaining till ourselves are hoarse, and others miserable?—why not just fall in to our little work patient, and believing that the Divine purpose is good, and will yet sparkle forth like a bright jewel from the short period of confusion? (H. E. I. 4047). III. Consider some part of the proof that our union with God endures and is indissoluble. 1. The believer in God should find it easy to convince himself that there is much undeveloped power in the Church which shall yet be made manifest. And so with the individual. The feeling of undeveloped power within us, this feeling that there is life within us down below our present life, is identical with being graven on Jehovah’s hands. We do not know the possibility of our being, but we feel within us depths that no man knows, and which we ourselves, can appreciate with no distinctness. 2. Do not suppose, because you have been appointed a humble place in the world’s work, because your luxuries are few, and your hands never idle, and sickness like a lion ever crouching at the door of your house, that God has forgotten you, and not graven out your place on the palms of His hands. Poverty, weakness, suffering, shame, are not these just so many powers plying to bring up into play the deep, Divine life? (H. E. I. 91–98). In ways we cannot fathom, God is showing us that He remembers us, is present, ordaining for the best, in every circumstance of life. For the bringing of order out of seeming confusion, it is necessary to believe that He is present in the most trivial circumstances, and, as Christ says, numbers the very hairs of your head.—J. M. Simcock.The text belongs primarily to the seed of Israel; next, to the whole Church as a body; and then to every individual member. I. Consider our text verbally. Every single word deserves to be emphasised. 1. “Behold.” It is a word of wonder; intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in Scripture, it is like an ancient sign-board, signifying that there are rich wares within, drawing attention to something particularly worthy of observation. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that God should grave upon His hands the names of sinners. Speak of the seven wonders of the world, why this is a wonder in the seventh heavens! No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “Behold,” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. How the Divine mind seems to be amazed at this wicked unbelief of man! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favoured people? He seems to say, “How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven,” &c. Here follows the great marvel, that God should be faithful to such a faithless people, and that when He is provoked with their doubting, He nevertheless abideth true. Behold! and be ashamed and confounded for all your cruel doubts of your indulgent Lord. 2. Behold, “I have,” &c. The Divine Artist, who has been pleased to engrave His people for a memorial, is none other than God Himself. Here we learn the lesson which Christ afterwards taught His disciples—“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” No one can write upon the hand of God but God Himself. Neither our merits, prayers, repentance, nor faith, can write our names there, for these in their goodness extend not unto God so as to write upon His hands. Then, again, if the Lord hath done it, there is no mistake about it. If some human hand had cut the memorial, the hieroglyphs might be at fault; but since perfect wisdom has combined with perfect love to make a memorial of the saints, then no error by any possibility can have occurred; there can be no erasures, no crossing out of what God has written, no blotting out of what the Eternal hath decreed. 3. “Behold, I have graven thee.” Not, “I will,” nor yet, “I am doing it;” it is a thing of the past, and how far back in the past! Oh! the antiquity of this inscription! Do not these deep things comfort you? Does not eternal love delight you? 4. “Graven.” I have not merely printed thee, stamped thee on the surface, but I have permanently cut thee into my hand with marks which never can be removed. That word “graven” sets forth the perpetuity of the inscription. 5. “I have graven thee,” &c. “My Lord, dost thou mean me? Yes, even me, if I by faith cling to Thy cross.” “I have graven thee.” It does not say, “Thy name.” The name is there, but this is not all; “I have graven thee.” See the fulness of this! I have graven everything about thee, all that concerns thee; it is a full picture, as though the man himself were there. 6. We are engraven, where? Upon His hands, not upon the works of His hands. They shall perish; yea, they shall all wax old as doth a garment, but His hands shall endure for ever. Notice, it does not say, “I have graven thee upon the palm of one hand,” but “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” There are two memorials. His saints shall never be forgotten, for the inscription is put there upon the palm of this hand, the right hand of blessing, and upon the palm of that hand, the left hand of justice. Now let us proceed to the second part of the subject— II. Consider the text as a whole. God’s remembrance of His people is— 1. Constant. 2. Practical. He will work and show Himself strong for His people; He brings His omnipotent hands to effect our redemption. 3. Eternal. You cannot suppose it possible that any person can erase what is written on God’s hand. 4. Tender. 5. Most surprising. Child of God, let your cheerful eyes and your joyful heart testify how great a wonder it is that you, once so far estranged from God, are this day written on the palms of His hands. 6. Most consolatory. There is no sorrow to which our text is not an antidote. III. Be heedful of the duty which such a text suggests. 1. If you be partakers of this precious text, is it not your duty to leave your cares behind you to-day? Should not the fact that God always graciously and tenderly recollects you, compel you once for all to leave your burden with Him who careth for you? 2. If this text is not yours, how your mouths ought to water after it! Is there a soul here who says, “O that I had a part and lot in this matter!” Thou mayest have His pardoning love shed abroad in thy heart even now.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 512. THE OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 49:18-23. Lift up thine eyes round about, &c.Two things are here promised, which were to be in part accomplished in the reviving of the Jewish church, after its return out of captivity, but more fully in the planting of the Christian Church, by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ; and we may take the comfort of these promises. I. That the Church shall be replenished by the adding to it of great numbers. It was promised (Isaiah 49:17) that her children should “make haste;” that promise is here enlarged upon, and is made very encouraging. It is promised— 1. That multitudes shall flock to the Church from all parts (Isaiah 49:18). They came to Jerusalem from all the adjacent countries, for that was then the centre of their unity; but, under the Gospel, it is by a spiritual accession to the mystical body of Christ in faith and love (Hebrews 12:22-23). It is a matter of joy to the Church to see a multitude of converts to Christ. 2. That such as are added to the Church shall not be a burthen and blemish to her, but her strength and ornament (Isaiah 49:18). This promise is accomplished, and only then, when those who are added to the Church are serious, holy, and exemplary in their conversation. 3. That the country which was waste, desolate, and without inhabitant, shall be again peopled, nay, it shall be overpeopled (Isaiah 49:19). What a reversal of the sentence previously and justly passed! (Isaiah 5:9-13; Isaiah 6:11). The kingdom of God among men, which had been impoverished and almost depopulated, partly by the corruptions of the Jewish church, and partly by the abominations of the Gentile world, was again peopled and enriched by the setting up of the Christian Church, and by its graces and glories. 4. That the new converts shall strangely increase and multiply (Isaiah 49:20). Jerusalem, after she has lost abundance of children by the sword, famine, and captivity, shall have a new family growing up instead of them (Zechariah 8:5). So the Church, after it has lost the Jews, cut off by their own infidelity, shall have abundance of children still, more than she had when the Jews belonged to her (Galatians 4:27). They shall be so numerous that (1.) the children shall complain for want of room (cf. 2 Kings 6:1). Yet still more shall desire to be admitted, and the Church shall gladly admit them, and the inconvenient straitness of the place shall be no hindrance to either (Luke 14:21-22). (2.) The mother shall stand amazed at the increase of her family (Isaiah 49:21). The Church may at times be few in number, and left desolate. Yet the desolations shall not be perpetual, nor will it be found hard for God to repair them, and out of stones to raise up children to Abraham. The increase of the Church is always due, not to the efforts of the Church, however well and wisely they may be put forth, but to the blessing” of God (1 Corinthians 3:7). 5. That this shall be done with the help of the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:23). Observe, (1.) How the Gentiles shall be called in. (2.) The kindly service they shall render to the sons of Zion. II. That the Church shall have a great and prevailing interest in the nations (Isaiah 49:23). 1. Some of the princes of the nations shall become patrons and protectors to the Church. “And kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their queens thy nursing-mothers.” [1517][1517] This promise was in part fulfilled to the Jews after their return out of captivity; divers of the kings of Persia were very tender of their interests, countenanced and encouraged them, as Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes; Esther the queen was a nursing-mother to the Jews that remained in their captivity, putting her life in her hand to snatch the child out of the flames. The Christian Church, after a long captivity, was happy in some such kings and queens as Constantine and his mother Helena, and afterwards Theodosius and others, who nursed the Church with all possible care and tenderness. Whenever the sceptre of government is put into the hands of religious princes, this promise is fulfilled.—M. Henry.2. Others of them, who stand only against the Church’s interests, will be forced to yield, and repent of their opposition. “They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet.” And by all this it shall be made to appear— (1.) That God is the sovereign Lord of all, against whom there is no standing out or rising up. (2.) That those who wait for Him, in dependence upon His promise and resignation to His will, shall not be made ashamed of their hope.—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco.I. The promised increase of the Church. 1. In number. 2. In honour. 3. In triumph. II. The encouragement it affords us for missionary exertions. 1. God is able to effect this great thing. 2. He has engaged to effect it 3. The beginnings are already visible before our eyes. APPLY.— 1. Let our expectations of it be enlarged. 2. Let our prayers for it be poured forth. 3. Let our exertions be used.—C. Simeon, M.A.THE DUTY OF THE RULERS OF NATIONS IN REGARD TO THE CHURCH OF GOD Isaiah 49:23. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. The Church is here foreseen and described in her abased condition—a captive, oppressed, in exile, diminished, feeble, afflicted, brought low. The prophet anticipates and predicts her restoration, increase, and glory; and he calls upon heaven and earth to rejoice in the event (Isaiah 49:13). It is evident that the predicted blessedness comprehended a vast deal more than the restoration from the Babylonish captivity. The prophet speaks of the admission of the Gentiles into the Church of God; multitudes were thereby to be added to it (Isaiah 49:6-7; Isaiah 49:12; Isaiah 49:18). Then we are informed in what manner and by what means the Lord will bring all this to pass (Isaiah 49:22-23). The obvious meaning is, that the Lord would so overrule the hearts and ways of men, in the accomplishment of His gracious designs, as that, even where they were themselves not partakers of His mercy, He would dispose them to favour His cause; and whether with or against their consent, He would so work upon them as to make them instrumental in the deliverance of His Church and the promotion of His glory. Nor should this wonderful exertion of the Divine wisdom and power be confined to the lower classes; even kings and queens should deem it their highest honour to take part in so great a work. The present truths which this prophecy brings before us are these:—that all rulers of nations should now exert their power for the extension and welfare of the Church; that it would be for their happiness and honour were they so engaged; and that they cannot neglect this duty, or disregard this privilege, without incurring the most awful responsibility, and provoking God to mark them out as signally in the execution of His judgments, as they are elevated above others in rank and dignity. I. The rulers of the nations are the servants of God (Proverbs 8:15). According to the teaching of His Word, He, by various providential means, calls them and appoints them to their work; and holds them responsible for the manner in which they execute it. The mightiest potentates of old are, for these reasons, spoken of as His servants: Cyrus (Isaiah 41:1-4; Isaiah 44:24-28; Isaiah 45:1-6); Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 43:10); Pharaoh (Exodus 9:13-16). So it is still. II. As such, they are bound, above all things, to promote the honour of His name in the welfare of His church and people. All who are entrusted with the ruling authority are bound to promote the best interests of the people over whom they preside. But what are these? Not the extension of territory, the spread of conquest, the multiplicity of resources, the advancement of the arts and sciences, of wealth and honour, business and trade; these cannot be neglected without a gross violation of the trust with which rulers are invested; but a nation’s best interests are those that are distinctly religious. It is on the promotion of these that the true happiness of nations depends, and therefore it is to the furtherance of these that the attention and energy of their rulers be most constantly and carefully given. III. A discharge or disregard of this obligation will always yield a sure test of their own state and the character of their government. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” IV. Where this duty is intelligently recognised and reverently obeyed by rulers, certain things are certain to occur:—1. There will be on the part of the rulers deep humiliation before God, coupled with free and ingenuous confessions both of individual and national guilt. No man can ever heartily desire or attempt to promote the glory of God without perceiving how grievously he has hitherto neglected his bounden obligation; and how unworthy he is, either of the mercy which is requisite for his salvation, or of the honourable service to which he is called. This discovery and conviction will lay him low before God (Ezra 9:5-7; Daniel 9:4-6). 2. There will be desire to seek the guidance and acknowledge the hand of God in everything. Whoever aims to serve God aright will never set about such a work in his own wisdom and strength. What a pattern for all princes and rulers is the prayer of Solomon! (1 Kings 3:5-15). In national adversity and prosperity alike, the superintending providence of God will be recognised (Job 10:2; Psalms 118:23). 3. There will be on the part of the rulers a fixed determination to banish all wicked men from their presence, and to exclude them from their councils (Psalms 101; P. D. 2157). 4. There will be an anxiety to fill all the offices of the Church and State with men that fear the Lord, love the truth, and who will labour with heart and hand for the promotion of true godliness. When a man is brought under the influence of the principles now set forth, the question will be, not merely what shall I do immediately by mine own hand, but what am I able to accomplish through the agency of others? If “he who ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God,” they that bear office and authority under Him must be men actuated by the same motives, and aiming at the same object. .— 1. How evident it is, that it is not to an easy office that any man is called when he is exalted to a throne, or entrusted with the affairs of a kingdom! (P. D. 2143.) 2. How disastrous is the influence, and how great is the guilt, of ungodly princes and rulers! (P. D. 2145–2147). 3. How earnestly should we pray for our rulers, that God may bless them and direct them in all His ways! (P. D. 2153).—R. Shittler, in the Protestant Preacher, vol. iii. pp. 419–438. THE RESULT OF WAITING UPON GOD Isaiah 49:23. They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me. For the godless of every kind, for hypocrites in particular, the future is full of dread. Millions shall be put to shame, and given over to everlasting contempt. But not so shall it be with one of those who wait upon God. I. WAITING UPON GOD. This signifies, 1. A patient expectation of the fulfilment of His word, whether it be a prophecy or a promise. 2. A regular attention to the means of grace (see vol. i. pp. 179, 332, and pp. 38–49 of this volume). II. THE RESULT OF WAITING UPON GOD. Not disappointment and humiliation, but prayers answered and hopes fulfilled. Those shall not be ashamed: 1. The penitent who feels the bitterness of trangressions, and laments it with a broken and contrite heart, and waits upon God, seeking for pardon and righteousness through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. 2. The Christian who is relying upon the providential help of a covenant-keeping God. 3. The believer who is waiting for the accomplishment of God’s grace in himself, in the sanctification of his heart. 4. The Christian waiting for the coming of Christ, and the crown of righteousness which shall then be given to all who love His appearing.—Thomas Blackley, A.M.: Practical Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 182–199. THE DIVINE Isaiah 49:23. “Wait.” This word is the one word which the Divine wisdom often seems to utter in rebuke of human impatience. In holy Scripture men are often counselled to wait; to wait upon God, to wait for God: language which supposes delay and the need of patience. Man is eager, hurried, impatient—everywhere so, but God is never in haste. The Divine proceedings are slow—everywhere slow. This is a great fact; a fact full of light, such as should contribute to guide us safely through many a season of darkness. I. We see it in the realms of nature and providence. 1. The history of the earth is illustrative of it. Concerning the process by which the heavens became peopled with the brilliancies we now see there, we know nothing, &c. But we have some knowledge of the changes through which this earth had to pass before it became a fitting habitation for man. In the solitude of those far-off ages progressive change gave existence to progressive life—the lives of plants and of animals, &c. During those long eras the Eternal was here alone. Of beings conscious of His being, none would seem to have been with Him. Man is to come; but for him there is to be long waiting, &c. And He would have men regard the operation of His hands, so that they also may know how to wait. There is something divine in being able so to do. 2. There is something in the movement of the seasons tending to remind us of this great law. The changes of day and night, how slow, how gradual, how imperceptible! How gentle is the coming of the light! How silently and slowly does it give place to darkness! These might have come with suddenness, as if from a hurried hand; but they do not, &c. 3. There is something in the history of all life adapted to convey the same lesson. Life, whether in plants or animals, is everywhere a growth; and all growth is silent, gradual, so gradual as not to be perceived. All this is rooted in mystery. Individual life in man, in the sense of education or development, is in harmony with all that has gone before it. But the truth we are illustrating is seen conspicuously in the history of national life. If the education of an individual be so slow, what marvel if the education of a people should be very slow? (H. E. I. 3420.) II. So far we see, from facts in nature and providence, it behoves us to guard against impatience in judging the ways of God, and to know how to wait. Religion, revealed religion, includes much in harmony with those facts. It is, moreover, in these phases of religion that we find some of the aspects of it which are often especially perplexing to Christians. 1. We see a fact of this nature in the long interval which was to pass between the promise of a Saviour and His advent. Sin enters the world, &c. Four thousand years pass, and the Promised One does not come. Now in the history of the earth, in the slowness of the changes through which it was to pass before it came to be what it was to be, we see enough to prevent our being greatly surprised by such a fact. What was to be gained by this delay, we can know only in part. 2. So when the Saviour did come, the manner of His coming was not such as the thoughts of man would have anticipated. The kingdom of God was to come without observation (Luke 17:20). It was to begin with small beginnings. Its Founder was to be to many as a root out of a dry ground, as one without form and comeliness, &c. But these facts are in harmony with the Divine conduct as known elsewhere. It is not the manner of the Almighty to cause great things to become great at once. Our Lord revealed Himself even to His disciples gradually, slowly, imperfectly. If the Church, which is to fill the world, had its beginning in the hut of a fisherman, or in the upper room in Jerusalem, this is only in accordance with the Divine law of things. The great forces of nature all move thus, without noise, without haste, so secretly that we never know their beginnings, and so slowly that we can never see their motion, though we know that they are moving. 3. Nor is it without mystery to many minds that the history of revealed religion since the advent should have been such as it has been. No truth the world had ever possessed had been proof against corruption. Out of all the evolutions of error, out of all the devices of evil, He will educe lessons for the future which shall cause His universe to be upon the whole the wiser and the better for all that has happened. But for this we must wait. Often we see good come out of evil. In the end we shall see that all things have been regulated towards such an issue. “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” 4. If we descend from the general life of the Church to the spiritual history of the individual believer, we may find much there to remind us that the experience of the Church at large and of the Christian, taken separately, are regulated by the same intelligence. In our tendency towards haste we naturally wish to see the world converted soon, very soon. So when we enter on the Christian life, we covet that it should be matured speedily. But it does not so mature. We unlearn the evil slowly; we learn the good still more slowly, &c. All this is very humiliating and very painful. But, as the good in the Church is to be tasked and strengthened by being exposed to the evil in the world, so the better principles and tendencies in the Christian are to become more rooted and powerful by means of this personal conflict. Here, as everywhere, we are schooled to wait (H. E. I. 2508–2530). 5. So it is with the events which make up the story of a life. The meaning of some of these we may see at once; we feel that we need the sort of discipline they bring with them; we pray with the devoutest ancient, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me;” and the wherefore is not allowed to remain a secret Paul’s thorn in the flesh was an experience of this nature, painful in many ways, but declared to be salutary for his inner and higher life. But in most instances of this kind, we have to wait, it may be to wait long, before we see the Divine purpose in the things which befall us. With regard to much in our history, we are expected to wait for the revelations of the world to come. It need scarcely be said that the waiting intended is not mere passiveness; it is to be as those who wait for the bridegroom, not in sleep, but with loins girt about and lamps burning. (See pp. 38–49).—Robert Vaughan, D.D., Pulpit Analyst, vol. iii. pp. 1–15. THE PREY TAKEN FROM THE MIGHTY Isaiah 49:24-26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? &c.The history of God’s love to His people is a ground of encouragement and hope to the Church in all aftertime, because God, human nature, and the power and influence of religion are always the same. The text turns upon the difficulty of conveying hope and comfort to disconsolate minds. The prophet had been giving to the disconsolate glorious promises of the future restoration of the Church (Isaiah 49:18-23), but he was met by the difficulty of their inability to believe that those promises could be fulfilled. They asked, thinking that only an unfavourable answer could be given to their question, “Shall the prey,” &c. Mark the confidence of the prophet’s answer, “But thus saith the Lord,” &c. Various lawful, instructive, and encouraging uses may be made of our text. I. Apply the text literally to Israel’s release from Babylon. The captives saw great and apparently insuperable difficulties in the way of their restoration. The news seemed too good to be true. There was the great strength of the Babylonian empire, and their unbelief argues, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?” There was the fact that they were a conquered people, and that their enemies, according to the usages of war, had an accredited right to hold them in subjection. “Shall the lawful captive be delivered?” [1520] Then they had no alliances, and no hold upon the political sympathies of foreign nations; and lastly, there was their own incapacity of self-belief, their wives and children being with them in the power of the enemy, as so many hostages for their good conduct. [1520] “The lawful captive” has been rendered “the captive of the strong” (Herd.), of the stern or severe (Schult., Rosenm.), of the victorious (Mich., Beck), of the terrible, by a conjectural change of reading (Hitz., Lowth, Knob., Ewald), righteous captives, i.e., exiled Jews (Symm., Jareh., Aben Ezra, Hitz., Hahn), the plunder of the righteous, i.e., taken from them (Ges., Maurer, Umbreil). But the received version (Stier) gives the true meaning, “the captive of one who has a rightful claim to keep another in bondage.” There is a climax, seldom noticed, in the reply; and a threefold gradation, of a simply rightful, a powerful, and a terrible conqueror; of one who has a just claim, one who has also power to maintain it, and one whose power is so terrible that resistance seems hopeless. Shall the prey of the mighty be taken away, or even a captive justly claimed, though by one less mighty, be delivered? Not in the common course of things, or by human justice alone. But God’s grace has a higher law, and even more than this shall be done: the prey of the most terrible among Zion’s adversaries shall be delivered.—Birks. Note how amply the promises of the text meet these sources of discouragement. It is answered by a “Thus saith the Lord,” i.e., hopeless as the case may seem to you, all the difficulties shall give way when I interpose. “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,” &c.; “though they be a nation strong and powerful, ye shall be rescued from their hands, for I will oppose My strength and wisdom to theirs, and the resources of My providence to all the pride of their power.” God Himself would come down into the field as their champion: “I will contend,” &c. Nay, more: He promises to make the ruin of the foe conspicuous as the deliverance of His friends. “I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as sweet wine;” i.e., He would cause them to destroy one another with as much eagerness as half-famished men fall upon a well-furnished table; they shall hasten to that banquet of blood with as much fervour as men hasten to a banquet of wine. The historian tells us that on the night in which Babylon was taken many of the Chaldeans fell off from Belshazzar and joined the standard of Cyrus; they were themselves most forward in surprising the city, and showing the way into the king’s palace, where they slew him and all his attendants. Thus the promise of the text was fulfilled by the overthrow of the reigning government, and the introduction of a new dynasty to the throne. So completely was this done, that the captives were as much overpowered by the greatness of their deliverance as they had before been confounded by the depth of the calamity (Psalms 126:1). Learn, then, how fully God can make good His promises, and disperse the worst fears of His people. “The Lord can clear the darkest skies.” And He does it with as much tenderness as power (Isaiah 49:15). The captives feared more for their beloved families than for themselves, as you do for yours, and the promise respects them: “And I will save thy children.” II. Apply it spiritually to man’s redemption by Christ. To the convicted sinner, human redemption has often seemed incompatible with the inalienable claims of Divine justice, which seem to demand that the punishment of the transgressors should take its course. God cannot connive at sin; and the law we have broken is holy, just, and good, as necessary to the happiness of the universe as it is essential to the glory of God; a law too good to be repealed, too sacred to be trifled with; the abrogation of it would dethrone the Deity, and pour anarchy through all the worlds He has made (H. E. I. 3157, 3188). How then shall the great dilemma which sin has introduced be met? If mercy triumphs, justice is tarnished; if justice prevail, man is overthrown for ever. Mere power has no force in regard to moral questions; it cannot make right wrong, or wrong right. To solve this question was a task for Omniscience: God dealt with it, and through Scripture has made known to us its solution (Isaiah 53:5-6; Romans 3:19-26, &c.; H. E. I. 375–382, 396). Justice triumphs in the death of Christ, and mercy triumphs in the pardon of penitent sinners through Him. The very idea of redemption turns upon this point. It means the buying back again of lost and forfeited good, by a compensative arrangement between the parties. In ancient times the lives of prisoners taken in war were held to be at the disposal of the conqueror, and the acceptance of a stipulated ransom was the established mode of buying back the lives and liberty of the prisoners. The law of God, with all the forces of the universe behind it, must be in the end the conqueror of all who rebel against it, and in the Gospel we are told that the ransom-price was the death of Christ, who gave Himself for us and suffered in our stead (1 Peter 1:18). The ransom was sufficient (H. E. I. 377–381). III. Apply the text experimentally to the Christian’s deliverance from sin. 1. Jesus not only made atonement for our sins; He at the same time contended with and overcame our worst enemies. Man was the willing servant of the powers of darkness; not a forced captive, but a ready subject of Satan. But, by dying, Jesus overcame him who had dominion over our race (Hebrews 4:14-15; Ephesians 4:8). He literally made good the promise, “I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” 2. In converting grace, the triumph is the same; and in the experience of the penitent sinner it is continually renewed (Luke 4:18; Luke 11:20-22). Christ’s people are pardoned and delivered from the power of sin in all its forms; in every conflict He gives them victory, and He will do so to the end (Romans 6:14; Romans 8:37; H. E. I. 1099, 1106, 1112–1119). IV. Apply it prospectively to the blessed resurrection from the dead promised to the people of God.—Samuel Thodey.Both in providence and grace, “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” Of this, the Jews needed to be reminded. They had been taken into captivity, and were detained there for the punishment of their sins. They had been assured that God would deliver them in due time, but the difficulties in the way of the fulfilment of that promise seemed so insuperable, that they despairingly asked, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?” To this question Isaiah was authorised confidently to give a reassuring reply (Isaiah 49:25). I. To this question there was an answer in the deliverance of the Jewish people from the tyranny of Egypt. The history of what God did for their fathers should have prevented the Jews in Babylon from asking this question. But in every new extremity men are prone to forget the history of the past. II. There was an answer to this question in the deliverance of the people of God from their captivity in Babylon. It seemed impossible, but it was accomplished, and in precisely the manner that God had predicted. These things were written for our learning! III. There was an answer to this question in the great work of human redemption effected by Christ on the Cross. That seemed the hour of Satan’s victory; it was the hour of his defeat (Colossians 2:14-15). IV. There are answers to this question in the conversion of sinners by the preaching of the Gospel. The glorious work of emancipation still goes on (Luke 4:18; 2 Corinthians 10:4). V. There will be an answer to this question when our Redeemer returns with power and great glory. Then death and the grave shall be compelled to give up their prey; and death and hell shall be “cast into the lake of fire.”—W. Dransfield: Forty-six Short Sermons, pp. 239–264. I. The enemy to be encountered. Satan, an enemy that is mighty and terrible. 1. In the nature of his influence. On the intellectual and moral man—the immortal soul. 2. In the number of his agents. A legion against one. 3. In the extent of his territory. II. The captives he retains. 1. Those who are born where he reigns unrivalled. Idolatrous countries. 2. Those who yield to his sway, though deliverance is at hand. Pharisees. Hardened sinners. III. The prospect of deliverance. 1. The price of their redemption is provided. 2. The agent that can make it effective. 3. The means are in operation to make the deliverance known. 4. Specimens of triumph already obtained. IV. The means to be employed. 1. Fervent and importunate prayer. 2. Free and extensive diffusion of the charter of liberty—“The Word of God.”—Studies for the Pulpit, part ii. p. 308. OF THE , AND MEANS OF THEIR (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 49:24-25. Thus saith the Lord, &c.The Scriptures teach that sin commenced its reign on earth under the auspices of a mighty fallen spirit; and that he, having seduced mankind from their allegiance to God, has constantly maintained his bad eminence overthem. They also teach, that the Son of God has interposed to destroy the works of this spirit; and that He will accomplish the object; that the power of Satan shall be broken, and the whole world be restored to loyalty and the favour of heaven. Other passages allude to the success with which the enemy of God has fortified his cause; to its final overthrow; and to the exultation and joy with which the event will fill earth and heaven (chap. Isaiah 53:12; Luke 11:21-22; Revelation 11:15; Revelation 19:5-6). An alienated world requires more moral power for its restoration than that of simple law, which proved insufficient to maintain its allegiance. It requires a new moral influence, so introduced and applied as to corroborate law, and strengthen the loyalty of all the good, while rebels are reconciled and pardoned. Consider— I. THE WEAPONS AND OF THE ENEMY. 1. At the head of opposition to the Gospel, in numerical power, must be placed idolatry. To banish from the earth all knowledge of God and His government, and substitute a worship composed of lust and blood, seems most desirable to the great adversary, where circumstances allow it to be done; and this he has achieved in respect to about six hundred millions of the human family. 2. Imposture. This was introduced by Mahomed. It was a system accommodated to the condition of a mingled population, composed of Pagans, Jews, and nominal Christians, all in a state of great ignorance and deep moral debasement. 3. Papal superstition. This has been, and is still, the master-piece of that wisdom which is from beneath; concentrating the bad influence of all past systems. Popery is a system where science and ignorance, refinement and barbarism, wisdom and stupidity, taste and animalism, mistaken zeal and malignant enmity, may sanctimoniously pour out their virulence against the Gospel, and cry “Hosanna!” while they go forth to shed the blood and to wear out the patience of the saints. 4. The despotic governments of the earth. 5. Crime in its varied forms. A vast amount of capital is embarked in enterprises which, directly or indirectly, war against morality. All this, when the spirit of Christianity shall prevail, will be contraband, and be withdrawn. 6. A more liberal sort of religion which shall keep the opposition in countenance, and enable them to wield the name and institutions of Christianity against Christianity—including so much truth as may serve to beguile, but so little as cannot avail to save—sustained by such as live in pleasure, and will not bow the knee to Christ. 7. The corruption of the purity of revivals of religion. Terrible, by the power of revivals, as an army with banners, the victory of the Church is secure, unless fanaticism can be substituted for pure-religion, and her compact masses be broken and scattered by the commotion of unhallowed passions within. In this manner was the glory of the Reformation eclipsed, and vital religion, in the time of Cromwell, made a scoff and a by-word. The same attempt was made in New England early in the days of our fathers. It was repeated in the time of White-field and the immortal Edwards, with lamentable, though with but partial success. 8. All these great divisions of systematic opposition to the Gospel have, where circumstances allowed, been supplemented by the sword. Christianity, in her first attempt to disenthrall the world, met the storms of ten persecutions, protracted through a period of three hundred years. And now, can such varied and mighty resistance to the truth be overcome? Can the earth be enlightened? Can the nations be disenthralled? Can the whole creation, which has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, be brought out of bondage into glorious liberty? Yes; all this can be done, and will be done. Our next inquiry then is, II. HOW SHALL EVENTS SO BE ? 1. By the judgments of heaven, in which the Son of man will come upon the strong man armed and take away his armour. 2. By the universal propagation of the Gospel; before the light of which, idolatry, imposture, and superstition, will retreat abashed. 3. By frequent, and at last, general revivals of religion; giving resistless power to the Gospel, as it is preached to every creature. 4. By the special influence of the Holy Spirit. The simple presence of Christianity would no more convert the heathen, than it converts those where it already exists. Were every family on earth now blessed with a Bible and a pastor, these, without the effusion of the Spirit, would not maintain upon the earth an uncorrupt, nominal Christianity for one hundred years. 5. By a new and unparalleled vigour of Christian enterprise. Until then, the Church will have been the assailed party, and stood upon the defensive; but thenceforth the word of command will not be “Stand,” but “March.” The gates of the holy city will be thrown open; the tide of war will be rolled upon the enemy; and one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. The means and efforts for evangelising the world must correspond, however, with the magnitude of the result. The idea that God will convert the heathen in His own good time, and that Christians have nothing to do but to pray and devoutly wait, is found in no canonical book. From the beginning the cause of God on earth has been maintained and carried forward only by the most heroic exertion. Christianity, even in the age of miracles, was not propagated but by stupendous efforts. And it is only by a revival of primitive zeal and enterprise that the glorious things spoken of the city of our God can be accomplished. But what can be done? There must be in the church of God— 1. More faith. 2. More intense love for Christ. 3. More decided action. 4. More courage. 5. New and more vigorous efforts to increase the number and power of evangelical churches in our lands. 6. Special effort is required to secure to the rising generation an education free from the influence of bad example, and more decidedly evangelical. 7. The vigour of charitable effort must be greatly increased. 8. The jealousies of Christians who are united substantially in their views of evangelical doctrine and religion, and who are divided only by localities, and rites, and forms, must yield, and give place to the glorious exigencies of the present day. 9. We must guard against the dangers peculiar to a state of religious prosperity. .—Will any of you, in this glorious day, take side against the cause of Christ? It will be a fearful experiment. And woe unto him who contendeth with his Maker!—Lyman Beecher, D.D.: Missionary Enterprise, pp. 121–142. (Boston Edition.) THE SAFETY OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 49:25. And all flesh shall know, &c.I. God is the protector of the Church, and no weapons formed against her shall prosper. The efforts which have been made to destroy the Church of God have been vain. Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Babylon, and under Antiochus Epiphanes. The early persecutions of the Christians in Judea, in the Roman Empire. The persecution of the Waldenses in Switzerland; of the Huguenots in France; and of the Reformers in England. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against her” (H. E. I. 1246–1251). II. The Church’s enemies shall be distracted in their counsels, and left to anarchy and overthrow. God will fill the ranks of His foes with confusion, and suffer them to be torn and distracted with internal strifes. III. The Church shall rise resplendent from all her persecutions, and shall prosper ultimately, just in proportion to their efforts to destroy it. The effect of all shall be the diffusion of the Gospel among all nations, and to bring all men to acknowledge that He who thus protects His Church is the true and only God—the Saviour, the Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.—Adapted from Barnes’ Commentary. FOR THE LITTLE ONES Isaiah 49:25. I will save thy children. This promise of salvation for the children has made the heart of many a pious parent thrill with delight. “The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice.” In fact, worldly and even wicked parents are often glad to see their children religious. They admire and approve in them that religion which they know, to their sorrow, they are neglecting themselves. If an appeal were made to the adult members of an ordinary congregation as to whether a minister ought to urge religion upon the attention of children, all as with one voice would respond, “By all means try to save the little ones.” This blessed promise, “I will save thy children,” will be regarded by such as one of the most precious in the Bible. I. TO WHOM THIS PROMISE IS MADE. The verses which cluster around it possess more than common interest. They depict scenes radiant with the glory of Zion’s successes and triumphs. In the midst of all these glorious triumphs, this heart-cheering promise comes in, “and I will save thy children.” Viewing those words in the light thrown upon them by these surroundings, may we not safely say, This is a part of the heritage of God’s Church? And are we not to expect that the Lord will fulfil His promise in a special manner at a time when His church is reviving and multiplying? Is not the salvation of the children here placed before us as the crowning glory of Christ’s Church, when she is in the full tide of her prosperity? Is it not made to you, and on behalf of your children?Let each pious parent at once put in his claim, “Lord, Thou hast specially promised to save my children; now fulfil Thy gracious word. Let me see them holy, useful, and happy here; let me hereafter meet them in heaven. According to Thy word, I look for this. While I pray, watch, and work for the salvation of my children, I am expecting Thee to verify the truth of Thy promise and to save them.” Those parents who connect with this spirit of prayerful expectation a godly and winsome example, will soon see their children happy in God. II. LET US TRY TO REALISE, IF WE CAN, ITS FULL IMPORT. The word “save,” when linked to the souls of our children, is indeed “a gem of purest ray serene.” Its price is above rubies. Who can fathom its import? And who can rightly realise the terrible antithesis, one’s child unsaved? capable of conversion, old enough to understand and experience real religion, and yet UNSAVED! Illustrate the spiritual condition of such. [1523][1523] Let us picture to our minds a child very poor, dreadfully diseased, and miserably enslaved. Every right-hearted parent is distressed to see his child poor, clad in rags, bedded on straw, pale and pinched with hunger. Add to poverty, disease: the rosy bloom has disappeared from the cheek. The little frame is wasting to a skeleton. Life is a burden, and the grave is opening to entomb your fondest hopes. Add to poverty and disease, slavery: your child the property of another, who claims him as his own and subjects him to all the degradation and misery of a galling servitude! What would be your feelings as a parent had you a child in such circumstances as these? Methinks it would be enough to make your life a burden. Have you a child unsaved? Then is he not poor? miserably poor? Has not sin robbed him of peace and purity? Does it not threaten to rob him of heaven and hope? Is not your unsaved child diseased? full of the leprosy of sin? sick unto death? Does not Satan bind his captive soul “fast in his slavish chains?” Is he not held in the most cruel bondage by the worst of tyrants? You know that all this is true, that it is no over-coloured picture. In fact, it is only part of the truth. Your unsaved child is under sentence of death. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” That sentence might be executed by Divine justice at any moment. What then is to become of your poor, diseased, enslaved, and doomed child?—Page. Save! Nothing less than the unsearchable riches of Christ. Health for the soul, complete liberty from the bondage of sin, “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” These four letters SAVE include “the gift of God,” which is “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This promise specially belongs to God’s own people. Does not this furnish one of the strongest reasons why unconverted parents should seek religion? How sacred and solemn is the parental relationship! Every child is a fallen, though a redeemed, sinner; and each will be saved or lost for ever. Yet how few unsaved parents think of the eternal ruin that thus threatens their own children.—G. A. Page. SINFUL ISRAEL SELF-RUINED Isaiah 50:1-3. Thus saith the Lord, Where is the hill, &c.Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be severely dealt with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon Him, as if He had severely dealt with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have here—bill. I. A TO PRODUCE ANY THAT THE QUARREL BEGAN ON GOD’S SIDE (Isaiah 50:1). They could not say that He had done them any wrong, or had acted arbitrarily. 1. He had been a Husband to them; and husbands were then allowed to put away their wives upon any little disgust (Deuteronomy 24:1; Matthew 19:7). But they could not say that God had dealt so with them; true, they were now separated from Him, but whose fault was that? What evidence could they produce that He had dealt with them capriciously? 2. He had been a Father to them; and fathers had then a power to sell their children for slaves to their creditors; and they were then sold to the Babylonians, as they were afterwards to the Romans; but did God sell them for payment of His debts? When God chastens His children, it is neither for His pleasure nor His profit (Hebrews 12:10). II. A CHARGE THAT THEY WERE THE AUTHORS OF THEIR RUIN. “Behold, for your iniquities,” &c. III. A OF THIS AND THIS CHARGE (Isaiah 50:2-3). 1. It was plain that it was their own fault that they were cast off, for God came and offered them His helping hand, either to prevent their trouble, or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted Him and all the tenders of His grace (Isaiah 50:2; Matthew 21:34; Jeremiah 35:15). He called to them to leave their sins, and so prevent their own ruin; but there was no man, or next to none, that complied with the messages He sent them: and it was for this that they were sold and put away (2 Chronicles 36:16-17). Last of all, He sent unto them His Son, who would have gathered Jerusalem’s children together, but they would not; and for that transgression it was that they were put away, and their house left desolate (Matthew 21:41; Matthew 23:37-38; Luke 19:41-42). When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable. 2. It was plain that it was not owing to any lack of power in God that they were led into the misery of captivity and remained in it, for He is almighty. They lacked faith in Him, and so that power was not exerted on their behalf. So it is with sinners still.—Matthew Henry; Commentary, in loco.I. A picture of the sinner’s miserable condition! separated from God—sold under sin. II. The occasion of it: not the will of God—but his own love of sin—and his consequent disregard of God’s offers of deliverance from sin and sorrow.—J. Lyth, D.D.: The Homiletical Treasury: Isaiah, p. 69. THE TEACHER OF THE WEARY Isaiah 50:2-4. Behold, at my vebuke I dry up the sea, &c.For the young, this is fresh, beautiful, sunlit life; to the old, it is often what Talleyrand found it, who in the journal of his eighty-third year, wrote “Life is a long fatigue.” The first cry of a soul when Divinely wakened to its true condition is after a Teacher, who in a way suited to its weakness will teach it secrets suited to its wants. Such a Teacher has been found for us all, and the “words in season that He speaks are the ‘words of eternal life.’ ” Listen to this Teacher, for He is speaking to us now. He speaks in the style of God. Beginning, “Thus saith the Lord” (Isaiah 50:1), He at once announces His Divinity. He then goes on to speak of Himself as a man (Isaiah 50:5-6). These words, therefore, could have been spoken alone by the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. They place before our thoughts— I. HIS DIVINE POWER AND GLORY. Power is naturally calm. Yet perhaps a storm will make a child think of power more than the sunshine will. Knowing our frame, our Teacher seeks to impress us with a sense of His power by bidding us think of Him as working by inexorable force certain awful changes and displacements in nature; “I dry up the sea,” &c. One day, with a casual blow of his hammer, Hugh Miller laid open a block in a quarry, and there discovered a fossil fish, supposed to be the first of its own variety ever seen by mortal. There it lay, “dried up” [1526] turned into a thing of stone. Whose work was this? Christ’s name is traced in sacred cypher on the foundations of the lasting hills; He dried up the sea; He made the river a wilderness, &c. It is a joy to think that the power so mighty to destroy is now all mediatorial. [1526] For ηαΰω, stinketh, read ϊιαω, is dried up; so it stands in the Bodleian MS., and it is confirmed by the LXX, ξηρακθησονται,—Lowth. II. HIS HUMAN LIFE AND . The Lord not only became a man, but assumed humanity in its humblest form; an apostle says, “He emptied Himself.” Gradually, it seems (Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52), the Divine Spirit, like a mysterious Voice, woke up within Him the consciousness of what He was, and of what He had come on earth to fulfil; morning by morning (Isaiah 50:4) the Voice was ever wakening Him to a higher consciousness and more awful knowledge; nor was His equipment complete until He uttered His last cry from the cross (H. E. I. 858–863). III. THE FOR WHICH HE HAD BEEN THUS . 1. It is personal. If His own personal teaching had not been in view, there would have been no need for all this personal preparation. “The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned,” &c. The education of a human soul is not to be entrusted to any created being. A million messengers may bring us wisdom, but Christ is the Personal Agent who employs them all. “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.” 2. It is suitable; “that I should know how to speak a word in season.” Suitable to our weariness (1.) while we are yet in a state of unregeneracy. Christ knows how to speak to such so as to kindle sympathy and waken response; He knows how to speak a word that gives life, the only “word in season” to men “dead in trespasses and sins.” (2.) When we are sinking under the burden of guilt. The law of God demands a perfect obedience; you are unable to meet that demand. All the while Christ was on earth, He was learning how to take that burden from you (Hebrews 5:8). (3.) When we are fainting under the burden of care. When you are ready to learn, Christ is ready to teach (Psalms 55:22). To cast your burden upon the Lord is to cast yourself upon Him—yourself, with all you carry. (4.) When we are burdened under the intellectual mysteries of theology. Such difficulties form an essential part of the Christian discipline of many. Those who feel them are tempted, on the one hand, to rest in the authority of human reason, and, on the other, in the authority of the Church. But, who can teach us so surely the things that relate to Christ, as Christ Himself? Christ, wise in His speech, and wise in His silence, may not give us all the knowledge we wish for, but He will give us all we need. (5.) When we are under the burden of mortal infirmity. “The faint old man sits down by the wayside a-weary.” At first he thought within himself— ‘I am a useless hull,’tis time I sunk;I am in all men’s ways, I trouble them,I am a trouble to myself.”But Christ has spoken to his soul, and dispersed those sad imaginations, by the power of thoughts that renew his inward strength (Isaiah 40:29-31). There sits a man who was once an active thinker; but he has just tried to read one of his own books, and could not understand it. When other teachers have gone their way, Christ comes, and says, “Learn of Me” (Matthew 11:28-30). 3. It is minutely direct and particular. The Good Shepherd “calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out;” “the Master is come, and calleth for thee.” “Thou art as much His care as if besideNor man nor angel lived in all the earth;The sunbeams pour alike their glorious tideTo light a world, or wake an insect’s birth:They shine and shine with unexhausted store;Thou art thy Saviour’s darling—seek no more.”Solomon calls wisdom a “tree of life;” and the heavenly Teacher’s wisdom is like the mystical tree of life, bearing “twelve manner of fruits, and yielding her fruit every month.” You can never go to that tree out of season; you can never go to it seeking fruit and finding none; for as one has said, “you carry with you the season, and make it the season of the tree.”—C. Stanford, D.D., Symbols of Christ, pp. 146–172. He who speaks is the second person of the ever blessed Trinity; He speaks in that character of a Mediator which He had covenanted from all eternity to bear, and which required that in “the fulness of time” He should be made flesh, and dwell among men. This is the explanation of the mystery that He who in one verse speaks as God (Isaiah 50:3), in the next describes Himself as a learner. How the man Christ Jesus became informed of the nature and obligations of the mediatorial office is a profound mystery; all that we are told is, that it was gradually (Luke 2:52; H. E. I. 858–863), so that morning by morning something new was told, till at last the whole task of labour, ignominy, and death, lay spread before the view of the Surety of our race. But though we may not be able to penetrate the mystery of the process, the result was that our Lord entered upon His mission possessing “the tongue of the learned.” Not according to any anticipation that the “learned” men of the world would have favoured, if this prediction had been made known to them. His was the profounder and more important knowledge of the human heart; and therefore He was able to do what all their wisdom and science would never have enabled them to accomplish, He knew how to speak words in season to the weary. He has been the great Comforter of our race. Millions burdened by sin and sorrow have been helped and strengthened by Him. In this respect His ministers should strive to be like Him. Intellectual culture they are not to disregard, but their supreme ambition should be to attain to such a knowledge of the heart, in all its varying experiences, and of the adaptation of God’s truth thereto, that they also may know how to speak words in season to the weary—right words at the right time.—Henry Melvill, B.D: Sermons Preached on Public Occasions, pp. 125–147. The text is a word for the weary from One in whose sympathy the human heart finds its refreshment and strength. In the work of cheering weary hearts, Christ excels immeasurably all others. God, who gave to Moses the tongue of terror, and to Isaiah the tongue of a fellow-sufferer with God’s people, has given to Christ, in a singular and incomparable sense, the tongue of one who has drunk our cup, navigated all the seas of our experience, and become one with us in all that pertains to human suffering and conflict. Christ has the tongue of experience. Robertson strains language when he speaks of the “human heart of God.” But we may speak of the human sympathy of “the man Christ Jesus”—the “Son of God.” His human heart has experienced human woes—toil, weariness, disappointment, sorrow, and curse. He was made in all things like His brethren, to assure us of God’s sympathy. Not that God knows our suffering the more familiarly, or sympathises with us the more tenderly, because He has experienced them in our nature. His omniscience marks the quiver of each heart-pang. His sympathy is as abounding and deep as the ocean, for “God is love.” But we cannot conceive adequately of the sympathy of an abstract First Cause. Roman Catholics are right when they tell us that we can only realise God’s acquaintance and sympathy with human sorrow as we look at a human fellow-sufferer possessing the most susceptible of tender human hearts. Their error is in pointing us to the Virgin Mother instead of the Incarnate Son. Because Christ has the tongue of experience, therefore His sympathy is the more effective. Apply these thoughts to— 1. Physical sufferings. Christ’s experience of hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, &c. (Isaiah 50:5-6). Christ has imparted a new meaning to all God’s assurances in the Old Testament, and given existence and force to all the consolations of the New, since they all are God’s, and God is Christ. Listen to the tongue of experience as it becomes the tongue of sympathy (Psalms 103:13; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 2:14). 2. Temptations. Some say that since Christ could not have yielded, therefore He had no true experience of conflict with evil. But can you say, that because the steadfast Christian is so full of Christ that he cannot allow himself to sin, therefore he has no true experience of conflict? In point of fact, the victor knows the cost of withstanding temptation far more than he who is vanquished by it (Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 2:18). Christ has fought His way to victory all along our path, and the way of holiness is crimson with His blood. Read the answers given by Christ (Matthew 4), and remember that He learnt to speak them in a conflict severer far than yours, that you may hear them clear and sure above the din and clangour of your sharpest contests with self and sin (H. E. I. 866–871). 3. The derision of the world. Many times was He reviled and scorned; while in John’s Gospel we read of six most determined attempts on the part of His foes to do their worst. Realise all the sympathy which Christ conveys when He tells us that we suffer these things “for His name’s sake.” 4. The treachery of friends. Christ’s experience of the desertion of His disciples, and the betrayal of Judas. Let all deceived hearts dwell restfully upon the assurance (Hebrews 13:5). 5. The impenitence of sinners. The praying father or mother, weary of the son’s or daughter’s impenitence. Christ wept over Jerusalem, and then went down into the city to die for her. His heart still melts with tenderness. 6. Bereavement (John 11) In weeping with them, He has wept with us. In raising Himself, He has shown all mourners that He will raise again the dead (John 11:25-26). A word in season for you. 7. Divine sovereignty. How many perplexed brains and weary hearts there are by reason of the mystery of God’s dealings! It seems strange that God’s Son should be called upon to experience this perplexity and weariness, till we hear Him cry, “If it be possible,” &c., and, “O my God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?” But His experience only makes God’s word the more assuring, that the Providence that upholds the sparrow, counts our hairs, and attends our every step, will order all things well (Romans 8:28). The value of the text is not so much that Christ suffered this or that, as that He suffered so deeply (Hebrews 5:7-8; Hebrews 2:18). The thoroughness of Christ’s experience (Isaiah 50:5). No sun ever rose upon His daily path, but it revealed some fresh experience of human toil, conflict, trial, or sorrow. So it is with us. But every sun that rises on our daily path, lights it with a fadeless ray, revealing, parallel with our life, the experience of Him who has tabernacled in our flesh, and who speaks to our hearts in the fulfilment of a ministry of sympathy, in which He has no rival. .—Those who go in the way which they light up for themselves can only have sorrow and darkness (Isaiah 50:11). But those whose way is lit up by His love, who obey and follow, trust and love Him, as sheep their shepherd, shall have no darkness, but their sorrow shall flee away and God Himself shall comfort and refresh them.—David Arundell Hay.GOD’S REBUKE OF , AND TO FAITH Isaiah 50:2. Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?It was not because God was unable to deliver them, that His ancient people had been led away as captives, but solely on account of their sins (Isaiah 50:1, &c.) But He wished them to realise the fact that notwithstanding their sins, in virtue of His possession of unlimited power He could easily fulfil His promises of deliverance. We, too, need to realise more distinctly this fundamental truth—God’s almighty and unchangeable power. Know it we do, but we often do not realise it. We often act as though we really believed that the Lord’s power had diminished. Our text rebukes our unbelief, and challenges our faith. It may be used— I. TO THE CHURCH IN THE OF HER MISSION. Her mission is to save—instrumentally to save the world. But her success is small when compared with the multiplied agencies employed, &c. Is the Lord’s hand shortened at all? No. His purpose and His power are unchanged. Early triumphs of Christianity—Pentecost, &c. His hand has been with His Church wherever there has been believing prayer and effort. It is this that is lacking: not prayer and effort, but believing prayer and effort. It is unbelief that shortens God’s hand, and it only (Matthew 13:58). [1529][1529] There is nothing too hard for God. When we look at the human side of the question, difficulties and obstacles rise on every hand, and hedge our way and hinder our progress; and if our view is only a human view, we sink discouraged and dismayed. But if, on the other hand, we will take a look at the Divine side of the question, how soon our fears vanish, and our difficulties disperse! With God all things are possible, and the faith that takes hold upon His arm partakes of His omnipotence. There are many things which men have done that seemed impossible at the first. The power of mechanical or chemical forces, directed by scientific intelligence, exceeds by far the bounds of ordinary belief; but when we pass from this sphere into that upper realm where the Almighty rules and presides, surely nothing is beyond the reach of His almighty hand! Hence, in estimating possibilities or probabilities of success in any course, it is for us to inquire first of all, What is the will of God concerning the matter? Does He undertake the cause? Is He upon the side of its success? Are we doing His will rather than our own? If the work we undertake is His work, and if He has appointed us to do it, we may move on in all the calmness of a living faith, without one doubt or fear, knowing that He “who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” can give us victory. The thing which God wishes to be done can be done, and, if we will be workers with Him, shall be done, for neither men nor devils can restrain the arm of our wonder-working God. Let us, then, have courage, and banish fear. Let us work the works of God, confident that our labour will not be fruitless, and that our victory is assured by Him before the fight begins.—A. T.II. TO COMFORT THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 1. In seasons of providential trial. Such seasons are common. But God has engaged to support or deliver His people whatever may be the nature of the trial through which they are passing. He is equal to every emergency. Rely upon the promises of God. He has sustained, comforted, and delivered, and He will. Faith argues from the past to the present and the future (1 Samuel 17:34-37; Psalms 63:7; 2 Corinthians 1:8-10; 2 Timothy 4:17-18). “Walk on the waters of trial by a living faith, and you shall find them solid as marble beneath your feet. Hang upon the simple power and providence of God, and you shall never be confounded.” 2. In seasons of doubt and fear in relation to their final salvation. God’s people are sometimes doubtful and desponding respecting their eternal safety. When they contemplate the difficulties and dangers, the temptations and the snares that beset their path, heaven seems to be an uncertain inheritance, and they are ready to conclude they shall never reach its happiness and glory. Opposed to them stands the power of Satan; the allurements of the world, the forces of evil within, the cares and afflictions of life, &c. But we have promises and examples that are calculated to dissipate every doubt and to banish every fear that we shall not eventually triumph. Abraham, Job, David, Paul, &c. Divine grace has been, and still is, all-sufficient (H. E. I. 1066, 2363–2377). III. TO THE ANXIOUS . Though desirous to be saved, many are full of doubts and difficulties and questionings. There is nothing that appears so difficult to a convinced sinner as his own salvation. But the question is not whether you can save yourself, but whether GOD can save you. You know He can. Every moral difficulty has been removed by His infinite love in the gift of His Son, &c. True, you have broken the divine law, &c., but Christ has honoured and fulfilled it, as your substitute and representative, &c. Therefore the forgiveness of sin is consonant with God’s righteousness as well as His mercy (Romans 3:24-26). Nor can there be any effectual opposition made by Satan to the sinner’s rescue. He is mighty, but Christ is almighty—“Able to save to the uttermost, &c.”—Alfred Tucker.THE POWER OF GOD Isaiah 50:2-3. Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, &c.There are other declarations of like purport in the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 51:9-10; Isaiah 51:15; Isaiah 63:11-13). They speak to us of Divine power. The mighty works referred to could not be performed by any false god. The deliverance of God’s ancient people from Egypt was attended with such amazing miracles, and with such a sudden destruction of their foes, that none but an Almighty Being could have performed it. I. Let us attempt with reverent humility to form some conception of the nature of God’s power (H. E. I. 2269–2274). 1. The power of God is that ability or strength, whereby He can do whatever He pleases—whatever His infinite wisdom directs, and the perfect purity of His will resolves (Isaiah 46:10; Psalms 115:3). It is almost superfluous to say that the Almighty cannot do anything which implies or involves a contradiction, nor anything repugnant to His own perfections, either in relation to Himself or to His creatures, &c. 2. The power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of His nature. “God hath a powerful wisdom to attain His ends without interruption, a powerful mercy to remove our misery, a powerful justice to punish offenders, a powerful truth to perform all His promises.” 3. This power is originally and essentially in His nature—underived. “Power belongeth to God.” “He is the Source, Centre, Assemblage of all the might that is; containing in Himself the unfathomable depths of Omnipotence, as of Being.” 4. It follows that the power of God is infinite. Nothing can be too difficult for the Divine power to effect (Genesis 18:14). A power which cannot be opposed (Daniel 4:35). II. Let us view with reverent astonishment the manifestations of God’s power.1. In creation. “Examine individuals, systems, worlds beyond worlds, scattered in boundless profusion through the wide realm of space. They sprang forth at His voice, and they are sustained by the hand of God. All are ‘vouchers of Omnipotence!’ ” (Genesis 1:3; Psalms 8:3-4; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 42:8, &c.) Pythagoras called those fools, who denied the power of God. 2. In the government of the world. (1.) In natural government, or preservation. God is the great Father of the universe, to nourish as well as create it (Psalms 36:6). He keeps all the strings of nature in tune, &c. (2.) In moral government—restraining the malice of Satan and the wickedness of man, &c. (3.) In His gracious government—delivering His Church, effecting His great and glorious purposes by the simplest means, &c. 3. In the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and in suspending or reversing the usual laws of nature on special occasions. These are the hidings of God’s power. Submissive nature yields and obeys (Psalms 114:5-7). 4. In the work of our redemption by Jesus Christ. Our Saviour is called “the power of God.” His incarnation, miracles, resurrection, &c.; the publication of redemption by such feeble instruments; the wonderful success of their ministry. 5. In the conviction and conversion of sinners, the perseverance of His people amidst all the temptations and afflictions to which they are exposed. III. Let us consider with prayerful concern the practical lessons which this subject teaches.1. The fear of God (Jeremiah 5:22, &c.) If God be against us, it matters not who they be that are for us. “Fear Him,” therefore, “who hath power to cast into hell.” “On this ground, as well as on the ground of His other perfections, we should bow before Him with lowly reverence, and while we tremble to place ourselves in an attitude of antagonism to Him, we should seek His favour, protection, and blessing.” Confidence in God amid all the conflicts and afflictions of this probationary state. All needful assistance and comfort, &c., will be vouchsafed (2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 3:20). 2. The assurance that all His plans and purposes will be finally accomplished (Psalms 37:5). “Engraved as in eternal brass,The mighty promise shines;Nor can the powers of darkness raseThose everlasting lines,” &c.—Alfred Tucker.THE APPEAL OF POWER Isaiah 50:2-3. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? &c.Review the circumstances under which this appeal was addressed to sinful Israel of old. The principles of Divine truth and religion the same under all dispensations. I. The Lord comes and calls sinners to repentance, but they do not regard Him.1. He does this in manifold ways. (1.) By the voice of conscience. Representative of the supreme law—inward monitor, &c., ever urging the abandonment of the sinful and the adoption of the true and pure, &c. (2.) By the events of Providence. The whole system of Providence is in operation for none other than religious ends and purposes. Mercies are sent to allure, judgments to alarm (H. E. I 56–59, 66–70). (3.) By His Word. The Bible is God speaking to man, &c. Everywhere it calls to repentance, &c. (4.) By His ministers. He speaks to man, by man. Samuel thought it was only the voice of Eli that called him, but it was God’s voice. The true minister is God’s ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). (5.) By His Son. “His servant”—the Saviour, so often introduced in these prophecies with dramatic directness, as speaking in His own name (Matthew 21:37; John 1:10-11; Acts 3:13; Hebrews 1:1). (6.) By His Spirit. Speaking to the ear of the inner man by the ministries of friendship, or the incidents and intercourse of common life; by sickness, &c., stirring up an unwonted anxiety about the things which belong’ to our peace. Though He has been treated so shamefully, He still speaks, strives, pleads, &c. 2. But sinners do not regard Him. As of old, they heed not the Divine calls, they slight His gracious offers, they reject the messages sent, &c., as unworthy their regard, &c. II. The Lord gives astonishing proof of His ability and willingness to save, yet sinners do not believe it, and trust in Him. “Behold, at my rebuke,” &c. He who by His mere threatening word has dried up the sea, and turned rivers into a hard and barren soil, so that the fishes putrefy for want of water, and eclipsed the lights of heaven, can with infinite ease come with a gospel of deliverance from sin and punishment. He can perform stupendous miracles of grace—save sinners to the very “uttermost.” No limit can be set to His omnipotent grace. Yet sinners will not believe it. Like a condemned criminal who will not believe even when he sees the Queen’s pardon. If sinners will not believe God’s Gospel, how can they be saved? We may as well expect a man to be fed by bread that he will not eat, or to be cured by medicine that he will not take, as expect a man to be saved by a Gospel that he will not believe. Or they neglect it. Like the old miser who is so busy with his ledgers and gold bags that he does not heed the alarm of fire, and therefore perishes. So with the worldling. We tell them of danger and of salvation, but they are so busy, &c., they just leave the matter alone—they neglect it. Or they despise it. Like a poor but proud man who despises relief when offered, because he must go and receive it as a gift. If sinners could take their little, petty, paltry doings and buy God’s salvation, they would have it, but because they must have it as a gift, they will not receive it. III. The Lord justly complains that He is thus disregarded and doubted. “Wherefore,” &c.? Not the language of anger, but sorrowful lament, wounded friendship, grieved love, &c. As a faithful father, &c. A just complaint. Such conduct is manifestly unreasonable, shamefully ungrateful, exceedingly sinful, imminently dangerous, &c. (Proverbs 1:26). It keeps back the blessings which God is ready to confer. It is highly dishonouring to God. It disputes the Divine Word, rejects the clearest evidence, limits the Omnipotent One, &c. Think of this. Hear and obey the Divine call. “Repent and believe the Gospel.” If you reject it, the responsibility rests upon you, and you must give account to God.—Alfred Tucker.THE SOLAR ECLIPSE Isaiah 50:3. I clothe the heavens with blackness, &c.If there be sermons in stones, there must be a great sermon in the sun; and if there be books in the running brooks, no doubt there is many a huge volume to be found in a sun suffering eclipse. All things teach us, if we have but a mind to learn. Let us see whether this may not lead us into a train of thought which may, under God’s blessing, be something far better to us than the seeing of an eclipse. I. Eclipses of every kind are part of God’s way of governing the world. In olden times the ignorant people in England were frightened at an eclipse; they could not understand what it meant. They were quite sure that there was about to be a war, or a famine, or a terrible fire, &c. So it still is in the East. By many an eclipse is looked upon as something contrary to the general law of nature. But eclipses are as much a part of nature’s laws as the regular sunshine; an eclipse is a necessary consequence of the natural motion of the moon and the earth around the sun, &c. Other eclipses happen in God’s providence and in God’s grace. Here, as in nature, an eclipse is part of God’s plan, and is in fact involved in it. 1. Let me invite your attention to providence at large. How many times have we seen providence itself eclipsed with regard to the whole race. God sends a flood, famine, war, plague, &c. It is just the same with you in your own private concerns. When you were rejoicing in the brightness of your light, on a sudden a mid-day midnight has fallen upon you; to your horror and dismay you are made to say, “Whence does all this evil some upon me? Is this also sent of God?” Most assuredly it is. Your penury, sickness, bereavement, contempt, all these things are as much ordained for you, and settled in the path of providence, as your wealth, comfort, and joy. Think not that God has changed. It involves no change of the sun when an eclipse overshadows it. Troubles must come; afflictions must befall; it must needs be that for a season ye should be in heaviness through manifold temptations. 2. Eclipses also occur in grace. Man was originally pure and holy; that is what God’s grace will make him at last. Some of you are in the eclipse to-day. I hear you crying, “O that it were with me as in months past,” &c. You are apt to say, “Is this a part of God’s plan with me? Can this be the way in which God would bring me to heaven?” Yes, it is even so. In God’s great plan of grace to the world, it is just the same. Sometimes we see a mighty reformation worked in the Church. God raises up men who lead the van of the armies of Jehovah. A few more years and these reformers are dead, and their mantle has not fallen upon any, &c. Think not that eclipses of our holy religion, or the failure of great men in the midst of us, or the decline of piety, is at all apart from God’s plan; it is involved in it, and as God’s great purpose, moving in the circle, to bring forth another gracious purpose on earth must be accomplished, so an eclipse must necessarily follow, being involved in God’s very way of governing the world in His grace. II. Everything that God does has a design. When God creates light or darkness He has a reason for it. He does not always tell us His reason. We call Him a sovereign God, because sometimes He acts from reasons which are beyond our knowledge, but He is never an unreasoning God. I cannot tell you what is God’s design in eclipsing the sun; I do not know of what use it is to the world. It may be, &c. However, we are not left in any darkness about other kinds of eclipses; we are quite certain that providential eclipses, and gracious eclipses, have both of them their reasons. When God sends a providential eclipse He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for nought. It is to draw our attention to Himself. Doubtless, we should entirely forget God, if it were not for some of those eclipses which now and then happen. Sometimes troublous times tend to prepare the world for something better afterwards. War is an awful thing; but, I doubt not, it purges the moral atmosphere, just as a hurricane sweeps away a pestilence. It is a fearful thing to hear of famine or plague; but each of these things has some effect upon the human race. And evil generally goes to make room for a greater good. God has sent thee providential trouble. He has a gracious design in it. Many men are brought to Christ by trouble. Eclipses of grace have also their end and design. Why has God hidden His face from you? It is that you may begin to search yourself, and say, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me” (H. E. I. 1644–1648). God’s people are afflicted in order that they may not go astray (H. E. I. 66–70, 190–194). III. As all things that God has created, whether they be light or whether they be dark, have a sermon for us, no doubt there are some sermons to be found in this eclipse. What is it that hides the sun from us during an eclipse? It is the moon. She has borrowed all her light from the sun month after month; she would be a black blot if the sun did not shine upon her, and now she goes before his face, and prevents his light from shining upon us. Do you know anything at all like that in your own history? Have you not a great many comforts which you enjoy upon earth that are just like the moon? They borrow all their light from the sun, &c. Oh, how ungrateful we are when we let our comforts get before our God! No wonder that we get an eclipse then. 1. Let the Christian recollect another sermon. The sun is always the same, and God is unchangeable. “My soul through many changes goes,His love no variation knows.”2. A total eclipse is one of the most terrific and grand sights that ever will be seen. If on a sudden the sun should set in tenfold darkness, and never should rise again, what a horrid world this would be! And then the thought strikes me—Are not there some men, and are there not some here, who will one day have a total eclipse of all their comforts? What ever eclipse happens to a Christian, it is never a total eclipse: there is always a crescent of love and mercy to shine upon him. But mark thee, sinner, when thou comest to die, bright though thy joys be now, and fair thy prospects, thou wilt suffer a total eclipse. Can you guess what the Saviour meant, when He said “outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth?” Hear me while I tell thee the way of salvation.—C. H. Spurgeon: The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 183. HUMAN : THE VARIETY OF ITS SOURCES, AND THE ONE SOURCE OF RELIEF FROM IT Isaiah 50:4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. There are many causes of weariness and sadness; as many as there are sources of cheerfulness and vigour in body and mind. 1. Wounded affections. When the seat of our pleasant emotions and sweet affections becomes filled with bitterness, we cannot wonder that exhaustion of energy should ensue, and the strong man be bowed down! Few who have advanced far in life, but have been thus attacked in the tenderest part of their being; and the power of resistance decreases as youth is left behind. Many, most dear, have vanished from the scene; former friends have perhaps lifted up the heel against us. We do not know, until the blow comes, how heavily we have been leaning on the staff of friendly sympathy. But amidst all our heart-troubles, the voice of the Saviour—deeply learned in the sorrows of humanity—is heard saying, “Rest!” “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” The words are words of authority, and of comfort because of their authority. 2. Disappointment of our desires. All are furnished with larger appetites than they have ability or opportunity for satisfying them. Pleasure! Money! Power! Reputation! Desire outruns our slow and pausing faculties. And this is a great cause of fatigue; we cannot keep up with ourselves, one part of our nature lags behind another. Again, the goal of our desire is ever receding. What an interesting picture does Ecclesiastes give of this universal experience! But in this mood, too, we are met by the Divine Saviour; for Christ would fill the soul with the only object of desire that cannot disappear in its grasp; with the Eternal Himself. 3. Vacancy of mind and the sense of monotony. “Nature abhors a vacuum;” the mind cannot endure its own emptiness. Imagine us left alone in a depeopled world, shut up in a room walled with reflecting glass, where nothing but our own image should meet us at every turn,—the very thought is unendurable; and something like this occurs when we fail to obtain diversion from self. But it is Christ’s message to tell us of a new self which it is the will of God to impart to us; a new heart in which it will please God to dwell, and with which He can hold fellowship; the soul comes to rest on an Eternal Power that is not ourselves, yet intimately related to us. 4. The load of a guilty conscience. It may be difficult to forgive another; it is more difficult to forgive oneself. How profoundly Christ meets this guilty dejection of the human heart! The power which He claimed on earth to forgive sins is continued, in a declarative sense, in His Church, and sin-laden souls may be warned that in disbelieving the Gospel of forgiveness they tacitly reject Christ’s authority; in believing it they rely on the promises of One to whom all things are given by the Father, and they are at rest 5. Earnest thought and noble endeavour. Not only the bad use of mind and life, but their right and loyal use, brings its own peculiar experience of suffering. Preachers, philanthropists, strenuous labourers in every good cause, exhaust their energies in ministering to others’ need; and after exhibiting pictures of cheerfulness and animation in public, sink, when alone, into occasional collapse. Instructive examples of such reaction are given in Bible story, e.g., Elijah. In the finest minds, a fretfulness and dissatisfaction with results may be found, where onlookers see a noble success. But to them, as to all weary ones, Christ, who “suffered in the flesh,” says, “I will give you rest;” and to all who trust Him, He gives the rest and re-invigoration they need.—G. Johnson, M.A., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. pp. 264–266. All around us are multitudes of weary people; weary from many causes—poverty, anxiety, spiritual despondency, non-success in Christian labour, delay in the coming of recognised answers to prayer. For all these tried and burdened hearts, Jesus, the relief-bringer, has His word in season. By these words of His, He does not release us from our duties, but helps us to perform them. He teaches us to trust Him, and trust is restful. As the infant drops over on its mother’s bosom into soft repose, so faith rests its weary head on Jesus. He giveth His beloved sleep, so that they may wake up refreshed for their appointed work. It is not honest work that really wears any Christian out [1532] it is the ague fit of worry that consumes strength, furrows the cheek, and brings on decrepitude (H. E. I. 2053, 2057, 2058), and from this destructive temper Christ delivers us (H. E. I. 952–961). [1532] That giant of Jesus Christ who drew the Gospel chariot from Jerusalem to Rome, and had the care of all the Churches on his heart, never complained of being tired. The secret was that he never chafed his powers with a moment’s worry. He was doing God’s work, and he left God to be responsible for the results. He knew whom he believed, and felt perfectly sure that all things worked together for good to them that loved the Lord Jesus.—Cuyler. There is another weariness most distressing; that which is called ennui, the disgust and despair which result from the discovery that all the so-called “pleasures of the world” cannot satisfy the soul. But even for this Christ has “a word in season” (Matthew 11:28-30). [1535]—Theodore Cuyler, D.D. [1535] See the hymn commencing— “Oh, comfort to the dreary!”THE GOSPEL A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY Isaiah 50:4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Our blessed Lord is here represented as speaking of His own office and ministry. How gracious was that office! How full of condescending pity and love to man was that ministry! (John 3:17; Luke 4:18-19.) In our text we have a true account of the tendency of the Gospel. It brings rest and refreshment to those who are seeking rest in the world, but whose hopes must end in disappointment. I. THE ACTUAL STATE AND WANTS OF MANKIND. On every hand are evidences of the fact that this is a weary world. On our race sin has laid many burdens of care and sorrow. Our fellow-men sorely need to be cheered and strengthened. II. THE OF THE GOSPEL TO THE STATE AND OF MANKIND. It has “a word in season,” 1. For those who are weary in the service of sin. 2. For those who are weary under the painful consciousness of their guilt in the sight of God. 3. For those who are weary in striving against sin. 4. For those who are weary under the burden of temporal suffering. 5. For those who are weary under the growing infirmities and inconveniences of old age. 1. Lay hold of its great and precious promises. 2. Pray for all Christ’s ministers, that they, like their Master, may be taught how to speak words of cheer and comfort. This is one of the most valuable forms of the learning which it is possible for them to possess.—James Ford, A.M.: Twelve Sermons, pp. 1–22. Men need religion as they need bells for the common purposes of human life. The forms of old and effete infidelity, as well as the more subtle and pseudo-scientific scepticism of the present age, all fail just where Christianity eminently succeeds—in adaptation to the common wants of men. The opponents of the Gospel, who marshalled their forces a century ago, made no attempt to supply its place as a religion which met the every-day wants of men. They mined the foundations of the building; they thundered at the doors; they battered its walls; but they never tried to erect a better system in its place. That attempt was left to later ages. It was for Rιnan and Strauss to try to substitute for Christianity another theory of religion, and to meet the demand which the mother of Hume made of her son, “Give me something to lean on in the place of the faith you have undermined.” But our modern theorists find that it is one thing to destroy, another to build up. Does infidelity give anything on which men can fall back for comfort and support amid the common troubles of life, &c.? Does it speak in sweet accents of a rest that remaineth when weariness insupportable creeps over mind and body? We claim for Christianity that it does this very thing. It meets the every-day wants of those who embrace it. It condescends to notice the every-day weariness of tried and troubled souls. It is a Gospel that speaks to the worn and exhausted spirit. The voice like a bell chiming along the ages is, “The Lord God hath given me,” &c. I. THE SPECIAL CLASS TO WHOM THE GOSPEL IS . Is not amazement awakened when this text tells us that the Gospel is sent to be a message of comfort to the weary? For this Gospel was the fruit of the tears, and blood, and agony of the dear Son of God. Does it not seem a strangely costly sacrifice, when God’s dear Son drinks to its dregs the cup of condemnation, that He may speak comfort to him that is weary? The weary are everywhere upon this earth of ours. All feel a sense of oppressive fatigue. The consciousness of exhaustion is a thing so common, of such almost universal experience, that it seems one of the lesser ills of life, and beneath the notice of the Gospel. But Christ came to give men a religion which should meet their common wants, their everyday necessities. And hence it is a message to the weary, whatever the cause of their weariness be. 1. Toil. Or 2. Trial. Or 3. Sin. [1538][1538] A brave Crusader on the field of battle was always conspicuous in armour richly gilt. Amidst the sombre hues in which others were arrayed, amidst the cold blue light of gleaming steel, his harness shone golden like the sun. There was a gaiety in his very armour that seemed to speak of a light heart within. But when one day he fell, pierced with a Saracen dart, they undid the fastenings of his breast-plate, and to the amazement of his comrades found that the inner surface of his armour was studded with iron points that pierced the quivering flesh. The panoply which gaily flashed back the sunbeams, was all the while an instrument of self-inflicted torture to its wearer. There are more men who wear such armour than we wot of. There are many who wear a gay countenance, but feel within the bitterness of death. For the appetite for sin has palled. The heart has grown weary and sick of sin, thinking of lost purity, and broken promises, and departed self-respect; the very life becomes a burden, and yet they dare not die. “They weary themselves to commit sin.”—Cheney. II. THE WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO RELIEVE THE SOUL THAT IS WEARY. “A man of words “is a term of contempt. We tell people that “deeds, not words,” are our test of character. But what a momentous significance for evil or for good one word may have! On yonder hill, outside the walls of Bethany, in the midst of an astonished group, Lazarus stands a living man, though his grave-clothes are still upon him. The dead body on which corruption’s work had begun is thrilled with a new life. One word did that. So, when Christ promises salvation, and comfort, and rest to the weary, it is a word through which the priceless blessing comes. The unquestionable meaning of the text is, that the instrument which God uses to give relief to the weary is Christ’s word, Christ’s Gospel, the message of His love for sinners. It must be spoken in season. There are, in human experience, chances that exist but for one moment. They come and go like a flash. So are there crises in the history of every human soul. There are times when the heart seems poised upon a pinnacle. Now a breath may turn it one way or the other; and then a word spoken is a word in season. Bereavement, &c. And for that blessed work our Lord gives you “the tongue of the learned.” But no man ever acquired the fruits of ripened knowledge—the harvest of wise words that speak comfort to the weary—without sowing the seed and watching over it with care. He must be learned, not in books of theology and libraries of religious instruction, but learned in the results of a personal experience.—Bishop Cheney: The Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii. pp. 79–82. OUR SAVIOUR’S FOR THE OF HIS WORK Isaiah 50:4-9. The Lord hath given me the tongue, &c.We suppose the prophet Isaiah to say something of himself in these verses, engaging and encouraging himself to go on in his work as a prophet, notwithstanding the many hardships he met with, not doubting that God would stand by him, and strengthen him; but, like David, he speaks of himself as a type of Christ. Through Isaiah it is Christ who speaks to us; and as we hearken to and reflect on His words, we note three characteristics in Him which qualify Him for and secure the success He anticipates. I. HE WAS, AND IS, AN (Isaiah 50:4). He was this because— 1. God had given Him “the tongue of the learned.” God, who made man’s mouth, gave to Moses the tongue of the learned, to speak for the terror and conviction of Pharaoh (Exodus 4:11-12). He gave to Christ the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season for the comfort of those that are weary under the burden of sin (Matthew 11:28). What a beautiful and precious feature was this in the ministry of our Lord! See what is now the best learning of a minister—to know how to comfort troubled consciences, and to speak patiently, properly, and plainly to the various cases of poor souls. Christ was able to do this because— 2. God had also, or previously, given Him “the ear of the learned”—the ability to receive instruction. Prophets have as much need of this as of the tongue of the learned, for they must deliver what they are taught, and no other (Ezekiel 3:17). Christ Himself received, that He might give. None must undertake to be teachers, who have not first been learners (Matthew 13:52). Nor is it enough to hear; we must “hear as the learned,” hear with all our faculties awake, hear as those who would learn by what we hear, hear and remember. II. HE WAS, AND IS, A PATIENT (Isaiah 50:5-6). One would have thought that He who was commissioned and qualified to speak comfort to the weary would have met with no difficulty in His work, but universal acceptance; it was, however, quite otherwise. He had both hard work and hard usage to undergo; and here He tells us with what undaunted constancy He went through with it. We have no reason to question but that the prophet Isaiah went on resolutely in the work to which God had called him, though we read not of his undergoing any such hardships as are here (it may be figuratively) described; but we are sure that this prediction was literally fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Note— 1. His ready obedience to the call addressed to Him (Isaiah 50:5; Psalms 40:6-7). 2. His patient endurance of all the suffering His obedience to the call involved (Isaiah 50:6). All this Christ underwent for us, and voluntarily, to convince us of His willingness to save us. How much He still undergoes, to what indignities He still submits, in His efforts to save man! III. HE WAS, AND IS, A (Isaiah 50:7-9). All that in these verses was true of Isaiah is still more true of our Saviour. Observe— 1. The secret sources of His courage. They are two. (1.) He was assured of Divine support. “The Lord God will help me.” (2.) Of this He was assured, because He was assured also of Divine approval. “He is near that justifieth me.” 2. The results of His courage. (1.) He was confident of success in His undertaking. “I shall not be confounded.… I shall not be ashamed.” Note, work for God is work we should not be ashamed of; and hope in God is hope we shall not be ashamed of. (2.) He could bid defiance to all opposers and opposition. “God will help me: therefore have I set my face like a flint.” He had no fear of the slanders of His foes: “He is near that justifieth me.” Nor of their swords. “Who will contend with me?” &c. (3.) He could foresee that He and His righteous cause would outlive all opposition. It was His foes who should pass away: “Lo, they all shall wax old like a garment; the moth shall eat them up”—a little thing will serve secretly and insensibly to destroy them. .— 1. These qualities being in Christ, let us not doubt that absolute and universal victory is before Him (H. E. I. 979). 2. These qualities were in all the world’s noblest reformers and benefactors. 3. These qualities must be in us, if we are to do any great work for God and our fellow-men. From Christ Himself let us seek them.—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco. OUR SAVIOUR’S TO SHAME AND Isaiah 50:6. I gave my back to the smiters, &c.It was for us that our Lord thus submitted to shame and suffering. May a spirit of tenderness, and thankfulness, and love, be given to us while we remember what He endured on our behalf! I. OUR LORD’S WAS . He gave Himself up freely to suffer, the just for the unjust. And while He was upon earth, in pursuance of His designs, He never was at the mercy of His foes (Matthew 26:53). His sufferings were the unavoidable result of His voluntary determination to save us. And they were all foreseen. For the accomplishment of two great purposes, He cheerfully gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that pulled off the hair. These were the glory of God, and the salvation of sinners. 1. The highest end of His mediation was to display the glory of the Divine character in the strongest light, to afford to all intelligent creatures (Ephesians 3:10) the brightest manifestation they are capable of receiving of the manifold wisdom of God—His holiness, justice, truth, and love, the stability and excellence of His moral government, all mutually illustrating each other, as combining and shining forth in His person and in His mediatorial work. [1541][1541] See Watts’ great hymn— “Father, how wide Thy glory shines!”2. Inseparably connected with this design, was the complete and everlasting salvation of sinners. For their sakes He endured the cross, despising the shame—for us! (P. D. 456, 457, 459). [1544][1544] See the well-known hymn— “Jesus, and can it ever be?”II. OUR LORD’S WAS EXTREME. In the apprehensions of men, insults are aggravated in proportion to the disparity between the person who receives and who offers them. A blow from an equal is an offence, but would be still more deeply resented from an inferior. But if a subject, a servant, a slave, should presume to strike a king, it would be justly deemed an enormous crime. But Jesus, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, whom all the angels of God worship, made Himself so entirely of no reputation, that the basest of the people were not afraid to make Him the object of their derision, and to express their hatred in the most contemptuous manner. 1. They spat upon Him (Matthew 26:66; Matthew 27:30). Great as an insult of this kind would be deemed amongst us, it was considered as still greater, according to the customs prevalent in Eastern countries. There, to spit even in the presence of a person, though it were only on the ground, conveyed the idea of disdain and abhorrence. But the lowest of the people spat in the face—not of an Alexander or a Cæsar—but of THE SON OF GOD! 2. They buffeted Him on the face, and when He meekly offered His cheek to their blows, they plucked off the hair. The beard was in the East accounted honourable (2 Samuel 10:4-5). With savage violence they tore off the hair of His beard; while He, like a sheep before the shearers, was dumb, and quietly yielded Himself up to their outrages. 3. His back they tore with scourges, as was foretold by the psalmist (Psalms 129:3). The Jewish Council condemned Him to death for blasphemy, because He said He was the Son of God. Stoning was the punishment prescribed by the law of Moses, in such cases (Leviticus 14:16). But this death was not sufficiently lingering and tormenting to gratify their malice. To glut their insatiable cruelty, they were therefore willing to own their subjection to the Roman power to be so absolute, that it was not lawful for them to put any one to death (John 17:26), according to their own judicial law; and thus wilfully, though unwillingly, they fulfilled the prophecies: they preferred the punishment which the Romans appropriated to slaves who were guilty of flagitious crimes, and therefore insisted that He should be crucified. According to the Roman custom, those who were crucified were previously scourged. It was not unfrequent for the sufferers to expire under the severity and torture of scourging. And we may be certain that Jesus experienced no lenity from their merciless hands. The ploughers ploughed His back. But more and greater tortures were before Him. He was engaged to make a full atonement for human sin by His sufferings; and as He had power over His own life, He would not dismiss His spirit until He could say, “It is finished!” “Behold the Man!” Behold the Son of God mocked, blindfolded, spit upon, and scourged! 1. Shall we continue in sin, after we know what it cost Him to expiate our sins? God forbid! (H. E. I. 4589, 4590.) 2. Shall we refuse to suffer shame for His sake, and be intimidated by the frowns or contempt of men from avowing our attachment to Him? We are, indeed, capable of this baseness and ingratitude. But if He is pleased to strengthen us by the power of His Spirit, we will account such disgrace our glory. In this, as in all things, let our Lord be our exemplar. Let us neither court the smiles of men, nor shrink at the thought of their displeasure. Let it be our constant aim to glorify God. This is the secret of Christian heroism. True magnanimity is evidenced by the real importance of the end it proposes, and by the steadiness with which it pursues the proper means of attaining that end; undisturbed by difficulty, danger, or pain, and equally indifferent to the applause or the scorn of incompetent judges. How gloriously did it shine forth in our Saviour! In this let us strive to follow Him!—John Newton: Works, pp. 706–709. Messiah’s sufferings and supports. I. His sufferings. 1. They were great and various. 2. He willingly undertook to sustain them all (H. E. I. 913). II. His supports. 1. Assurance of effectual succour (Isaiah 50:7). 2. Assurance of a triumphant issue (Isaiah 50:7). Contemplate the holy sufferer— 1. As the predicted Saviour of the world. 2. As the great pattern of all holy obedience.—Charles Simeon, M.A.Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other? It is quite certain that Isaiah here wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 8:31). Of whom else could you conceive the prophet to have spoken if you read the whole chapter? (Luke 23:11.) Pilate, the governor, gave Him up to the cruel process of scourging. Behold your King! Turn hither all your eyes and hearts, and look upon the despised and rejected of men! The sight demands adoration. I. Gaze upon your despised and rejected Lord as THE OF GOD. In Him God came into the world, making a special visitation to Jerusalem and the Jewish people, but at the same time coming very near to all mankind. He came to and called the people whom He had favoured so long, and whom He was intent to favour still (Isaiah 50:2). 1. When our Lord came into this world as the representative of God, He came with all His divine power about Him. He fed the hungry, &c. He did equal marvels to those which were wrought in Egypt when the arm of the Lord was made bare in the eyes of all the people. He did the works of His Father, and those works bare witness of Him that He was come in His Father’s name. 2. But when God thus came among men He was unacknowledged (Isaiah 50:2). A few, taught by the Spirit of God, discerned Him and rejoiced; but they were so very few that we may say of the whole generation that they knew Him not. 3. Yet our Lord, when He came into the world, was admirably adapted to be the representative of God, not only because He was God Himself, but because as man His whole human nature was consecrated to the work, and in Him was neither flaw nor spot. His course and conduct were most conciliatory, for He went among the people, and ate with publicans and sinners; so gentle was He that He took little children in His arms, and blessed them; for this, if for nothing else, they ought to have welcomed Him right heartily, and rejoiced at the sight of Him. This is especially the sin of those who have heard the Gospel and yet reject the Saviour, for in their case the Lord has come to them in the most gracious form, and yet they have refused Him. This is in reality a scorning and despising of the Lord God, and is well set forth by the insults which were poured upon the Lord Jesus. II. See the Lord Jesus as THE FOR HIS PEOPLE. When He suffered thus, it was not on His own account, nor purely for the sake of His Father; but He was “wounded for our transgressions,” &c. There has risen up a modern idea which I cannot too much reprobate, that Christ made no atonement for our sin except upon the cross: whereas in this passage we are taught as plainly as possible that by His bruising and stripes, as well as by His death, we are healed. Never divide between the life and the death of Christ. How could He have died, if He had not lived? How could He suffer except while He lived? Death is not suffering, but the end of it. Guard also against the evil notion that you have nothing to do with the righteousness of Christ, for He could not have made an atonement by His blood, if He had not been perfect in His life. He could not have been acceptable, if He had not first been proven to be holy, harmless, and undefiled. The victim must be spotless, or it cannot be presented for sacrifice. Draw no nice lines and raise no quibbling questions, but look at your Lord as He is, and bow before Him. Jesus took upon Himself our sin, and being found bearing that sin, He had to be treated as sin should be treated. All this was voluntary. “He gave His back to the smiters.” They did not seize and compel Him, or, if they did, yet they could not have done it without His consent. That Christ should stand in our stead by force were a little thing, even had it been possible; but that He should stand there of His own free will, and that being there He should willingly be treated with derision, this is grace indeed. Here is matter for our faith to rest upon. III. See the Lord Jesus Christ as THE SERVANT OF GOD. He took upon Himself the form of a servant when He was made in the likeness of man. This is to be the guide of our life. 1. As a servant, Christ was personally prepared for service. He was thirty years and more here below, learning obedience in His Father’s house, and the after years were spent in learning obedience by the things which He suffered. 2. Our text assures us that this service knew no reserve in its consecration. We generally draw back somewhere. Our blessed Master was willing to be scoffed at by the lewdest and the lowest of men. Such patience should be yours as servants of God. 3. Beside, there was an obedient delight in the will of the Father. How could He delight in suffering and shame? These things were even more repugnant to His sensitive nature than they can be to us; and yet, “For the joy,” &c. 4. There was no flinching in Him. Notice all the while the confidence and quiet of His spirit? He almost seems to say, “You may spit upon me, but you cannot find fault with me,” &c. IV. AS THE OF HIS PEOPLE. 1. Our blessed Lord is well qualified to speak a word in season to him that is weary, because He Himself is lowly, and meek, and so accessible to us. 2. Beside, He is full of sympathy. 3. Then there is His example. “I gave my back,” &c. Cannot you do the like? &c. He was calm amid it all. Never was there a patience like to His. This is your copy. 4. Our Saviour’s triumph is meant to be a stimulus and encouragement. “Consider Him that endured,” &c. (Hebrews 12:3). Though once abased and despised, now He sitteth at the right hand of God, and reigns over all things; and the day is coming when every knee shall bow before Him, &c. Be like Him, then, ye who bear His name; trust Him, and live for Him, and you shall reign with Him in glory for ever.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1486. , Isaiah 50:10-11. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, &c. [1547][1547] I believe this passage has been generally, if not dangerously, misunderstood. It has been quoted, and preached upon, to prove that “a man might conscientiously fear God, and be obedient to the words of the law and the prophets; obey the voice of His servant—of Jesus Christ Himself; that is, be sincerely and regularly obedient to the moral law and the commands of our blessed Lord, and yet walk in darkness and have no light, no sense of God’s approbation, and no evidence of the safety of his state.” This is utterly impossible; for Jesus hath said, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” If there be some religious persons who, under the influence of morbid melancholy, are continually writing bitter things against themselves, the word of God should not be bent down to their state. There are other modes of spiritual and scriptural comfort. But does not the text speak of such a case? And are not the words precise in reference to it? I think not; and Bishop Lowth’s translation has set the whole in the clearest light, though he does not appear to have been apprehensive that the bad use I mentioned had been made of the text as it stands in our common version. The text contains two questions, to each of which a particular answer is given:— Q. 1. “Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah?” A. “Let him hearken unto the voice of His Servant.” Q. 2. “Who that walketh in darkness and hath no light?” A. “Let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and lean himself[prop himself] upon his God.” Now, a man awakened to a sense of his sin and misery, may have a dread of Jehovah, and tremble at His Word; and what should such a person do? Why, he should hear what God’s Servant saith: “Come unto me, all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There may be a sincere penitent walking in darkness, having no light of salvation; for this is the case with all when they first begin to turn to God. What should such do? They should trust, believe on, the Lord Jesus, who died for them, and lean upon His all-sufficient merit for the light of salvation, which God has promised. Thus acting they will soon have a sure trust and confidence that God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven them their sin; and thus they shall have the light of life.—Adam Clarike, LL.D., F.A.S.This representation of the text by this admirable commentator is here reproduced, in order that preachers may be warned against repeating it. Lowth’s treatment of the text, on which it is founded, has been repudiated by all our most eminent scholars, with the exception of Matthew Arnold. Kay and Cheyne agree with Delitzsch in ending the question with the second clause: “Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah, that hearkeneth to the voice of His servant? He that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the Name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God (Cheyne). Plumtre’s comment on Isaiah 50:10 is excellent:—“The words grow at once out of the prophet’s own experience and that of the ideal Servant (Isaiah 50:6). All true servants know what it is to feel as if the light for which they looked had for a time failed them, to utter a prayer like Ajax, ‘Give light, and let us die’ (Hom. Il. xvii: 647). The Servant felt it when He uttered the cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:46). For such an one there were the words of counsel, ‘Trust, in spite of the darkness.’ (â) So the cry of the forsaken Servant was followed by the word, ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit’ (Luke 23:46).” I. A . A good and holy man sinking in despondency and dejection—walking in darkness and having no light. Mysterious, according to the ordinary estimate we form of what is right and fit. “No wonder,” you say, “that this should be the doom of the openly ungodly, of the close hypocrite, of the presumptuous Antinomian, or even, perhaps, of the newly-awakened convert; but how strange that it should be the case with the most approved of God’s people—those who fear the Lord, and obey the voice of His servant!” Yet so it has often been. A horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham. Job said, “My soul chooseth strangling rather than life.” Paul complained of the messenger of Satan. Our Lord Himself said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”—Let me specify some causes of this despondency; I cannot specify all. 1. When the course of God’s Providence towards His Church is perplexed and clouded. This was the case here. The captives were overwhelmed with their calamities (Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 50:1-3).—When God does not interpose for His church or themselves as they expected, and comes not forward in the path they had marked out for Him, they seem like prisoners in a dungeon without a lamp; or like midnight travellers in the wood and the thicket without a star (Job 23:8; Psalms 77:7-9).—Again, when their own lot is privation and suffering; when long-continued affliction of body and mind is permitted; when hope after hope is disappointed, and plan after plan is broken; when the interests of others are involved in your own, and a succession of trials takes place each darker and more painful than before, then this sorrow and dejection is felt (Lamentations 3:1, &c.) 2. When, in conjunction with outward trials, there is a sense of sin upon the conscience, unaccompanied with adequate views of the power and grace of Christ to save. I lay great stress on this. A sense of sin is the heaviest part of the believer’s burden: and it is the natural and proper tendency of affliction to bring sin to remembrance. Much of this darkness and depression may be intended to embitter sin; to arouse the recollection of past offences and neglects before conversion, or since (Job 13:26; Psalms 27:7; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Ezekiel 16:43; Ezekiel 16:63). Of some sins of ungodly men, God says, “As I live, this iniquity shall not be purged away from you till ye die;” and there are provocations in His own people which He long remembers. The Jews said, “There was an ounce of the golden calf in all the afflictions Israel suffered.” For instance, after signal enjoyments of God’s love, or particular mercies of God’s providence, if a man be negligent and inconsistent in his walk, it seems to carry an unkindness with it that shall not be forgotten. How suggestive the remark on the misconduct of Solomon: “God was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord, who had appeared to him twice!” All sins under or after special mercies will meet at one time or other with special rebukes. Nothing more distresses a believer than the remembrance in darkness of abused light, in desertion of neglected love.—Then, the processes of sanctification are always incomplete. If not open sins, there may be secret departures from God: pride, bitterness, sins of the spirit.—Suppose these recollections to occur without adequate views of the power and grace of Christ, or without a consciousness of deep and often renewed repentance, dejection will occur. 3. When the promise is very long delayed, and answers to prayer seem to be withheld (Lamentations 3:8; Psalms 80:4; 2 Corinthians 12:8). [1550][1550] As it happened to the Saviour, so it will happen to His disciples, who are known by their fear of the Lord, and their obedience to the voice of His Son. There will be times when it may be said of them that they “walk in darkness, and have no light.” The rule then is, after the example of Him who said, “The Lord will help me, therefore I shall not be confounded,” to trust in the Lord; and if the blind man who walks in darkness trusts in the brute that guides him, and goes on his sightless way without a fear and without a doubt, how much more may the believer fear not with such a stay on which to lean!—Keith.4. When their religious state is after all doubtful. For the pardon may have passed the great seal of heaven, and yet the indictment be suffered to run on in the Court of Conscience. Real Christians have not at all times equal confidence in the integrity of their religious profession (H. E. I. 311–314, 323, 335–339). If you doubt the reality of your conversion, be it far from me to say the doubt is unfounded; carry the apprehension to Him who alone is able to relieve it. II. A SAFE GIVEN. “Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” 1. Wait in the exercise of earnest, fervent, persevering prayer. Go to God as the man who had not a loaf of bread in the house went to his friend at midnight. Beware of the delusion of waiting passively for some strange manifestation. The blessing is to those who actively seek, not who remain passively content. “Blessed is the man that waiteth at the posts of my doors,” not who lies down at the threshold like a drunkard, asleep. In the act of seeking God, we find. In flying for refuge, we meet the promise of strong consolation. As they went, the lepers were cleansed. 2. Strenuously abide by known duty. Resist all temptations to employ doubtful means to extricate yourself from calamity (H. E. I. 169–176). Still fear, still obey. Take care that speculative difficulties be not increased by moral causes. 3. Frequently review past experiences of God’s mercy, enjoyed by yourself or others. In seeking the grace you want, do not deny the grace you have (H. E. I. 330–334). This is to bear false witness, not against your neighbour, but against yourself and God. “If the Lord were pleased to kill,” &c. (Judges 13:23.) Gain the benefit of the darkness (H. E. I. 1649–1654). 4. Revolve in your mind the great and distinguishing consolations of the bright economy in which you live. The grace and righteousness of Christ. The teaching and unction of the Holy Spirit. Not in vain is He revealed as a Comforter. III. A FEARFUL BETWEEN THE AT THEIR WORST AND THE WICKED AT THEIR BEST. The wicked ironically counselled to walk by the light of their own fire. Antithesis between the light of God and the light of men. The faithful were to be delivered from captivity into light and liberty. But the wicked kindle a fire of their own, and are without God. Isaiah 50:11 is not a first warning to repent, but a warning that destruction, darkness, endless sorrow, are about to descend upon them.—Samuel Thodey.I. The best of men may find themselves walking, as it were, in the valley of the shadow of death, [1551][1551] For developments of these divisions, see other outlines on this text. II. They should then honestly examine themselves (H. E. I. 4446–4464). III. If as the result of that examination they see that “the fear of the Lord” is the governing principle of their hearts, they should walk on in the path of duty submissively and hopefully. The God whom they trust will keep them in the midst of the darkness, and in His own time, which is always the best, will lead them forth into light. Isaiah 50:10. Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah, that hearkeneth to the voice of His servant? He that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God. Micah 7:8. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. These utterances make it clear that spiritual darkness occurred at times in the experience of the prophets of the Lord. His people now must not be surprised if it befalls them, nor should they then be dismayed. I. AS A FACT OF , AND THE ’S PROPER UNDER IT. In the natural world it is not always light; the sun goes down and darkness spreads, &c. So in higher life. The spiritual heavens are not always bright. 1. It may be the light of faith that is darkened. Spiritual realities are withdrawn into shadow. There is a God to rule over all and love all, but where is He? There is a Christ to die for all, but where is the cross? The cloud has fallen even on Calvary. What is the man to do? Do! He is to believe. Faith is not wholly gone. Both texts call on its exercise. The light exercises sense. It is the darkness that exercises faith. 2. It may be the light of God’s face that is felt to be withdrawn. The soul feels deserted and is in dismay—for God’s favour is its life. The resource against this feeling of abandonment is God’s character and word, and the gift of His Son (chap. Isaiah 54:8; Job 13:15). 3. Darkness may come in the form of the fading away of some Christian hope—personal hopes, or hopes for the kingdom of God (H. E. I. 323). With the sun of hope gone down behind the sky, what are we to do? Remember (1.) This setting of hope is not for ever. It precedes a glorious dawn. God is the God of hope. He often lets hope wane that it may gather strength. (2.) Though the sun of hope has set for ever on earth, earth is not all. It may be remarked here that this dark experience gives a striking demonstration that God only is man’s comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The spiritual helper of the man who sits in darkness feels he may as well throw his words on the dead wall; and the sufferer whom he would help is ready to say of all human helpers whatever, “miserable comforters,” &c. II. AS A MEANS OF . Perhaps the best explanation of this darkness, and it is a vindication too, is found in the results which it works. In nature the darkness of night lets us see what we cannot see when the sun is shining. The unnumbered worlds of God are not seen under the effulgence of noonday. It is the same with spiritual night in the soul, or may be the man of God may then get great enlargement of spiritual information and understanding—under the dim starlight of darkened faith and hope may more truly descry the positions, relations, and magnitudes of Divine realities. His experience improves and enlarges his knowledge of God’s ways and of himself to begin with, and from that beginning a great deepening and widening of his spiritual education may be effected. And by and by he shall come forth into the light with treasures of wisdom and knowledge far greater than if the cloud had never overshadowed him. There are worlds we are told which, having two suns in their heavens, are perpetually in the light. What can the inhabitants of these worlds know of the universe, if their sunlight is of a nature like ours? So with those whose spiritual heaven is always bright. They can on that account perhaps see not so near to the throne of God. In heaven it is always light, but the light there is not the light of the sun. The help of darkness is no longer needed there. There need be no mystery why all this is so. The man who sits in darkness is by the pressure of his position made a more diligent searcher into Divine things. The mind that feels the darkness spreading immediately around, is made to seek the light that is far away. When a man is always in the light he may be too easily satisfied with the light he has. Darkness brings alarm. It quickens. It shows how easily all our satisfactions may be gone (H. E. I. 117–121). III. AS A OF THE . It may secure for it some of its best graces—the mildest, the most mellowed, the most hallowed. There are plants that grow best in a dim light. Amongst those Christian graces that take deeper root in the dark are— 1. Humility. It is not when the windows of heaven are open that the child of God feels himself a broken cistern, and looks up and says, “All my well-springs,” &c. More readily does he do this when the windows of heaven are shut and there is no rain. 2. Trustfulness. 3. Self-surrender. IN :—Ye servants of God who sit in darkness, beware of two things—impatience and sullen indifference. Don’t fret as if God did not heed your grief. Don’t be callous as if He were not dealing with you. Pray for the light, but will not your prayers be heard the sooner and the enlargement you seek be sent the more speedily, if you long less for the deliverance than for the full benefit of the chastening?—J. Wardrop, D.D.: Homiletical Quarterly, vol. v. pp. 32–34. GOD’S MESSAGE TO THE Isaiah 50:10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord? &c.It is not, then, a thing unheard of or impossible, that a child of God should “walk in darkness and have no light.” And when the sadness of such an experience comes upon the saint, it will not be always safe to say that it is the shadow of some special sin. It may not be with him as it was with David when he cried, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,” after committing the great transgressions which stain his name; nor, as it was with Elijah, when running from the post of duty, “under the juniper tree” he wailed, “O Lord, take away my life now!” The case described in the text is different from these. It is that of one who even at the moment “feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of His Servant,” while yet he is bending under the weight of spiritual despondency. Many would say flippantly that a Christian must be very feeble indeed if he is ever in such a state; and some, cruelly, that he who permits himself thus to lie “in heaviness” cannot be a Christian at all. But all such unqualified assertions spring out of a shallow philosophy and a superficial experience. Our salvation depends on Christ, and not on our emotions regarding it. Hence, they who roundly affirm that if a man be walking in darkness, and finding no light, he cannot be a Christian, are making salvation depend, not on God’s work for a man and in time, but simply and entirely on his own emotions. Moreover, they forget some of the best-known passages in the history even of the most eminent saints (Psalms 42; 1 Peter 1:6). But while despondency furnishes no valid reason for calling the genuineness of one’s religion in question, it is very far from being a comfortable thing in itself. He should be encouraged to get out of it as soon as possible; for it puts everything about him into shadow. For his own happiness, and for the good of others, it is in every way desirable that he should be brought out of the darkness into the light. It may contribute to this result if we consider— I. THE CAUSES OUT OF WHICH MAY SPRING. 1. Natural temperament. However it may come, whether through heredity, or on the principle of special characteristics being given directly by God to every man, it is the fact that each of us is born with a certain predisposition to joy or sadness, to irascibility or patience, to quickness of action or deliberateness of conduct. And it is also true, that while conversion may Christianise that temperament, it does not change it. There are some men to whom, Christianity apart, it comes as natural to be joyful as it does to the lark to sing. And there are others, alas! whose disposition inclines them always to look on the darker side of things. In the former case there is no merit in the gladness, just as in the latter there is no blame in the sadness. We are often shamefully unjust in our estimates of our fellows; we don’t know what is restrained, we only know what comes out. And the same thing holds in this matter of despondency. But Christ knows. And He will not be unjust like men: He will give you honour in proportion to your effort to get above it. 2. Disease. The connection between the soul and the body is intimate and mysterious; they act and react upon each other. Lowness of spirits is very often the result of some imprudence in diet, or some local disturbance. Not all spiritual depressions can be resolved into the consequences of physical states; but in all ordinary cases the sound body is necessary to the sound mind. A Christian physiologist might render great service to many desponding spirits by preparing a work which should treat of the effects of different diseases on religious experience. See the relief which this affords. It removes from religion the responsibility for the depression of such a man as Cowper; while on the other hand it removes from Christianity the reproach for the hypocrisy of men who, on seeming deathbeds are saints, but get well again to transgress afresh; for there, too, the exhilaration was owing to the peculiar character of the malady. When we can trace our despondency to such a cause, it will cease to be a thorn to us. One, while he lay dying, had Psalms 77 read to him, and when he heard Isaiah 50:10, “And I said, This is my infirmity,” he broke in with the words, “That’s my liver. My soul and body so act one upon the other. With the liver wrong, the mind gets clouded, and I feel as though God had swept me out of His house as useless; but after He has taken so much trouble to mould the vessel, He will not throw it aside.” The sufferer recognised the spiritual effect of the disease. 3. Trial. One affliction will not usually becloud the horizon; but when a whole series comes in succession, the effect is terrible. First, it may be, comes sickness; and we are getting round when business difficulties overwhelm us; then, these are scarcely arranged before bereavement comes. For years, it may be, we are like the sailor who for weeks is seeking to round a stormy cape, and still the same weariful headland frowns drearily on him. The same effect may be produced by the mere monotony of our labour, without any special affliction. “Love adds anxiety to toil,And sameness doubles cares;While one unbroken chain of workThe flagging temper wears.”Mothers and housekeepers know what is meant by the assertion that “sameness doubles cares;” and it is when such a burden is lying most heavily upon the heart that the words of the text come to us with their soothing influence. 4. Mental perplexity. The spirit of inquiry and bold independent criticism is abroad in our age. The sacred things of our faith are assailed. When your children, now young men, are wrestling their way through the peculiar mental difficulties of this age, do not upbraid nor blame them, but help them by entering into their difficulties, and removing, if you can every stumbling-block from their path. And let those who are thus walking in darkness take to themselves the comfort of the text, and walk on in the full assurance that there is light beyond. II. THE TO THE GIVEN OR BY THIS TEXT. 1. The oppressed spirit must keep on fearing the Lord and obeying the voice of His servant. Whatever happens, these must not be given up. Nothing whatever can furnish any proper reason for ceasing to practise them; while, on the other hand, the neglect of them will only deepen the darkness already over you. The tunnel may be long, but it will come to an end at last, if only you will go through it. Whatever you feel, let no evil be wrought by you, but keep steadily in the path of rectitude. Amid all doubts you must accept some things as certain; hold by these, then, and act up to them, so will you prove that you are a docile learner, and put yourself into a position where you will catch the first glimpses of returning light. Only by acting up to the level of our present convictions can we rise to higher things. Sometimes an evil life has led to a shipwreck of the faith; but always a good character clarifies the spiritual conception (John 7:17). Keep your conduct abreast of your conscience, and very soon your conscience will be illumined by the radiance of God. 2. Keep on trusting God. What a blessed privilege it is to be permitted to do that! When we cannot see, it is an unspeakable blessing to have some hand to cling to; and when that hand is God’s, it is all right. But let us take the full comfort of this saying, “Let him trust in the name of the Lord.” What is that name? It is “Jehovah, God, merciful and gracious; long-suffering; forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty.” Therefore I need not despair about my guilt, for there is forgiveness with Him. It is Jehovah Tsidkenu—the Lord our righteousness. Therefore we may in Him have “boldness in the day of judgment.” It is Jehovah Ropheka—the Lord that healeth thee. Therefore I may bring all my spiritual maladies to Him for cure. It is Jehovah Jireh—the Lord will provide. Therefore He will give me that which is needful. It is Jehovah Nissi—the Lord my banner; and in it I may see the symbol of His protection. It is Jehovah Shalom—the Lord of peace; and so, beneath His sheltering wing, I may be for ever at rest. 3. Fail not to note the deep meaning of that word “stay.” It does not bid you only take a momentary grasp of God’s hand, it encourages you to lean your whole weight upon Him, and to do that continuously. Acquaint yourself with God through Jesus Christ, so shall you know that there is something better even in the Christian’s despondency than there is in the unbeliever’s joy.—W. M. Taylor, D.D.: Limitations, &c., pp. 312–326. This text is applicable to believers under all circumstances of trouble. The Lord is always the same; and faith must not wait until trouble is removed, but stay upon Him, lean upon Him when trouble is deepest. We have I. A SKETCH OF . “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant?” Those terms contain the universal elements of Christian character as an inward affection and in outward manifestation. 1. As an inward affection. The soul has been made alive to God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Man possesses a capacity of affection which can fix on God as its object. But fallen man is alienated from Him; dead to Him. God’s regenerating grace quickens into life that capacity of affection; so that there is the loving, childlike fear of God the heavenly Father, instead of the previous indifference to Him. 2. As an outward manifestation. It is characteristic of Christians that they obey the voice of Christ. When He called them to repent and believe in Him, they obeyed. And, however imperfectly, they endeavour in their daily walk to obey Him. His revealed will is the accepted rule of their lives. He is their Master, their King. II. A GLIMPSE OF . “That walketh in darkness, and hath no light.” This is not the normal experience of believers. They are “children of light, and of the day.” God has called them “out of darkness into His marvellous light” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The light, revealing pardon, acceptance, sanctification, future glory, causes us to walk in calmness and conscious security. Yet it may not shine with uniform clearness. The sun in the heavens is sometimes obscured by passing clouds; but it is shining, all the same. The normal day has the sun shining so that we see clearly the objects around us, and are able to pursue our avocations without interruption Again, while these seasons of darkness are variations from the usual experience of believers, some are visited by them more than others. The causes are also various. Some spiritual, some physical No Christian’s experience must be made the measure, in all respects, of another’s. When you have mentioned a few things, you have exhausted the essential things of the spiritual life; and even these are experienced variously according to the constitution of the different minds. Some are exercised with dark experiences, from which others are exempted. Luther seemed at times to himself to fight with Satan as a personal power, living, visible, audible. John Bunyan describes similar experience in the story of his life in the book entitled “Grace Abounding.” The reflex of that experience is in his description of the Pilgrim in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Let no one be deterred from entering the Christian course under the apprehension that he must have an experience like this. Nor let any one afflict himself with the idea that he is not a Christian because he has had no such experience. Few natures are so strong and intense as to be capable of it. God dealt with Luther and Bunyan according to their natures, and thus prepared them for the great work they had to do. And with most, even after seasons of conflict and victory, there is danger of reaction in the direction of spiritual darkness. Unbelief may represent the difficulties of the way. Despairing fears and presumptuous hopes alike may draw you from the narrow path. Thoughts, passions, words of evil which you have repented and which you hate, may struggle for indulgence and expression against the resistance of your better nature. It is one of the most terrible facts about sin, that, even though repented and forsaken, old sins so imbed themselves in the nature that their expulsion is the work of time and of many a struggle. Traps and perils lie on every hand, with their opportunities and inducements to the indulgence of sin. If backsliding of the heart has not preceded its commission, its commission may compel backsliding of the heart. And as there may be spiritual darkness in the soul, there may be the darkness of uncertainty as to the way of God’s providence. There may be bereavement, sickness, disappointment, loss, a state of things with regard to worldly affairs pregnant with anxiety, through which no way can be seen. Your heart is heavy. You fear the worst. III. A OF . “Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” It is the Christian’s privilege to trust in God at all times. Observe, you are not to wait until the darkness has cleared away and then trust; but to trust now, in the darkness. For this is always possible, inasmuch as He in whom we trust is ever the same, notwithstanding any danger that may occur in us or in our circumstances. Be instant in prayer. When enveloped in darkness you can keep hold of your Father’s hand. He will guide and help. He has promised to keep the feet of His saints. Cry to Him out of the darkness. Trust Him. Prayer is the believing cry of the heart that is satisfied that, however dark and dreary the way, He is leading us by a right way to a city of habitation. So long as He is there, what can we fear? Be careful as to your walk. Knowing the perils of darkness, you cannot afford to be careless in your conduct. The path is narrow and difficult to find. You may miss it and fall on either side. You are not alone in the darkness of sorrow. Christ has been there before you. He will be with you. Prayer shall be heard. Faith shall be honoured. The light of God’s countenance shall be lifted upon you. The day shall dawn and the shadows flee away.—J. Rawlinson.I. The godly man’s character. 1. He feareth the Lord. 2. He obeys the divine commands. II. The godly man’s trouble. “Walketh in darkness, and hath no light.” Providential darkness. III. The godly man’s best course in trouble. “Let him trust,” &c.—I. E. Page. FOR THE DEVOTED AND Isaiah 50:10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, &c.The encouragement here is for the people of God, and for them only. It is sometimes appropriated by those who are merely His people in profession; and in view of it, they are confident that though they have no satisfactory evidence of the Divine favour, all will be well with them in the end. They make a terrible mistake. The darkness of which they are conscious, is the result of the hiding from them of “the light of God’s countenance,” a calamity that never befalls those who are truly His people. [1554] But God’s people may be in darkness of another kind, in which they need all the cheer here offered them. For example, in the preceding chapters, Isaiah speaks of the Babylonian captivity, and of the oppressions of the Israelites during that dark period of their deliverance and restoration to their own land. Such, however, was the strength and resources of the Chaldean empire, and to such a state of imbecility and wretchedness had the Israelites been reduced, that the fulfilment of the prediction appeared impossible, or in the highest degree improbable. Therefore, knowing how dark and discouraging the prospects of His people would be in this state of captivity, God reminds them of what He had done for their ancestors in times past; how He had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt by the most extraordinary interpositions; and He tells them that they were still His covenant people, and would not be forsaken by Him (chap. Isaiah 49:14-16). Lest in their despondency they should doubt His ability to accomplish their deliverance, He refers them to the works of creation and providence as illustrative of His power (chap. Isaiah 40:12-17; Isaiah 40:25-28; Isaiah 50:2-3). Our text appears to form part of the expostulations intended to dispel the fears and to revive the hopes of His desponding people. There was a pious remnant who answered to the description contained in it; and he tells them, in effect, that though they had no light as to the manner in which He would accomplish their deliverance and restoration, yet they might confidently trust His power and faithfulness. [1554] What can be meant by the phrase, “the light of God’s countenance,” but an expression of the Divine approbation? When a father is pleased with the conduct of his son, approbation is expressed in his countenance. If the son behaves amiss, he soon observes a change in the expression of his father’s countenance towards him, and is generally conscious that he has done wrong. It at any time he should observe such a change without at once knowing the cause, he will immediately suspect himself, and will ask, What have I done to offend my father? So, when the children of God walk in His fear, and in obedience to His commands; when their supreme object is to glorify Him in all that they do, they enjoy the light of His countenance, i.e., the expression of His favour (Psalms 37:23; John 14:21; Hebrews 11:5). When He frowns upon any man, it is an expression of His displeasure, telling them by the darkness which rests upon their minds that something is wrong, and that they ought to examine their heart and conduct, and to compare both with His word, in order to ascertain where the fault lies (2 Chronicles 15:2; Deuteronomy 31:16-17; Isaiah 64:7; Ezekiel 39:23-24). These passages, and others which relate to the subject, cannot be reconciled with the supposition that the text was intended for the encouragement of those from whom the light of God’s countenance is deservedly withdrawn, and who are walking in darkness as to religious enjoyment, and as to any evidence of the Divine favour and acceptance. To them He does not say, “Trust in My name, and stay yourselves upon Me, for the darkness will soon pass away, and all will end well.” No; when He frowns it is an unequivocal declaration of His displeasure; it is a signal of alarm; a call to repent, and to do works meet for repentance. Through the whole economy of grace comfort is connected with the active and faithful performance of duty. This fact has not been generally recognised. Hence the perversion of the text; and hence the low state of religious enjoyment in the Church. Indolent and inconsistent professors appear not to understand the reason why they are left to walk in darkness. Instead of ascribing it to their neglect of duty, to their sins, they resolve it into “human imperfection,” “moral necessity,” “divine sovereignty,” “an expedient to try their faith,” or “to make them humble;”—anything, in short, but the true cause. They say “it is the common experience of Christians to walk in darkness sometimes, and we cannot expect to be always on the mount;” and thus they satisfy themselves, without the present exercise of right feelings towards God or their fellowmen, and without a disposition to do their duty. They are serving, not God, but themselves; they are devoted to this world; its objects and pursuits engross their thoughts; while they are doing little or nothing for that Saviour who laboured and died for sinners. It is unreasonable, nay, presumptuous for such persons to expect or hope that God will lift up the light of His countenance upon them.—Walton.Specimen cases to which our text might also be profitably applied. 1. Any case like that of Joseph, while lying under the reproach of a crime which he never committed, and which he abhorred. We know what a great trial it was to his pure mind, how he stayed upon God, and what was the happy result. 2. The situation of David during the lifetime of Saul. God had promised that he should be king over His people; and yet he was obliged to fly for his life, to wander among the mountains, and to hide himself in dens and caves of the earth. Thus he was walking in darkness as to any prospect of relief, except from a Divine interposition. But walking in darkness in this sense was perfectly consistent with the most vigorous exercise of gracious affections, and with the fullest assurance of Divine favour; and judging by his psalms composed during this period, we can have no doubt of the spirituality of his mind, or of his confidence in God. While he feared the Lord and obeyed His voice, he was authorised to trust in Him for the full accomplishment of His promises; and doing so, he was finally delivered from all his enemies, and raised to the throne of Israel. From this result, we see that it was not necessary for him to use any unlawful means, either for self-preservation, or for the attainment of the object which had been promised him. It was only necessary that he should trust in the Lord and obey His voice. And this is the Christian’s duty and privilege in circumstances of the greatest trial (H. E. I. 155–165, 169–177). 3. The case of the Church at the present day, when looking at the moral condition of the world in connection with the prophecies. The conversion of the world is predicted in the Bible with as much certainty as was the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity; and the obstacles which oppose the accomplishment of this prediction are far greater than those that darkened the prospects of the captive Jews. The disparity between Jonathan and his armourbearer and the army of the Philistines was not so great as that which exists between the army of Christ now in the field and the hundreds of millions who fill the ranks of the enemy. Therefore the Church may be said to be walking in darkness with respect to the conversion of the world; she does not see how the immense obstacles are to be removed. But clear predictions have been given that the world shall be converted, and in Him who made them the Church should trust, obeying His voice by diligently employing all the means He has already entrusted to her, assured that He will as certainly verify these predictions, as He did those which related to the restoration of Israel from the captivity of Babylon (H. E. I. 1161, 1162).—William C. Walton, A.M.: American National Preacher, vol. 4:285–292. I. THE IN A GODLY MAN’S . 1. Feareth the Lord. An intelligent and an affectionate principle—the fear of the affectionate child and loyal subject. 2. Obeyeth the voice of His servant. Great test of godly sincerity. II. THE OF THE GODLY MAN. 1. This is not the ordinary condition of the Christian. He is a child of the light, &c. He has the light of the divine (1) knowledge in his understanding, (2) truth in his judgment, (3) hope in his soul, (4) joy in his experience, (5) holiness in his life. He is not of the night nor of darkness. 2. Yet this is sometimes the condition of the best of saints. It is the result of (1.) Providential trials. (2.) Nervous depression. III. THE REMEDY WHICH THE TEXT . 1. The name of God must be our trust. It cannot alter, change, deceive. 2. The soul must be stayed upon God. We are apt to stay the soul on other things—friends, means, experience, frames, and feelings. God in His relationship to us as our God, must be the basis of our confidence and hope. Trust in His wisdom, power, grace, love—His promise never to forsake.—J. Burns, D.D.COUNSEL AND COMFORT FOR THE Isaiah 50:10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, &c.God’s government of man as a moral agent presents many evident marks of wisdom and design; yet it is everywhere so replete with enigmas, that the best and wisest of men have often found themselves involved in the deepest perplexity. We know that providence superintends and controls all events, that all the Divine proceedings are the result of unerring wisdom and unbounded goodness, and that God invariably connects His own glory with the happiness of His creatures; but when we attempt to apply these general principles to many particular cases, we find ourselves baffled and confounded. We know not why it was that evil was permitted to enter into the world, &c. With respect to individual cases, we know not why the young are often cut off in the flower and vigour of their days, &c. Such are some of the difficulties which present themselves when we attempt to investigate the ways of God. I. Reason, however, if duly exercised, will suggest a variety of causes why they assume this mysterious character, and why we ought to suppress in ourselves the workings of unbelief, dissatisfaction, and despondency (H. E. I. 4031–4056; P. D. 1432, 1435–1437, 1441, 2268, 2537, 2538, 2895, 2896, 2902). 1. Much of the mystery which pervades the dispensations of providence arises from the feeble and limited character of our comprehension. 2. As the general principles of the Divine conduct are thus placed beyond our apprehension, so are the occasional motives of His dispensations; those motives which arise from His perfect acquaintance with the characters of men, and His accurate perception of their real wants and true interests. 3. The moral defection of our nature renders us incapable of discerning the ways of providence. 4. Much of the obscurity of providence arises from the unwillingness of men to censure themselves. For often those things which confound them are only the natural consequences of their own misconduct. 5. We also err by judging prematurely. In any complicated work of human art it is found necessary to be acquainted with the whole design, in order to judge of the fitness of the parts. In a scheme so complex as that which Divine providence is pursuing, where all the parts refer to one another, and where what is seen is often subordinate to what is invisible, how is it possible but our judgment must often be erroneous? II. At present man is thus incapable of exploring the mysteries of providence. Instead of lamenting our ignorance and incapacity, let us consider how it may be improved; what duties it suggests, and what wise ends it was intended by providence to promote. It should teach us— 1. Submission. How unreasonable, how ungrateful to repine, when we know that infinite wisdom and goodness have the management of all our concerns. There is an end, a design, in every movement of providence, and that design will ultimately be found every way worthy of God. 2. Patience. It cautions us against being too precipitate in our decisions, or too anxious to know until it is God’s pleasure to reveal. We are not doomed to perpetual ignorance and uncertainty (H. E. I. 154, 3675–3706). 3. It furnishes a stimulus to duty and perseverance. Let no one say,—Since I am surrounded with darkness, as there are nothing but difficulties, I shall therefore sit down and leave it all, &c. Such a conclusion would be equally unwise and prejudicial. On the contrary, if there be an all-wise providence, what an argument is this for the exercise of faith, patience, hope, prayer, and perseverance. The darkness which surrounds us is intended both to call forth our inquiries and to enforce our dependence on the gracious aid of the Almighty. 4. It should inspire a desire of Heaven. 5. It should induce gratitude for the clear revelation which God has made known of the things that belong to our peace. He has thrown an air of obscurity over a thousand things, but not over the means of attaining light and salvation; here all is day. He hath clearly taught us what we must do to be saved, &c. Apply, therefore, your heart and conscience to the plain, undeniable declarations of revelation. What is revealed is of far more importance to you than what is not revealed. God has withheld the less and given us the greater. There is no knowledge of any kind that will bear a comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. You are called upon, by believing on Him, to lay hold on eternal life; have you done this?—J. H. Walker: Companion for the Afflicted, second edition, pp. 249–270. SPARKS OF OUR OWN Isaiah 50:11. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, &c.There is no more intelligible image, none more interwoven into the texture of thought and phraseology, than that by which Light is made to express joy and felicity, while Darkness, and other kindred terms, are used to denote discomfort and misery. The inspired writers sanction and adopt it (Psalms 97:11; Esther 8:16; Psalms 88:6; Isaiah 59:11). Happiness is the reality of which light is the symbol; and the Gospel teaches us that its chief ingredients are peace with God, and communion with Him. Nothing more is needed to constitute a truly happy man, than that the avenues of intercourse between God and the soul, which have been obstructed and blocked by sin, should once more be reopened—a work which can be effected only by the reconciliation of God to man by the work of the Son, and of man to God by the work of the Holy Spirit. Into the enjoyment of this true happiness we must enter now, if we are ever to know it. The bliss of saints in a state of glory is not (as to its chief elements) different in kind from that of saints in a state of grace. The happiness of the gracious soul is the germ—that of the glorified soul is the bright and perfumed flower, expanded out of the germ by the agencies of genial climate and bright sunshine. The pursuit of happiness is natural to us as men, but we seek it in wrong directions, and again and again we are disappointed in our search; like the meteor, which the ignorant traveller mistakes for a light, and follows across the marsh, happiness, just when we seem to have secured it, escapes from our grasp: another tempting resource offers itself, promises as fairly, excites apprehensions as bright as the preceding, and shortly afterwards ends in disappointment as distressing. In our text, the many fictitious sources from which men seek to derive happiness are compared to a fire kindled, and sparks struck out, by way of relieving the darkness of the night. It is, of course, implied in the metaphor, that true happiness, the real and adequate complement of man’s nature, resembles the divinely created and golden sunlight. I. This comparison does not lead us to deny that pleasure and gratification of a certain kind are derivable from worldly sources. Just as man can relieve himself in great measure from the discomfort and inconvenience of natural darkness by kindling a fire and surrounding himself with sparks, so can he alleviate, to a certain extent, the instinctive sense of disquietude and dissatisfaction, so irksome to him at intervals of leisure, by the various enjoyments which life has to offer. It is a mistake to deny this, in the interests of religion. In artificial pleasures, in displays of personal skill, in gratification of sensual appetite, or in the researches of natural curiosity, many find that excitement which, for the time being, dissipates the thought of their uneasiness. Indeed, even as some fires of man’s kindling shed around them a more dazzling lustre, and a richer, redder glow than the sunlight itself, so some of the qualifications of time and sense glisten more brightly, and blaze more brilliantly, than the peace and pleasantness experienced in wisdom’s ways. II. But connected with all earthly pleasures, there are drawbacks.1. Those gratifications are the taper lights, by whose bright shining the moths of this world are attracted, and in whose radiance they flutter,—lights which gleam brightly for a moment, but will fade and die down before the sobering dawn of Eternity (H. E. I. 4975–4989, P. D. 2730). 2. At the beginning of the festival, Satan and the World set forth the good wine, and, when men have well drunk, “that which is worse” (Luke 15:13; Luke 15:16). 3. Worldly enjoyments (even those of the highest order) pall by degrees upon the jaded appetite (H. E. I. 4974). [1557][1557] How strongly contrasted this with the Divine principle of recompense, according to which every forward step which a man makes in conformity to God’s Image, and obedience to God’s commands, is attended by an increase of joy and peace—an increase sometimes very sensibly felt at the close of a Christian’s career, when, as his tempest-tossed bark nears that haven of rest where he would be, a mighty spiritual refreshing breathes in upon his heart, like perfumed gales from the shore of a land of spices. His bliss is not merely an abiding, but also an increasing bliss. It not only endures, but also enlarges itself with the dawn of eternity.—Goulburn.4. Unsatisfactoriness inheres in their very nature, inasmuch as they are all (more or less) artificial. They are miserable substitutes which man has set up to stand him in stead of that true happiness which is congenial to his nature and adapted to his wants. During the sun’s absence, he can replace its light by the sorry substitute of torch and taper; but the glare which these shed around is not like the genial, cheering light of the sun itself. It exercises no quickening influence on vegetable life,—its clear shining brings not out the bloom and perfume of the flower, nor the verdure of the tender grass, nor sends a thrill of joy through the whole realm of nature. So, though out of the abundant materials constituting God’s universe, man can construct for himself varied sources of pleasure and luxury, these amount, after all, only to a light that is rather dazzling than comforting,—a light whose cold unfructifying ray reaches only to the surface of the soul—penetrates not to the depths of his conscience, nor to the moving springs of his character! 5. The enjoyment derived from worldly sources is fitful. The glow of a kindled fire is not equable. It casts a flickering and uncertain light, now mouldering beneath the fuel which feeds it, now bursting forth into bright and vivid flashes. Thus it presents us with a lively emblem of worldly joy, which is subject to repeated alternations of revival and decay, and whose high pitch can be sustained only for a short time. Anon it bursts into ecstasy, and having blazed a while with peculiar brilliancy, sinks again, as suddenly as it broke forth, into despondency and depression of spirits (Ecclesiastes 7:6). Not so the peace and pleasantness derived from walking with God. If it be not a light so dazzling as that which is sometimes shed abroad by the kindled firebrands of worldly joys, it is at least subject to no such variations of lustre. It pervades the soul, as the sunlight pervades the world, with a serene and equable ray,—diffusing a genial and comfortable temperature through the whole spiritual system. 6. A fire requires to be continually fed with fresh fuel, if its brilliancy and warmth are to be maintained. Hence it becomes an apt emblem of the delusive joy of this world, which is only kept alive in the worldling’s heart by the fuel of excitement. As soon as the excitement subsides, the gratification of this world’s votary is at an end. Then he must set off again on a fresh voyage of discovery, in quest of new expedients for self-forgetfulness. But these expedients have their limits. Our tenure of the resources which procure them, and on which they are dependent—health and wealth—is exceedingly precarious. But the true happiness is in no way dependent for its maintenance upon excitement or external resources. [1560][1560] It is not indeed denied that Christians may be, and often are, placed in a desolate and uncomfortable worldly position. But we maintain that the circumstances of their condition cannot affect or modify that peace and joy, whose seat is internal, and its source heavenly. The children of God, when suffering from outward sources of disquietude, have been compared to a person in vigorous and strong health, reposing upon a rough and hard pallet. The physical discomfort of such a person arises exclusively from his position. Health, however, enables him, in great measure, to triumph over the uneasiness. The prosperous worldling, on the other hand, admits of comparison to an invalid, laid upon a bed of down, in the lap of luxury and comfort. All his outward resources, his purple, and fine linen, and sumptuous fare, cannot send through his frame the thrilling glow, the delightful sensation of health. The Christian has that possession of moral health which the votary of this world lacks, even at the zenith of his prosperity; and from this possession he cannot be disinherited, however unfavourable may be the turns which his temporal circumstances may take.—Goulburn.7. But perhaps the chief drawback of the worldling’s so-called happiness is that it is accompanied by so much anxiety—that it is subject to frequent intrusions from alarm, whenever a glimpse of the future breaks in upon the mind. Possibly this feature of it, too, is symbolised in the prophetic imagery here employed to denote it. It is in the night time, when the kindled fire glows upon the hearth, and man pursues his employments by the light of the torch or taper, that apprehensions visit his mind, and phantom forms are conjured up that scare the ignorant and the superstitious. Forebodings more terrible still intrude upon the worldling,—phantoms and presages of judgment to come flit across the darkness of his mind. He wishes they were equally groundless with the fears of the superstitious; but he knows they are not so, and that knowledge mars his merriment! III. Observe the solemn irony with which the devotees of worldly pleasure are warned of their folly. It is but seldom that the Word of God adopts the instrumentality of irony. But when it does so, we may be sure that the sinful or worldly courses, commented on in such a strain, are proofs of a desperate and almost insane folly in those who pursue them (cf. 1 Kings 22:15, and Ecclesiastes 11:9). The pitiful and biting irony of our text—“Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks ye have kindled!”—has in it more of sorrow than of anger, and is vented in the fulness of the Divine compassions, if perchance it might warn some careless soul to bethink itself of judgment, and so might reclaim it from its folly. [1563][1563] “This shall ye have at My hand.” So runs the solemn admonition; “Ye shall lie down in sorrow.” As if the Lord had said, Though now ye run to and fro in search of fresh stimulants, and engage yourselves ardently in pursuits which may divert the mind from the consciousness of its own desolate and empty state, a time must come when the spirit of enterprise, which has urged you to these pursuits, must cool—when failing health and a breaking constitution shall make it impossible for you to escape any longer from a calm survey of that which is before you. Sooner or later you must lie down perforce upon a deathbed, where both prospect and retrospect shall fill you with dismay. Then shall the torchlights of worldly enjoyments, in whose brightness ye have walked, pale their ineffectual fires before the sobering dawn of Eternity. They shall be viewed in all their vanity, as mere temporary expedients,—sorry substitutes indeed for heaven’s sunlight in the soul. Bitterly shall ye deplore and accuse yourselves for your folly in having been attracted by their delusive brilliancy. And so, while My servants have hope in their end, your lying down shall be in sorrow.—Goulburn. As you would avoid the thorns of self-recrimination and alarm with which the deathbed of those who have their portion in this life is so thickly set, be persuaded, while yet it is within your reach, to seek that true happiness which shall stand you in stead when you are driven out of all creature resources, and when heart and flesh faileth.—E. M. Goulburn, D.C.L.: Sermons, pp. 428–454. THE BETWEEN TRUE AND FALSE Isaiah 50:11. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, &c.I. The natural state of man is a state of pure selfishness, i.e., the unconverted have no Gospel benevolence. Selfishness is regarding one’s own happiness supremely, and seeking one’s own good because it is his own. He who is selfish places his own happiness above other interests of greater value; such as the glory of God and the good of the universe. That mankind, before conversion, are in this state, is evident from many considerations. II. In a converted state, the character is that of benevolence. Benevolence is loving the happiness of others, or rather, choosing the happiness of others. Benevolence is a compound word, that properly signifies good-willing. This is God’s state of mind. We are told that God is love; that is, He is benevolent. Benevolence comprises His whole character. III. True conversion is a change from a state of supreme selfishness to benevolence. It is a change in the end of pursuit, and not a mere change in the means of attaining the end. A man may change his means, and yet have the same end, his own happiness. He may do good for the sake of the temporal benefit. Now, every one can see that there is no virtue in this. It is the design that gives character to the act, not the means employed to effect the design. The true and the false convert differ in this. IV. Some things in which true saints and deceived persons may agree, and some things in which they differ. 1. They may agree in leading a strictly moral life. The difference is in their motives. 2. They may be equally prayerful, so far as the form of praying is concerned. The difference is in their motives. 3. They may be equally zealous in religion. One may have great zeal, because he sincerely desires and loves to promote religion, for its own sake. The other may show equal zeal, for the sake of having his own salvation more assured, and because he is afraid of going to hell if he does not work for the Lord, or to quiet his conscience, and not because he loves religion for its own sake. 4. They may be equally conscientious in the discharge of duty; the true convert because he loves to do duty, and the other because he dare not neglect it. 5. Both may pay equal regard to what is right; the true convert because he loves what is right, and the other because he knows he cannot be saved unless he does right. 6. They may agree in their desires in many respects, but with different motives. 7. They may agree in their resolutions, but with different motives. 8. They may also agree in their designs. They may both really design to glorify God. One chooses it as an end, the other as a means to promote a selfish end. 9. They may agree in their affection towards many objects:—the Bible, God, Christ, Christians; but with different motives. 10. So they may both rejoice in the same things. 11. Both may mourn and feel distressed at the low state in the Church. 12. Both may love to attend religious meetings. 13. Both may find pleasure in the duties of the closet. 14. They may both love the doctrines of grace. 15. They may both love the precepts of God’s law. 16. They may be equally liberal in giving to benevolent societies. 17. They may be equally self-denying in many things. 18. They may both be willing to suffer martyrdom. In all these cases, the motives of one class are directly against the other. The difference lies in the choice of different ends. One chooses his own interest, the other chooses God’s interest as his chief end. Here is the proper place to answer an inquiry, which is often made: “If these two classes of persons may be alike in so many particulars, how are we to know our own real character, or to tell to which class we belong? I answer— 1. If we are truly benevolent it will appear in our daily transactions. 2. If you are disinterested in religion, religious duties will not be a task to you. 3. If selfishness is the prevailing character of your religion, it will take sometimes one form and sometimes another. 4. If you are selfish, your enjoyment in religion will depend mainly on the strength of your hopes of heaven, and not on the exercise of your affections. 5. If you are selfish in your religion, your enjoyments will be chiefly from anticipation. The true saint already enjoys the peace of God, and heaven has begun in his soul. 6. Another difference is, that the deceived person has only a purpose of obedience, and the other has a preference of obedience. 7. The true convert and the deceived person also differ in their faith. The true saint has a confidence in the general character of God, that leads him to unqualified submission to God. The other has only a partial faith, and only a partial submission. 8. If your religion is selfish, you will rejoice particularly in the conversion of sinners, where your own agency is concerned in it, but will have very little satisfaction in it, where it is through the agency of others (H. E. I. 327–334). V. Answers to some objections made against this view of the subject. Objection 1. Am I not to have any regard to my own happiness? Answer. It is right to regard your own happiness according to its relative value. And again, you will, in fact, promote your own happiness, precisely in proportion as you leave it out of view. Objection 2. Did not Christ regard the joy set before Him? And did not Moses also have respect unto the recompense of reward? And does not the Bible say, we love God because He first loved us? Answer (1.) It is true that Christ despised the shame and endured the cross, and had regard to the joy set before Him. Not His own salvation, &c. Answer (2.) So Moses had respect to the recompense of reward. But was that his own comfort? Far from it. The recompense of reward was the salvation of Israel. What did he say? “If Thou wilt forgive their sin,” &c. Answer (3.) Where it is said, “We love Him because He first loved us,” the language plainly bears two interpretations; either that His love to us has provided the way for our return and the influence that brought us to love Him, or that we love Him for His favour shown to ourselves. That the latter is not the meaning is evident, because Jesus Christ has so expressly reprobated this principle in His Sermon on the Mount: “If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? Do not the publicans the same?” If we love God, not for His character, but for His favours to us, Jesus Christ has written us reprobate. Objection 3. Does not the Bible offer happiness as the reward of virtue? Answer. The Bible speaks of happiness as the result of virtue, but nowhere declares virtue to consist in the pursuit of one’s own happiness, &c. Objection 4. God aims at our happiness, and shall we be more benevolent than God? &c. Answer. This objection is specious, but futile and rotten. God is benevolent to others. And to be like Him we must aim at, that is, delight in His happiness and glory, according to their real value. Objection 5. Do not the inspired writers say, “Repent, and believe the Gospel, and you shall be saved?” Answer. They say, The penitent shall be saved, but it must be disinterested repentance and submission. Objection 6. Does not the Gospel hold out pardon as a motive to submission? Answer. That depends on the sense in which you use the term motive. .— 1. We see, from this subject, why it is that professors of religion have such different views of the nature of the Gospel. 2. We see why some people are so much more anxious to convert sinners, than to see the Church sanctified and God glorified by the good works of His people.—C. G. Finney: Lectures to Professing Christians,” pp. 133–145. THE DUTY AND THE OF Isaiah 51:1. Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, &c.These words were addressed to the pious remnant of true believers among the Jews. They were in an afflicted and discouraged state, and needed appropriate direction and support. What help does the prophet give them? He bids them candidly and closely compare past things with present circumstances, and thus see whether there was not ground for consolation and encouragement; for this is the meaning and object of the figurative exhortation in the text. Were they grieved and discouraged at the depressed condition of the Church? Let them call to mind how small its beginnings had been, how unpromising its commencement; the Lord “called Abraham alone,” as a single individual, and yet had so blessed and increased him, that out of this “rock” the whole nation and Church of Israel had been produced. He who had done so much for Israel, could He not do more? Reflections of this nature would tend to instruct and comfort them under existing circumstances; would point out their duty, and minister consolation. From this counsel addressed to the Jews, I infer that in like manner it is the duty, and will be for the benefit of every true servant of God, occasionally to reflect on his own, original state, on the rise and progress of religion in his own soul, and on the experience which he has thus individually had of the Divine power, goodness, and mercy. Such retrospection will tend to the increase of many graces in his soul:— 1. Humility. It will not be possible for him to think of what he was, without feelings of self-abasement; without a check being given to that unholy pride which is so apt to spring up in every breast. 2. Contentment. No man who remembers from what a pit of corruption he was taken by Divine grace will complain that a more elevated, conspicuous, and honourable position in the Church has not been allotted him. If he has been made so much as “a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord,” he will give thanks. 3. Lowly dependence on Divine help. A survey of his spiritual history will lead him to say with the apostle (1 Corinthians 15:10), and to feel how much he needs the same Divine help to enable him to “hold the beginning of confidence steadfast unto the end.” 4. Courage. When he remembers how God has helped him in all his troubles, and delivered him in all his temptations, and ministered to all his necessities, he will dismiss all fears as to the future, and will say with wisdom, what the ungodly say in their folly, “To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant” “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).—Edward Cooper: Practical and Familiar Sermons, vol. iv. 327–346. These words were intended to encourage God’s ancient people in their expectations of deliverance from the calamities that had befallen them on account of their sins. They are addressed to the pious portion of the people. They introduce the prophecy which is continued to chap. Isaiah 52:12. The prophet begins by meeting the fear that the difficulties in the way of so great a deliverance were too formidable. He refers to the origin of the nation, and bids the people mark how much greater difficulties had been overcome. Abraham had been called out of Ur of the Chaldees, to be the founder of their race. Sarah was old and unlikely to have a child. Yet a son was born to them, and in the course of time the promise of a numerous posterity was fulfilled (Isaiah 51:2). And if there are difficulties now in the way; if their iniquity is enormous, and if the power of Babylon is overwhelming, He who overcame the former difficulties can overcome these. The words of the text are applicable still. Here is I. A OF GOD’S PEOPLE. “Ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord.” Two objects of pursuit are pointed out: the “Lord” and “righteousness.” They represent the character of the persons described, and their relation to God. These are the two things comprehended in all earnest religion. They suppose 1. Appreciation. He who is earnest in religion has compared a happy relation to God, and the possession of the righteousness that distinguishes His people, with the world and sin. He has found the world worthless. He cannot be happy in sin. He finds that his happiness needs deliverance from it, and a conscious interest in God as his Father and his Friend. 2. Effort. Therefore he “seeks the Lord,” he “follows after righteousness.” How does he do this? He whose mind is set on the attainment of an end that commends itself as valuable to him, pursues it by all suitable means. If it is the student seeking knowledge, the sick man seeking health, the ambitious man seeking position, or the business man seeking money, he spares no effort until his end be gained. And he who earnestly desires the possession of spiritual blessings will make every suitable effort. He will consult the Scriptures, frequent the ministry of the Gospel, labour for the removal of obstacles, pray for divine acceptance, comply with the divine command to repent and believe. 3. Progression. “Follow.” “Seek.” As this is a permanent description, it supposes that however much of God and His righteousness may be obtained as the result of effort, the point is never reached at which further possession of spiritual blessing and further discovery of God are impossible and needless. There is room for a growing attainment to the end of life. Christians desire advancement on to perfection. They are directed to “grow in grace,” to “press toward the mark.” II. A TO GOD’S PEOPLE. “Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged.” 1. What is involved in this remembrance? Great as they had become—a people built into a magnificent palace—they lay in the rude quarry until the Divine Workman digged them out. At that time none could foresee what they would become. And we are now Christians; but we were not always such. This spiritual habitation of God once lay in the cold rock of fallen, ruined nature. We should remember the sins we at that time committed, the evil propensities and habits we indulged, which were the special barriers in the way of our conversion. We should remember evil surroundings—such as companionships, business influences, exposure to temptation, which increased the difficulty. We should remember that we are what we are, not by the development of good principles always strong in our nature, but by the conversion of our nature, which was accomplished by nothing less than the power of God. 2. What advantage is this remembrance? (1.) It preserves and deepens humility. Persons who have rapidly risen in the world sometimes assume airs which constrain observers to say that they have forgotten what they once were. A celebrated minister, who in early life had been a working stonemason, is said to have kept in his study, through a long life, the tools with which he had worked, so that he could look at them whenever he was unduly lifted up. The apostle Paul looked back to what he was previous to his conversion (1 Timothy 1:13). God might have left us to ourselves to wander farther from Him. But for the grace of God we might have been to-day as bad as the worst men we know. Those have not right views of the degrading evil of sin who can boast of their former exploits in sin, or so speak of them as to excite the mirth of the listener. If we had committed a great crime against human society and law, we should never think or speak of it without shame. (2.) It magnifies the grace of God. The work by which we passed from darkness into light was the work of the Divine Spirit. Every regenerated soul has been an object of Divine thought from eternity. The beautiful stone you pick up on the shore has been rolled and polished by the waters in the course of ages. Geologic changes that brought the earth to its present form are interesting to the student because of their high antiquity. But their age is as nothing to Him whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. Pieces of rock are found which, when split open, display the very slant of the rain-drop which fell on the sandstone of a primæval period. But what if one were to find, on such a stone, an inscription referring back to thoughts of love concerning him which were entertained in that distant past? Those thoughts were entertained. They have been carried into effect. Let your thankful song arise. (3.) It encourages Christian faith and hope. There are difficulties, temptations, weaknesses between us and the great future that is promised. But Israel was encouraged to trust by looking back on the way God had led them and their fathers. See what He has done for you, and believe in the preservation, the resurrection, the heaven. And thus encourage others as well as yourselves. “In me first.” Encourage coming sinners. Are you hewn? or still in the quarry? Resist not Him who would dig you out.—J. Rawlinson.Introduction, see preceding outlines. I. THE . 1. Followers of righteousness. That is righteousness of character, obtained in justification (Romans 4:24). Righteousness of nature, received in regeneration (1 John 3:9). Righteousness of practice, displayed in the acts and exercises of an obedient life (1 John 3:7). Those who have been justified and regenerated, follow after righteousness—prayerfully, diligently, and progressively. 2. They that seek the Lord. This is sometimes put for the commencement of religion, and sometimes for the sum of it. The latter sense is the meaning of the text. Their desires are after God. His face and favour they constantly prize and seek. They seek— (1.) The blessing of God in prayer. (2.) The presence of God in ordinances. (3.) The smile of God in duties. (4.) The aid of God in difficulties. (5.) The approbation of God in all things. II. THE DUTIES . 1. Attention. “Hearken unto me.” God is our Sovereign, and He claims our subjection and attention; we are to hearken to all His laws and precepts. He is our Redeemer; and we are to hearken to all the statements of His grace and mercy. He is our Friend; and we are to hearken to all His advice and counsel. We are to hearken to Him as He addresses us through His works, providences, word, servants, and especially through His Son and Spirit. We are to hearken to Him on all subjects and at all times—humbly, affectionately, cheerfully. 2. Retrospection. “Look to the rock,” &c. Observe— (1.) Our original state. A part of the common “rock” of depravity—hard, cold, inflexible. In the “hole of the pit” (Psalms 40:1). Pit of depravity and defilement, misery, imminent peril, utter human helplessness. (2.) Our present state. Hewn from the rock. Digged out of the pit. God saw, and pitied, and saved us. By His word and Spirit He made us soft and tender; and He exalted us, justified us, &c. How great, total, blessed the change! (3.) Our present duty is to “look unto the rock,” &c. We should look, and be humble, grateful, obedient, useful, watchful, that we are not again entangled in that yoke of bondage. Application. The sinfulness, misery, and danger of mankind by nature. The goodness of God, and the efficiency of His grace. The grateful remembrance of His mercy, which His people should cultivate.—Four Hundred Sketches and Skeletons, 6th ed., vol. ii pp. 187–189. A BRIGHT LIGHT IN DEEP SHADES Isaiah 51:1. Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord; look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. The Israelites were commanded to remember all the way which the Lord their God had led them in the wilderness. The remembrance of God’s mercy in the past will often prove bracing to our souls. Should we become rich and increased in goods spiritually, it will humble us and keep us in our right place, if we remember that once we were naked, and poor, and miserable. It will also excite our thankfulness. God’s people are always happy when they are grateful. We should be ten times more full of bliss if we were proportionately more full of thankfulness. We bury God’s mercies, and then sigh for His comforts. In this particular instance Isaiah was led by the Spirit of God to admonish the Israelites to look back, that they might be cheered in a time of gloom and sadness, and animated with fresh confidence in God’s power to bring them up again from their sad condition, as they thought of all that He had done for them when they were even in a worse plight. I. THE TEXT IN ITS TO ISRAEL . They are bidden to look back to the origin of their nation, in order that they may be comforted. Abraham was the stock out of which the nation of Israel came. He was only one man. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you, for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” From these two, who seemed the least likely of all flesh and blood, God was pleased to create a people countless as the stars. You say, “God can never restore us; we have been thinned out by innumerable invasions; the sword of war hath slain the tribes; Judah and Israel can never rise again.” But are there not more left of you than there were at first? There were but two, Abraham and Sarah that bare you, and yet God made you a people. Can He not make you a people again? You are not lower now than you were then. You say that you are in poverty; true, but these your progenitors were not great on the earth. You say that you have no strength, that the men of valour have ceased, and that you are not skilful in the use of arms. Be it so, neither were your first ancestors expert in war; they were but few and feeble in the land, yet God preserved them, wrought great deliverances for them, and brought the country to great strength and power; and cannot He who did this for them do the same again for you, now that He promises to visit you and to restore you? The thoughts which would be awakened in the heart of a Jew by these reflections would be eminently consolatory. They ought to be consolatory to us now with regard to the Jewish people. We are encouraged, from the very origin of Israel, to hope that great things shall yet be done for her. II. OUR TEXT MAY BE USED IN TO THE OF THE CHURCH. Let us look back to the rock whence we were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence Christ’s Church was digged. We shall see great encouragement under present discouragements if we do so. Many of the people of God scarcely dare look for brighter times, because they say the people of God are few. Nominal professors abound, but vital godliness, say they, where shall we find it? Hope in thy God! Was not the Church very small at first? It could all be contained in one upper room. But did not the Lord strengthen His Church in the apostolic times? How speedily did the 120 grow to 3000! How soon the 3000 multiplied a hundredfold! How soon all nations felt the growing power of the Church! And, in the dark ages, God had but to speak by His servant Luther, and brave men came to his side, and right soon His Church sprang up. Look back, then, if discouraged with the fewness of God’s people, to the rock whence the Church was hewn. “But is it possible,” you say, “while the Church of God in these days possesses so few men of influence?” Was it not said that it should be so of old? Did not inspiration say, “Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty have been called, but God hath chosen the poor of this world”? Do ye suppose that God has changed His plans, or that men’s hearts have changed their bias? It will be so to the end of the chapter. “But alas!” saith one, “I see grave cause for sorrow, for in these days many have departed from the faith, and truth lies in the streets bespattered.” It is even so. The times are dark and ominous, and thick clouds are gathering; but for all this there is no room for fear. Put not thine hand upon the ark of the Lord, like Uzzah, for God will preserve it; it is safe in His keeping. There have been eras and epochs in which gross heresies spread a contagion through the entire Church. The period at which Arianism was so prominent comes at once to our recollection. That Christ was merely a man was almost the universal belief of Christendom. Only a few faithful ones maintained His Godhead at all hazards. But, today, where is Arianism? It has gone among the moles and the bats; the few that held the truth survived the deadly epidemic, and won the victory after all. In the dark ages Romanism was not only predominant, but it seemed to be and it really was all but universal; yet by the bright shining of His revealed word, did not God soon chase away the dense shades of ignorance and superstition? So will it be again. Again, some brother cries, “It is not merely that error spreads in the land, but the Church is lukewarm in these times.” The indictment is true. Still I see no cause for our being dispirited. The Church has been in a like listless state before, and out of that languid condition God has roused her up and brought her forth. III. OUR TEXT MAY BE VIEWED AS TO . To some of God’s people there come hours of terrible despondency (Isaiah 1:10). Let them, then, remember the pit of corruption out of which they were dug. The same merciful and almighty power is ready to enable them to keep to the paths of righteousness, and to chase away the darkness that distresses them. Let them look back to what God has done for them, and then they will learn to look forward with hope. IV. OUR TEXT MAY BE USED TO OUR HOPE FOR OTHERS. Suffer not your thoughts about the character of any man you are trying to save to damp your ardour. Do not say, “I am afraid his is a hopeless case.” Look unto the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you were digged. The same grace that sufficed for you will suffice for him. Therefore, work on!—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1050. A SIGHT FOR WORKERS (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 51:2-3. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah, &c.It is habitual with some persons to spy out the dark side of every question or fact; they fix their eyes upon the “waste places,” and they study them till they know every ruin, and are familiar with the dragons and the owls. They sigh most dolorously that the former times were better than these, and that we have fallen upon most degenerate days. This habit is injurious, because it greatly discourages; and anything that discourages an earnest worker is a serious leakage for his strength. Depressing views often afford an apology for indifference and inaction. The smallest peg suffices to hang an excuse upon when we are anxious to escape from the stern service of faith. It is therefore a dreadful thing when the Church begins to be discouraged, and means must be used to stay the evil. Such means we would use this day. Lo, we lift the standard of the Divine purpose. Remember, ye that are cast down, that there are other voices besides those of the bittern and owl from the “waste places.” Hearken to Him who promises to make the wilderness like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. Gaze no longer at the thirsty land and the burning sky; turn your eye where the finger of the Lord points by His word. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you;” for there we may find comfort. I. THE OF GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE. 1. The founder of God’s first people was called out of a heathen family (Joshua 24:2). He was a dweller in Ur of the Chaldees, the city of the moon-god; and was called out from the place of his birth, and from the household to which he belonged, that in a separated condition, as a worshipper of the one God, he might keep the truth alive in the world. Why, then, might not the Lord, if the cause of truth were this day reduced to its utmost extremity, again raise up a church out of one man? He could call out another Abraham, and bless him and increase him, and achieve the whole of His eternal purposes, if all of us should sleep in the dust, and the visibly organised Church of to-day should pass away as the snow of winter at the advent of spring. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Let us never dream that the God of Abraham is short of means for calling out chosen men to build up His Church. Surely Christian people should never doubt His power to raise up lights in dark places, when we remember that the greatest preacher of the gospel, namely, the apostle Paul, was drafted into the army of Christ from the ranks of its direst foes. As Luther came from among the monks, so out of Rome, yea, from the Vatican itself, can God, if He wills, call another Luther. Take this, then, for encouragement, ye who tremble for the ark of God; He can build up a spiritual house for Himself out of dark quarries, and find cedars for His temple in forests untraversed by the feet of missionaries. 2. Abraham was but one man. The Lord has, as a rule, wrought more nobly by one man than by bands and corporations of men. He in whose seed all nations are blessed was but one. “I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” Nor is this a solitary instance. When the earth was utterly corrupt God conserved the race by a solitary preacher of righteousness, who prepared an ark for the saving of his house. One Joseph saved whole nations from famine, and one Moses brought out a race from bondage. Who was there to keep Israel right when Moses fell on sleep but the one man Joshua? What were the prosperous times in the era of the Judges but days when one man was to the front as a leader? One man, standing like a figure at the head of many ciphers, soon headed victorious thousands, through faith in God. The Philistines had triumphed over the land if the one lad had not brought back Goliath’s head, and if the one man had not again and again smitten the uncircumcised in the name of the Lord. Beloved, if we should ever be reduced, as we shall not be, to one man, yet by one man will God preserve His Church, and work out His great purposes. We may rightly measure quantities in reference to many things, but with others it is absurd. It would be ridiculous to measure the power of fire by the quantity which burns on your hearth. Give us fit materials and a single match, and you shall see what fire can do. Ye carry fire, ye servants of God, fire which fell at Pentecost; ye work with a heaven-sent force of boundless energy. Why, therefore, should you despair? If all the lights in the world were put out except a solitary lamp, there is enough fire in one wick to kindle all the lamps in the universe. 3. This one man was a lone man. He had not only to do the work of God, but he had nobody to help him. “I called him alone.” True, he was attended by Lot, costing his noble uncle more trouble than he ever brought him profit. How little did he maintain or adorn the righteousness which, nevertheless, had saved him: true type of many a feeble professor in these days. Abraham was not backed by any society when he crossed the Euphrates and afterwards traversed the desert to sojourn in Canaan as a pilgrim and a stranger. If ever man was fairly cut adrift and cast upon the Lord, it was the great father of the faithful. He certainly found no patronage in his onward course save the all-sufficient patronage of the Lord his God. He had no prestige of parentage, rank, or title. He was in the fullest sense a lone man, unsupported by any of those outward distinctions which enable some men to do more than others. The fulfilment of his calling rested on his loneliness. When he was alone God blessed Abraham,—“I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” My brother, if in the town or district where you live you seem to lose all your helpers; if they die one by one, and it seems as if nobody would be left to you; if even the prayer meeting fails for want of earnest, pleading men, still persevere, for it is the lone man that God will bless. You are learning sympathy with that lone Man in Gethsemane, with that lone Man upon the cross, who there vanquished all our foes. “I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” Grasp that, ye that dwell remote from human sympathy. Oh that our missionaries abroad my feel the rich comfort of this fact! for they full often, like lone sentinels, keep watch with eyes that long to see a friend. They are separated from intercourse with brethren, they miss the friendships which tend to comfort and confirm, but it is God that calls them alone, and He will bless them and increase them. Here is the sum and substance of this first head of my discourse: in looking to the rock whence we are hewn, we see the Lord working the greatest results from apparently inadequate causes. This teaches us to cease from calculating means, possibilities, and probabilities, for we have to deal with God, with whom all things are possible. Almighty God can assuredly do whatever He says He will do. If all the things that are have been spoken into existence by God alone, by His mere word, can He not yet build up His Church, even if on her earthly side there should seem to be no material with which to raise her walls? II. THE MAIN OF THIS CHOSEN MAN. The text says, “Look,” &c.; and it must mean,—consider him, and see what he was, that you may learn from him. His grand characteristic was his faith. Here is his epitaph:—“Abraham believed God.” That was a mainspring of all his acts, the glory of his life. The men that God will work by, whatever else they have not, must have faith in God. Though it is to be desired that the believer should have every mental and moral qualification, yet it is astounding how, if there be real faith, a multitude of imperfections are swallowed up, and the man is still a power. I would mention Samson as an extreme case. Morally the feeblest of men, and the least fitted to be a judge in Israel; but oh, what faith! And what wonders it achieved! Abraham’s faith was such that it led him to obedience. He was called to go out, and he went, not knowing whither he went. It led him to perseverance; for once in God’s way he did not leave it, but still abode a sojourner with God. It led him to expectancy; he looked for the promised seed, and not only for an Isaac but for the Messiah. So clear was the vision of his expectancy that before his eyes Christ was set forth, visibly. The like faith also dwelt in the breast of Sarah; and as we are told in the text to look to Sarah as well as Abraham, let us not fail to do so. The faith of Sarah was not little when she left home with her husband; forsaking her kith and kin from love to God, and to him whom she called “lord.” Nor did the trial of her faith end with the moving; she had to take up with tent life and all its inconveniences. Certain people look upon faith as a fine, airy, sentimental thing with which to roam among the stars, anticipate millenniums, and enjoy yourself in lofty contemplation. I believe far more in a faith which, whether it eats or drinks, does all to the glory of God; faith which like Sarah dwells in the tent and works there; faith which is cheerful over a scanty meal and drives away the fear of want; faith which can come down in life from the mansion to the cottage, if providence so decrees. From Abraham’s comfortable home at Ur to his gipsy wanderings in Palestine the change must have been great, but Abraham may not have felt it one half as much as Sarah, for men can rough it and live out of doors, but the housewife knows all about it, and great was her faith that she never raised a question about the propriety of her husband’s course of life: and though she laughed when she was told that she should bear a son, yet remember that in the eleventh of Hebrews it is written—“Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.” She was the mother of Isaac, not in the power of the flesh, but the energy of faith; therefore look at her, as the text bids you. Mark well this fact—that the characteristic of the person whom God will bless is that he believes and acts upon his belief. Why is this? Because faith is the only faculty of our spirit which can grasp God’s ideal. The ideas of God are as high above us as the heavens are above the earth: and therefore it is not by any fancied vastness of our feeble minds that we can ever rise into fellowship with God. There is a capacity about faith for grasping Divine promises and purposes, a width, a breadth, a height, a depth, which can hold the infinite truth as no other power can do. Love alone can rival it, for it embraces the infinite God Himself. With the far-reaching plans and promises of God faith alone is fit to deal; carnal reason is altogether out of the lists. Faith, too, has a great power of reception, and therein lies much of her adaptation to the Divine purpose. Self-confidence, courage, resolution, cool reasoning, whatever else they are good at, are bad at humbly receiving. Those vessels which are full already are of no use as receivers; but faith presents her emptiness to God, and opens her mouth that God may fill it. Again, faith always uses the strength that God gives her. Pride would vapour with it, and doubt would evaporate it; but faith is practical, and economically uses the talent entrusted to her. Faith, too, can wait the Lord’s time and place. When faith is weak, men are in a dreadful hurry. “He that believeth shall not make haste”: that is to say, he shall not be ashamed or confounded by present trials so as to rush upon unbelieving actions. Faith leaves times and seasons with God, to whom they belong. God loveth faith and blesseth it too, because it giveth Him all the glory. You do not believe God, if you boast of what you are doing: least of all do you believe, if you pride yourself in your faith; for faith is not mistrustful of her God but of herself. Faith looks to God to keep her alive as well as to fulfil the promise that He has made to her. This, then, is the kind of faith which was characteristic of Abraham, and the question is, Have we got it? Have we so much of it that God can largely bless us? The comfort is that, if we have it not, the author of faith can give it to us, and if we have it in scant measure He can increase it. You who do not believe that missions will succeed; you who readily become discouraged and discourage others; I beg you go home and seek more faith. We cannot go down to the battle with such soldiers as you; you do but encumber the host. The men that lapped are the only ones that Gideon will take to war. Send the fearful ones to the rear and let them take care of the baggage, so that when the battle is won they may have a share of the spoil, according to David’s law. For actual service and warfare we must have men of faith. Cromwell found that when his men came dressed in all sorts of suits and colours they were apt to injure one another in the mêlée, and so he put them all in uniform. The uniform of the Prince Immanuel is faith: no man may call himself a soldier of the Cross who hath it not. III. God effected His purpose, and raised up a chosen nation out of one man, whose chief characteristic was his faith: now notice OUR TO THAT ONE MAN. There is a relation between us and Abraham: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Something, surely, is expected of the children of such a man as Abraham. Great mountains are often succeeded by low valleys. Perhaps that is the case with you; but it should not be so. The natural seed were cut off because they had no faith: let not those who are grafted in, think to do without it. It is by faith that you are a son at all. You disprove your pedigree, if you stagger at God’s promises. Because we are the seed of Abraham, the apostle declares that the blessing of Abraham has come upon us also. Friends and labourers in our Missionary Society, grasp the blessing of Abraham! Here is the substance of it—“Surely blessing, I will bless thee; and in multiplying, I will multiply thee.” That is the grand old covenant promise, and it belongs to the Church. The blessing of the Church is the increase of the Church. The two go together. We long to be multiplied—and we shall be, if we have faith in our God. The success of truth is the battle of the Lord, and the increase of His Church is according to His own promise; therefore in quietness we may possess our souls. IV. OUR BEFORE ABRAHAM’S GOD. Do not let anything that I have said about Abraham for a moment take your mind off from the Lord Himself, because the pith of it all lies here—“I called him alone.” Look to Abraham, but only as to the rock from which the Lord quarried His people: your main thought must be Jehovah Himself. Look unto the everlasting God who doeth great wonders, and stay yourselves upon Him. Joyfully recollect that the Lord our God has not changed. This God of Abraham is still almighty, and still in the midst of the covenanted ones. Our behaviour towards Him, therefore, should resemble that of Abraham; we must never dishonour the Lord by unbelief. Doubt everything but God. This the everlasting decree which none can change—Christ must reign; He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied; the kings of the earth must bow before Him. Do not doubt it, for God has sworn by His own life that all flesh shall see His glory. Here is the grand argument for strong faith. The covenant of God has not changed. Read the covenant words, and write them upon the door-posts of your Mission House, “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” This is the covenant with the spiritual seed of Abraham, and it has never been revoked. We read it now in clearer light, and understand better the fulness of its provisions. Therefore let us cry, “Remember Thy word unto Thy servant upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.” You know more of God than Abraham could know; I beseech you then, trust Him, at least up to the level of the patriarch. How shall we forge an excuse, if we do not? What can excuse us if we distrust so glorious a God. Let us then act in daily life as those who do believe Him. Some people have a faith which is for show, a Sunday faith, faith that cannot bear the wear and tear of everyday life; varnished and gilded, but with no pure metal in it. The faith of Abraham could lead strings of camels and flocks of sheep away from Haran to Canaan. His was the faith which could drive the tent-pin into a foreign soil, or roll up the canvas and seek another unknown halting-place. In the Lord’s work of evangelising the world you must have a downright, practical faith; not a faith that will sing when the organ begins to play, and then be so busy fumbling the hymn paper as to forget the collection: not the faith of those who boast of Carey, and Marshman, and Knibb, but whose own names never appear in the subscription list for a single shilling: not a faith which sings— “Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel,”but never lends a bit of down to make a feather for its wings. “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” If you doubt it, dissolve your Missionary Society, and do not pretend to do a work in which you have no faith; but if you believe in the triumph of God’s work, and that you are called to it, behave worthily to so divine an enterprise.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1596. SARAH AND HER (A Sermon for Christian Households.) Isaiah 51:2. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you.” 1 Peter 3:6. “Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.” 1. What a happy circumstance it is when a godly, gracious man has an equally godly and gracious wife! It is ill when there is a radical difference between husband and wife,—when one fears God, and the other has no regard to Him. What a pain it is to a Christian woman to be yoked with an unbelieving husband. The same must be the case of a husband who has an ungodly wife. However much God may bless him in all other respects, there seems to be a great miss there, as if a part of the sun were eclipsed,—that a part of life which should be all light is left in thick darkness! Oh, let those of us who have the happiness of being joined together in the Lord, thank and bless God every time they remember each other. Abraham had cause to praise God for Sarah, and Sarah was grateful for Abraham. I have not the slightest doubt that Sarah’s character owed its excellence very much to Abraham: I should not wonder, however, if we discover, when all things are revealed, that Abraham owed as much to Sarah. Our first text bids us, “Look to Sarah,” and we do look on her, and we thank God if we, like Abraham, are favoured with holy consorts, whose amiable tempers and loving characters tend to make us better servants of God. 2. God does not forget the lesser lights. Abraham shines like a star of the first magnitude, and we do not at first sight observe that other star, with light so bright and pure, shining with milder radiance but with kindred lustre, close at his side. The light of Mamre, which is known under the name of Abraham, resolves itself into a double star when we apply the telescope of reflection and observation. To the common eye Abraham is the sole character, and ordinary people overlook his faithful spouse, but God does not overlook. Our God never omits the good who are obscure. He who treasures the names of His apostles, notes also the women that followed in His train. He who marks the brave confessors and the bold preachers of the gospel, also remembers those helpers who labour quietly in the gospel in places of retirement into which the hawk’s eye of history seldom pries. Let, therefore, those who count themselves to be of the tribe of Benjamin, to be little in Israel, never be discouraged on that account; for the Lord is too great to despise the little ones. It would be well for us to imitate God in this: great men are often not good examples. I am sorry when, because men have been clever and successful, they are held up to imitation, though their motives and morals have been questionable. Learn not from the great but from the good: be not dazzled by success, but follow the safer light of truth and right. Some of the choicest virtues are not so much seen in the great as in the quiet, obscure life. Many a Christian woman manifests a glory of character that is to be found in no public man. I am sure that many a flower that is “born to blush unseen,” and, as we think, to “waste its fragrance on the desert air,” is fairer than the beauties which reign in the conservatory, and are the admiration of all. God has ways of producing very choice things on a small scale. As rare pearls and precious stones are never great masses of rock, but always lie within a narrow compass, so full often the fairest and richest virtues are to be found in the humblest individuals. Do not, therefore, always be studying Abraham, the greater character. Does not the text say, “Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah that bare you?” You have not learned the full lesson of patriarchal life until you have been in the tent with Sarah, as well as among the flocks with her husband. 3. Faith reveals itself in various ways. Faith in Noah makes him a shipbuilder; in Abraham it makes him a pilgrim and a stranger. Faith has many ways of working, and it works according to the condition and position of the person in whom it dwells. Sarah does not become Abraham, nor does Abraham become Sarah. Faith in Isaac does not make him the same royal man as Abraham: he is always tame and gentle rather than great and noble; he comes in like a valley between the two great hills of Abraham and Jacob. God does not by His grace lift us out of our place. A man is made gentle, but he is not made a fool. A woman is made brave, but grace never made her masterful and domineering. Sarah is beautified with the virtues that adorn a woman, while Abraham is adorned with all the excellences which are becoming in a godly man. According as the virtue is required, so is it produced. If Abraham walk before God and is perfect; if he smite the kings that have carried Lot captive, if he does such deeds of prowess as become a man; the selfsame faith makes Sarah walk before God in her perfectness, and she performs the actions which become her womanhood, and she too is written among the worthies of faith who magnified the Lord. II. We are led by our second text to look at the fruit of faith in Sarah. There were two fruits of faith in Sarah,—she did well, and she was not afraid with any amazement. 1. It is said of her that she did well, “whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well.” She did well, 1. As a wife. She was all her husband could desire, and when, at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, she at last fell on sleep, it is said that Abraham not only mourned for her, but the old man wept for her most true and genuine tears of sorrow. 2. As a hostess. It was her duty, as her husband was given to hospitality, to be willing to entertain his guests; and the one instance recorded is, no doubt, the representation of her common mode of procedure. She was always ready to lay herself out to perform that which was one of the highest duties of a God-fearing household in those primitive times. 3. As a mother. We are sure she did, because we find that her son Isaac was so excellent a man; and you may say what you will, but in the hand of God the mother forms the boy’s character. 4. As a believer, and that is no mean point. As a believer, when Abraham was called to separate himself from his kindred, Sarah went with him. She would adopt the separated life too, and the same caravan which travelled across the desert with Abraham for its master had Sarah for its mistress. She continued with him, believing in God with perseverance. She believed God’s promise with all her heart, for though she laughed once, because when the promise neared its realisation it overwhelmed her; it was but a slip for the moment, for it is written by the apostle in the eleventh of Hebrews, “Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” It was not by nature, but by faith, that Isaac was born. Oh that all professing Christian people had a faith that showed itself in doing well! Sarah had this testimony from the Lord, that she did well; and her daughters ye are, all of you who believe, if ye do well. Be no discredit to your queenly mother. 5. She proved her faith by a second evidence,—she was “not afraid with any amazement.” She was calm and quiet, and was not put in fear by any terror. There were several occasions in which she might have been much disquieted and put about. The first was in the breaking-up of her house life. When they had to cross the Euphrates and get right away into a land which she knew nothing of; this must have been a sterner trial still. But it mattered not to her, she felt safe with her husband’s God, and calmly journeyed on. Then, though we do not hear much about her, we know that all those years she had to live in a tent. A very trying life for a housewife. Remember, they were dwelling in tents as pilgrims and strangers, not for one day, or two, not for a few days in a year, but for scores of years at a stretch. Besides, the tribes around them were all of other religions and of other tastes and ways, and they would have slain Abraham and killed the whole company, if it had not been for a sort of fear that fell upon them, by which Jehovah seemed to say to them, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” But if she had not been a believing woman, she must have often been afraid with great amazement. Then there was a special time when Abraham put on his harness and went to war. She is under no distress that her husband has gone, and all the herdsmen and servants round about the tents all gone, so that she is left alone with her women-servants. No; she sits at home as a queen, and fears no robbers, calmly confident in her God. Then there came, a little after, that great trial of faith which must have touched Sarah, though its full force fell on Abraham. She observed the sudden disappearance of her husband, her son, and his servant. For a week nearly there was no Abraham and no Isaac. One would have thought she would have wandered about, crying, “Where is my husband, and where is my son?” But not so. She calmly waited, and said within herself, “If he has gone, he has gone upon some necessary errand, and he will be under God’s protection; and God who promised to bless him and to bless his seed will not suffer any evil to harm him.” So she rested quietly, when others would have been in dire dismay. We hear so little said about Sarah that I am obliged to picture what I feel she must have been, because human nature is so like itself, and the effect of events upon us is very like the effect which would have been produced upon the mind of Sarah. Now, this is a point in which Christian women, and, for the matter of that, Christian men also, should seek to imitate Sarah. What is this virtue? It is a calm, quiet trusting in God. It is freedom from fear, such as described in another place in these words: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” It is composure of mind, freedom from anxiety, the absence of fretfulness, and clean deliverance from alarm; so that, whatever happens, trepidation does not seize upon the spirit, but the heart keeps on at its own quiet pace, delighting itself in a faithful God. This is the virtue which is worth a king’s ransom, and Sarah had it. Who are to exercise this virtue? We are all to do so; but the text is specially directed to the sisterhood, because some of them are rather excitable, a little hysterical, and apt to be fearfully depressed and utterly carried away. When is this virtue to be exercised by us? At all times. To keep up an equable frame of mind is a thing to aim at, even as the gardener desires an even temperature for his choice flowers. But this virtue especially serves in time of trouble, when a very serious trial threatens us. Then remember Sarah, “whose daughters ye are if ye are not afraid with any amazement.” What is the excellence of this virtue? (1.) It is due to God that we should not be afraid with any amazement. Such a God as we have ought to be trusted. Under the shadow of such a wing, fear becomes a sin. (2.) It is most impressive to men. I do not think anything is more likely to impress the ungodly than the quiet peace of mind of a Christian in danger or near to death. If we can be happy then, our friends will ask, “What makes them so calm?” (3.) It is most useful to ourselves; for he who can be calm in time of trouble will be most likely to make his way through it. Napoleon’s victories were to a large extent due to the serenity of that masterly warrior; and, depend upon it, it is so with you Christian people: you will win, if you can wait. Calmness of mind is the mother of prudence and discretion; it gives the firm foothold which is needful for the warrior when he is about to deal a victorious blow. “How can we obtain it?” (1.) It is an outgrowth of faith, and you will have it in proportion as you have faith. Have faith in God, and you will not be afraid with any amazement. (2.) This holy calm comes, also, from walking with God. No spot is so serene as the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Commune with God, and you will forget fear.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1633. THE , , AND DELIGHT OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 51:3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.The doctrine that there is a Divine superintendence over the affairs and interests of man, is one on which every pious mind must fix a devout attention. This principle is especially interesting and important as it regards the Church—that spiritual body chosen by God, in order that, by its spiritual conformity and devotedness to Him, it may show forth His glory and praise. There have been, and are, many circumstances which, did we regard them only in their immediate aspect, would encourage the complaint that “Zion is forgotten and forsaken.” But along with her present circumstances, we ought to observe the predictions given by the Almighty with regard to her final destiny. Of those predictions the words of the text may furnish a striking instance, and will allow an extended illustration. Attention is here invited to— I. THE OF THE CHURCH. This is presented under the expressions: “the waste places of Zion,” “wilderness,” and a “desert.” In what did it consist? It arose from; 1. The small number of those who belonged to it lived only two centuries. Elijah, who was nearly contemporary with Isaiah, could discover absolutely none who adhered to the public worship of Jehovah (1 Kings 19:10). These were the circumstances that called forth the lamentation of Isaiah (Isaiah 64:6-7). And in these days we are met by deep depression, arising from the fewness of those that believe. Even nominal Christianity has a limited area, and God’s true Zion is in a very small minority. After the lapse of many ages, the confession is painfully true, “We are for God, but the whole world lieth in wickedness.” she number of additions made to God’s people are few and trivial, when compared with the means employed. “The bones are very many, and lo! they are very dry.” 2. A want of spiritual vigour on the part of those who belong to the Church. This is equally characteristic of the time in which our lot is cast. In many instances, the power of the truth over the passions and the life is so slender, that we can scarcely discern the form. II. THE OF THE CHURCH. “For the Lord shall comfort Zion,” &c. It is hard for us, living in a temperate climate, and generally cultivated country, to feel the full force of the prophet’s metaphors. These in the text, and others (Isaiah 35:1-2; Isaiah 41:17; Isaiah 41:20), open to us future periods in the history of the Church of God, when the causes of her depression being removed, she shall enjoy true prosperity. While there have been visits of mercy in times past, the grand time is still future. When it will arrive, we know not (Acts 1:7). But in regard to the general truth, we rest upon the authority of the word of God. Observe— 1. The source to which the prosperity of the Church is assigned. “The Lord shall comfort Zion.” There is a regular and uninterrupted affirmation of this grand principle in prophecy (Isaiah 2:20-21; Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 44:2-5; Zechariah 4:6-7). In this dispensation we are called upon to remember that Christianity is emphatically “the ministration of the Spirit” (John 3:5; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 3:5-7). There must be the outpouring of the Spirit of God, or evil will still hold its wide tyranny. 2. The nature of that prosperity by which the Church will be distinguished. (1.) The increase of numbers will be incalculable (Isaiah 49:18-23; Isaiah 60:3-8). (2.) A great purification and refinement of the character of those who shall pertain to the Church will signalise those future days. The former prosperity would be imperfect without the latter. 3. The means to be adopted by the true friends of the Church, in order that the period of this predicted prosperity may arrive. (1.) The preaching and teaching of the gospel (Romans 10:13-17). (2.) United and importunate prayer for the influences of the Spirit of God (Isaiah 62:6-7; Ezekiel 36:37; Matthew 7:7-8). III. THE DELIGHT OF THE CHURCH. “Joy and gladness shall be found therein,” &c. (Isaiah 52:8-10). This emotion may properly arise from contemplating, 1. The wonderful change which shall have been accomplished in the condition of the Church itself. She was depressed; now she is exalted, and sits enthroned as the representative of the Almighty, and of His power to rescue and to redeem. 2. The connection between the prosperity of the Church and the glorification of God. God is glorified by the conversion of every individual sinner; how much more, then, when a nation shall be born in a day, and when the whole earth shall be a Carmel! 3. The connection between the prosperity of the Church and the happiness of mankind (Isaiah 11:6-9). : Do you belong to the Church of God? If so; then labour in all the appointed means of instrumentality, which by the prosperity of the Church is to be secured.—James Parsons: The Pulpit, vol. xviii. pp. 181–191. COMFORT IN TROUBLE Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:12, and Isaiah 52:9. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.The prophecy is addressed to those who are striving after the right kind of life and seeking Jehovah, and not turning from Him to make earthly things and themselves the object of their pursuits; for such only are in a condition by faith to regard that as possible, which seems impossible to human understanding, because the very opposite is lying before the eye of the senses (Delitzsch). I. The people of God often stand in urgent need of Divine comfort. They not only have their full share of the sorrows which are common to humanity, but they have troubles to which the people of the world are strangers. Hence we are told that “many are the afflictions of the righteous,” &c. The Saviour prepared His people for this: “In the world,” &c., “Whosoever will be my disciple,” &c The people of God have to fight every inch of their way to heaven: “These are they,” &c. Their chief sorrows spring from sources unknown to and incomprehensible by the world. They are soul sorrows, having their origin in the vivid views which they have of the evil of sin, and of their own individual guilt in the sight of God, &c. Sometimes they fear that after all they shall never reach the celestial Canaan. Therefore they have the need of all the comfort which can be given them on the way to heaven. (See pp. 2, 4, 386; cf. Romans 7:22-24; Galatians 5:17; Galatians 4:29; Romans 8:36; 2 Corinthians 4:8-14; 2 Timothy 3:12; Psalms 88:18; Proverbs 17:1; Isaiah 38:14-15; 2 Timothy 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:16; Psalms 51:5-8; 2 Corinthians 7:5.) II. It is God’s will that His people should to comforted amid all their tribulations. “See how God resolves to comfort His people: ‘I, even I, will do it.’ He had ordered His ministers to do it (Isaiah 40:1), but because they cannot reach the heart, He takes the work into His own hands. See how He glories in it; He takes it among the titles of His honour to be “the God that comforteth them that are cast down;” He delights in being so (M. Henry). Because He would have His people happy. His people should remember this, and cultivate the spirit of Christian cheerfulness, because, 1. Uncomfortable Christians often dishonour the Lord. 2. Uncomfortable Christians cannot be as diligent as they ought to be in the duties of religion. Working out their own salvation. Working for God in seeking to save others (Psalms 51:12-13; P. D. 450–453). III. The bestowment of Divine comfort inspires them with grateful and exultant joy (Isaiah 51:12; Isaiah 52:9). “Where there is joy and gladness to their satisfaction, it is fit there should be thanksgiving to God’s honour; for whatever is the matter of their rejoicing, ought to be the matter of their thanksgiving, and the returns of God’s favour ought to be celebrated with the voice of melody; which will be the more melodious when God gives songs in the night, songs in the desert” (M. Henry). There may be elevated joy in the midst of deep affliction (Romans 5:3; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4, &c.) Eleven of the thirteen epistles of Paul begin with exclamations of praise and thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Take to praising God under all circumstances, and thus you will lift your soul right out of your sorrow, and taste the pleasures of immortality. “In everything give thanks.” Let this be your constant occupation. He well deserves our warmest praise. : 1. The duty and privilege of believers to seek Divine comfort. God has given us express assurances that it is His purpose that His people should have ample and unceasing comfort amid all their sorrows and sufferings (Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:12; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4). Most ungracious on our part not readily and gladly to receive the comfort so provided. To refuse to be comforted, is to be guilty of a frustration of the merciful purposes of God towards us. 2. The duty and privilege of comforted believers to comfort others. God comforts you, that you may comfort others—that He may use you as comforters. Experimental knowledge helps us to speak with authority and power—fits us to be able and ready comforters. What we have received we must give (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).—Alfred Tucker.God will give His people, I. Consolation. II. Fruitfulness. III. Gladness—J. E. Page. Isaiah 51:3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.The Church is a garden planted by the Lord, luxuriant in beauty and fruitfulness, and filled with happy occupants. The promise is as yet only in process of fulfilment; and that we may look more clearly into the future, we are called to look into the past. Eden was the garden of the Lord, the primeval paradise, the place of consummate beauty and happiness, ere sin had blighted its joys and stained its purity. To make Zion like Eden is to bring back the vanished glories of that happy place. To the extent that this is accomplished, the Church is— I. A PLACE OF DIVINE COMFORT AND . No sooner do we press in by faith, through Christ, the door, than we enjoy the comforts of Divine love, and are admitted to heavenly fellowships (Hebrews 6:18). Did Adam hear the voice of the Lord God? Here the intercourse is renewed. Life conducts through an Eden radiant with the Divine presence. What a change since the day when the Lord drove forth the man from Eden! That door has been again unbarred, and Christ has secured for us a welcome into a fairer paradise than that then was lost. The Church is “a habitation of God.” Enter, then, and you will enjoy this rich comfort and lofty fellowship. So long as you stand outside, you cannot know the beauties of the garden; you cannot survey its landscapes, nor breathe its perfumes. God has not disowned and forsaken this fallen world: it is not, as we might have expected, desolated by His wrath: we can still find an Eden in it—a garden of God’s presence and favour. II. A PLACE OF HELPFUL SOCIAL LIFE. Such was the life of the first pair, and such would have been the life of their children, but for the entrance of sin. Alas, how that fact has altered the course of human history! What jarring discords in our domestic and social life! But if the Church is to be as Eden, human society will be regenerated: the love, peace, and helpful companionship that were found in the garden of the Lord will be restored, when this promise is accomplished to the full. The Church will yet leaven society with her principles of brotherly love and mutual help. The world around is like a wilderness, where the wild plants of nature grow in rank profusion. But God has engaged to reclaim Zion’s waste places. This garden is ever extending its walls, and will do so till the whole earth becomes an Eden. III. A PLACE OF JOY. “Joy and gladness shall be found therein.” No jarring strife shall mar its harmony: love to God and to each other shall reign among the happy inmates of the restored Paradise. We naturally think of a garden as a place of joy. Surrounded by all that is fair and peaceful, the mind depressed by trial is relieved by the cheerful notes of the birds, the luxuriance of the foliage, and the forms and hues of the flowers. The Church of Christ is such a garden, in which we taste joys unknown by the world. “The fruit of the Spirit is joy,”—the joy of sin forgiven and heaven secured,—the joy of communion with Christ, and assurance of His love—the joy of mutual endearment and mutual service. What joy can surpass that which is the heritage of all who dwell within this happy inclosure? IV. A SCENE OF WORSHIP. There shall be found therein “thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” What a delightful exercise is that of praise! What a happy garden, ever jubilant with sacred song! These, then, are the features of this garden of the Church. Not on earth can we behold them in all their perfection. The earthly paradise, reopened to us by Christ, will soon become the heavenly paradise (Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:1-2). May we all at last become inmates of the Eden above, the paradise of beauty and splendour, the abode of love and joy and worship unending!—William Guthrie, M.A. THE OF THE AND OF GOD Isaiah 51:6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, &c.There is no reason why we should not read these words in their positive and natural signification. Similar predictions (Isaiah 34:4; Psalms 102:26; 2 Peter 3:10). These predictions are confirmed by the reasoning of the latest science; also by the analogy of everyday experience, which go to show that, though the laws of the universe may be uniform, the material existences are in constant flux. The description is not given to excite feelings of dismay, but to enhance our confidence in the immutability of the salvation and righteousness of God. We must first consider the one fact, that we may the better trust and enjoy the other. I. THE WORLD PASSES. We are called “to lift up our eyes” and to “look.” The heavens and the earth have great lessons to teach us. Nature is God’s prophetess. The spiritual man will see not only interesting geological facts, but also “Sermons in Stones.” Nature is speaking to us by its progress towards dissolution. 1. Astronomy points towards dissolution. The earth is slowly cooling, and if the present process continues, it must be ultimately reduced to the lifeless condition of the moon. Meanwhile, the moon is gradually approaching the earth, and must ultimately fall into it. The same cause—the check given to centrifugal motion by friction with the universal ether—must fling the earth into the sun, and possibly bring all the stars together. 2. Geology points towards dissolution. It shows that successive orders of life have risen and spread and perished. And there is every reason to believe that, as it was in the beginning, so it will be to the end. 3. History points towards dissolution. Kingdoms have their day—and then their night. “Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they?” Institutions perish. Fashions change. 4. Common observation points towards dissolution. Science may prolong life, and ameliorate its conditions; but it has done nothing towards stopping the natural “funeral marches to the grave.” As life’s shadows lengthen, and old comrades drop out of the ranks, men feel more sadly the unutterable changefulness of earthly things. Facts of such personal importance speak loudly to us to look for better, more enduring grounds of confidence. II. THE AND OF GOD ENDURE FOR EVER. 1. They endure in Him. The immutable laws of nature are just reflections of the eternal constancy of God. He must be changeless because He is perfect; “He is not a man that He should err.” Immaculate and passionless, He can have no need to repent. (1.) His salvation endures for ever. Much that we love and trust passes away. We are ready to despair of all light and hope. But no! one thing endures. To the poor, dark, sin-stained, fallen soul, beggared of all earthly joy, and buried in grief and shame, one grand hope is left. Christ is still standing knocking at the door of the heart: salvation is still possible; for “He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.” (2.) God’s righteousness will not be abolished. He can never connive at sin. There would be no hope for us if it were not that here the righteousness and sacrifice of Christ meet our need. 2. The salvation and righteousness of God endure in us. (1.) The salvation shall be for ever. Christ gives to us no temporary deliverance, but eternal salvation. There is one “friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” and one haven that is safe in the wildest tempest. But the salvation endures on condition that we remain faithful. (2.) The righteousness shall not be abolished. That is the one permanent possession to be sought for. Wealth, health, pleasure, friends, knowledge, the earth itself, and the very heavens pass away; he who has any of them for his heritage will be finally bankrupt; he who lives righteously in God’s righteousness, shares the immortality of that righteousness. TWO LESSONS: 1. Trust in God alone. “Change and decay in all around I see,O Thou that changest not, abide with me.”2. Fear no earthly evil. (1.) Fear not the power of present foes. This power is doomed; with the glory of the world, its cruelty, its injustice, its wrong will perish. (2.) Fear not the loss of present blessings. To part with them will be a pain. But if we have God, and His salvation and righteousness, the best treasures are left.—W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Clerical World, vol. i. pp. 254–255. The design of this chapter is to comfort the people of God under the persecution of their enemies, and the various evils of their present warfare. The ground of consolation insisted on in the text, is the perpetuity of God’s mercy and faithfulness towards His people, which shall be manifested in accomplishing their salvation, protecting them from the assaults of their enemies, carrying them safely through all the chances and changes of this mortal life, and crowning them at length with victory and honour. And while they are led to expect this glorious end of their troubles and fears, they are assured that everything else that now appears so splendid and desirable shall perish like a vain shadow. “Lift up your eyes.” In treating upon these words, I shall endeavour to show the perishing nature of all worldly objects, pursuits, and comforts, and the stability of those which the Gospel proposes, and to which the attention of all true Christians is directed.—W. Richardson, Sermons, vol. i. pp. 377, 378. We are here called to contrast the fading and short-lived glory of all things earthly, with the enduring character of those hopes and consolations revealed in the Gospel. I. “All flesh is grass”—not like the oak, the cedar, the enduring tree of the forest, but “grass,” which flourishes and dies within the compass of a season. As it is with man, so is it with his works. In vain the laborious master painted for eternity; in vain the skilful statuary inscribed his name, or inwrought his own image, with that of some divinity which he carved into stone; the colours of the picture are long since faded, the stone is mouldered or dashed into pieces. In vain the Egyptian tyrants raised a monument to their power and greatness, which might last as long as earth; the pile indeed stands, but the name of the builder is forgotten; and as for all the rest of all the boasted wonders of the world, the very ruins of them are lost and forgotten. [1566] Nay, the sure and firm-set earth itself partakes of this character of mutability. The sun shines but for a season; the earth crumbles with the foot that treads upon it. “They that dwell therein shall die in like manner.” You stand a ruin amid ruin. “Where are your fathers?” our friends? your brethren? Plainly, if you have not something better than time, you have nothing. [1566] “Mark the glory of collective man. United he puts on the appearance of strength. He founds empires, builds cities; he guards by his armies, he cements all by his policy. But trace the track of civilised man through the world, and you find it covered with the wreck of his hopes; and the monuments of his power have been converted into the mockery of his weakness. His eternal cities moulder in their ruins. The serpent hisses in the cabinet where he planned his empire. Echo itself is startled by the foot which breaks the silence which has reigned for ages in his hall of feast and song. Columns stand in the untrodden desert; and the but of the shepherd or the den of the robber shelters the only residents of his palaces. And the glory which now exists is crumbling everywhere, where it has not the cement of Christianity, and where it takes not something of perpetuity from the everlasting Word. All heathen glory and Mahommedan pride creak in the blast and nod to their fall. The withering wind or the raging tempest shall pass over them in turn; and men shall sit upon the ruins of their proudest grandeur, and be reminded that all flesh is grass.”—Watson. II. Contrast with all this the undecaying character of the blessings of salvation. “My salvation shall be for ever.” The Gospel comes not under this law of mutability. It partakes of the unchangeableness and immortality of its Author, and addresses itself to the changeless and incorruptible part of man. 1. It exhibits a permanent standard of truth—truth of doctrine, truth of morals. Truth is everlasting. Therefore, if we have evidence of the truth of the Gospel, we have evidence of its everlasting character. Errors are nothing. They are deceptions, and must pass away. They are the clouds of the mind, and however gilded and painted they may be by chance rays of truth, they change while we gaze upon them, and shall be swept away by the wind of heaven. But truth is the steady light of heaven. This truth survived the test of experiment. It has been found suited to men of all sorts and in all conditions. It is bound up essentially with the moral condition of man; and, therefore, it can never become obsolete. While man is man, he must know that he is a sinner—that he needs a Saviour—that he cannot secure his own happiness, but must find it in communion with higher beings in higher worlds. What the Gospel has been, it is. Had it failed to reveal pardon, to secure peace, to reconcile to God, to point the way to heaven, it would have been a vanity, and it would have died out like other vanities long ago. But it answers these ends. It is the only system that does so. It abides the test of experiment. It is felt and acknowledged to be Divine (H. E. I. 1138, 1139, 1142–1148, 2421–2427). 2. It presents a perpetual source of comfort. Comfort under the changes and the frowns of the world—under the sense of guilt—under the temptations of Satan—under the loss of friends—under the fear of death. 3. It reveals and communicates an undecaying principle of life. By it life and immortality are brought to light. It conveys life; it is regenerative; it gives the life of grace, as well as reveals and leads to the life of glory. Consequently, 1. The Gospel demands your most serious attention. This is demanded by the subject of its message; and by the majesty of its Author, who here says, “Hearken to me!” 2. It solicits your cordial acceptance. “The isles shall wait for Me, and on Mine arm shall they trust.” 3. It leaves no alternative between obedience and ruin (Isaiah 51:8).—Samuel Thodey.God’s unchangeable purposes cannot fail. Such is the thought with which Isaiah animates the people of God, discouraged by the taunts of those who thought that the promises of Jehovah would not be fulfilled. All changes but the Eternal God. I. The majestic heavens over our heads are subject to the law of change. True, these great changes baffle our powers. The life of man is too short to mark great changes in that which seems the least subject to this law, the heavens above us. Yet science teaches us that vast changes are going on in the very life of our system, the sun. And one day the heavens will pass away with a great noise and be rolled up as a scroll. II. The earth is subject to the law of change. The scientific facts by which this is proved are most abundant— “There rolls the deep where grew the tree;O earth! what changes hast thou seen!There, where the long street rolls, hath beenThe stillness of the central sea.”III. Man, made in the image of God, is not exempt from the operation of this law. The highest and noblest work of God, the most perfect of nature’s works, passes away, dissolved into a few gases and a small amount of earthy substances. “One generation passeth away and another cometh.” But amid this universal change one thing abides; it is the purpose of the everlasting God. IV. The salvation and the righteousness of God abide unchanged. The kingdom of God waxes not old. It is subject to no decay. 1. The salvation that God has provided for man is available throughout all generations. 2. The righteousness which led to its provision is the guarantee of its continuance. When the character of God changes and is subject to decay, then His salvation shall not be for ever. The salvation and the righteousness of God are manifested in Christ. The Epiphany will be everlasting because He is an everlasting Saviour—eternally “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 71. I. The destiny of the heavens and the earth. II. The destiny of man. III. The destiny of God’s saving rule.—E. Johnson, B.A. A CALL TO MORAL HEROISM Isaiah 51:7-8. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, &c.A beautiful description of God’s people. They know righteousness. His law is in their hand. I. The people of God must expect to be assailed by reproaches and revilings. There is a perpetual antagonism between the Church and the world. Their spirit and aims are diametrically opposed. Light is not more opposed to darkness, truth to falsehood, love to hatred, the bitterness of gall to the sweetness of the honeycomb, than the spirit of the world is to the spirit engendered by real religion. Hence the violent hatred and opposition that have been maintained towards the righteous from age to age. You see it in individual cases. Cain hated Abel, and slew him. Haman hated Mordecai, and sought his destruction, &c. Thus it has been with communities. The heathen nations—Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylon—persecuted the Jewish Church, and hated it in proportion as it was holy. The degenerate Jews abhorred the Christian Church. Not content with putting its Founder to death, they sought to destroy His servants. Live Christians are still objects of aversion to the world. For several reasons they are exposed to reproach and revilings:— 1. Because of the doctrines they believe. These embrace all that is peculiar and fundamental in the Gospel. Infidels mock at those who hold them as the victims of a miserable deception. 2. Because of the profession they make as Christ’s followers. Their obedience to His command to confess them before men is reviled as pride and vain glory; their exclusive adherence to the truths He has taught them, as bigotry; their earnestness in propagating them, as fanaticism. 3. The influence they exert. It renders the men of the world uncomfortable; and so they rail at the Christian’s separation from the world as austerity; his attachment to Christian ordinances as superstition. II. Of the reproaches and revilings by which God’s people are assailed they are not to be afraid. By our text they are summoned to the exercise of moral courage. They are to show that courage is an essential element of Christian character (H. E. I. 1042–1045). 1. “Fear ye not,” for yours is a just cause. 2. “Fear ye not,” for God will strengthen you. Whatever the nature or amount of opposition you are called to endure, God will uphold you (H. E. I. 3667, 3668). 3. “Fear ye not,” for in meeting undeserved reproach you will have an inward approbation of conscience. 4. “Fear ye not,” for the endurance of such reproach will assimilate you to the tried and good. Think of the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs. Think, above all, of your Saviour. 5. “Fear ye not,” for such endurance will be rewarded in the final day. Then it will be seen that the power of the revilers, like the revilers themselves, was evanescent, while the salvation, of which those who have the courage to endure reproach are made partakers, shall endure for ever.—George Smith, D.D.A PRAYER FOR THE FORTH-PUTTING OF DIVINE POWER Isaiah 51:9. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. The simplest exercise in which man can engage is also the sublimist. It is the exercise of prayer. Human helplessness may cast itself on Divine Omnipotence. Nothing is too insignificant to interest the Heavenly Father (H. E. I. 3756). There is ample instruction in His Word as to things respecting which petitions may be addressed to Him. Whatever He has there promised to His Church, may be included in her prayers. This idea animates the text. The prophecy proclaims the deliverance of the captive people, and then the triumphs of the Gospel in the latter days. Under the influence of these cheering announcements, God’s people are represented as breaking forth in the earnest entreaty of the text. It is the Church’s continual cry. We ask that the power of God’s Spirit may be exerted for the accomplishment of the great things He has taught us to expect. And such prayer is justified by several considerations. I. BY THE FACT THAT THE OF THE POWER OF GOD’S SPIRIT IS . As the deliverance from Babylon could only be effected by Divine power, so can only the spiritual deliverance of the world from the dominion of sin. It requires the removal of impediments, the opening of fields of labour, and the provision of suitable instruments for the work. In the case of the individual, it requires a change of heart, because of the depravity that characterises all mankind. When you remember the resisting power of the human will, and that its natural inclinations are adverse to the Divine supremacy, you will not deem the metaphors of Scripture, such as the new birth and the quickening of the dead, too strong to represent the change that must occur within the heart. It is a change to which nothing less than Divine power is equal (H. E. I. 4106–4113). II. BY THE FACT THAT THAT POWER HAS BEEN . “As in the ancient days, in the generations of old” (Isaiah 51:9-10). The wonders of Egypt and the Red Sea, which the Jews never wearied of reciting, could be pleaded when seeking new interpositions of the Divine hand. We can plead the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when asking for an enlarged manifestation of the Spirit’s work; because that which occurred then was not a transaction complete in itself, but rather the beginning of a work. The resources of the Gospel under the ministry of Paul and others can be pleaded, when it came to the people “in power and the Holy Ghost.” There are instances in the history of modern missions equally significant. Times of revival of religion may be pleaded similarly. Perhaps our own experience as Christian labourers supplies us with ground of encouragement to intercede for a repetition and continuance of the usefulness with which we have been favoured. III. BY THE FACT THAT IT IS . 1. Let us establish the fact. The prophecy connected with the text, which emboldened its petition, involves the exertion of whatever power is necessary to its fulfilment. In this light all prophecies may be read. Therefore the prophecies which foretell the glory of the Church, when the Gentiles and the Jews shall be converted, imply such exertion of Divine power, as well as the full provision of all other means and influences tributory to the results predicted. How long shall the spectacle of moral desolation presented by the present state of the world continue? The answer is given in chap. Isaiah 32:15. Who is to accomplish that great work within the soul which is represented by an operation within the body which no surgery can ever perform? Answer: Ezekiel 36:26. Jesus promised to baptize His Church with the Holy Ghost and fire. The dispensation of the Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is in the Church and with the Church, and under the requisite conditions may be so to a much larger extent than has hitherto been experienced. The first fruits have been gathered. They are the promise of the harvest. 2. Let us see how the fact bears on the offering of prayer for the Spirit. If every promise is a warrant and directory of prayer, then, even were there nothing directly on the subject in the Bible, this would fall under that principle; it would become the duty of the Church to pray for it. But there is a constant reiteration of the truth that the power of God’s Spirit must be sought in prayer (Isaiah 62:6-7, &c.) After the great promise of the Spirit in Ezekiel, you have this statement: “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The parable of the friend at midnight. The argument from the readiness of parents to give good things to their children. During the ten days of waiting for the power of the Holy Ghost, the disciples met daily for prayer. And then the Spirit came. Is not the history of the Church filled with illustrations of the truth that religion has flourished and extended largely as the Church has valued and sought the power of the Spirit? Pray for the Spirit, therefore, to come on yourselves, on the Church, on the world. What will be the effect? More good accomplished. Personal influence deepened. Your own soul quickened.—J. Rawlinson.This language is both natural and figurative. What more natural than that the Church, in times of trial, suffering, and yet expectation, should look upwards, and seek deliverance from Him who is “mighty to save?” The way in which the petition is urged is in no sense artificial, the “arm” of the Lord is invoked as the symbol of a powerful interposition. I. A FACT: The Lord has a mighty arm. The Scriptures lend no countenance to the childish notion that the Creator is indifferent to His own handiwork, that He withdraws from all interference with the creation, with His intelligent subjects. Often mentioning the “right arm” of Jehovah, they presume that He is not only almighty, but accustomed to assert His authority and exercise His power. II. A MEMORY: The Lord has been wont to interpose on behalf of His people. It was characteristic of the religion of the Hebrews that it was indissolubly connected with their national history. Their songs of praise recorded the signal interventions of Omnipotence on behalf of their forefathers; their prayers pleaded memorable instances of compassionate and effective interferences for their safety. They based their pious hopes, not only upon their convictions as to God’s attributes, but upon their recollections, and their national records of God’s doings. “We have heard with our ears … what great things Thou didst,” &c. It is well thus to recall the proofs of God’s power and pity which have in the past abounded towards mankind, and especially to base all our hopes and petitions upon His memorable redemption of mankind effected by Jesus Christ. III. A PRAYER: Awake, awake! This does not suppose that God is indifferent to His people’s need and sore distress. But it presumes that the exercise of Divine mercy, and helpfulness, and protection, is, by His wisdom, made contingent upon our readiness to receive what the Lord is ever ready to bestow. He will be inquired of by His people. He is not like Baal, of whom the prophet Elijah tauntingly said, “Peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” The sleepless eye of God is ever upon His people’s circumstances; the sleepless heart of God is ever conscious and sensitive with regard to His people’s needs. But He will answer those who honour Him. Call upon Him in the day of trouble and He will deliver. It is not faithlessness, but faith, that cries, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord, put on strength!”—The Homilectical Library, vol. ii. p. 69. I. The arm of God is almighty. II. Prayer can move it. III. It is our privilege in every emergency to cry, “Awake,” &c. IV. There have been given to us great encouragements to believe that this appeal will not be made in vain: God’s care of His Church in past times; His unchangeableness; the promises recorded.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, Part I. p. 70. THE CRY OF THE CHURCH, AND ITS LORD’S Isaiah 51:9. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. THE GLAD HOME-GOING Isaiah 51:11. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, &c. [1569][1569] See Outlines on Isaiah 35:8-10, in vol. i. pp. 409–413. The words of the text, fulfilled in the history of the return from captivity, are in our case awaiting the richer, fuller interpretation of death. I. THOSE WHO ARE TO THIS HOME-GOING. “The redeemed of the Lord.” The expression is one which grows out of the Levitical law, and means one set free by the payment of a price. The precise signification of the word is that of substitution. A man redeemed his first-born by substituting an animal for him. The first-born were also freed by the substitution of a special offering of equal value, made for all classes. The sons of Levi rendered substituted service for all the tribes. These were types and shadows of another Substitute, who, bearing the sins of many, guiltless but treated as guilty, should deliver from the curse and power of sin. The deliverance of humanity from wilfulness and its woes was costly to Almighty love. This law of substitution, and painful substitution, runs through all human history. You find it everywhere (H. E. I. 393–395.) We must live for others and die for others. God has placed Himself under the same law. “He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” By crucifixion of His own love; by self-sacrifice; by pain, and pang, and death, He breaks the bonds of moral slavery, condemns sin in the flesh, works a hatred of it which insures its extermination. What law could not do, God, sending His own Son in the flesh, did. The ransom was Himself. The redeemed compose “the Church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood.” Men who by faith have appropriated and rest upon this great wonder of suffering love, are placed in a new condition by means of it. The Redeemer is a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. The old Church was redeemed through Him. Nations unborn are included in the gracious purpose. The children, called to His embrace, share the benefit of His loving substitution, are numbered among the redeemed. Our loved ones who have tasted death, swell the gathering crowd of immortals redeemed. Bought with a price, faithful unto death, they escaped its sting and destructive energy, and are now triumphant, rejoicing spirits,—“the redeemed of the Lord.” II. THEIR . “They shall return and come to Zion.” After the woes and privations of the Captivity, a prosperous Church state was to be restored. Zion was the place of Divine, manifested grace. God recorded His name there. The Shekinah cloud rested there. There He met the people, and conferred the boons of His salvation. The earthly Zion was a type of the heavenly. Two ideas are here suggested—nearness to God and holy association. 1. The redeemed on high are brought into nearer fellowship with God. There are easily conceivable visible manifestations of glory far beyond what are now possible. Emancipated from dependence upon sense, there will be a vast increase of spiritual capacity, and a corresponding enlargement of the means and opportunities of knowledge. Their acquaintance with the purposes and character of God, their feeling of His love, and grace, and tenderness, will be immeasurably greater and more intense than any known on earth. There is an infinite variety of Divine manifestations throughout the universe. There can be no dull uniformity in that higher life. No veil hides the eternal brightness. The beatific vision is face to face. The communications of the Divine mind are constant and familiar; the tokens of Divine grace are never withdrawn; the pledges of Divine fidelity are received and enjoyed without restriction. God is manifested in His highest glory, and humanity reaches its highest exaltation. Now in part—then, as also we are known. 2. The coming to Zion is expressive of personal association and fellowship. The return from the Captivity was that of a multitude. The words recall the joyous going up and assembling of the tribes to observe the solemn rites of their religion, and to enjoy social intercourse with each other. The heavenly state knows no loneliness. Every spirit forms one of a blissful company. Heaven is a social state. Lost loves are found, and broken relations are united, and interrupted fellowships are resumed. The mutual recognition of the faithful departed is one of the beliefs which nature suggests, and revelation implies and authenticates (P. D. 2926–2928). It does not so much rest upon single texts, as it is the keynote of the melody, and the uniting principle of the harmony of many. Every description implies it—every pictured scene discloses it. Love abides through death. Memory abides through death. We shall find what we have lost, and know we have found it. As the years pass how rich heaven becomes! Those who are there forbid the thought of it as a strange place (H. E. I. 470, 2739). It is our home—our Father’s house. III. THEIR NEW AND . “Everlasting joy,” &c. During the Captivity there were sore longings for freedom and home. The captives wept when they remembered Zion. They could not sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. Here all that is reversed. Inappeasable desire is gone. Heaven will contain much we have never imagined (H. E. I. 2714–2727). There is, then, no loss in death. We are saved by hope. The future of the redeemed is assured by the Redeemer. Life is theirs. Death is theirs. Heaven is theirs. They shall go no more out for ever!—W. Hope Davison: The Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii. pp. 25–27. I. THE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING HOME TO HEAVEN. “The redeemed of the Lord.” 1. They were once captives. Of Satan (2 Timothy 2:16). Slaves to their own depraved affections and desires—“sold under sin” (Romans 7:23). Prisoners to the Divine law—owing a debt which they could not discharge, and exposed to the righteous penalty. 2. They could not redeem themselves. The price was too great for such insolvents to pay, &c. (see on Isaiah 52:3). 3. It was the work of an Almighty Saviour to ransom the captives. He alone could pay the price, and deliver them from the grasp of Satan and the thraldom of sin, &c. He is emphatically called the “Redeemer,” and His people “the redeemed” (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19). 4. They are redeemed to be the Lord’s people. They are no longer slaves, but the Lord’s freemen—His property, servants, children, &c.; redeemed that they may share in the privileges and joys of the sons of God (Romans 14:9). II. THE NATURE OF THEIR JOURNEY. 1. They are journeying heavenward. “Shall return and come to Zion.” Zion was the type of the heavenly city—one of its names (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1; Psalms 65:1; Psalms 84:7). Heaven the place of perfect worship, fellowship, &c. The object of the Christian pilgrims’ highest hope, around which their best affections centre, &c. Can never be fully at rest till they reach their Father’s home on high, and repose on His paternal bosom. 2. They are journeying heavenward in dependence upon God. They feel themselves weak, &c., but they rely upon the promised strength, &c. In Christ they have perfect strength, for perfect weakness. The homeward journey may be trying; they may have to tread on thorns, to shiver in the keen winds, &c.; but notwithstanding all, they advance under the benediction of heaven. God in all the Omnipotence of His might is with them, and therefore, “through winds and stormy seas,” “they shall return to Zion.” 3. They journey joyfully. “They come to Zion with singing. As the ransomed captives would return from Babylon, and as travellers commonly do now in the East; as a bird got loose out of a cage. They gratefully sing the praises of their great Deliverer and Conductor; they confidently sing of His loving care, &c.; of their glorious prospects, and of their ultimate triumph, “and find it nearer while they sing.” III. THE OF THE JOURNEY. 1. They shall finish their course with triumphant joy. “Everlasting joy,” &c. They reach home with difficulty (1 Peter 4:18), but certainly. Enemies conquered—beatific vision—exalted society, &c. What a blissful termination! What are other journeys compared with this? What sources of joy and gladness are here! 2. They shall receive an incorruptible crown. “Songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” This may refer to the custom of wearing a wreath or chaplet of flowers in times of festivity, as is often done now, and as was commonly done among the ancients in triumphal processions. 3. They shall be eternally exempt from all that creates pain and uneasiness. “Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” It must be so in the heavenly home (Revelation 21:4). No sigh was ever heaved there, no head ever ached there, &c. “In this world of changes it is a short step from joy to sorrow, but in that world sorrow and mourning shall flee away, never to return or come in view again.” Eternal health, wealth, purity, security, happiness, light, &c. “Eternal life!” Life in its highest forms and manifestations. Life with Christ—eternal and ineffable, ever developing in all perfection of strength, and beauty, and joy! : 1. The value of Christianity. No other religion can furnish such consolation amid human woes; and no other religion is, therefore, adapted to humanity. We are under infinite obligations to Christ, for from Him we derive all our present and future bliss. Let the prospect of such a home hearten us under the trials and difficulties of life. Press nobly on with assured confidence and eager desire. 2. The heavenly home belongs to “the redeemed of the Lord.” But there are some of you who are the bond-slaves of Satan, &c. “Repent and believe the Gospel” of freedom. Come to Christ, trust Him for emancipation from the thraldom of sin and Satan, and then let your ransomed life be one of praise and devotion to your great Deliverer.—Alfred Tucker. FEAR OF GOD AND MAN Isaiah 51:12-13. I, even I, am He that comforteth you, &c.I. THE TWO PARTIES SET OVER AGAINST EACH OTHER, “Man that shall die,” &c.; and “the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens,” &c. It is a main object of the Scriptures to set in the most vivid contrast the meanness, emptiness, nothingness of man; and the all-sufficiency, the majesty, and the glory of God (Isaiah 51:7-8; Job 4:13-19; Job 14:1-2; Psalms 39:5; Isaiah 40:6-7; James 4:14). In striking contrast with man’s nothingness, the Scriptures set forth the majesty of God’s glory (Genesis 1:1-3; Psalms 113:5-6; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Job 38:4-11; Job 38:16-17; Job 38:34-35; Psalms 18:6-15). Not even the language of inspiration could measure the boundless interval which lies between finite and infinite, the creature and the Creator, sinful mortals and a holy God. II. MAN, RATHER THAN GOD, IS THE OBJECT OF , RESPECT, AND FEAR. The whole system of society seems founded on the principle that human sanctions are above Divine. To keep society in order, it is necessary, even where the Lord hath spoken with the most awful sanctions He can employ, that the law of the land should interpose with its more effectual and prevailing influence. Look at some instances in which these two authorities do not act conjointly. Debts to man are paid; what we owe to God gives us little uneasiness, perhaps none. In courts of justice there is watchful vigilance to observe the rules laid down, in every minute punctilio; it is forgotten that the King of kings is present wherever we turn our eyes. The presence of God, though admitted in a way, produces not half the controlling influence that the presence even of the most insignificant of their fellow-mortals would do. “It is a shame,” says the apostle, “even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret;” and yet these secrets are all known to God. The eye of God no more interrupts sinful pleasure than does the notice of infancy or the stupid stare of one of the inferior animals. But, speaking generally, the fear of man, or in other words, the law of public opinion, is the great regulator of life. Other passions are submissive to the master-passion—the fear of man. The profane swearer masters his tongue in refined society. The Sabbath is kept out of regard to man. Debts of common honesty are lightly regarded; debts of honour are binding. The case is too clear to need more proofs. Of by far the greater portion of society it may be affirmed, that “all their works they do to be seen of men.” To an extent, of which they are not themselves aware, the law of opinion, and not the law of God, is their rule of life. The Bible comes to them filtered through man’s opinion, only the filtering is not a purifying process. III. THE , “WHO ART THOU?” The inquiry seems to have been first addressed to those whose prevailing fear of man was the result, rather of weakness under trying circumstances, than of carnal blindness and depravity of heart; it seems intended for the encouragement of God’s people when threatened with dangers, and particularly when harassed by the terrors which cruel enemies inspire; “I, even I, am He that comforteth you;” then come the words before us, followed by the pathetic expressions, “And hast feared continually,” &c. “And where is the fury of the oppressor?” As much as to say, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” To such the text brings reassurance and encouragement. But with far different emphasis does it apply to those who, in the genuine spirit of the world, pay that homage to man which they refuse to God. The tone is that of indignation and surprise, “Who art thou?” What reasonable intelligence can fear him who can only kill the body, rather than the dread Being who holds the keys of death and hell? It can only be accounted for in one way, viz., that the senses, which can alone take cognizance of God, are closed. But such judicial blindness is no cloak for this sin, since man brings it on himself (Romans 2:17-21). To us, favoured above God’s ancient people, with what redoubled force does this voice of expostulation speak! Well may God apply to us such affecting words as are contained in Scripture (Isaiah 5:4). : “Who art thou,” that “worships and serves the creature more than the Creator”? Can man “arise and save thee in the time of thy trouble”? Can the world “pluck from memory a rooted sorrow”? Can it lighten the darkness of a dying hour? O then, “cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils!”—H. Woodward, M.A.: Church of England Magazine, vol. xxii. pp. 56–61. The fear spoken of is misplaced fear; hence fear that weakens and leads astray, and makes unfaithful to God, as well as makes the child of God miserable. I. SOME OF THE CAUSES OF AND FEAR. 1. Our over-estimating of temporal interests. Even supposing men do their worst, and the furnace of worldly trouble be heated to its utmost, “who art thou,” whose interests are so high, and wide-spreading, and enduring, that thou shouldest be greatly cast down? Will the wealthy man lose his sleep, and become miserable, because he has lost sixpence in the street? Not if his mind is sound. If he does, he is diseased; and our souls are diseased if our whole horizon is darkened by mere worldly loss and trouble. 2. Our turning of our eyes wholly to the seen, and shutting them to the unseen. God is invisible; “man” and worldly difficulties are visible, prominent to the eyes of sense. We must walk by faith and not by sight, if we are to walk calmly and nobly. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. If we allow the visible and sensible to tyrannise over us, they will scourge us more cruelly than Egyptian taskmasters did their slaves. “Lord, increase our faith,” and we shall be able to sing, “God is a present help in trouble.” 3. Unbelief in God’s fatherly interest in us. “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man,” &c. Thou dost not realise or remember who thou art. A child of God, redeemed by Christ, the very hairs of thy head numbered. II. SOME WHICH INSPIRE AND KEEP UP COURAGE. 1. Man and all created powers are weak; God is omnipotent. “God stretched forth the foundations,” &c. Man is feeble as the grass. Greater is He that is for you than all that can be against you. 2. Man and all created powers are short-lived; God is eternal. Opposed to thee is “a man that shall die;” on thy side are the everlasting arms. Make the eternal God thy refuge, and thou wilt not fear them that can kill the body, and have nothing more that they can do. 3. The Lord is “thy Maker.” There is endless hope in that thought. He that has made knows our frame, and will have mercy on the works of His hands. 4. He has intimate individual knowledge of thee and sympathy with thee. The prophet passes from the plural of the context into the singular in the text. “Thou,” “Thy.” Our relations with God are individual. He holds each of us by the hand. 5. He values thee far above the material earth and heaven. He that made and maintains them will not forget His child, that can look in His face, and know, and trust, and love Him. Whether would the mother make surest of saving her jewels or her child in a shipwreck? He has proved His incomparable love to thee in Christ.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 71. THE AND FRAILTY OF MAN Isaiah 51:12. Man that shall die, and the son of man which shall be made as grass. David, when musing upon the sublime scenery which the heavens presented, proposed a question of vast importance: “What is man?” Man is a wonderful being. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” What the psalmist uttered, modern science has more fully established. “It is impossible to contemplate this admirable and beautiful temple of the deathless spirit without awakened wonder. It is one of the finest pieces of mechanism which can possibly be contemplated.” He is an intelligent being. As such he is nature’s king—the world’s monarch. What majestic powers he possesses! (P. D. 2376, 2380, 2381, 2400.) He is a spiritual being. “That must be a spiritual being which is conscious that it exists, and yet cannot be divided into parts. Having a spiritual nature, man is capable of constant thought, perpetual improvement in knowledge, of enjoying union with the Deity, a continual increase of happiness, and everlasting life. These give him a superiority over the brute creation, and render him morally responsible for all his ways.” He is a guilty and depraved being (Romans 1:29-31; Romans 3:12-18). He is also a mortal and a frail being, and these are the facts presented for our consideration in the text. I. Man is mortal. “Man that must die.” All men—even the most mighty—must soon become the lifeless tenants of the tomb. [1572] For death has entered our world by sin, and all who have ever lived, save Enoch and Elias, have died, or shall die. It matters not, however beautiful or talented, &c., you must die (H. E. I. 1536, 1537; P. D. 677, 751, 752). God hath decreed it—hath declared it (Psalms 90:3; Isaiah 51:6; Hebrews 9:27). [1572] When the vault containing the remains of the royal Charlemagne was opened by the Emperor Otho, the body was found, not reclining, but seated on a throne, with a crown on his fleshless brow, kingly robes covering his skeleton, a sceptre in his bony hand, a copy of the Gospels on his knee, and a pilgrim’s pouch fastened to his girdle. What a humiliating picture of human dignity! What an ineffectual attempt to retain the appearance of life, even amidst the horrors of death! That ghastly skeleton, as it fronts you with a mournful grin, teaches the lesson that even kings must die; crowns and sceptres cannot ward off the blow of the destroyer; he enters alike peasant cot and palace hall. II. Man is frail; he is “as grass.” [1575] We are “as grass”— 1. In the frailty of our nature. “How fragile is the grass! a breath, an atom, a touch, will kill it. So with man. We are not like the cedars of Lebanon, or the oaks of Bashan.” Like the springing grass, we shall soon pass away. What is human life? A mere temporary state of existence (Job 7:1; Psalms 90:10; Psalms 144:4; 1 Peter 1:17). A short and uncertain duration of being (Job 14:1; Job 16:22; James 4:14). What is your life? [1575] P. D. 2383, 2384. The comparison of a human being with grass is very beautiful, and quite common in the Scriptures. The comparison turns on the fact, that the grass, however green or beautiful it may be, soon loses its freshness; is withered; is cut down, and dies (Psalms 103:15-16; Isaiah 40:6-8, a passage which is evidently referred to by Peter in his first epistle, Isaiah 1:20; Isaiah 1:24; James 1:10-11). This sentiment is beautifully imitated by the great dramatist in the speech of Wolsey:— “This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him; The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And—when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a-ripening—nips his root, And then he falls.” “A flower that does with opening dawn arise,And flourishing the day, at evening dies;A winged eastern blast, just skimming o’erThe ocean’s brow, and sinking on the shore;A fire, whose flames through crackling stubble fly;A meteor, shooting from the summer sky;A bowl, adown the bending mountain rolled;A bubble breaking—and a fable told;A noontide shadow, and a midnight dream;Are emblems which, semblance apt, proclaimOur earthly course.”—Prior.2. In the uncertainty of our lives. In all seasons the blade dies. Every moment some grass withers. Every second some man dies—either the infant, the youth, or the aged. But we know not the day or the hour. 3. In the unnoticeableness of our dissolution. Unnumbered blades of grass wither and die every day, yet the landscape is as beautiful as ever, for others spring up and take their place. So with man. Multitudes are dying every day, but all goes on as usual. [1578][1578] If the death of ordinary individuals be but as the casting of a pebble from the seashore into the ocean, which is neither missed from the one nor sensibly gained by the other, the death of the more extraordinary ones is but as the foundering of a piece of rock into the abyss beneath: it makes at the time a great splash, but the wave it raises soon subsides into a ripple, and the ripple itself soon sinks to a placid level.—J. A. James. .—What effect ought these truths to produce? They should lead, 1. To the diligent improvement of human life. The great business of life is to know and serve God (1 Chronicles 28:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Timothy 4:8; Philippians 3:8; Ecclesiastes 12:13). Can anything be more important, more rational, more excellent? To seek and secure the salvation of your soul. What a work to be accomplished! and all during this short, this uncertain life! Be diligent. 2. To constant readiness for death (H. E. I. 1562–1566; P. D. 730, 734).—Alfred Tucker. THE CAPTIVE SEEKING Isaiah 51:14-15. The captive exile hasteneth, &c. [1581][1581] Before developing either of the outlines here reproduced, attention should be given to Delitzsch’s translation of these verses. I. A OF THE OF THE SINNER—AN EXILE. 1. His captivity. (1.) Judicial; (2.) practical; (3.) circumstantial. 2. His impending destruction. II. THE EAGER DESIRE OF THE EXILE FOR . (1.) He uses every probable means for it. (2.) There appears to him a good prospect of deliverance. III. THE MADE FOR THE CAPTIVE EXILE. (1.) The Gospel is a revelation of mercy. (2.) A dispensation of power. (3.) The effectual means of a sinner’s deliverance from sin.—T. Lessey.The captive. I. His condition—captive—in the pit. II. His fears—destitution—destruction. III. His encouragement—deliverance is at hand. IV. His assurance—the Word—the power of God.—J. Lyth, D.D.: Homiletical Treasury, Isaiah, p. 70. , ENDOWED, AND (Wicklyffe Quincentenary.) [1584][1584] We find a signal verification of this promise in the career of John Wicklyffe, the quincentenary of whose death affords a fitting occasion for reverting to the times in which he lived, and the task he was selected to perform. He was employed in a work which may fitly be described as “planting the heavens.” The imagery is drawn from fixing the stakes of a tent, and we may well say that the Reformation supplied a new spiritual canopy to the world. Men’s outlook into the invisible became clearer; the heavens brightened overhead, as the clouds of ignorance, spiritual tyranny, and human mediation were dispersed, and the Sun of righteousness poured His unobstructed rays upon the earth. No less appropriately may we speak of the Reformation as “laying the foundations of the earth.” The Romish system had no firm basis; men were building on loose material, and the rubbish had to be swept away before a secure foundation could be obtained. The truth of the Gospel was overlaid with fictions and corruptions, till the Reformers dug through it to the solid rock. Wicklyffe was among the first to set to work with the pickaxe and spade. Again, of this Reformer we may say that “God put His words into his mouth.” This was the source and secret of his power. At Oxford he read and studied the Latin Bible, and, in later life, made the first complete translation of it into English. Very remarkable, too, is the way in which God preserved him through persecution and sickness till his work was completed. He was suffered to live to the end of his days, and after his death his spirit lived in his writings. He gave the Scriptures to the people in their mother tongue, and no earthly power could recall that precious gift. Let us not forget that this promise belongs to all who love and serve the Lord. We have all a mission somewhere in helping forward the new creation. God hath put His words in your mouth—words of truth and power, of life and love. He has covered you in the shadow of His hand. You are secure in the discharge of your commission. What a wondrous purpose you are chosen to subserve! Who shall frustrate God’s work? Shall we not gladly yield ourselves as instruments in making this earth once more a paradise of beauty and holiness?—William Guthrie, M.A.Isaiah 51:16. And I have put My words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee, &c.Great words these, to be spoken by God to men! We need have no hesitation in appropriating for ourselves the comfort and encouragement they convey, for, though addressed to Israel and referring to the work to be accomplished by their Messiah, we have each a Divine mission to fulfil as servants and followers of Christ, and ours are the promises by which He was sustained. God here declares what is His great design—“to plant,” &c. The language is clearly figurative, and denotes the new creation. At Isaiah 51:13 reference is made to the first creation, and this is used in the text as an image of the second—spiritual creation. There are many points of similarity between the two. Both alike are works of Divine power, wrought by the word of God’s mouth (Genesis 1:3; James 1:18). In both there is the operation of the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2; John 3:5). In the new creation the peace, holiness, and love, which were lost by the Fall, are restored, and the object of all God’s dealings with our sinful race through long centuries is to create them anew, and restore them to His favour and image. Like the first creation, the new is a gradual process, advancing from age to age. 1. In this work God employs His servants. When it is said “that I may plant,” &c., it is obvious that it is through Israel the work is to be done (1 Corinthians 3:9). What an honour that He should call us to His service, and use us as instruments in realising. His great designs. Here is a thought to make us brave and diligent. Let us make our work God’s and God’s work ours, devoting our energies to the furtherance of His kingdom. Every other aim that engages our time and talents is trifling compared with this. If a man feels that his uppermost wish is to promote the Redeemer’s reign, he is ennobled, sanctifying all his endeavours by throwing into them a lofty purpose, and making all his activities converge upon the advancement of the truth. No man will ever do anything great and enduring who does not thus ally himself with God. Let a man say,—“This work, at which I am toiling, is not after all my work but God’s,” and in that lies the secret of strenuous labour and patience amid discouragement. Oh the honour, the dignity, the peace of being consciously a worker together with God! That is to dwell in a region high above the fretting cares and sordid aims of the ordinary world. While others are wailing their hopeless dirges, you are singing your hymns of faith and hope. 2. For this work God arms His servants. “I have put My words in thy mouth.” This is the weapon which we are to wield (1 Thessalonians 2:13). He is fully furnished into whose mouth God puts His word, who wields the sword of the Spirit. How feeble is man’s word, the word of even the mightiest of men. It falls as powerless as King Canute’s order to the flowing tide, bidding it retire from his royal feet as he sat upon the shore. But behind God’s word there is the omnipotence of Him whose word it is. Let us have faith in God’s words, in their power to subdue human hearts. It is because we often utter them as if they were our own words that they are robbed of their power. It is because we listen to them as man’s words that we despise them. This is all we need for the spiritual conquest of the world—to have God’s words put in our mouth. With this weapon wisely used we shall overcome the giants of ignorance, Superstition, and unbelief. The men of Reformation times were courageous, because they had a firm faith in God’s word, and what the Church needs to-day is a revival of that unquestioning faith in God’s message as a power to plant the spiritual heavens and lay anew the foundations of the earth, to carry peace to the troubled and comfort to the disconsolate, to disarm hostility, break down prejudices and bear down opposition, and guide the seeking soul to the Cross. 3. For this work and in it God preserves His servants. “I have covered thee in the shadow of Mine hand.” He who undertakes God’s work may expect to encounter opposition from the world, which is opposed to God’s loving purpose. Israel had a Divine mission to fulfil, and the nation is represented in Isaiah 51:12-13 as cowering before their oppressors. But what encouragement God gives them: “I, even I, am He that comforteth you,” &c. God overrules the doings and designs of evil men for the overwhelming of their own cause. With His protection there is no occasion for fear. Our mistake is that we “forget the Lord our Maker,” while we are surrounded by oppressors; like Peter sinking in fear, while he looks at the tossing waves and withdraws his eye from his Master’s form. Could we keep our eye steadily fixed on Him, no oppressor should alarm us. With Him as our Comforter, who shall be our tormentor? Moses was reluctant to undertake the task with which God charged him at the bush. But his excuses are overruled. “Certainly I will be with thee.” In carrying out his commission his life was frequently in danger, but “God covered him in the shadow of His hand” (Hebrews 11:27). “Man is immortal till his work is done.” Paul, too, was “in deaths oft,” but what says God to him in his extremity? (Acts 18:9-10). So, too, with Martin Luther. What a marvellous history of preservation! But for the wars in which Charles V. was engaged the Reformer would have been crushed, and the Reformation, for a time at least, frustrated. Believer, you have a gracious and omnipotent Preserver. In contending for the truth, in encountering shame and reproach, in meeting hindrances in the way of your God-given task, remember that the shadow of God’s own hand is over you, and you shall not quail before your adversaries.—William Guthrie, M.A. JEHOVAH’S ANGER Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:20; Isaiah 51:22. The fury of the Lord, &c. [1587][1587] See vol. i. pp. 284–286, and H. E. I. 2288–2294. God’s anger must, of course, be understood in a manner in accordance with the Divine nature; and we are not to suppose that precisely the same passions or the same feelings are referred to when this language is used of God which is implied when it is used of men. It means that His nature, His laws, His government, His feelings, are all arrayed against the wicked; that He cannot regard the conduct of the wicked with favour; that He will punish them. He is angry with the wicked continually, constantly, always. It is not excitement, it is not a temporary passion, such as we see in men. It is not sudden emotion, soon to be succeeded by a different feeling when the passion passes off. It is the steady and uniform attribute of His unchanging nature to be always opposed to the wicked,—to all forms of sin; and in Him, in this respect, there will be no change. The wicked will find Him no more favourable to their character and course of life to-morrow than He is to-day; no more beyond the grave than this side of the tomb.… This is a fearful truth in regard to the sinner, and should make him tremble:—(1.) that God is angry with him—that all His character, and all the principles of His government and law, are and must be arrayed against him; and (2.), that in this respect there is to be no change; that if he continues to be wicked, as he is now, he will every day and always—this side the grave and beyond—find all the attributes of God engaged against him, and pledged to punish him. God has no attribute that can take part with sin or the sinner.—A. Barnes, D.D. The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the higher the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose. If God should only withdraw His hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.—Jonathan Edwards.I. It is real. There is such a thing as anger in God. Many are the expressions used concerning it—jealousy, vengeance, fury, wrath; all to indicate its existence, and to show us that the human theories of Divine universal benevolence are not true, being got up for a purpose, and that purpose to persuade the sinner’s own conscience that he need not be alarmed because of his guilt; and that no one need dread the infliction of punishment, except perhaps a few of the most wicked of our race. But God’s words are not exaggerations, nor words of course. There is a terrible truth contained in these oft-repeated words of Scripture, “His anger was kindled.” Loving and gracious as Jehovah is, His anger is real. When Jesus comes the second time, He comes to “take vengeance.” II. It is righteous. It is not the rage of selfishness, or passion, or affront. It is judicial anger; the anger of the righteous judge. It is anger against sin, against the sinner, anger because of insulted law and dishonoured righteousness. Nothing in it is unjust, or cruel, or arbitrary. Then the condemned soul will be compelled hereafter to say, “It is all right and just,” it shall be right and just to all eternity.” III. It is terrible. Though calm, it is unutterably awful; nay, overwhelming. No power and no numbers shall be able to stand before it. It shall sweep everything before it like a whirlwind. The expulsion from paradise, the Deluge, the ruin of Sodom, are specimens of its terribleness. The lost soul shall be utterly overwhelmed. (â) IV. It is inexorable. Nothing but genuine repentance shall turn it aside, or soften it when once it is kindled. “The vengeance of eternal fire,” the “everlasting burning,” the “worm that dieth not,” these are awful words, and however figurative they may be, they represent terrible realities (H. E. I. 2804).—Horatius Bonar, D.D.: Light and Truth, Old Testament, p. 345. THE NAME Isaiah 51:22. Thy LORD the LORD, and thy God. The history, which includes the textual statement. Consider— 1. The character which God here claims for Himself. 1. Independent and self-existent in Being, and therefore—Infinite—fills all space; everlasting—fills all time; the source of all being. 2. Unlimited in perfection. All perfections. Infinite in each. 3. Unlimited in sovereignty. He does according to His will. His will the highest reason. None can counsel Him. 4. Unlimited in the extent of His government. None are exempted from it. 5. Himself the end of all things. Everything originates with Him. Everything terminates in Him. II. The limitations which men put upon the claim which is thus made by God. They put limits upon, 1. His being. The having and worshipping false gods. That is not God which is not self-existent; and two self-existent Gods cannot be conceived. 2. His perfections. The conceptions which men form and express. The preference which man gives to the creature. The silence of man in His praise. The little imitation there is of Him. The manner in which men expect to recommend themselves to His favour. The manner in which His servants are treated. 3. On His absolute sovereignty. Confining our attention to systems of doctrine called Christian, men question God’s absolute sovereignty, in the election, calling, justification, and perseverance of His people. 4. On the extent of His government. Some exclude Him from creation, providence, in prayer, conversation, conduct, civil authority, the government of the Church, and conscience. 5. As the end of all things. Men make themselves the end. .—He is not, and cannot be limited. In acting, He disregards the limits of men. He punishes the pride and insolence of man for limiting Him. He calls the notice of His people to the vindication of His glory.—James Stewart: Outlines of Discourses, pp. 2–4. THE AND OF THE CHURCH (Preached before a Presbyterian General Assembly.) Isaiah 52:1. Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion. This language is a direct address from God to His ancient Church. The image which it presents is that of a sleeping giant. The Church of God had been a giant power in the world; but at the time in which God speaks it had relapsed into slumber—had put off its strength, and, being beset with enemies, this position of torpor and inaction was one of peril. Hence this arousing note of alarm, “Awake, awake!” The slumbering giant is not only summoned to arouse to consciousness, but to put on and put forth his strength for conflict and for victory. The text is a forcible reminder of the mysterious and discouraging fact that the Church of God, in all ages, may have its times of weakness, as well as its times of power. When the Church first went forth from Jerusalem, a little flock, scattered hither and thither by the storm of persecution, it was a time of power. It was then but an infant of days, but it “lifted empires off their hinges, and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel.”—(Richter.) But a time of weakness followed this era of power—the dark night of the middle ages. Again there came a time of power when, on the morning of the Reformation, the Church heard the cry, “Awake, awake!” and, springing up with renewed youth, it put on its strength. The chill of formalism followed the track of the Reformation, and the Church sank into the coma of wide-spread paralysis; a disguised Romanism riveted her fetters; the Socinian apostasy spread its blight over Great Britain. But then came times of power, when the Church arose in quickened majesty; and still again, times of wondrous spiritual revival, when the call sounded by Wesley and Whitefield, like the voice of the prophet in the valley of vision, seemed to awake the dead. I. Why these periods of weakness? If the Church is a giant begirt with power, and that power is divine; if it is commissioned to exercise the evil spirit from the world, and goes forth with the promise of help and victory, then why these times of weakness? Answer:—The power of the Church is divine, but it is also human. What man can do, he must do. To roll away the stone from the grave of Lazarus was something that man could do; hence our Lord commanded human hands to do it. This act of human strength must antecede the word of power which raises the dead. Divine power and human strength must work together, each in its appropriate sphere. Divine efficiency does not supersede human agency, but only supplements its weakness. If man’s part in the work or warfare of the Church is properly executed, God’s part will never fail. But, as the terror of the iron chariots of the enemy paralysed the strength of Judah—so that, the human part being wanting, the victory was lost (Judges 1:19)—so, in the Church, if any cause supervenes to weaken, or render ineffective, the strength which God expects us to put forth, He will not depart from His plan, or interpose to save us from the result of our own weakness, or to hide us from the scorn and derision of the world. II. What is the strength of the Church, and when is it put off?1. The first element of power is the Gospel. This is the one element for our work, the one weapon for our warfare—it is the power of God. The astronomer looks at the heavens. These stars are to be counted; these constellations are to be mapped; the orbits of these planets are to be observed. Here is a vast and complicated work; but how is it to be done? By the telescope. He has this, and nothing else. All the great results of astronomy must spring, first of all, from this single instrument. Just so the Church looks out upon its work. It is commissioned to bring this world in captivity to the obedience of Christ. A mighty and multiform work; how is it to be achieved? By the Gospel. God has given us this, and nothing else, to save the world. It is the “power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” “It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.” Moses was commanded to smite the rock at Horeb, and bring from its bosom streams of water. How? He was given but one instrument—the slender rod that he held in his hand. To human view the rock would be more likely to break the rod than the rod to rend the rock; but that fragile rod was God’s ordained instrument of power; and, when it smote, the riven rock gushed with the living waters. Just so, the Word of God is the rod of power. We are commanded to smite with it alone, for by nothing else can the stony heart be broken. For every work which the Church is sent to do, this is the instrument of power. This being so, we can readily see from this standpoint how this strength may be put off, and power give place to weakness. To neglect, to withhold, to minimise, to obscure in any manner the truth of God, is to put off this element of power, and to bring in a time of weakness. This may occur (1.) When the truth is depreciated, or its necessity not clearly recognised. Thus, for example, some say, “Preach morality; let us hear more about the duties of life, and less about the doctrines of the Cross.” Morality, without principle, is a sham; it is tinselled fruit tied upon a Christmas-tree—the only connection is the tape that ties it. Morality is the fruit of principle, but principle is doctrine—and the only doctrine that bears this fruit is the doctrine of the Cross. (2.) Whenever the Gospel is subordinated to human themes. If the Church dispenses essays upon history, antiquities, philosophy, politics, science, or reflects the light of the secular press, &c., it will be no marvel if it sinks into imbecility. (3.) Our strength is crippled when the Gospel is caricatured by sensational themes, discussions, illustrations and expedients, which attract attention, indeed, but which belittle the sacred doctrine of the Cross. But whilst causes like these paralyse our power, there are others which produce simply an abatement of strength. For example, the Church can only put forth half its strength when the Gospel is but half told. If it sets out in full light the Divine love, whilst it keeps back Divine justice under the shadow of a dark eclipse; if it tells of Christ’s teachings, and is silent about Christ’s sacrifice; if it points to Christ’s life, and not to Christ’s blood, as the centre of saving efficiency; if it sets out the freedom of man, and holds in abeyance Divine sovereignty and efficacious grace; or if it minimises the Gospel in the one sentence, “Come to Jesus;” or if it lays Christ as a humble suppliant at the feet of men until proud sinners imagine that it is a stoop of condescension to permit Jesus to save them—then, surely, it is no marvel that men turn away from a belittled Gospel and a belittled Saviour, and that the Church sits in weakness. 2. The second element is the ministry. Let us not lose sight of the figure of the text. The Church is a giant; the Gospel is the instrument of his work—the weapon of his warfare. But what wields the weapon? The giant’s arm—this is the ministry. It is the arm or the agent of the Church’s power. The symbol of the Gospel is a hammer, a word; but a hammer is powerless without a strong hand to use it; the sword is ineffective without a skilful arm to wield it. This arm, this sword, this agent of strength and skill, is the ministry. This figure seems to describe accurately the kind of power with which the ministry is invested. It is not an original power inherent in itself, but a delegated power. It is the power of an agent, and it has an instrument of power put into its hands. It is not a power to infuse grace, or to forgive sins, or to bind the conscience, but simply an administrative power. It is a power of vocation to utter the Gospel call, to summon God’s sons from afar, and His daughters from the ends of the earth. A teaching power—go teach all nations; preach the Gospel to every creature. A dispensing power to break the Bread of Life, and to distribute, with a liberal hand, to all God’s children, giving to each a portion in due season. A power to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. We may readily see when this strength is put on, and when it is put off. Whatever cripples or weakens or interferes with the right use and proper functions of a giant’s arm, weakens and abates the effectiveness of the giant himself; so whatever weakens the ministry, or hinders its effectiveness, puts off to that extent the strength of the Church, and introduces a time of weakness and defeat. (1.) The ministry, as an arm of power, may be withered by a perfunctory education. Ministers may be taught to know about God, but not to know God. They may learn to explain and defend the Gospel, without having ever felt that a single Gospel truth has been riveted as a living, burning power in their own souls. A minister who knows what it is to be a saved sinner, can tell of it with such power as to make others feel that there is nothing between them and eternal death but the blood of Jesus. But, without this experience, the minister will be a perfunctory drone, stepping in a treadmill, or doing out his lifeless essay whilst sinners are slipping through his fingers into perdition. (2.) The ministry must be a source of weakness instead of power to the Church, if it is not in sympathy with the hearts of the people, and the souls of perishing men. He who was once lost but is found again, will know how to feel for the lost, and the lost will listen to him who once was lost himself. This is the natural power of the minister, the link of sympathy that binds him to the hearts of the people and the souls of men. If this be lost the ministry is powerless. 3. The third and principal element of the Church’s power is the Holy Ghost. The implement of the Church’s work is the Word; the arm of the Church’s power is the ministry; but the power itself is the Holy Ghost. As He causeth the earth to bring forth and bud by showers from heaven, so He causes His Church to abound in the fruits of righteousness by times of refreshing from on high. A revival is a day of the Spirit’s power, when the enemy is repulsed; when sinners are made willing; when doubt and unbelief are dissipated. If such a day of power were granted to us now, you would see rationalism, scepticism, and infidelity driven like smoke before the wind. III. Such being the elements of the Church’s power, and the causes which convert its strength into weakness, let us now listen to God’s call to the Church to put on and put forth her strength. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion!” An army puts on its strength when it goes forth to battle, but this is strength to destroy. A fireman puts on his strength when he enters a burning dwelling, and plucks its sleeping inmates from the flames. This is strength to save. Oh, it is a glorious thing to put on strength to save! How, then, shall we put on this strength?Physical strength is put on in one way, and spiritual strength in another. Some seem to imagine that they have only to arouse and stir themselves into an agony of effort. Samson arose and shook himself, and thought he would go forth and smite the Philistines, as aforetime; but, alas! the strength was not there—it had departed from him. So the Church may shake herself and advance to the conflict, but the strength is not there; the Philistines are upon her, and she wists not that the Lord has departed. This is not the way! One who is physically strong is conscious of his strength, but one who is spiritually strong is conscious of nothing but weakness. Spiritual power, in its first element, is the sense of our own weakness. No man ever puts on spiritual strength except on his knees. It was there that the apostles found it. When Peter stood forth and preached to the multitude, that day of Pentecost was a day of power; it was the Spirit’s power; but how did the apostles put it on? Upon their knees; in those days of prayer, in the upper chamber in Jerusalem. It is upon our knees that the Church must put on its strength! Then shall our work be “mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.”—W. M. Paxton, D.D. JEHOVAH’S ANGER Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:20; Isaiah 51:22. The fury of the Lord, &c. [1587][1587] See vol. i. pp. 284–286, and H. E. I. 2288–2294. God’s anger must, of course, be understood in a manner in accordance with the Divine nature; and we are not to suppose that precisely the same passions or the same feelings are referred to when this language is used of God which is implied when it is used of men. It means that His nature, His laws, His government, His feelings, are all arrayed against the wicked; that He cannot regard the conduct of the wicked with favour; that He will punish them. He is angry with the wicked continually, constantly, always. It is not excitement, it is not a temporary passion, such as we see in men. It is not sudden emotion, soon to be succeeded by a different feeling when the passion passes off. It is the steady and uniform attribute of His unchanging nature to be always opposed to the wicked,—to all forms of sin; and in Him, in this respect, there will be no change. The wicked will find Him no more favourable to their character and course of life to-morrow than He is to-day; no more beyond the grave than this side of the tomb.… This is a fearful truth in regard to the sinner, and should make him tremble:—(1.) that God is angry with him—that all His character, and all the principles of His government and law, are and must be arrayed against him; and (2.), that in this respect there is to be no change; that if he continues to be wicked, as he is now, he will every day and always—this side the grave and beyond—find all the attributes of God engaged against him, and pledged to punish him. God has no attribute that can take part with sin or the sinner.—A. Barnes, D.D. The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the higher the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose. If God should only withdraw His hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.—Jonathan Edwards.I. It is real. There is such a thing as anger in God. Many are the expressions used concerning it—jealousy, vengeance, fury, wrath; all to indicate its existence, and to show us that the human theories of Divine universal benevolence are not true, being got up for a purpose, and that purpose to persuade the sinner’s own conscience that he need not be alarmed because of his guilt; and that no one need dread the infliction of punishment, except perhaps a few of the most wicked of our race. But God’s words are not exaggerations, nor words of course. There is a terrible truth contained in these oft-repeated words of Scripture, “His anger was kindled.” Loving and gracious as Jehovah is, His anger is real. When Jesus comes the second time, He comes to “take vengeance.” II. It is righteous. It is not the rage of selfishness, or passion, or affront. It is judicial anger; the anger of the righteous judge. It is anger against sin, against the sinner, anger because of insulted law and dishonoured righteousness. Nothing in it is unjust, or cruel, or arbitrary. Then the condemned soul will be compelled hereafter to say, “It is all right and just,” it shall be right and just to all eternity.” III. It is terrible. Though calm, it is unutterably awful; nay, overwhelming. No power and no numbers shall be able to stand before it. It shall sweep everything before it like a whirlwind. The expulsion from paradise, the Deluge, the ruin of Sodom, are specimens of its terribleness. The lost soul shall be utterly overwhelmed. (â) IV. It is inexorable. Nothing but genuine repentance shall turn it aside, or soften it when once it is kindled. “The vengeance of eternal fire,” the “everlasting burning,” the “worm that dieth not,” these are awful words, and however figurative they may be, they represent terrible realities (H. E. I. 2804).—Horatius Bonar, D.D.: Light and Truth, Old Testament, p. 345. THE NAME Isaiah 51:22. Thy LORD the LORD, and thy God. The history, which includes the textual statement. Consider— 1. The character which God here claims for Himself. 1. Independent and self-existent in Being, and therefore—Infinite—fills all space; everlasting—fills all time; the source of all being. 2. Unlimited in perfection. All perfections. Infinite in each. 3. Unlimited in sovereignty. He does according to His will. His will the highest reason. None can counsel Him. 4. Unlimited in the extent of His government. None are exempted from it. 5. Himself the end of all things. Everything originates with Him. Everything terminates in Him. II. The limitations which men put upon the claim which is thus made by God. They put limits upon, 1. His being. The having and worshipping false gods. That is not God which is not self-existent; and two self-existent Gods cannot be conceived. 2. His perfections. The conceptions which men form and express. The preference which man gives to the creature. The silence of man in His praise. The little imitation there is of Him. The manner in which men expect to recommend themselves to His favour. The manner in which His servants are treated. 3. On His absolute sovereignty. Confining our attention to systems of doctrine called Christian, men question God’s absolute sovereignty, in the election, calling, justification, and perseverance of His people. 4. On the extent of His government. Some exclude Him from creation, providence, in prayer, conversation, conduct, civil authority, the government of the Church, and conscience. 5. As the end of all things. Men make themselves the end. .—He is not, and cannot be limited. In acting, He disregards the limits of men. He punishes the pride and insolence of man for limiting Him. He calls the notice of His people to the vindication of His glory.—James Stewart: Outlines of Discourses, pp. 2–4. THE AND OF THE CHURCH (Preached before a Presbyterian General Assembly.) Isaiah 52:1. Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion. This language is a direct address from God to His ancient Church. The image which it presents is that of a sleeping giant. The Church of God had been a giant power in the world; but at the time in which God speaks it had relapsed into slumber—had put off its strength, and, being beset with enemies, this position of torpor and inaction was one of peril. Hence this arousing note of alarm, “Awake, awake!” The slumbering giant is not only summoned to arouse to consciousness, but to put on and put forth his strength for conflict and for victory. The text is a forcible reminder of the mysterious and discouraging fact that the Church of God, in all ages, may have its times of weakness, as well as its times of power. When the Church first went forth from Jerusalem, a little flock, scattered hither and thither by the storm of persecution, it was a time of power. It was then but an infant of days, but it “lifted empires off their hinges, and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel.”—(Richter.) But a time of weakness followed this era of power—the dark night of the middle ages. Again there came a time of power when, on the morning of the Reformation, the Church heard the cry, “Awake, awake!” and, springing up with renewed youth, it put on its strength. The chill of formalism followed the track of the Reformation, and the Church sank into the coma of wide-spread paralysis; a disguised Romanism riveted her fetters; the Socinian apostasy spread its blight over Great Britain. But then came times of power, when the Church arose in quickened majesty; and still again, times of wondrous spiritual revival, when the call sounded by Wesley and Whitefield, like the voice of the prophet in the valley of vision, seemed to awake the dead. I. Why these periods of weakness? If the Church is a giant begirt with power, and that power is divine; if it is commissioned to exercise the evil spirit from the world, and goes forth with the promise of help and victory, then why these times of weakness? Answer:—The power of the Church is divine, but it is also human. What man can do, he must do. To roll away the stone from the grave of Lazarus was something that man could do; hence our Lord commanded human hands to do it. This act of human strength must antecede the word of power which raises the dead. Divine power and human strength must work together, each in its appropriate sphere. Divine efficiency does not supersede human agency, but only supplements its weakness. If man’s part in the work or warfare of the Church is properly executed, God’s part will never fail. But, as the terror of the iron chariots of the enemy paralysed the strength of Judah—so that, the human part being wanting, the victory was lost (Judges 1:19)—so, in the Church, if any cause supervenes to weaken, or render ineffective, the strength which God expects us to put forth, He will not depart from His plan, or interpose to save us from the result of our own weakness, or to hide us from the scorn and derision of the world. II. What is the strength of the Church, and when is it put off?1. The first element of power is the Gospel. This is the one element for our work, the one weapon for our warfare—it is the power of God. The astronomer looks at the heavens. These stars are to be counted; these constellations are to be mapped; the orbits of these planets are to be observed. Here is a vast and complicated work; but how is it to be done? By the telescope. He has this, and nothing else. All the great results of astronomy must spring, first of all, from this single instrument. Just so the Church looks out upon its work. It is commissioned to bring this world in captivity to the obedience of Christ. A mighty and multiform work; how is it to be achieved? By the Gospel. God has given us this, and nothing else, to save the world. It is the “power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” “It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.” Moses was commanded to smite the rock at Horeb, and bring from its bosom streams of water. How? He was given but one instrument—the slender rod that he held in his hand. To human view the rock would be more likely to break the rod than the rod to rend the rock; but that fragile rod was God’s ordained instrument of power; and, when it smote, the riven rock gushed with the living waters. Just so, the Word of God is the rod of power. We are commanded to smite with it alone, for by nothing else can the stony heart be broken. For every work which the Church is sent to do, this is the instrument of power. This being so, we can readily see from this standpoint how this strength may be put off, and power give place to weakness. To neglect, to withhold, to minimise, to obscure in any manner the truth of God, is to put off this element of power, and to bring in a time of weakness. This may occur (1.) When the truth is depreciated, or its necessity not clearly recognised. Thus, for example, some say, “Preach morality; let us hear more about the duties of life, and less about the doctrines of the Cross.” Morality, without principle, is a sham; it is tinselled fruit tied upon a Christmas-tree—the only connection is the tape that ties it. Morality is the fruit of principle, but principle is doctrine—and the only doctrine that bears this fruit is the doctrine of the Cross. (2.) Whenever the Gospel is subordinated to human themes. If the Church dispenses essays upon history, antiquities, philosophy, politics, science, or reflects the light of the secular press, &c., it will be no marvel if it sinks into imbecility. (3.) Our strength is crippled when the Gospel is caricatured by sensational themes, discussions, illustrations and expedients, which attract attention, indeed, but which belittle the sacred doctrine of the Cross. But whilst causes like these paralyse our power, there are others which produce simply an abatement of strength. For example, the Church can only put forth half its strength when the Gospel is but half told. If it sets out in full light the Divine love, whilst it keeps back Divine justice under the shadow of a dark eclipse; if it tells of Christ’s teachings, and is silent about Christ’s sacrifice; if it points to Christ’s life, and not to Christ’s blood, as the centre of saving efficiency; if it sets out the freedom of man, and holds in abeyance Divine sovereignty and efficacious grace; or if it minimises the Gospel in the one sentence, “Come to Jesus;” or if it lays Christ as a humble suppliant at the feet of men until proud sinners imagine that it is a stoop of condescension to permit Jesus to save them—then, surely, it is no marvel that men turn away from a belittled Gospel and a belittled Saviour, and that the Church sits in weakness. 2. The second element is the ministry. Let us not lose sight of the figure of the text. The Church is a giant; the Gospel is the instrument of his work—the weapon of his warfare. But what wields the weapon? The giant’s arm—this is the ministry. It is the arm or the agent of the Church’s power. The symbol of the Gospel is a hammer, a word; but a hammer is powerless without a strong hand to use it; the sword is ineffective without a skilful arm to wield it. This arm, this sword, this agent of strength and skill, is the ministry. This figure seems to describe accurately the kind of power with which the ministry is invested. It is not an original power inherent in itself, but a delegated power. It is the power of an agent, and it has an instrument of power put into its hands. It is not a power to infuse grace, or to forgive sins, or to bind the conscience, but simply an administrative power. It is a power of vocation to utter the Gospel call, to summon God’s sons from afar, and His daughters from the ends of the earth. A teaching power—go teach all nations; preach the Gospel to every creature. A dispensing power to break the Bread of Life, and to distribute, with a liberal hand, to all God’s children, giving to each a portion in due season. A power to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. We may readily see when this strength is put on, and when it is put off. Whatever cripples or weakens or interferes with the right use and proper functions of a giant’s arm, weakens and abates the effectiveness of the giant himself; so whatever weakens the ministry, or hinders its effectiveness, puts off to that extent the strength of the Church, and introduces a time of weakness and defeat. (1.) The ministry, as an arm of power, may be withered by a perfunctory education. Ministers may be taught to know about God, but not to know God. They may learn to explain and defend the Gospel, without having ever felt that a single Gospel truth has been riveted as a living, burning power in their own souls. A minister who knows what it is to be a saved sinner, can tell of it with such power as to make others feel that there is nothing between them and eternal death but the blood of Jesus. But, without this experience, the minister will be a perfunctory drone, stepping in a treadmill, or doing out his lifeless essay whilst sinners are slipping through his fingers into perdition. (2.) The ministry must be a source of weakness instead of power to the Church, if it is not in sympathy with the hearts of the people, and the souls of perishing men. He who was once lost but is found again, will know how to feel for the lost, and the lost will listen to him who once was lost himself. This is the natural power of the minister, the link of sympathy that binds him to the hearts of the people and the souls of men. If this be lost the ministry is powerless. 3. The third and principal element of the Church’s power is the Holy Ghost. The implement of the Church’s work is the Word; the arm of the Church’s power is the ministry; but the power itself is the Holy Ghost. As He causeth the earth to bring forth and bud by showers from heaven, so He causes His Church to abound in the fruits of righteousness by times of refreshing from on high. A revival is a day of the Spirit’s power, when the enemy is repulsed; when sinners are made willing; when doubt and unbelief are dissipated. If such a day of power were granted to us now, you would see rationalism, scepticism, and infidelity driven like smoke before the wind. III. Such being the elements of the Church’s power, and the causes which convert its strength into weakness, let us now listen to God’s call to the Church to put on and put forth her strength. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion!” An army puts on its strength when it goes forth to battle, but this is strength to destroy. A fireman puts on his strength when he enters a burning dwelling, and plucks its sleeping inmates from the flames. This is strength to save. Oh, it is a glorious thing to put on strength to save! How, then, shall we put on this strength?Physical strength is put on in one way, and spiritual strength in another. Some seem to imagine that they have only to arouse and stir themselves into an agony of effort. Samson arose and shook himself, and thought he would go forth and smite the Philistines, as aforetime; but, alas! the strength was not there—it had departed from him. So the Church may shake herself and advance to the conflict, but the strength is not there; the Philistines are upon her, and she wists not that the Lord has departed. This is not the way! One who is physically strong is conscious of his strength, but one who is spiritually strong is conscious of nothing but weakness. Spiritual power, in its first element, is the sense of our own weakness. No man ever puts on spiritual strength except on his knees. It was there that the apostles found it. When Peter stood forth and preached to the multitude, that day of Pentecost was a day of power; it was the Spirit’s power; but how did the apostles put it on? Upon their knees; in those days of prayer, in the upper chamber in Jerusalem. It is upon our knees that the Church must put on its strength! Then shall our work be “mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.”—W. M. Paxton, D.D. JEHOVAH’S ANGER Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:20; Isaiah 51:22. The fury of the Lord, &c. [1587][1587] See vol. i. pp. 284–286, and H. E. I. 2288–2294. God’s anger must, of course, be understood in a manner in accordance with the Divine nature; and we are not to suppose that precisely the same passions or the same feelings are referred to when this language is used of God which is implied when it is used of men. It means that His nature, His laws, His government, His feelings, are all arrayed against the wicked; that He cannot regard the conduct of the wicked with favour; that He will punish them. He is angry with the wicked continually, constantly, always. It is not excitement, it is not a temporary passion, such as we see in men. It is not sudden emotion, soon to be succeeded by a different feeling when the passion passes off. It is the steady and uniform attribute of His unchanging nature to be always opposed to the wicked,—to all forms of sin; and in Him, in this respect, there will be no change. The wicked will find Him no more favourable to their character and course of life to-morrow than He is to-day; no more beyond the grave than this side of the tomb.… This is a fearful truth in regard to the sinner, and should make him tremble:—(1.) that God is angry with him—that all His character, and all the principles of His government and law, are and must be arrayed against him; and (2.), that in this respect there is to be no change; that if he continues to be wicked, as he is now, he will every day and always—this side the grave and beyond—find all the attributes of God engaged against him, and pledged to punish him. God has no attribute that can take part with sin or the sinner.—A. Barnes, D.D. The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the higher the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose. If God should only withdraw His hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.—Jonathan Edwards.I. It is real. There is such a thing as anger in God. Many are the expressions used concerning it—jealousy, vengeance, fury, wrath; all to indicate its existence, and to show us that the human theories of Divine universal benevolence are not true, being got up for a purpose, and that purpose to persuade the sinner’s own conscience that he need not be alarmed because of his guilt; and that no one need dread the infliction of punishment, except perhaps a few of the most wicked of our race. But God’s words are not exaggerations, nor words of course. There is a terrible truth contained in these oft-repeated words of Scripture, “His anger was kindled.” Loving and gracious as Jehovah is, His anger is real. When Jesus comes the second time, He comes to “take vengeance.” II. It is righteous. It is not the rage of selfishness, or passion, or affront. It is judicial anger; the anger of the righteous judge. It is anger against sin, against the sinner, anger because of insulted law and dishonoured righteousness. Nothing in it is unjust, or cruel, or arbitrary. Then the condemned soul will be compelled hereafter to say, “It is all right and just,” it shall be right and just to all eternity.” III. It is terrible. Though calm, it is unutterably awful; nay, overwhelming. No power and no numbers shall be able to stand before it. It shall sweep everything before it like a whirlwind. The expulsion from paradise, the Deluge, the ruin of Sodom, are specimens of its terribleness. The lost soul shall be utterly overwhelmed. (â) IV. It is inexorable. Nothing but genuine repentance shall turn it aside, or soften it when once it is kindled. “The vengeance of eternal fire,” the “everlasting burning,” the “worm that dieth not,” these are awful words, and however figurative they may be, they represent terrible realities (H. E. I. 2804).—Horatius Bonar, D.D.: Light and Truth, Old Testament, p. 345. THE NAME Isaiah 51:22. Thy LORD the LORD, and thy God. The history, which includes the textual statement. Consider— 1. The character which God here claims for Himself. 1. Independent and self-existent in Being, and therefore—Infinite—fills all space; everlasting—fills all time; the source of all being. 2. Unlimited in perfection. All perfections. Infinite in each. 3. Unlimited in sovereignty. He does according to His will. His will the highest reason. None can counsel Him. 4. Unlimited in the extent of His government. None are exempted from it. 5. Himself the end of all things. Everything originates with Him. Everything terminates in Him. II. The limitations which men put upon the claim which is thus made by God. They put limits upon, 1. His being. The having and worshipping false gods. That is not God which is not self-existent; and two self-existent Gods cannot be conceived. 2. His perfections. The conceptions which men form and express. The preference which man gives to the creature. The silence of man in His praise. The little imitation there is of Him. The manner in which men expect to recommend themselves to His favour. The manner in which His servants are treated. 3. On His absolute sovereignty. Confining our attention to systems of doctrine called Christian, men question God’s absolute sovereignty, in the election, calling, justification, and perseverance of His people. 4. On the extent of His government. Some exclude Him from creation, providence, in prayer, conversation, conduct, civil authority, the government of the Church, and conscience. 5. As the end of all things. Men make themselves the end. .—He is not, and cannot be limited. In acting, He disregards the limits of men. He punishes the pride and insolence of man for limiting Him. He calls the notice of His people to the vindication of His glory.—James Stewart: Outlines of Discourses, pp. 2–4. THE AND OF THE CHURCH (Preached before a Presbyterian General Assembly.) Isaiah 52:1. Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion. This language is a direct address from God to His ancient Church. The image which it presents is that of a sleeping giant. The Church of God had been a giant power in the world; but at the time in which God speaks it had relapsed into slumber—had put off its strength, and, being beset with enemies, this position of torpor and inaction was one of peril. Hence this arousing note of alarm, “Awake, awake!” The slumbering giant is not only summoned to arouse to consciousness, but to put on and put forth his strength for conflict and for victory. The text is a forcible reminder of the mysterious and discouraging fact that the Church of God, in all ages, may have its times of weakness, as well as its times of power. When the Church first went forth from Jerusalem, a little flock, scattered hither and thither by the storm of persecution, it was a time of power. It was then but an infant of days, but it “lifted empires off their hinges, and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel.”—(Richter.) But a time of weakness followed this era of power—the dark night of the middle ages. Again there came a time of power when, on the morning of the Reformation, the Church heard the cry, “Awake, awake!” and, springing up with renewed youth, it put on its strength. The chill of formalism followed the track of the Reformation, and the Church sank into the coma of wide-spread paralysis; a disguised Romanism riveted her fetters; the Socinian apostasy spread its blight over Great Britain. But then came times of power, when the Church arose in quickened majesty; and still again, times of wondrous spiritual revival, when the call sounded by Wesley and Whitefield, like the voice of the prophet in the valley of vision, seemed to awake the dead. I. Why these periods of weakness? If the Church is a giant begirt with power, and that power is divine; if it is commissioned to exercise the evil spirit from the world, and goes forth with the promise of help and victory, then why these times of weakness? Answer:—The power of the Church is divine, but it is also human. What man can do, he must do. To roll away the stone from the grave of Lazarus was something that man could do; hence our Lord commanded human hands to do it. This act of human strength must antecede the word of power which raises the dead. Divine power and human strength must work together, each in its appropriate sphere. Divine efficiency does not supersede human agency, but only supplements its weakness. If man’s part in the work or warfare of the Church is properly executed, God’s part will never fail. But, as the terror of the iron chariots of the enemy paralysed the strength of Judah—so that, the human part being wanting, the victory was lost (Judges 1:19)—so, in the Church, if any cause supervenes to weaken, or render ineffective, the strength which God expects us to put forth, He will not depart from His plan, or interpose to save us from the result of our own weakness, or to hide us from the scorn and derision of the world. II. What is the strength of the Church, and when is it put off?1. The first element of power is the Gospel. This is the one element for our work, the one weapon for our warfare—it is the power of God. The astronomer looks at the heavens. These stars are to be counted; these constellations are to be mapped; the orbits of these planets are to be observed. Here is a vast and complicated work; but how is it to be done? By the telescope. He has this, and nothing else. All the great results of astronomy must spring, first of all, from this single instrument. Just so the Church looks out upon its work. It is commissioned to bring this world in captivity to the obedience of Christ. A mighty and multiform work; how is it to be achieved? By the Gospel. God has given us this, and nothing else, to save the world. It is the “power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” “It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.” Moses was commanded to smite the rock at Horeb, and bring from its bosom streams of water. How? He was given but one instrument—the slender rod that he held in his hand. To human view the rock would be more likely to break the rod than the rod to rend the rock; but that fragile rod was God’s ordained instrument of power; and, when it smote, the riven rock gushed with the living waters. Just so, the Word of God is the rod of power. We are commanded to smite with it alone, for by nothing else can the stony heart be broken. For every work which the Church is sent to do, this is the instrument of power. This being so, we can readily see from this standpoint how this strength may be put off, and power give place to weakness. To neglect, to withhold, to minimise, to obscure in any manner the truth of God, is to put off this element of power, and to bring in a time of weakness. This may occur (1.) When the truth is depreciated, or its necessity not clearly recognised. Thus, for example, some say, “Preach morality; let us hear more about the duties of life, and less about the doctrines of the Cross.” Morality, without principle, is a sham; it is tinselled fruit tied upon a Christmas-tree—the only connection is the tape that ties it. Morality is the fruit of principle, but principle is doctrine—and the only doctrine that bears this fruit is the doctrine of the Cross. (2.) Whenever the Gospel is subordinated to human themes. If the Church dispenses essays upon history, antiquities, philosophy, politics, science, or reflects the light of the secular press, &c., it will be no marvel if it sinks into imbecility. (3.) Our strength is crippled when the Gospel is caricatured by sensational themes, discussions, illustrations and expedients, which attract attention, indeed, but which belittle the sacred doctrine of the Cross. But whilst causes like these paralyse our power, there are others which produce simply an abatement of strength. For example, the Church can only put forth half its strength when the Gospel is but half told. If it sets out in full light the Divine love, whilst it keeps back Divine justice under the shadow of a dark eclipse; if it tells of Christ’s teachings, and is silent about Christ’s sacrifice; if it points to Christ’s life, and not to Christ’s blood, as the centre of saving efficiency; if it sets out the freedom of man, and holds in abeyance Divine sovereignty and efficacious grace; or if it minimises the Gospel in the one sentence, “Come to Jesus;” or if it lays Christ as a humble suppliant at the feet of men until proud sinners imagine that it is a stoop of condescension to permit Jesus to save them—then, surely, it is no marvel that men turn away from a belittled Gospel and a belittled Saviour, and that the Church sits in weakness. 2. The second element is the ministry. Let us not lose sight of the figure of the text. The Church is a giant; the Gospel is the instrument of his work—the weapon of his warfare. But what wields the weapon? The giant’s arm—this is the ministry. It is the arm or the agent of the Church’s power. The symbol of the Gospel is a hammer, a word; but a hammer is powerless without a strong hand to use it; the sword is ineffective without a skilful arm to wield it. This arm, this sword, this agent of strength and skill, is the ministry. This figure seems to describe accurately the kind of power with which the ministry is invested. It is not an original power inherent in itself, but a delegated power. It is the power of an agent, and it has an instrument of power put into its hands. It is not a power to infuse grace, or to forgive sins, or to bind the conscience, but simply an administrative power. It is a power of vocation to utter the Gospel call, to summon God’s sons from afar, and His daughters from the ends of the earth. A teaching power—go teach all nations; preach the Gospel to every creature. A dispensing power to break the Bread of Life, and to distribute, with a liberal hand, to all God’s children, giving to each a portion in due season. A power to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. We may readily see when this strength is put on, and when it is put off. Whatever cripples or weakens or interferes with the right use and proper functions of a giant’s arm, weakens and abates the effectiveness of the giant himself; so whatever weakens the ministry, or hinders its effectiveness, puts off to that extent the strength of the Church, and introduces a time of weakness and defeat. (1.) The ministry, as an arm of power, may be withered by a perfunctory education. Ministers may be taught to know about God, but not to know God. They may learn to explain and defend the Gospel, without having ever felt that a single Gospel truth has been riveted as a living, burning power in their own souls. A minister who knows what it is to be a saved sinner, can tell of it with such power as to make others feel that there is nothing between them and eternal death but the blood of Jesus. But, without this experience, the minister will be a perfunctory drone, stepping in a treadmill, or doing out his lifeless essay whilst sinners are slipping through his fingers into perdition. (2.) The ministry must be a source of weakness instead of power to the Church, if it is not in sympathy with the hearts of the people, and the souls of perishing men. He who was once lost but is found again, will know how to feel for the lost, and the lost will listen to him who once was lost himself. This is the natural power of the minister, the link of sympathy that binds him to the hearts of the people and the souls of men. If this be lost the ministry is powerless. 3. The third and principal element of the Church’s power is the Holy Ghost. The implement of the Church’s work is the Word; the arm of the Church’s power is the ministry; but the power itself is the Holy Ghost. As He causeth the earth to bring forth and bud by showers from heaven, so He causes His Church to abound in the fruits of righteousness by times of refreshing from on high. A revival is a day of the Spirit’s power, when the enemy is repulsed; when sinners are made willing; when doubt and unbelief are dissipated. If such a day of power were granted to us now, you would see rationalism, scepticism, and infidelity driven like smoke before the wind. III. Such being the elements of the Church’s power, and the causes which convert its strength into weakness, let us now listen to God’s call to the Church to put on and put forth her strength. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion!” An army puts on its strength when it goes forth to battle, but this is strength to destroy. A fireman puts on his strength when he enters a burning dwelling, and plucks its sleeping inmates from the flames. This is strength to save. Oh, it is a glorious thing to put on strength to save! How, then, shall we put on this strength?Physical strength is put on in one way, and spiritual strength in another. Some seem to imagine that they have only to arouse and stir themselves into an agony of effort. Samson arose and shook himself, and thought he would go forth and smite the Philistines, as aforetime; but, alas! the strength was not there—it had departed from him. So the Church may shake herself and advance to the conflict, but the strength is not there; the Philistines are upon her, and she wists not that the Lord has departed. This is not the way! One who is physically strong is conscious of his strength, but one who is spiritually strong is conscious of nothing but weakness. Spiritual power, in its first element, is the sense of our own weakness. No man ever puts on spiritual strength except on his knees. It was there that the apostles found it. When Peter stood forth and preached to the multitude, that day of Pentecost was a day of power; it was the Spirit’s power; but how did the apostles put it on? Upon their knees; in those days of prayer, in the upper chamber in Jerusalem. It is upon our knees that the Church must put on its strength! Then shall our work be “mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.”—W. M. Paxton, D.D. THE WORK AND OF THE CHURCH (Sermon preached before an Association of Churches.) Isaiah 52:1. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Isaiah prophesied more than a hundred years before the captivity of Israel. Many of his predictions had to do with its termination. In his inspired anticipation, the period of Israel’s desolation is now coming to a close, and the day of their redemption is drawing nigh. Hence, in these latter chapters, he calls upon the exiles, under the figure of a captive female, to arise from the ground on which she has been sitting, to shake herself from the dust with which she has been covered, to lay aside all the emblems of her degradation, and prepare to return to the enjoyment of freedom and prosperity in the land of her fathers. By a figure still bolder, he summons the holy land and the holy city to clothe themselves in their best attire, and get ready for the reception of the liberated captive. Frequently he employs the proper names, Zion and Jerusalem, in their literal sense; but at other times Jerusalem is put for its inhabitants, and Zion represents the worshippers of the true God. In this latter sense I employ the term Zion now. In the preceding chapter we see the chosen people in a suppliant attitude, sending up to heaven the cry—“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.” In the text we listen to the responsive command of heaven, addressed to the praying Church,—“A wake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion.” More than five-and-twenty centuries have passed away since the echo of these words first fell on expecting ears; but there is a sense in which they are as much needed by the Church of our day as by the Zion to and for which Isaiah spoke and wrote. I. THE WORK WHICH THE CHURCH HAS TO DO. 1. It has millions of heathen yet to evangelise. The kingdom which the Messiah came to set up, was to be bounded only by the globe; its subjects only by the entire race. But before it can reach its destined universality, its gospel must be proclaimed to all men, and the gods many and lords many of idolatry’s empire must be destroyed. That is part of the work which Christ has intrusted to His Church. Glorious harvests have been reaped as the result of the Church’s toil. But large portions of the earth have yet to be won to our Saviour King. From the entire regions of darkness and death that are still under the dominion of false gods, it is computed that forty immortal beings go into eternity every minute, more than 2000 every hour, and more than 50,000 every day. Fifty thousand human beings daily hastening to a tribunal of which they never heard, and ushered into the presence of a God they never knew, because His own Church has hitherto failed to make Him known to the ends of the earth! 2. It has the Mohammedan imposture yet to overthrow. The mosque still stands on the very mount of God’s selection, where once Solomon worshipped, where Isaiah prophesied, where Asaph sung, and where Jesus taught. Nearly one hundred millions of the earth’s population are daily heard uttering the watchword—“There is one God, and Mahommed is His prophet.” Never must we consider the Church’s work done until the crescent be made to give way to the cross, and the followers of the false prophet be brought to worship Jesus as the sent of God and the only Saviour of men. 3. It has multitudes of the Jews yet to convert to the faith of Christ. It is calculated that nearly six millions and a half of the seed of Abraham are, at this time, scattered about in the different nations of the earth. These must be sought, and instructed, and entreated until they are won to Christ. 4. It has the Papal apostasy to oppose. As far from “the truth as it is in Jesus” is it now as when our own Wicklyffe began to protest against its errors. As dishonourable to God, as injurious to society, as corruptive of morals, as dangerous to souls, as when Luther hurled at the whole system the thunders of his righteous indignation. 5. It has a growing infidelity to confront. 6. It has to meet and resist a form of religion which, while it holds fast the name of Christianity, denies and denounces most of its distinctive doctrines. I refer to that system which would pluck the crown of Deity from the Saviour’s brow, and reduce Him to the level of a mere man. 7. It has a vast region of indifference to invade. Wrapped in the slumbers of a spiritual death, multitudes care for none of these things. 8. It has a false liberalism to contend against. The parties that espouse this cause have a creed, and it runs somewhat in this strain—“There is something good in all religions: no church is perfect, nor persons either: it matters not what sect a man belongs to, so that he has charity in his soul, and observes justice in his dealings: it matters not what doctrines a man believes, so that he is honest in his belief, for—this condition complied with—he may be an infidel and yet be saved.” We must not let this evil go unchecked and unopposed. It is wrong in itself, it is dangerous and destructive in its tendency—and hence, as the witnesses for God, we must work to stop its progress and to neutralise its mischiefs. 9. It has certain tendencies of the age to keep in check. Such as the growing worldliness of professors of religion—the growing love of gaiety, amusements, and pleasure, which often leads to dangerous associations and the desecration of the Sabbath—a spirit of daring speculation in trade—the deification of reason, which leads men to treat Gospel doctrines as they would mathematical problems, to question when they ought to believe, and to reject what they cannot comprehend—the rage for novelties, which begets a restless dissatisfaction with old truths however sound, and old ways however safe—the irreverence with which sacred things are treated and spoken of.10. It has lost ground to regain. The cause of spiritual religion has not kept pace with the progress which has been made in other things. Where, in some cases, the external machinery of religion has been pushed forward, there is reason to fear that the inward life of it has been “sick and ready to die.” These are some of the claims which the times now passing over us present to the activities of the Church; and if the Church had nothing more to do than what has now been stated, it must be evident at a glance that its work is one of great magnitude and vast responsibility. The requirements of the case cannot be met by feeble resolves, low aims, or weak efforts. A Church asleep will not do for it. A Church reposing on the lap of its own privileges will not do for it. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion.” II. IN WHAT THE OF THE CHURCH : AND HOW IT SHOULD PUT IT ON. 1. The first element of its renewed strength must be sought in its waking up to a sense of its past neglects and its present duties. Misconceptions on these points will be fatal to its power. 2. The Church’s love to Christ must be augmented. What was the secret of Apostolic doing, daring, and suffering? It was love—“the love of Christ constraining us.” Could we but get the same hallowed fire in our hearts—could we but get it to burn on, with a steady, constant, and augmenting flame, no service would be a weariness to us, no sacrifice a hardship, and no labour commanded by our Divine Master would be refused or neglected. If we can but get our hearts filled with the expansive and impulsive energy of Divine love, we shall soon be clad in the mantle of Divine strength. 3. There must be an increase of faith. Our warfare is the fight of faith, and our work is the work of faith. The Master whom we serve is the invisible God; the rewards we expect are unseen and future. The results of our labours are uncertain, except as we anticipate them by faith. Our obstacles are seen, our difficulties are felt. The natural exclamation of conscious weakness is—the work is too great for us. Too great indeed it would be, if we had to do it alone. But Omnipotence is pledged to help us, and success is guaranteed by Divine promise. We must have faith in that promise. Going forth strong in the power of faith, we may expect to see much greater things than we have ever yet beheld. 4. There must be an increase of fervent prayer. First must we become princes with God, and then shall we prevail with men. The Holy Spirit is given in answer to prayer. The special outpouring of that Spirit on the Church in its infancy, was preceded by special prayer. Gifts, zeal, activity, eloquence, fervour, will all be in vain without the Spirit of God. What the steam is to the engine, and what the winds of heaven are to the canvas-clad vessel, the influences of the Spirit are to the plans and activities of the Church. Without these influences there may be much husbandry but no harvest, much work but no progress. The known readiness of the Spirit to help and bless, should not supersede prayer but stimulate it. 5. There must be a deepened sense of personal responsibility. When charged with past neglects and sins, we must not attempt to shift the blame from ourselves and fasten it upon others. “Against Thee, O Lord, have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight.” With respect to the future and its duties, we must be on our guard against being deluded by what may become to us the fiction of the Church. When we speak of the Church’s work and responsibilities, we must not give the least indulgence to the idea that we are speaking of some imaginary being or body, altogether separate and distinct from ourselves. The Church is composed of individual Christians, and the only responsibility of the Church as a whole is that which is brought into it by the individual responsibility of its separate members. Go daily to the throne of God with the inquiry—“Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Be willing that God should answer it in any way He sees fit; and then as soon as it is answered, do that thing, whatever it may be, do it willingly, do it diligently, do it well. 6. There must be enlarged liberality. As compared with the givings of some bygone ages, the present scale of contributions to the cause of God may be admitted to be liberal. But what is given now, in a general way, bears but small proportion to what was given by the devout Jew to meet the requirements of the ceremonial law. The givings of both rich and poor to the cause of Popery—the princely sums of English earls, and the hard-earned pennies of Irish labourers—might well shame the stinted offerings of those who profess a purer faith. The sacrifices made by deluded multitudes in the worship of their false gods, make our ordinary rate of giving appear more like an insult than an offering. The servants of sin give incomparably more to the cause of corruption and death, than do the servants of the living God to the cause of religion and salvation. How will rich professors answer for themselves before God, who hoard up wealth for themselves and their heirs, and leave the cause of God to languish and die for want of support? The Church’s work will not be done until those of His servants, whom He makes stewards of His wealth, shall honour Him with something better than “the crumbs” which fall from their own table. 7. There must be more directness of aim in the pulpit. To preach before a congregation is one thing, to preach to it is another. To preach to men in the mass, is the method of some, to preach so as to make each man feel—it is I, was the method of Paul (Colossians 1:28). 8. There must be more of a devout and teachable spirit in the pew. The extravagant and often ridiculous demand for “talent” in the pulpit, must be moderated. When this is made the alpha and omega of ministerial fitness, of course the people take upon themselves to judge whether or not it exists in sufficient measure. Hence many go to the house of God, not to be instructed, edified in the faith, helped on in their way to heaven; but to sit in judgment on the preacher’s intellectual powers, that they may go and pronounce for or against what they have heard. Spiritual growth is the last thing thought of and least cared about. But this must be altered before Christians will advance and churches will work as they ought to do. When our people come to a right state of mind on this subject, they will think that man the best minister whose preaching brings the greatest number of souls to Christ, and is most successful in promoting the knowledge, purity, consistency, and usefulness of his flock. Men who really want to do God’s work, will feel that they have no time to waste in fruitless criticisms; and that human life is far too precious a thing to be frittered away in either compliments or complaints of God’s workmen. 9. The promotion of family piety must be made more a matter of business at home. 10. There must be more of mutual sympathy between Christians and churches. There must be co-operation for mutual support and for aggressive work in the name of Christ.—John Corbin.THE PERILS AND OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 52:1. Awake, awake, put on thy strength. The words of the text were addressed by God to His people when in a state of peril. The enemy, like Delilah, about taking advantage of their drowsy condition, to deprive them of their strength. I. THE COMMAND UTTERED TO THE CHURCH. “Awake, awake.” The words, though indicating the low condition of the Church, in reference to its moral and spiritual mission, are still consoling; they prove that it was not dead. It was sleeping, and life is an essential condition of sleep. The Church at the time was in the nearest position possible for the living to be to the dead. Sleep resembles death in many respects. But it is not death. Hence the propriety of the command. Why the Church to-day should obey the command. 1. “Awake, awake,” because the foundations of thy faith are threatened. Threats spring from various sources—from the sceptical teachings of the age, from the oscillation of its own members, and especially from the fact, that so many of its teachers endeavour to persuade men that it matters not what they believe if they live properly. This is an attempt to deprive the Church of the fundamental truths of its creed that have enabled it to stand the storms of persecutions, that inspired its reformers, clothed its martyrs with power to suffer death on its behalf, and form the basis of this grand edifice the Christian Church (1 Corinthians 3:11). 2. “Awake, awake,” because there are elements within thee that rapidly lead to apostasy, decay. The injury received by the Church from without, compared with that done within, is but very little. Joshua and his people had many evils to withstand and powerful enemies to conquer in taking the fortified cities of Canaan; but they had a greater loss and more shame through the action of Achan in their own camp than from all the enemies without. There are things still in the Church that demand that it should listen to the alarm of our text. (1.) The ritualistic tendencies of a great number of its members. People that think more of the form than the spirit of the service, more of the person that speaks, than what he says; that clothe themselves in the ritual of religion and feel satisfied. (2.) “Worldliness.” This evil principle manifests itself in various forms in Church life. There are some people that join the Church for mercenary purposes. Religion in our days is considered so respectable a thing, that a profession of it gives a person reputation, and helps him on; but mark this, it is possible to obtain a reputation by a mere profession of Christianity, and at the same time be void of its power (2 Timothy 3:5). It manifests itself also in the lack of liberality, shown by many of its members in sustaining its funds. The poorer classes cannot afford to contribute large sums for this purpose; but when we find people enjoying all the luxuries of life and contributing meagrely towards the funds of the Church of the Most High, we feel it our duty to deal plainly with them. What converted Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, brought Haman to the gallows, and sent “Demas” out of the Church into the world? Worldliness! And worldliness will again affect its victims in a similar manner, and the presence of such an enemy in the Church is a sufficient reason that it should listen to the voice of its Maker in our text. (3.) The carelessness of a great number of its members with reference to purity of life. The standard of Christian morality is certainly too low in the minds of thousands of our fellow-Christians. The ripe fruits that adorn the Christian life (Galatians 5:22-23) are unknown to many professing Christians in our day. In the presence of many enemies, the duty of the Church is clearly defined. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength.” She need not seek power outside her own resources. “Put on thy beautiful garments.” Open thine own wardrobe, clothe thyself in thine own apparel, that thy beauty and power may be perceptible. II. IN WHAT DOES THE OF THE CHURCH CONSIST? 1. In its devoting itself entirely to the work which it has to perform. The work of consecrating oneself to the moral and spiritual objects of the Church is too often neglected in these days. Remember, it is the men who entirely devoted themselves to the Lord’s service, independent of their own personal interest and safety, or of the sect or party to which they were connected, who have left their mark on the kingdom of evil. 2. In meditation. There is nothing so effectual to inspire the mind, and clothe the soul with courage, as meditation on the Lord’s dealings with His children (Psalms 77:11-20), 3. Prayer. With this the Church on earth is able to command the forces of heaven to the battle-field to fight on its behalf (2 Chronicles 20) 4. The word of God, which is called by Paul “the sword of the Spirit,” and is the offensive weapon of the Church. The Christian armour consists of both defensive and offensive weapons (Ephesians 6), and the Church is commanded to take “the whole armour of God, that it may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”—J. P. Williams.I. Put on strength by wakefulness. Sleep of the body, up to a certain point, is needful and wholesome; but beyond that it is harmful. The drowsiness of the sluggard is injurious. Still more hurtful is spiritual drowsiness. A slumbering life results in moral death. Sleepy men are the easy prey of false teachers; their moral vision is obscured, and they do not easily discern between the true and the false; their critical faculties are paralysed, and they are not in a condition to “try the spirits,” whether they be of God. These times require men who are awake. The first two words of the text are not to be disconnected from the others, for by wakefulness we do put on strength. Awake from your dreams, open your eyes to behold the realities of life, and address yourselves to the duties to which God calls you. II. Put on strength by activity. Activity develops strength—of body, of mind, of soul. Slothfulness is the secret and the cause of the spiritual weakness that abounds in our churches. What God requires of us is that by exercise we should develop the strength with which we have been endowed. It is not our possession of only one talent that He condemns; it is our having neglected to make use of it. Remember also, that God’s command to do a thing always implies His promise of help to well-directed endeavour. The Saviour said, “Stretch forth thy hand!” the obedient man obtained his reward, and found that the Divine word of command is a word of promise to the obedient. The prophet says to the weak, “Put on thy strength;” and, obeying, they shall rejoice in a refreshing baptism of Divine energy. Out of weakness, those who have obeyed this command have been made strong by the processes of spiritual development. To the development of the physical powers there are limits; but to the development of moral power there is none. Here there may be constant growth and progress. Eternity will be but an ampler sphere for the enlargement of the soul’s vast powers. III. Put on thy strength by joyfulness. Joy, and not sadness, should be the characteristic of those whose final destiny is heaven. Joy begets strength, and strength increases joy. Put on thy beautiful garments of holiness and joy, O Zion! remembering always that the truly holy are the solidly and permanently joyful. IV. Put on thy strength by hopefulness. The despairing are weak, the hopeful are strong. In view of God’s promises made for her encouragement, the Church may well be hopeful. There is one in our text, which we may read, “For henceforth there shall no more come against thee the uncircumcised and unclean.” Though oftentimes we stand on the towers of Zion as timid, fearful watchers, with little faith in the Divine promise of protection, the Church is safe (Zechariah 2:5). Let us, then, be hopeful, let us be strong for the work and the warfare to which we are called.—W. THE TRUMPET-BLAST Isaiah 52:1. Awake, awake, &c.It is to the Church of Christ sleeping that the threefold trumpet-blast of the text comes. I. A CALL TO AND . “Awake, awake!” zion never needed this trumpet-call more imperatively than now. Upon her the “spirit of slumber” has fallen. But all are not asleep; and those who are awake should take the trumpet, and with a blast as loud and as long as though life and immortality were at stake (see Ezekiel 33:3) sound the alarm. For, 1. The foundations of our faith are threatened. The sappers and miners are at work inside as well as outside; and they would delight to remove the cornerstones and shake the whole fabric of the temple of truth. 2. “The enemy is coming like a flood”—in the shape of intemperance, vice, greed, infidelity, and horrible wickedness, enough to afflict our souls and affright the world. (See the daily papers.) 3. Is not the visible Church drifting from Christ? We need to be on our guard against both enemies without and subtle traitors within; traitors who, themselves wakeful, are imposing on those who are in a state of unconscious slumber. (1.) Is not one section of society drifting to Rome? Ritualism is rampant, loud-voiced, defiant. Roman Catholicism walks abroad in the light of day, and flaunts her flags in the eyes of all men. Think of her pilgrimages, her noble perverts, and her persistent policy of aggression, and ask what it all means. (2.) Is not another section drifting fast into Rationalism? The so-called “men of culture” are almost all of them Rationalists, either covertly or avowed. Men like the late Strauss, in theology; Buckle, in history; our own J. Stuart Mill, in philosophy; with Professors Tyndall and Huxley, in science. These, and men of kindred sympathies and sentiments, are the foremost leaders of thought in our day, and their whole following are being led, some willingly, some unconsciously, into the bleak regions of Rationalism, if not into blank Atheism. (3.) Is not still another section, by far the largest, too, drifting into utter worldliness? Is not the spirit of the world dominant? Is not indifferentism in relation to religion painfully apparent?—Is there not too much reason to fear that, on these three waves, society in England—including a large section of the visible Church—is drifting from Christ? II. THE CHURCH IS CALLED TO GIRD HERSELF FOR . “Put on thy strength, O Zion!” She is within reach of strength enough to vanquish every foe. Let all her members, individually and collectively, put on, 1. The strength of personal consecration. 2. The strength of spiritual unity. “Unity is strength.” The powers of evil are united. The Church cannot afford to be split up into contending sects. We must present ourselves as an unbroken phalanx to the foe. See our Lord’s high-priestly prayer (John 17). What might not a united consecrated Church do? 3. The strength of “the arm of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:9). The strength belongs to the Church, and is available by prayer, which moves the arm that moves the world; by faith, which takes hold of the strength of God, and has omnipotence at its command (Isaiah 27:5). “All things are possible to him that believeth.” III. THE CHURCH IS CALLED TO CLOTHE HERSELF WITH BEAUTY. “Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.” The Church has provided for her a spiritual wardrobe. Put on, 1. The garment of a “meek and quiet spirit.” Rest in God. Calmness and tranquillity of mind are at once evidences and sources of power. 2. The garment of holiness. This is the most beautiful garment of all, while holiness is also the measure of spiritual power. 3. The garment of heavenly zeal. Men of the world and the emissaries of evil are zealous. We must meet them with a zeal greater and more divine. Let the Church of Christ thus awake, put on her strength, and clothe herself with spiritual beauty, and she need not fear for the future. Victory is sure. The command of the text comes to individual churches. (1.) Let each of us take it as the voice of God to himself. (2.) Let us awake promptly: life is passing, and the evil growing. (3.) Let us avail ourselves of all available strength and beauty. (4.) Let us make our consecration in sight of the cross and crown (Hebrews 13:20).—The Study, 1874, p. 723. The condition of Judea—conquered, degraded, captive, indifferent to Zion, feeble—no courage, temple demolished, &c., byeword and reproach. I. THE OF THE TEXT. 1. “Awake, awake.” Sleep often too accurately describes the condition of God’s Church. Many are at ease in Zion. The prophets prophesy smooth things, and the people love to have it so. They cry, “a little more sleep,” &c. But if the work of life is to be done, we must awake to a sense of our duty. It was whilst men slept that the adversary sowed the tares. During a period of spiritual apathy, what injury has been inflicted! Awake to the work of the soul, the evil of sin, &c. In commerce, &c., how wakeful men are! 2. “Put on thy strength.” The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, and the expulsion of the enemy from the holy city, required strength. We are called to be strong in the Lord. The times call for a robust piety. Were God’s people to put forth their strength, what success would be achieved, how soon would be ushered in “the new heavens, and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” In embattled array against the Church, are the ten thousand forms of vice and scepticism, of sin and error. 3. “Put on thy beautiful garments.” The Church is to be attractive. The unloveliness of Christians is often apparent. The beauty of the Church is her holiness. II. THE HAPPY EFFECTS OF . The Church will be the home, 1, of the regenerate; 2, of the entirely sanctified.—Benjamin Browne.I. AN OF THE ’S . 1. The robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; Psalms 132:9). How beautiful this robe. “Bring forth the best robe.” It covers completely, unlike scanty garments in which men array themselves. 2. The garment of humility (1 Peter 5:5). This is well pleasing in God’s sight. He hates flaunting garments of pride. It is a Christlike virtue (Philippians 2:8). 3. The garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3). This is a beautiful robe. One of the same kind is worn by angels. 4. The garment of gladness (Psalms 30:11; Philippians 4:4). 1. These garments can always be worn; there is a dress reserved—a bridal dress, the wedding garment—to be worn at the marriage supper of the Lamb. White robe of redeemed. Symbol of purity, victory, joy. 2. These soul garments never wear out. 3. They cost us nothing. 4. In addition to dress, some people like to wear ornaments,—harmless weakness, when not carried to excess. The believer is exhorted to adorn himself with the “ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.” This can be worn without exciting envy or vanity. II. THE THESE . Wear them. You cannot get better. You dishonour the Giver by not wearing them. You set light store by His gifts.—T. E. R. A TYPE OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST Isaiah 52:1. Jerusalem the holy city. Consider the ancient Jerusalem in its typical representation of the Church of Christ. I. It was the city of the Divine choice (Psalms 132:13-18). The Church is the choice of the Lord; it contains the united congregation of His saints, those who have been called by His Gospel, who have believed in His Son, and who have been the living partakers of His heavenly grace. Over these God rejoiceth. With these He has His delights. Unto these He manifests Himself as He doth not unto the world. (See John 14:23; 1 Peter 1:23-24.) II. It was the city of Divine rule and authority. Here God made known His laws and judgments; deposited His living oracles, His holy statutes; revealed His will, and recorded His blessed word. And by these the inhabitants of Jerusalem were to be governed. Obedience to these secured the favourable tokens of God’s love and favour. So in the new Jerusalem of His Church. Here He has revealed. His holy will, not by the oracle, or over the material mercy-seat, but by His own Son, and by making His living Church the pillar and ground of truth. By depositing within it the doctrines, and ordinances, and commandments of the Gospel. And the divine presence and favour is only secured by unswerving fidelity to the charge with which God has intrusted her. III. Jerusalem was the city of Divine services. Here met the tribes of Israel who came to worship before the Lord. Here were presented the sacrifices and offerings of the people. Here God was worshipped and adored. Here the voice of prayer and praise was heard in God’s holy temple. Here the religious festivals were celebrated, and God honoured in His sacred institutions. Such is the Church of Christ, the Jerusalem, &c. Here those who have believed, and are of the saved, are united together in the holy bonds of fellowship and love. Here they meet to observe all things their Divine Head has commanded them (Acts 2:41). IV. Jerusalem was the city of Divine blessing. His special love and care was directed to it (Psalms 87:2). His providential benignity surrounded it. The Lord was the keeper and protector of the holy city. Within it He poured down the blessings of His grace, and caused His favour to dwell, even life for evermore. (See His gracious engagements and promises, Psalms 132:15, &c.) So God pre-eminently blesses His spiritual Zion. Unto His people He gives exceedingly great and precious promises. They are blessed with the unsearchable blessings of His grace, with all the fulness of His love, with all the blessings of providence. God supplies all their need. Defends from all their enemies, and keeps and saves unto eternal life. V. Jerusalem was a city of distinguished immunities and privileges. It was an honour to have been born in her. Her sons were freemen of the most favoured city under heaven. Her inhabitants had numerous opportunities of enjoying religious services, they had the presence of the priests and teachers of the law of God. “Happy were the people in such a case,” &c. Still greater and more precious the immunities and privileges of the people of God. They enjoy spiritual liberty, have exalted titles, and possess immunities of the most glorious and heavenly character. Access to God’s gracious throne. The sweet fellowship of His Holy Spirit. Delightful seasons of refreshing from the Divine presence, and experimental overflowings of that peace which passeth all understanding. .— 1. Are we the citizens of the Jerusalem from above? Have we been born in her? Born from above? &c. Do we possess the spirit of her heavenly inhabitants? 2. How great the responsibility of such. It is theirs to exhibit the glory of divine grace, in calling and saving them, by a conversation which becometh the Gospel of Christ. “To show forth His praises,” &c. To pray for her peace, and to labour for her prosperity. To display the spirit of love and harmony towards all the citizens, and to yield loyal subjection and hearty obedience to Christ the rightful Lord and King. 3. Unlike the earthly Jerusalem, she shall never become a prey to her enemies. Her walls shall never be cast down, nor her streets become waste (Matthew 16:18).—Jabez Burns, D.D.: Types and Metaphors, pp. 83–85. SELLING AND THE SOUL Isaiah 52:3. For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought, &c.The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt such pity for the captives, that without any compensation he let them go home. All of this is typical of a higher truth. I. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought.” There are persons who do not seem to belong either to themselves or to God; the title-deeds have been passed over to “the world, the flesh, and the devil;” but the purchaser has never paid up. They have made over their entire nature, but the holders of the deeds, when called on for the money, declare themselves bankrupt. The world does not keep its promises; it does not pay ninety per cent., nor twenty, nor one; it gives no solace when friends die; no peace when conscience rings its alarm. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought;” your conscience went; your hope went; your Bible went; your heaven went, all for nothing. II. “Ye shall be redeemed without money.” You were cheated out of your soul; the world has no right to take the title-deed from you. It can be proved. You need not say you are afraid of lawsuits, they are so expensive; for “ye shall be redeemed without money.” Money is good for a great deal, but it cannot do anything in this matter of the soul. Blood is here the only lawful tender. Neither is our blood rich enough; it needs a sinless stream. We have in this day some who do not want a religion of blood; but the Bible says, “In the blood is the life;” and an apostle (1 Peter 1:18-19). You put your lancet into the arm of our holy religion and withdraw the blood, and you leave it a mere corpse! No blood, no atonement, as prefigured in the Levitical sacrifices; “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Some one says, “the thought of blood sickens me.” God intended it to sicken you with your sin; your sin caused Christ’s blood-shedding. The highest price ever paid for anything was paid for your soul. The estranged property is bought back. Take it; “ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.” Here is the price of your liberation—not money, but blood.—T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.: Christian Age, vol. ix. pp. 67–69. Briefly review the circumstances under which these words were spoken. Israel had sold themselves as slaves, and for nothing. They were to be restored without money (Isaiah 45:13). All this equally applicable to us today. Israel’s captivity was temporal, ours is spiritual, and our redemption by Christ is “without money.” These words suggest— I. SELLING THE SOUL. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought.” 1. What you have sold. Not your wares, your possessions, &c., but “yourselves.” “Not the body, not the mere bundle of intellectual faculties, but the conscience, the moral ego, the inner man,” that which works the faculties and which will live when the body is dust. It is your soul you have sold—the most precious thing God has given you—the gem of creation—the grand mark of man—the great possession. Put all the splendours of the visible creation into the scale, one soul outweighs them all (P. D. 3204). How many never think of the value of their soul, but sell it for the merest trifle. 2. To whom you have sold yourselves. To Satan. The worst being in God’s universe—the enemy of God and man—the enslaver and destroyer of souls (2 Timothy 2:26; Ephesians 2:1-2; Romans 6:17-19). To do his deadly work, and to be led captive at his will. 3. For what you have sold yourselves. (1.) For worldly pleasure. But that is “nought”—unsatisfying, vanishing, leaves an aching void the world can never fill (Isaiah 55:2; H. E. I. 4609–4612). (2.) For worldly wealth. But that is “nought”—will soon take wings and fly away. Wealth is not happiness—cannot procure the elixir of immortality—often degrades. Wealth is useless when, like Esau, we are “at the point to die” (Luke 12:15; Mark 8:36; H. E. I. 4358–4365, 4382–4386, 4389–4411). (3.) For worldly fame. But that is “nought.” At best it is unsatisfying. Charles Lamb had fame, and what did he say? “I walk up and down thinking I am happy, but knowing I am not.” The great Dr. Johnson had fame, and what did he say? “I am afraid that some day I shall get crazy.” Such testimonies multiply daily. Verily, “all is vanity,” &c. (Ecclesiastes 2:11). 4. Who sold you? “Yourselves.” (1.) It is a voluntary bargain. You cannot blame Adam, for, had you been in his place, you would have acted like him, &c. You love sin and sinful pleasures. (2.) It is an unjust bargain. Reason and conscience say you have no right to sell your soul, for it belongs to God. “All souls are mine” (Hebrews 12:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19). (3.) You must confess that you have made a bad bargain, and that the outcome of it is deception, disappointment, embarrassment, &c. (Hosea 8:7). II. THE SOUL. 1. The redemption of the soul could not be effected by any human means. The state of fallen man was so desperate that there was no hope for him in himself—no redeeming principle in his apostate nature; no possible way by which he could pay the price of his ransom. Nothing that the whole universe could offer, would be accepted as the price of it (Micah 6:6-7; Luke 7:42). Obedience to the moral law could not secure it, for it has been broken, and whatever man did in the way of righteousness, he would render no more than is absolutely due to God; besides, he is unable to obey it perfectly (Acts 13:39; Romans 5:6; Romans 8:8; Romans 3:20; Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16, &c.) 2. The redemption of the soul was effected by the Son of God. In man’s desperate circumstances Divine mercy interposed, for nothing less than the sacrifice of “the Son of God” could remedy the infinite evil which sin had entailed upon humanity. Christ, the Ransomer, was Divine—met and satisfied the infinite demands of inviolable justice—assumed our nature in a state of lowliness and humiliation, but free from every stain of sin, that He might obey the law which man had broken, and suffer and die “the just for the unjust, that He might,” legally, “bring us to God” (Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 53:10; Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Our redemption by Christ secures the honour of the Divine character and law, &c. That would be no redemption which should cost the sacrifice of a single principle in the government of God, or make any compromise with the offenders. The justification of the penitent believer is perfectly consistent with the essential righteousness of God (Romans 3:24-26). 3. Personal redemption is realised by penitent faith in the Saviour’s atoning sacrifice (Mark 1:15; John 3:14-18; John 6:40; John 6:47; John 11:25-26; Acts 20:20-21). Thus, repentance and faith are the conditions of personal redemption; while it is faith—a faith that presupposes repentance—which is emphatically the means of connecting the sinner with Christ, so that he is admitted to the Divine favour, and receives the Holy Spirit to inspire filial confidence, and to renew his soul. What repentance implies. The nature of the faith which is emphatically the condition and means of personal redemption:—reliance, appropriation, trust, coming to Jesus, receiving of Christ, &c. (H. E. I. 1957–1968.) The warrant of faith—Christ’s promises (Matthew 11:28; John 6:35; John 6:37); the declared will and purpose of the Father, which assures the sinner that he cannot come to Christ in self-renunciation and be rejected (John 6:38-40; Romans 8:32). Personal redemption is therefore perfectly gratuitous—“without money,” without personal merit; and consequently is a manifestation of the abounding graciousness of God. St. Paul lays great stress on this (Romans 3:24; Romans 4:16; Romans 3:28). How excellent is this method of personal redemption, for it is adapted to all mankind (Romans 3:29-30); it shuts out pride from man (Romans 5:2-7); and it establishes the law (Romans 5:21). : Gratefully avail yourselves of God’s method of redemption offered to you in the Gospel, and constantly proclaimed to you by the ambassadors of Christ. It is suited to you. Let the redemption of your soul be your chief business—your “first” work. You may realise it now. The value of the present opportunity is unspeakably great. It may be now or never (Psalms 49:8).—Alfred Tucker.I. THE LORD’S CHARGE AGAINST HIS PEOPLE. “Ye have sold yourselves for nought.” It teaches us, 1. That we are a sort of trading creatures; indigent and restless, wanting something we have not, and looking about to find it, that we may be happy. Buying and selling to get gain, that we may be happy. “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought,” &c. (Psalms 4:6; James 4:13.) 2. That which we part with for this supposed happiness is inestimably precious. Ourselves (Isaiah 1:1; Mark 8:36-37). 4. That the state into which we sell ourselves is deplorable. Like slaves. Joseph sold into Egypt (Psalms 105:17-18). The Jews sold themselves into Babylon. “Tied with the chain of our sins” (Psalms 9:17; Isaiah 52:5; Revelation 3:17). 4. That the enemy to whom we sell ourselves is the devil (2 Timothy 2:26; Luke 9:21). Seen in Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1, &c), Judas, Ananias. Jesus Christ was tempted to this (Matthew 4:8-9). 5. That we are volunteers in the sale of ourselves. “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought,” &c. Ahab sold himself to work wickedness (Hosea 13:9). The prodigal. Eve (Genesis 3:6). 6. That in thus selling ourselves we rob and offend God. Because we are His creatures (Psalms 100:1, &c.) We waste His goods (Luke 16:1). 7. That what we get in thus selling ourselves is nothing. “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought,” &c. (Isaiah 55:1, &c.; Ecclesiastes 2:11; Hosea 8:7). II. GOD’S THEM. “Ye shall be redeemed without money.” which teaches us, 1. That God recovers His people to their forfeited privileges and enjoyments. “Redeemed” (1 Samuel 30:18; 1 Samuel 30:20). Such as (1.) acceptance with God. As to their persons and services (Ephesians 1:6; Genesis 4:4; Ezekiel 20:40-41). (2.) Conformity to the glorious image of God (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 4:24; 1 John 3:2). (3.) Fellowship with God. Adam had this (Genesis 2:15, &c.) Believers have this (Ephesians 2:18; 1 John 1:1-2). (4.) A system of providential blessings (Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 3:1, &c.) 2. That this recovery is by redemption. “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought,” &c. By price (Acts 20:28). By power (Deuteronomy 7:8; Psalms 106:1; Psalms 106:7; Hosea 13:14). 3. That this redemption is without money or merit on our part. “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought,” &c. (Isaiah 55:1-2; Ezekiel 20:42; Ezekiel 20:44; Luke 7:42). .— 1. To the young, with whom Satan is beginning to tamper and bargain. 2. To the Antinomian, casting the blame of his captivity upon God. Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1, &c.) 3. To the captive—feeling his yoke, weakness and unworthiness (Jeremiah 31:18; Jeremiah 31:20; Romans 7:1, &c.) 4. To the ransomed returning Christian (Psalms 126:1, &c.; Isaiah 35:10).—New Pulpit Assistant, pp. 226–230. Isaiah 52:5. My name continually every day is blasphemed. The proud and oppressive Babylonians delighted to add to the sorrows of the exiled Jews, by reproaching the name of their God, and by saying that He was unable to defend them and their city from ruin. This sin is awfully prevalent. I. What is meant by the “name” of the Lord? His perfections, titles, word, &c. II. The various ways in which it is blasphemed. 1. By denying His existence (Psalms 10:4; Psalms 14:1; Psalms 53:1). 2. By denying His sovereignty (Job 21:14-15; Exodus 5:2). 3. By denying His truth (Genesis 3:4; Isaiah 36:15; 2 Peter 3:3-4). 4. By denying His power (2 Kings 7:2; Psalms 78:19-20; Isaiah 36:15; Isaiah 36:18-20, and 2 Kings 18:30; 2 Kings 18:32-35). 5. By denying His omnipresence and omniscience (Job 22:13-14; Psalms 10:11; Psalms 73:11; Psalms 94:7; Isaiah 29:15; Ezekiel 8:12). 6. By accusing Him of injustice (Jeremiah 12:1; Ezekiel 18:25; Ezekiel 33:17; Malachi 2:17; Malachi 3:15). 7. By murmuring against His dispensations (Isaiah 45:9; Exodus 14:11-12). 8. By false swearing, oaths, and curses, &c. III. The excuses usually made for it. Ignorance, custom, example, surprise, passion, confirmation of what is said, meaning no harm, inconsistencies of professors, &c. (2 Samuel 12, 14; Ezekiel 36:20; Romans 2:24; 2 Peter 2:2). IV. The evil consequences of it. Destroys the little remains of the fear of God. Leads to the disobedience of all His commands. Sets a horrid example to others, especially to the young, &c. V. The powerful arguments against it. “The Lord” is our glorious and lawful Sovereign, who sees and hears all things. He is a holy and jealous God, before whose bar we must appear. He is fully able to punish, and has assured us that He will (2 Kings 19:22; 2 Kings 19:28; Isaiah 37:23; Isaiah 37:36-38; Ezekiel 20:27; Ezekiel 20:33; Ezekiel 35:12-14).—Alfred Tucker.Blasphemy. I. Its nature. II. Its guilt. III. Its awful prevalence. IV. Its certain punishment.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE GOSPEL AND ITS Isaiah 52:7. How beautiful upon the mountains, &c.Whatever reference this passage might have to the deliverance of the people of God from the Chaldean bondage, it refers also and chiefly to the great and glorious Gospel of Christ (Romans 10:13). It is in this application of it that it is now interesting and important. I. A OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 1. The Gospel is represented as “good tidings.” This is literally the meaning of the word gospel. These good tidings centre in one glorious fact—the provision of a Saviour for a guilty world. Everything else is based on this fact. Everything connected with the gift of the Saviour forms matter for joy: the supreme dignity of His person, the completeness of His work, the glory of His doctrine, the efficacy of His death, and the exhaustless fulness of His blessings. 2. It publishes peace. Man united with the fallen apostate spirits in rebellion against God, &c. 3. It brings tidings of good. Not only is God at peace with the sinner, but He waits to bless him with all good. There is (1.) acceptance into God’s favour. (2.) Divine adoption. (3.) The influences of the Spirit to illume, convince, guide, solace, meeten for heaven. (4.) The precious promises of the new covenant. 4. The Gospel publishes salvation. A salvation meeting the needs of the sinner. 5. The Gospel declares the reign of Jesus (Psalms 2:6-7, &c.) II. AN OF THE MODE OF ITS . 1. The messengers appointed to declare it. Jesus Himself went forth preaching the good tidings of His kingdom. Now the messengers are men, not angels. Men who have been called and qualified—sent of God. Men who have known and felt the power of the truths themselves. 2. The publication of this Gospel is to be free and extensive. They are to go forth prominently; to ascend the mountain tops, and there, before God, and angels, and men, they are to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. The message of grace is to be published throughout the world, and to every creature. 3. The publication of the Gospel is to be a source of joy and delight to perishing souls. By some it will be ridiculed. By others spurned. By others coolly and indifferently heard. But to thousands it shall be spirit and life, solace and bliss. : 1. The subject should excite admiration and praise. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. But here is matchless love—unparalleled grace. 2. Have we experienced the saving power of the Gospel? Is it our boast, and joy, and ?Song of Solomon 3. The infatuation of the rejectors of the good news (Hebrews 2:3; 1 Peter 4:17). 4. The duty of the Church to diffuse the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Its prayers, energies, and means, should all bear to this one great end, &c.—The New Pulpit Assistant, pp. 318–322. I. The varied characteristics of the “good tidings” of Christianity—they are peace, salvation, the reign of God. II. The great function of the minister of the Gospel—is to bring these good tidings. III. The character in which he appears—“How beautiful,” &c.; i.e., how welcome they should be to us!—John Cumming, D.D.: Occasional Discourses, vol. i. p. 336. THE OF THE GOSPEL (Ordination Sermon.) Isaiah 52:7. How beautiful upon the mountains, &c.This exclamation would strike those who first read it more impressively than it strikes us. They would see the runner coming over the distant hills, bearing welcome news. They would hear the loud cry from the watchmen on the walls. They would see the people crowd to the gate to hear. The primary reference of the text is to the news of the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem, and of the restoration of the ruined city. But there is a secondary reference to gospel times. It is thus applied by the apostle (Romans 10:15). We may thus apply it. I. The ministry of the Gospel exists for the announcement of valuable intelligence. It brings good tidings. It is not a ministration of condemnation, but of salvation (2 Corinthians 3) It tells such things as these, 1. That satisfaction has been made for human sin. Man is sinful, guilty. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His death on the cross, has atoned for sin. Thus, in announcing this, the ministry of the gospel is “the ministry of reconciliation.” 2. That on the ground of that atonement salvation may be obtained by all that desire it. The dark angel of sin and sorrow has not left the world. But there is pardon for the sinner, holiness for the depraved, comfort for the distressed, which will develop into heaven at last. It may be obtained by faith in Christ. The time when the gospel is preached is the tide of opportunity. 3. That thus the Divine dominion over man is re-asserted and re-established. “Thy God reigneth.” He reigns through the bestowment of salvation. Jesus has been exalted to reign in His people’s hearts, in the Church, in the world. II. The ministry of the Gospel is a great and important office. The bearer of this intelligence, primarily referred to in our text, acquired importance both from his mission and his qualifications. He would require speed, interest in the message, fidelity. Thus the ministry is important. Remember, 1. The end at which it aims. The message, the sermon, is not the end but the means. It aims at the salvation of souls. Nothing less will content the true preacher than conversion, spiritual growth. 2. The means which it employs. The message itself. Attract attention to it by legitimate, not fantastic means. While the message cannot be changed, let it be presented in varied forms, to the young, to the aged, in public, in private. 3. The qualifications which it demands. Intelligent acquaintance with the message; a living personal interest in it; thoughtful carefulness as to the methods by which it may be made most interesting and acceptable; diligent and sedulous use of opportunities; earnest sympathy with Christ and immortal souls. III. The ministry of the Gospel should be regarded with suitable respect and honour. The office, because of its nature; the man, on the supposition that he deserves it. The office cannot entitle the man to respect if he is not worthy of it. Qualification is the only title to office, and the only claim to respect in it. This being supposed, the prominent idea of the text is the man. This honour will comprise, 1. Welcome. The Galatians welcomed Paul. Jesus said, “Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.” Welcome the ministry of the word by regular and constant attendance; by candid and respectful hearing, as distinguished from indifference, and from unkindly criticism; and by a kindly reception at the home. 2. Love. Cherish affection to the minister for his work’s sake. Let him see it in the manner which reveals and perpetuates kindness. Sometimes commend his work. 3. Maintenance (1 Corinthians 9; Galatians 6:6-8). Now what is maintenance? It is determined largely by position in society. If there is narrow-mindedness in relation to the minister’s means of obtaining books, and unholding his influence in the locality where his lot is cast, the church suffers. 4. Co-operation. The primitive churches were active in many ministries. Every member of the church should do something for Christ. The work of extending the gospel is not the minister’s business exclusively. The church should be a centre from which every one is working. 5. Prayer. This was the apostle’s request (Ephesians 6:19; 2 Thessalonians 3:1).The work of the ministry is spiritual, and it requires spiritual influences. It needs the power of the Holy Ghost. Do you pray for it by praying for Him? What is the practical effect of the preacher’s work in those that receive the truth? Is it not that you bring forth fruits of holiness? See that such fruit is borne. Then you will in your turn proclaim the gospel to others, if not in words, by the influence of your lives (H. E. I. 2622, 2623). But have you received the truth which has been heralded to you? Some of you are, perhaps, not yet saved. The preacher seeks your salvation. Oh, let this be his joy; not for his sake but for your own. Life is passing on. And the gospel alone can save.—J. Rawlinson.I. A representation of a true minister of Christ. A messenger. 1. He receives his commission from God. 2. He is intrusted by Him. 3. He is qualified for his particular work. II. The subject of his message. “Good tidings.” 1. Peace. 2. Salvation from spiritual evil, and an introduction to spiritual good. 3. Dominion of Christ. He reigns in His providential and mediatorial kingdom. III. The dispositions with which he is received. 1. With joy. 2. With admiration. Improvement. 1. Gratitude for the gospel. 2. Attention to its tidings. 3. Obedience to its precepts.—J. Hordle. COMFORT IN TROUBLE Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:12, and Isaiah 52:9. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.The prophecy is addressed to those who are striving after the right kind of life and seeking Jehovah, and not turning from Him to make earthly things and themselves the object of their pursuits; for such only are in a condition by faith to regard that as possible, which seems impossible to human understanding, because the very opposite is lying before the eye of the senses (Delitzsch). I. The people of God often stand in urgent need of Divine comfort. They not only have their full share of the sorrows which are common to humanity, but they have troubles to which the people of the world are strangers. Hence we are told that “many are the afflictions of the righteous,” &c. The Saviour prepared His people for this: “In the world,” &c., “Whosoever will be my disciple,” &c The people of God have to fight every inch of their way to heaven: “These are they,” &c. Their chief sorrows spring from sources unknown to and incomprehensible by the world. They are soul sorrows, having their origin in the vivid views which they have of the evil of sin, and of their own individual guilt in the sight of God, &c. Sometimes they fear that after all they shall never reach the celestial Canaan. Therefore they have the need of all the comfort which can be given them on the way to heaven. (See pp. 2, 4, 386; cf. Romans 7:22-24; Galatians 5:17; Galatians 4:29; Romans 8:36; 2 Corinthians 4:8-14; 2 Timothy 3:12; Psalms 88:18; Proverbs 17:1; Isaiah 38:14-15; 2 Timothy 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:16; Psalms 51:5-8; 2 Corinthians 7:5.) II. It is God’s will that His people should to comforted amid all their tribulations. “See how God resolves to comfort His people: ‘I, even I, will do it.’ He had ordered His ministers to do it (Isaiah 40:1), but because they cannot reach the heart, He takes the work into His own hands. See how He glories in it; He takes it among the titles of His honour to be “the God that comforteth them that are cast down;” He delights in being so (M. Henry). Because He would have His people happy. His people should remember this, and cultivate the spirit of Christian cheerfulness, because, 1. Uncomfortable Christians often dishonour the Lord. 2. Uncomfortable Christians cannot be as diligent as they ought to be in the duties of religion. Working out their own salvation. Working for God in seeking to save others (Psalms 51:12-13; P. D. 450–453). III. The bestowment of Divine comfort inspires them with grateful and exultant joy (Isaiah 51:12; Isaiah 52:9). “Where there is joy and gladness to their satisfaction, it is fit there should be thanksgiving to God’s honour; for whatever is the matter of their rejoicing, ought to be the matter of their thanksgiving, and the returns of God’s favour ought to be celebrated with the voice of melody; which will be the more melodious when God gives songs in the night, songs in the desert” (M. Henry). There may be elevated joy in the midst of deep affliction (Romans 5:3; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4, &c.) Eleven of the thirteen epistles of Paul begin with exclamations of praise and thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Take to praising God under all circumstances, and thus you will lift your soul right out of your sorrow, and taste the pleasures of immortality. “In everything give thanks.” Let this be your constant occupation. He well deserves our warmest praise. : 1. The duty and privilege of believers to seek Divine comfort. God has given us express assurances that it is His purpose that His people should have ample and unceasing comfort amid all their sorrows and sufferings (Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:12; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4). Most ungracious on our part not readily and gladly to receive the comfort so provided. To refuse to be comforted, is to be guilty of a frustration of the merciful purposes of God towards us. 2. The duty and privilege of comforted believers to comfort others. God comforts you, that you may comfort others—that He may use you as comforters. Experimental knowledge helps us to speak with authority and power—fits us to be able and ready comforters. What we have received we must give (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).—Alfred Tucker.God will give His people, I. Consolation. II. Fruitfulness. III. Gladness—J. E. Page. Isaiah 51:3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.The Church is a garden planted by the Lord, luxuriant in beauty and fruitfulness, and filled with happy occupants. The promise is as yet only in process of fulfilment; and that we may look more clearly into the future, we are called to look into the past. Eden was the garden of the Lord, the primeval paradise, the place of consummate beauty and happiness, ere sin had blighted its joys and stained its purity. To make Zion like Eden is to bring back the vanished glories of that happy place. To the extent that this is accomplished, the Church is— I. A PLACE OF DIVINE COMFORT AND . No sooner do we press in by faith, through Christ, the door, than we enjoy the comforts of Divine love, and are admitted to heavenly fellowships (Hebrews 6:18). Did Adam hear the voice of the Lord God? Here the intercourse is renewed. Life conducts through an Eden radiant with the Divine presence. What a change since the day when the Lord drove forth the man from Eden! That door has been again unbarred, and Christ has secured for us a welcome into a fairer paradise than that then was lost. The Church is “a habitation of God.” Enter, then, and you will enjoy this rich comfort and lofty fellowship. So long as you stand outside, you cannot know the beauties of the garden; you cannot survey its landscapes, nor breathe its perfumes. God has not disowned and forsaken this fallen world: it is not, as we might have expected, desolated by His wrath: we can still find an Eden in it—a garden of God’s presence and favour. II. A PLACE OF HELPFUL SOCIAL LIFE. Such was the life of the first pair, and such would have been the life of their children, but for the entrance of sin. Alas, how that fact has altered the course of human history! What jarring discords in our domestic and social life! But if the Church is to be as Eden, human society will be regenerated: the love, peace, and helpful companionship that were found in the garden of the Lord will be restored, when this promise is accomplished to the full. The Church will yet leaven society with her principles of brotherly love and mutual help. The world around is like a wilderness, where the wild plants of nature grow in rank profusion. But God has engaged to reclaim Zion’s waste places. This garden is ever extending its walls, and will do so till the whole earth becomes an Eden. III. A PLACE OF JOY. “Joy and gladness shall be found therein.” No jarring strife shall mar its harmony: love to God and to each other shall reign among the happy inmates of the restored Paradise. We naturally think of a garden as a place of joy. Surrounded by all that is fair and peaceful, the mind depressed by trial is relieved by the cheerful notes of the birds, the luxuriance of the foliage, and the forms and hues of the flowers. The Church of Christ is such a garden, in which we taste joys unknown by the world. “The fruit of the Spirit is joy,”—the joy of sin forgiven and heaven secured,—the joy of communion with Christ, and assurance of His love—the joy of mutual endearment and mutual service. What joy can surpass that which is the heritage of all who dwell within this happy inclosure? IV. A SCENE OF WORSHIP. There shall be found therein “thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” What a delightful exercise is that of praise! What a happy garden, ever jubilant with sacred song! These, then, are the features of this garden of the Church. Not on earth can we behold them in all their perfection. The earthly paradise, reopened to us by Christ, will soon become the heavenly paradise (Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:1-2). May we all at last become inmates of the Eden above, the paradise of beauty and splendour, the abode of love and joy and worship unending!—William Guthrie, M.A. THE GREAT REVIVAL Isaiah 52:10. The Lord hath made bare His holy arm, &c.When the heroes of old prepared for the fight, they put on their armour; but when God prepares for battle, He makes bare His arm, that He may do His work in earnest and accomplish His purpose for the establishment of His Church. Leaving the figure, which is a very great one, I will remind you that its meaning is fully carried out whenever God is pleased to send a great revival of religion. [1590][1590] The loose sleeve of the Arab shirt, as well as that of the outer garment, leaves the arm so completely free, that, in an instant, the left hand passing up the right arm, makes it bare; and this is done when a person—a soldier, for example, about to strike with the sword—intends to give his right arm full play. The image represents Jehovah as suddenly prepared to inflict some tremendous, yet righteous judgment, so effectual, that “all the ends of the world shall see the salvation of God.”—Jowett. I. THE CAUSE OF A TRUE REVIVAL. The mere worldly man does not understand a revival, he cannot make it out. Why is it, that a sudden fit of godliness, as he would call it, a kind of sacred epidemic, should seize upon a mass of people all at once? It frequently occurs in the absence of all great evangelists; it cannot be traced to any particular means. There have been no special agencies used in order to bring it about, and yet it has come, just like a heavenly hurricane sweeping everything before it. What then is the cause? It is caused by the Holy Spirit alone. The day of Pentecost. Do not imagine when you hear of a sermon being made useful, that it was the sermon itself that did the work. But while this is the only actual cause, yet there are instrumental causes; and the main instrumental cause of a great revival must be bold, faithful, fearless preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus. But, added to this, there must be the earnest prayers of the Church. All in vain the most indefatigable ministry, unless the Church waters the seed sown with her abundant tears. Every revival has been commenced and attended by a large amount of prayer. II. THE OF A REVIVAL OF . 1. Everything that our hearts could desire for the Church. The minister begins to be warmed. Directly after that, the revival begins to touch the people at large. A prayer meeting is summoned. The members of the Church grow solemn, more serious; family duties are better attended to, &c. And then comes the great result. There is an inquirers’ meeting held; the good brother who presides over it is astonished, he never saw so many coming in his life before. 2. The revival of the Church then touches the rest of society. Men, who do not come forward and profess religion, are more punctual in attending the means of grace. Men that used to swear give it up, &c. III. SOME . 1. If in any revival you see any strange contortions of the body, &c., always distinguish between things that differ. The Holy Spirit’s work is with the mind, not with the body. 2. Always distinguish between man and man in the work of revival. While during a revival of religion a very large number of people will be really converted, there will be a very considerable portion who will be merely excited with animal excitement, and whose conversion will not be genuine. Always expect that, and do not be surprised if you see it. 3. Do not relax the bonds of discipline. .—Stir you up to seek of God a great revival of religion throughout the length and breadth of this land. There are some of you who stand in the way—you are not consistent in your living; others that stand in the way of all progress; others are such sticklers for order, so given to everything that has been, that you do not care for any revival for fear we should hurt you. You who love Jesus with all your heart, and want to promote it, remember that men are dying around you by thousands. Did Christ give His whole life for their salvation, and will not you stir up your life to wrestle with God that His purpose may be accomplished on their behalf? As for you that fear not God, see how much ado we are making about you. Your souls are worth more than you think. Oh that you would believe in Christ to the salvation of your souls!—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 185. THE OF GOD SEEN (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 52:10. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. I. THE WHICH IS TO BE TO MANKIND. 1. Its nature: “the salvation of God.” There is no doubt a primary reference to the delivery of the Jews from captivity; but its main and ultimate reference is to the salvation of men by Christ, for in the verses which immediately follow our text, as also in the next chapter, we have a picture of the humiliation of the Saviour, and of its effects on mankind (see also Luke 3:3-6). It is salvation from the curse of a violated law, and from the bondage of sin; and it comprehends admission into heaven at death, the resurrection of the body in glory, and its reunion with the spirit for ever. Such being the nature and vastness of this salvation, it surpasses the limits of human or angelic agency. It is necessarily the salvation of God.—Contemplate, then, 2. Its divinity. It is the product of His infinite wisdom, His almighty power, His unchanging faithfulness, His boundless love. II. ITS . 1. It was seen by “all the ends of the earth,” in the ministry and triumphs of the early ages. Whilst the comparative cessation of its early triumphs may be traced to the faithlessness of the Church, we may be assured that they have never been extinct. Throughout the darkest periods of the Church there were some who preached the good tidings. In every age the salvation of God has been seen, and its victories have probably been achieved to a far greater extent than has been known or recorded. 2. In the future the prediction of our text shall be yet more gloriously fulfilled. (1.) The Gospel shall be preached in every land. (2.) The salvation thus exhibited shall be everywhere triumphant. The reign of superstition and sin shall be brought to an end (H. E. I. 979, 1161–1168). 1. How much we owe to our Saviour for the provision of this salvation! 2. Ought it not to be our earnest desire to see this salvation for ourselves? 3. Ought we not to rejoice in prospect of the period when the prediction of our text shall be fulfilled? 4. Let us labour to accelerate the arrival of this period.—John Johnson, M.A.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 389–418. A DIVINE CALL TO FORSAKE THE WORLDLY LIFE Isaiah 52:11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, &c.The prophet directly addresses those who were in exile in Babylon, and commands them to “depart” from it, when the opportunity, divinely promised, should occur. The urgency of the command, as indicated by its repetition, implies that there would be some delay on their part. Notwithstanding their early privations and sorrows, many of them seemed to prefer residence there, and were strongly indisposed to return. They knew the land of their fathers only by report. It was distant, involving a long and perilous journey across a pathless desert. Babylon was their native place, as well as their home, and the graves of their parents and kindred were there. Some of them had been advanced to official and illustrious positions, and many had property and friends there. Probably many of them had formed improper connections and attachments in that distant land, and they would be unwilling to relinquish them, to encounter the perils and trials incident to a return to the land of their fathers. Hence, the most urgent commands were addressed to them, and the strongest motives presented to induce them to leave the country of their exile. And after all, it is evident that but comparatively few of them were prevailed on to return to Zion. Apply this generally. I. God calls men to forsake the worldly life. “Depart ye, … go ye out of the midst of her,” &c. Many who attend our sanctuaries are “men of the world”—careless and indifferent about the claims of God and their immortal souls. Hardened by sin, and overcome by the world, they are deaf to entreaty and disobedient to warning, &c. The great majority of our fellow-countrymen “love the world and the things of the world”—manifest a stolid indifference to spiritual religion. This is the most painful aspect of our times. But God’s call to men is— 1. Urgent. 2. Repeated. 3. Disinterested. II. Men are reluctant to obey this Divine call. See introduction. Through love of the world they are prejudiced against spiritual religion. This reluctance springs from many causes. 1. Unbelief leads them to disregard all such calls. “The Jews might doubt the power of God, the sincerity of the proclamation, and the benefits of returning to Jerusalem.” To indolent and wicked men the commands of God seem unreasonable, the calls to duty prejudicial to selfish interests. Others may go to the celestial city, but they remain in the city of destruction. 2. “Continuance in sin obliterates remembrance of spiritual good. The Jews forgot their own land, and preferred the wealth of Babylon to Jerusalem, their chief joy. Worldly men are concerned for nothing beyond present enjoyments.” 3. “Present possessions are thought more certain than future good. The present world to them is real Power, position, and riches are seen and felt. But they disbelieve in future blessings.” They walk by “sight,” and for the sake of seen advantages, honours, and pleasures, they pursue courses of folly, sin, and shame, regardless of the consequences. III. Sufficient motives to comply with this Divine call are presented to men. “God deals with them as reasonable and intelligent creatures. He does not constrain or force men out of the world.” 1. “Though God has punished, yet He loves men.” The Jews had been dispersed far and wide; they had been punished with violence; yet God recalled them, and had mercy on them. God hates your sin, but loves you; and though He punishes your sin, still He loves you. His love to you is manifested in manifold ways. 2. “Though men have disobeyed the call, they are not forsaken.” God had called the Jews again and again, and though they had been ungrateful and disobedient, still God invites them tenderly and urgently. How often has God called you! How ungrateful and disobedient have you been! Still God invites you! But His longsuffering will have an end. Beware! Hear and obey! 3. “Though invitations are given to men, yet disobedience will endanger their souls” (Isaiah 65:12-15; Luke 12:47; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; 1 Peter 4:17). The danger is, 1. Real. 2. Imminent, Therefore (Genesis 19:17; Jeremiah 51:45).—Alfred Tucker.This is a direct address to the exiled Jews in their captivity. They were to separate themselves wholly from an idolatrous nation and keep themselves pure. The command pertains particularly to the priests and Levites, whose office it was to carry the vessels of the Lord (Numbers 1:50; Numbers 4:15). They were required to feel the importance of their office, and to be separate from all evil. But all Christians are spiritual priests (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:5). “They are to bear the vessels of the Lord, are intrusted to keep the ordinances of God pure and entire; it is a good thing committed to them, and they ought to be clean, and so carry God’s vessels, and keep themselves pure.”—M. Henry.I. God’s people will have to do with the world as long as they are in it. The separation enjoined does not refer to civil affairs—buying, selling, &c., neither to existing relationships, &c. While in the world, the godly must live, &c.; and they are commanded not to be “slothful in business,” &c. They are compelled to have intercourse with those whose ungodly deeds are grievous to them, like Lot (2 Peter 2:8). The believing wife must not leave her husband, &c. (H. E. I. 1035–1041, 5026–5043). II. God’s people should regard the world as the sphere of their influence and usefulness.—They are to be blessings to the world. They are its instructors, examples, ornaments, bulwarks, &c. Hence they must live and labour among worldly people, that they may be their benefactors, &c., and the instruments of their salvation. They are to shine in the world—to reprove its sinfulness by their holiness—to attract it by the beauty of their lives, &c. III. God’s people must be spiritually separated from the world. [1593] Why? Because, 1. The world is Satan’s kingdom, and sinners are his subjects (2 Corinthians 6:15; Ephesians 2:2; John 14:30). Saints must not needlessly associate with sinners, but show that Christ is their Master. “What concord (harmony) hath Christ with Belial?” None. “So is there none betwixt those who are Christ’s disciples and Satan’s servants. Discord arises from their fellowship, which is so painful that the believer is often tempted to lower his note in order to produce apparent harmony.” [1593] “Touch no unclean thing”—connected with the idolatries and defilements of Babylon; “go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean”—by separating yourselves wholly from Babylonian idolatries, “that bear the vessels of the LORD.” “The Apostle Paul has applied this to Christians, and uses it as expressing the obligation to come out from the world, and to be separate from all its influences (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). Babylon is regarded by the apostle as not an inapt emblem of the world, and the command to come out from her as not an improper expression of the obligation of the friends of the Redeemer to be separate from all that is evil.”—(Barnes.) “Go ye out of the midst of her.” Practically, this means “come out from the world—not the material world, of course, nor the philosophic world, nor the commercial world; but come out from the spirit, the principles, the motives that govern worldly men.” “Touch no unclean thing” belonging to them—have nothing to do with sin in any of its forms or manifestations. “Let your intercourse with them be like that of angels, who, when sent from heaven, had no sooner discharged their errand than they flew back again with rapid wing to the pure heavens.” 2. The world is spiritually dark (John 3:19; Ephesians 5:8; Ephesians 5:11). “What communion hath light with darkness?” None. “If there be communion betwixt light and darkness, it is to the detriment of the light. How has the brightness of many a Christian life been dimmed by intimacy with the ungodly.” 3. The world is unbelieving (Numbers 14:11). Worldly men trust in themselves and despise Christ. Sometimes their unbelief assumes the form of scepticism, which is not the result of careful inquiry, &c., but the slow result of indifference and prejudice, &c. (H. E. I. 369). “What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” 4. The world is idolatrous. They worship their pleasures, possessions, honours, &c. (Colossians 3:5; 1 John 5:2). “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” Wherefore, come “ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean,” &c. The separation is not to be comprised in a single act, but must be the habit of the life. It must be a complete withdrawal from all that is inimical to our spiritual interests, and contrary to the will of God. IV. God’s people have many motives urging them to this course of conduct. 1. The requirement of God (2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Romans 12:2, &c.) Remember who it is that speaks. His eye is full upon you. What will you answer Him? 2. The grand object and aim of the Gospel economy (Galatians 1:4, &c.) 3. The nature of their profession. The vows of God are upon them; their baptismal engagements bind them to “renounce,” &c. 4. The glory of God and the interest of His cause. How can we glorify God fully without entire separation from the world? Does not the worldliness of many professing Christians mar and sully the cause and honour of our Redeemer? V. God’s people will realise the most blessed results from such a separation. 1. Deliverance from the terrible consequences of worldliness. Many have been ruined by it, as Sampson, Lot, Solomon, Demas, &c. (1 Corinthians 11:32). Worldliness separates us from fellowship with God, and finally plunges us into perdition. 2. The abiding presence of God (2 Corinthians 6:16; Colossians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:14). 3. An interest in God and all that He has promised. “I will be their God”—that is, everything that heart can desire (2 Corinthians 6:16). 4. Ever-increasing usefulness. “Other things being equal, you will be useful in proportion as you are holy.” (H. E. I. 1089–1095.) 5. A more glorious reward in the world to come (P. D. 722, 1752).—Alfred Tucker.For introductory material, see other outlines on this text. A summons to a very important duty, which, if more generally regarded, would greatly tend to the purity and prosperity of the Church, &c. One of the greatest evils of our times, with which the Church has to struggle, is conformity to the world, &c. “From worldliness, that mildew of churches, good Lord, deliver us.” I. There is great danger lest we should damage our Christian life by conformity to the lower life of the world around. Such conformity may be— 1. Involuntary. “We have simply to cease to resist the current, and we shall drift with it. Left to themselves, things tend to equilibrium and assimilation.” 2. Unconscious, because so slow and gradual. “As the ship is moved by the tide without the motion being perceived, as old age creeps on a man before he is aware of it; so silently and stealthily the spirit of the world infuses itself into the unwatchful Christian.” 3. It is easily glided into in times of prosperity. [1596] As you love your souls, beware of the world; it has slain its thousands and ten thousands. What ruined Lot’s wife, Achan, Haman, Judas, Simon Magus, Demas? The world! (Mark 8:36.) [1596] When the world persecutes the Church, Christians are in less danger of going over to the camp of the enemy than when it flatters and even imitates the Church, and the temptation is to meet compliance with compliance. Thus the very amelioration of the world under Christian influences may make it more dangerous by rendering it less repulsive, and by hiding its grosser evils under a decorous cloak. In Brazil there grows a common plant, which forest-dwellers call the matador, or “murderer.” Its slender stem creeps at first along the ground; but no sooner does it meet a vigorous tree, than, with clinging grasp, it cleaves to it, and climbs it, and as it climbs, keeps at short intervals sending out arm-like tendrils that embrace the tree. As the murderer ascends, these ligatures grow larger and clasp tighter. Up, up it climbs a hundred feet, nay, two hundred if need be, until the last loftiest spire is gained and fettered. Then, as if in triumph, the parasite shoots a large flowery head above the strangled summit, and thence, from the dead tree’s crown, scatters its seed—the work of death. Even thus worldliness has strangled more churches than ever persecution broke.—Coley.II. Our security against this danger lies in spiritual separation from it (H. E. I. 5026–5061). 1. “It is vain to flee from the world, for we may carry the world in our hearts to the wilderness; and it is wrong, for we have a distinct mission to the world, and in fulfilling this mission must learn how to use the things of the world without abusing them.” If you would overcome the world, be assured that you must remain in it, but not be of it; you must not shrink from its responsibilities to avoid its perils. You must stand where God in His providence has placed you—humble in prosperity, trustful in adversity, Christian in all. 2. “It is equally vain simply to oppose the world. Unless we are ourselves different in spirit from the world, the opposition will be a futile hypocrisy.” 3. It is only by moral separation from it that we can escape this danger. [1599][1599] “People ask foolishly, ‘Where shall we draw the line?’ Some draw it at the theatre, some at the concert, some at all amusements. Unworldliness does not consist in the drawing of any line, however strict and vigorous. It consists in the change of our own hearts into an unworldly spiritual condition. And when this change is effected we shall voluntarily loathe and hate all debased things, and they will no longer have any power to allure us. There will then be no need to ‘draw a line,’ for there will be no inclination to approach as near as possible to forbidden ground.” Faith realises Christ’s Kingship, and its subjects transfer their allegiance to Him, acknowledging Him to be their Master and Lord, and disclaiming all others. Faith recognises the rightful authority of the whole current of His commands, which run against the love of the world, and renders a willing obedience as the surest evidence of sincerity. A new world has opened to their view, that by an irresistible attraction draws away their hearts from “this present evil world.” The love of Christ expels the love of the world. Faith conquers it by connecting us with the grace and victory of Christ, and by keeping in view the distinguished and everlasting rewards of the future life.—Tucker.III. We are commanded thus to separate ourselves from the world. “Go ye out of the midst of her” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Romans 12:2, &c.) 1. The Divine command implies urgency. (See previous outline.) 2. The Divine command implies strenuous effort. (See vol. i. p. 37.) 3. The necessity for such a command is obvious when we consider— (1.) The constant presence of the world. (2.) The ties which bind us to the world. (3.) The tendency of the human heart. IV. There are many motives which concur in urging obedience to this command.1. The will of our Heavenly Father (1 Thessalonians 4:3). He requires our “sanctification”—separation from all sin, &c. 2. The example and mission of Christ. “He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” In all His transactions, in all His intercourse with others, He preserved Himself unspotted (1 John 2:6). “He has left us an example,” &c. The design of Christ in dying for us—the one great moral result for which He “gave Himself for us,” was that He might rescue us—select and separate us—“from this present evil world”—the system or course of the present age, as impregnated with spiritual evil, &c. (Galatians 1:4, &c.) The grand moral result contemplated was our deliverance from worldliness. 3. The principles you profess. 4. The duty you owe to the Church and to the world. By nonconformity to the world you strengthen the cause of truth and righteousness, cause the friends of Zion to rejoice, and manifest to the world the sincerity of your profession, &c. 5. The duty you owe to yourself. Self-love prohibits conformity to the world, for thereby you take the most direct steps to plunge yourself into that condemnation which will be the portion of the ungodly. But by obedience to this injunction you promote your own holiness, happiness, usefulness, &c. .—Is your separation from the world boldly and clearly defined? If not, in so far as you are concerned, Christ has died in vain. “Come out from the world”! “Go ye out of the midst of her”! Yield yourself to Jesus, that He may accomplish this great work in you. Give Him your heart and He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness in heart and habits and life. Let not the charge of singularity frighten you from duty. Let your nonconformity to the world be manifest and thorough.—Alfred Tucker. Isaiah 52:11. Touch no unclean thing, &c.The great Head of the Church speaks to His people now, in the voice of His word and by the voice of His providence, as He has scarcely ever spoken before. And for good reasons. The world is perishing all around us. The Church in many places is asleep in its worldliness, fashions, and follies, &c. But the fields around us are whitening to the harvest. The doors are opening on every hand, under the providence of God. We have no confidence in the permanent success of any reformatory movements, unless they are under the leadership and influence of a living Christianity and a living Church (Psalms 51; Isaiah 6) It was only when the coronals of fire were on the brow of the early Church that every one of its members became a living witness, testifying of “Jesus and the resurrection.” I. Holiness furnishes both the disposition and desire to work for the Lord. We cannot be co-workers with God, unless we are one in sympathy, spirit, and purpose with Him. Just in proportion as the spirit of holiness sways the soul will be this disposition and this purpose. The very first entrance of the renewing Spirit into the soul of the believer begets this desire and purpose; and how much more will they control and impel it when He has taken full possession of all its powers! The believer will be willing to do anything for Jesus when he has consecrated all to Him. Sacrifices will be regarded as nothing for the sake of Him who sacrificed all for us. II. The spirit of holiness also furnishes the help needed for such work. Nothing but this will bear the soul along for weeks, months, and years in this work. There are difficulties, discouragements, and sometimes fearful obstructions in the way of those who undertake these services. No one, unaided by Divine grace, would enter upon such a work, and if he did he would speedily abandon it in either disgust or despair. But the same Spirit who gives the disposition and desire to work for God, also gives the help to do that work (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). This is heroic; it is sublime. And it is this endowment of power, the power which holiness brings with it to the soul, which the Church, in its ministry and membership, now needs to fit it for its high and holy mission (H. E. I. 2827). III. Holiness furnishes the very best and the only absolutely necessary qualifications for this work. We do not refer so much to intellectual qualifications; they are to be secured in other ways. But holiness will clarify the intellect, enlarge the heart, and tip and touch the tongue with an unaccountable eloquence, far beyond any natural gifts which the witness for Christ may possess. This is the one indispensable requisite for this work. Learning is, indeed, exceedingly desirable; but all may be possessed, while the one who has it is unfitted for the Master’s service, and powerless for the salvation of immortal beings. If he have this power, this grace, however rude he may be in speech, or inelegant in manners, or unacquainted with the mighty tomes which contain the facts of science or the lore of the ages, however unheralded he may be by name or fame, he will work wonders in the name of the Lord. The instances are multiplied, &c. Certainly, the more holy any one is, the more closely he will endeavour to imitate his Master and Lord, who “went about doing good.” Oh, it is not a negative holiness which the world wants, but a positive, earnest, self-sacrificing, all consuming holiness, which will expend itself in labours for the good of others (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). If any one should think that he has attained to holiness, or profess to enjoy this grace, and has not this disposition or desire to work for Jesus, it is clearly evident that he is deceived, and all his professions are worse than vain. IV. The spirit of holiness, dwelling in the human soul, will lead it to work for Christ, without selfishness, false ambition, struggle for honour, position, or emolument: and without envy or jealousy of the good, or the rights and privileges of others. [1602]Lewis R. Dunn: Holiness to the Lord, pp. 77–86. [1602] There is little time for looking after souls where self is dominant. There is little left for benefactions to the poor, the suffering, the distressed, for the cause of God and of humanity, where the loud and ever-increasing clamours for self-gratification demand all, and often more than all, we may possess. And there is but little satisfaction or comfort in the service of Christ which is so marred and blurred and clouded with false ambitions, envies, and jealousies. But this pure spirit of holiness not only expurgates sin, but also self, with all its train of evils and follies. And where these have held undisputed sway, now Jesus reigns alone. And how easy, how pleasant, to work for Him when His love inspires our breast! Love supreme, love to God, begets in us love for our neighbour, and bears us onward cheerfully, in all toils and sacrifices, to bless and save him. What power cannot accomplish, what wealth cannot buy, love can do. And it is the religion of love which is to conquer this world. Truly did the eloquent Castelar say recently in the Spanish Cortes, “Might is the religion of power; but the religion of love is almighty.”—Dunn. We have now everything else. In a measure we have this. But we have it not in the degree of fulness and power which is needed to enable us to meet our vast responsibilities and move our ponderous machinery. And this is what is needed to meet the wants of the great beating, surging heart of the world. This is to be its great centre of attraction. All else will be of no avail (H. E. I. 2813–2866). I. Holiness is wanted in the ministry. The priests of Zion, to be efficient, must be “clothed with righteousness as with a garment.” They must be anointed and endowed with the “spirit of holiness.” It was for them primarily that the Saviour prayed in His intercessory prayer: “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” There is nothing ministers need so much as holiness. How great is the need, even now, that the entire ministry of the Church should be clad in the shining vestments of holiness! What a spirit of consecration would they then exhibit! What zeal, what self-sacrifice, what sympathy, what power would they possess! It is true that this might create some opposition from worldly-minded, formal, or backslidden professors of religion; but this would not hinder the progress of the work of God. Such a mighty momentum would be given to the cause of the Redeemer, that all barriers would sooner or later be swept out of the way, and the Gospel would not only “run,” but it would be “glorified.” And what an impulse would this give to our missionary work! II. Holiness is wanted in the Church. The history of the Church clearly demonstrates the fact that, as spiritual vitality and power have declined, there has been an effort to substitute for them external forms and multiplied machinery. And generally, where there has been the least of these spiritual elements, there has been the greatest amount of the material. Now the same absurd tendencies are developing themselves. Much is said nowadays about the barrenness of Protestant worship; it is the barrenest thing in the world, without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Romanism, the Greek Church, and the High Church of England and America, have a something which seems in a measure to compensate them for their loss or lack of spiritual vitality. As they have not “the beauty of the Lord upon them,” they have invented a sort of beauty which attracts the eye and ravishes the senses. As they have ceased to be spiritual, they have become simply sensuous. But Protestantism has really provided for nothing of this kind. Without holiness, our churches are nothing but a shell. But where this is, there “the tabernacle of God is with men” (Isaiah 4:5). And this is all the glory and defence which we need. There must be a return to vital godliness, with all its blessed and heavenly influences, speedily, or else there will follow on rapidly decline, decay, and death. III. It is holiness which is wanted to bring in the glories of the millennial era, and which will be universal in that era. The ministry and the Church thus consecrated, bearing on every forehead and every breast, on every heart and every life, “Holiness unto the Lord,” would soon bring in the brightest glories foretold on the glowing pages of Isaiah (H. E. I. 1089–1093, 1169).—Lewis R. Dunn, pp. 109–117. THE AND OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 52:12. For ye shall not go out with haste, &c.God’s salvation is a great salvation, because of its Divine origin, and because of the original dignity of man. It is not a rescue simply, but a deliverance; not an escape, but a victory; sin is not eluded, but destroyed. This has been the grand characteristic of all God’s deliverances. I. THE OF THE AND OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. The history of Israel is the Divine key to the history of man. The Egyptian bondage has the broadest meaning. Of Christ, of you, of each one, the words are true: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” There were two great captivities of Israel; they were born in one; the other they earned by sin. These represent our natural bondage, and the self-earned serfdom of the soul. Therefore also two deliverances. There is one Deliverer, and one deliverance from both captivities. In each case the method of His deliverance was the same,—a glorious manifestation of the might of the redeeming arm of God. At first sight, there is a contrast as well as a likeness. One might feel inclined to say that the Exodus was a flight. This contrast was, no doubt, before Isaiah’s mind (Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 12:31-39). From Babylon they went forth in orderly array, with the king’s good-will, and by his royal command (Ezra 1) But under the surface the grand features are identical; in neither case did they steal away; they obeyed Jehovah’s will; the angel of His presence guided them, and His judgments were on all who sought to resist their departure. Here it was that Isaiah saw and asserted the likeness, “Jehovah shall go before you,” &c. (Exodus 13:21-22; Exodus 14:19-20). II. THE GREAT WHICH IS FREELY OFFERED IN THE GOSPEL. 1. The reason of our protracted discipline. God will not have us “go out with haste, nor go forth by flight.” Many Christians can look back to some period, and say, “Would God that I had then been taken home!” Others in the hour of trial say, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.” Not by the short, straight way, but by the long, weary, desert path, God led His pilgrims; a band of trained veterans, they entered at length into Canaan. It is this experience which, at sore cost of pain, God is laying up within us; this patient waiting is a store of power and wisdom, the worth of which will only be manifested as we press the borders of Canaan. 2. “The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rereward.” The Lord has gone before us; it is this which makes our progress a triumph; it is in Him we find the way to the conqueror’s rest. (1.) He has gone before us in bearing to the uttermost the penalty of sin. (2.) He has gone before us in breaking the power of evil (John 14:27; John 16:33). You have but to strive with a beaten foeman. (3.) He has gone before us in the way of the wilderness, through life’s protracted discipline, to glory (Hebrews 5:7-9). Sorrow is transfigured by the resurrection and glorification of Christ; and He has gone “to prepare a place for you.” “And the God of Israel shall be your rereward;” He shall gather up the stragglers of the host (Isaiah 40:10-11); the weak ones shall not be downtrodden, nor the halting left hopelessly in the rear (chaps. Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 43:1-7). The cause is God’s, the power His, and His shall be the glory of the everlasting victory.—J. Baldwin Brown, B.A.: Sermons, pp. 419–427. The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the Gospel. Nevertheless, the Church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the Church militant, the Church armed, warring, conquering. It is in the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. It is but a rule of nature that holiness must be at enmity with sin. And every child of God proveth by experience that this is the land of war. Now, how comforting is this text to the believer who recognises himself as a soldier, and the whole Church as an army! I. The whole Church of God may trust in this great twofold promise. 1. Jehovah will go before you. Has He not gone before His Church in act and deed? Perilous has been the journey of the Church from the day when first it left Paradise even until now. I see the Church going out from Ur of the Chaldees; afterwards going down to the land of the cruel Pharaohs. But now the Church has to come up out of Egypt, and God goes before her still. But why need I go through all the pages of the history of the Church of God in the days of the old dispensation? Hath it not been true from the days of John the Baptist until now? If you read the history of the Church, you will be compelled to confess that whenever she went forward she could discern the footsteps of Jehovah leading the way. 2. “The God of Israel will be your rereward.” The original Hebrew is, “God of Israel shall gather you up.” Armies in the time of war diminish by reason of stragglers, some of whom desert, and others of whom are overcome by fatigue; but the army of God is gathered up; none desert from it if they be real soldiers of the cross, and none drop down upon the road. The Church of Christ has been frequently attacked in the rear. It often happens that the enemy, tired of opposing the onward march by open persecution, attempt to malign the Church concerning something that has either been taught, or revealed, or done in past ages. Now the God of Israel is our rereward. I am never at trouble about the attacks of infidels or heretics, however vigorously they may assault the doctrines of the Gospel. If they must attack the rear, let them fight with Jehovah Himself. Perhaps the later trials of the Church may represent the rereward. It always has been so with the Church—a time of prosperity and then a period of persecution. Can you now conceive the last great day when Jehovah the rereward will gather up His people? II. The individual believer should lay hold upon this great twofold promise. We are now come to the last Sabbath of the year. Two troubles present themselves, the future and the past. We shall soon launch into another year, and hitherto we have found our years years of trouble, &c. Perhaps we are trembling to go forward. Foreseeing trouble, we know not how we shall be able to endure to the end, &c. Let this sweet morsel now cheer you. The Lord Jehovah will go before you. He has gone before you already. Your future path has all been marked out,— 1. In the great decrees of His predestination. Remember, you are not a child of chance. If you were, you might indeed fear. 2. In the actual preparations of His providence. God always makes a providence beforehand, ready for His people when they get to the place. We do not know how the future lies in the bowels of the past, and how what is to be is the child of that which is. As all men spring from their progenitors, so the providence of to-day springs from the providence of a hundred years past. The events of next year have been forestalled by God in what He has done this year and years before. I am certain of this, that on the road I am to travel during the next year, everything is ready for me. You are not going through a land that God has not prepared for you. 3. In the experience of Christ. As to our future troubles for next year, and the remnant of our days, Jesus Christ has borne them all before. He has conquered every foe. Now I hear one say, “The future seldom troubles me; it is the past—what I have done and what I have not done; how I have sinned, and how I have not served my Master as I ought, &c. Oh! it is the rereward that is most unsafe. I dread most the sins of the past.” “The God of Israel shall be your rereward.” Notice the different titles. The first is “The Lord,” or properly, JEHOVAH—JEHOVAH will go before you. That is the I AM, full of omniscience and omnipotence. The second title is “the God of Israel,” that is to say, the God of the Covenant. We want the God of the Covenant behind, because it is not in the capacity of the I AM, the Omnipotent, that we require Him to pardon sin, to accept our person, to blot out the past, and to remove iniquity by the blood of Christ. Now let me always think that I have God behind me as well as before me, let not the memories of the past, though they cause me grief, cause me despair. .—Are there any here to-day whose hearts God hath touched, who desire to join this great army? The past shall all be blotted out; God shall be thy rereward. And as for the future, thou chief of sinners, if now thou enlistest into the army of Christ by faith, thou shalt find the future shall be strewn with the gold of God’s grace, and the silver of His temporal mercies; thou shalt have enough and to spare from this day forth even to the end, and at the last thou shalt be gathered in by the great arms of God, that constitute the rear-guard of His heavenly army.—C. H. Spurgeon: The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 230. THE AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST Isaiah 52:13-15. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, &c.Our text is a distinct subject from that discussed in the previous parts of the chapter, and evidently ought to have formed a part of chapter 53. It is most clearly a prophecy concerning the Messiah. It relates both to His official character, sufferings, exaltation, and conquests; and, as such, is replete with deeply interesting matter for our profitable meditation. I. THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. God’s servant. “My servant” (Isaiah 42:1). Christ, in His mediatorial character, was God’s servant, while in His essential glory He was God blessed for evermore (see pp. 80–92). Hearken to His own declarations (Matthew 20:28; John 9:4; John 5:30). His feeling at the beginning of life (Luke 2:49). His declarations at its end (John 17:4). He ever recognised Himself as God’s servant. Observe how he discharged the office of servant. (1.) His fidelity. He was faithful in all things—never omitted one of the requirements of His Father; did all His will, and that perfectly. (2.) His zeal. His Father’s honour and glory ever melted His ardent soul. This feeling consumed His sacred spirit. How it burst forth in the Temple (John 2:11-17). (3.) His perseverance. He held on His course with undeviating constancy; never turned aside; was faithful unto death. (4.) The text refers to His prudence. The word in the margin is “prosper,” But our translation would lead us to view one striking feature in His office—the wisdom which distinguished His course. This shone forth as the light of the sun at noonday. In His discourses to His disciples, in His replies to His enemies, “never man spake like this man.” ever could His foe entangle Him, &c. Infallibility marked all He said and did. II. HIS . “As many were astonished.” A stonishing—that a personage so illustrious should be so abased (Psalms 22:6; Isaiah 53:3-4). How bitterly was He calumniated! How maliciously He was persecuted! III. HIS . “He shall be exalted,” &c. Christ was exalted, 1. In His resurrection from the dead. 2. By His elevation to the right hand of the throne of God. IV. HIS . “He shall be extolled.” That is, praised, His character celebrated, &c. Angels extolled Him as their Lord, heralded Him back again to His kingdom and glory (Psalms 24:7-10). John heard all the celestial hosts of heaven extolling Him in their anthems of praise (Revelation 5:11-14). His ministering servants and people extol Him on earth. He shall be extolled by His redeemed saints for ever. V. HIS . 1. “He shall sprinkle,” &c. He does so, (1.) By His doctrines. His blessed word falls as the rain, distils as the dew, &c. (2.) By His blood. When these doctrines are received, then man partakes of the merits of His death, and the cleansing virtues of His blood. The blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling. (3.) By His spiritual blessings. The outpouring of His Holy Spirit, and the rich communications of His mercy and love. 2. He shall silence the opposition of kings. These shall oppose the Gospel, and employ worldly power and authority against it. But He shall overturn, &c. (Psalms 2:12; Psalms 72:10). 3. His achievements shall be unprecedented and wonderful. Two things shall particularly astonish. (1.) The simplicity of His means. Not by carnal weapons, not by human power, not by armies, &c., nor by science, but by the word of grace, and the messengers of salvation (1 Corinthians 1:21). (2.) The completeness of the results. Effective, deep, and universal changes. Men renovated—society altered. Ignorance banished—crime annihilated—misery extinguished. Purity, joy, and bliss diffused. The days of heaven upon earth. . 1. Are we the friends or enemies of the Saviour? Do we despise, reject, deride, reproach, &c., or do we hail, receive, and delight in Him? All men act now as His friends or foes. 2. Has He sprinkled your hearts with the blessings of His grace—His word—His blood—Spirit? 3. Are you aiding Christ in His triumphal career? Accelerating the conversion of the world? The soldiers of His cross? 4. What bright visions are yet to distinguish the cause of the Saviour! “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,” &c.—The Pulpit Encyclopœdia: vol. i. pp. 156–160. I. The work of. Christ on earth, as this prophecy presents it. 1. He is called the “Servant of the Lord.” 2. He is a servant “dealing prudently.” 3. Yet was His visage marred more than any man. II. The glory of Christ upon His mediatorial throne. 1. He shall be exalted. This relates to His authority and power. 2. He shall be extolled. 3. He shall be very high (Philippians 2:9-11). III. The works of mercy which the Saviour is accomplishing in His exalted state. 1. He sets forth His Gospel according to His promise. 2. He shall sprinkle many nations. This denotes the priestly office of Christ. The kings shall shut their mouths at Him, &c.—J. Stratten: The Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 117–124. Modern Jewish writers refuse to see the Messiah in this passage, but their predecessors were not so blind. The Targum and the ancient Rabbins interpreted it of the Messiah, and indeed all attempts to explain it apart from Him are palpable failures. Christian commentators in all ages have seen the Lord Jesus here. I. THE OF OUR LORD’S . He is called in the text, “My servant,” a title as honourable as it is condescending. Jesus has deigned to become the great servant of God under the present economy; He conducts the affairs of the household of God, and it is said that He deals prudently. He who took upon Him the form of a servant acts as a wise servant in everything. This prudence was manifest in the days of His flesh, from His childhood among the doctors in the Temple on to His confession before Pontius Pilate. Our Lord was enthusiastic (John 2:17); but that enthusiasm never carried Him into rashness; He was as wise and prudent as the most cool-hearted calculator could have been. He was full of love, and that love made Him frank and open-hearted; but for all that He “committed Himself unto no man, for He knew what was in man.” Too many who aspire to be leaders of the people study policy, craft, and diplomacy. The Friend of sinners had not a fraction of that thing about Him; and yet you see His wisdom when He baffles His adversaries; and when He deals with His friends (John 16:12). He who on earth became obedient unto death has now gone into His glory, but He is still over the house of God, conducting its affairs. He deals prudently still. Our fears lead us to judge that the affairs of Christ’s kingdom are going amiss, but we may rest assured that all is well. He has ultimate designs which are not apparent upon the surface, and these He never fails to accomplish. Another translation of the passage is, “my servant shall have prosperous success.” Let us append that meaning to the other. Prosperity will grow out of our Lord’s prudent dealings. The pleasure of the Lord prospers in the hands of Jesus. The Gospel will prosper in the thing whereto God has sent it. All along the line the Captain of our salvation will be victorious, and in every point and detail of the entire business the will of the Lord shall be done, and all heaven and earth shall be filled with praise as they see that it is so. In consequence of this, the Lord shall be exalted and extolled. How well He deserves to be exalted and extolled for His matchless prudence! The plans which the Lord has adopted are surely working out the growth of His kingdom, and will certainly result in bringing to the front His name, and person, and teaching. The star of Jesus rises higher every hour. He was despised and rejected of men, but now tens of thousands adore Him; and to Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord. II. THE -BLOCK IN THE WAY OF OUR LORD. It is His cross, which to Jew and Greek is ever a hindrance. As if the prophet saw Him in vision, he cries out, “As many were astonished at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” When He was here, His personal position and condition and appearance were very much against the spread of His kingdom. He was the son of a carpenter, He wore the smock-frock of a peasant, He associated with publicans and sinners. Therefore the Jews rejected the meek and lowly prince of the house of David, and alas! they persist in their rejection of His claims. To-day He has risen from the grave and gone into His glory, but the offence of the cross has not ceased, for upon His Gospel there remains the image of His marred visage, and therefore men despise it. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to many. Men will tell you they could believe Christianity, if it were not for the atonement. Here stands the head and front of the difficulty—the cross, which is the soul of Christianity, is also its stumbling-block. [1605][1605] If any here are offended with Christ because of His cross, I beg them to dismiss the prejudice. Should it lead any man to doubt the Saviour, or withhold his heart from Him because He comes with a visage marred with sorrow? If He came to teach us to be unhappy, and to prescribe to us rules for increasing misery, we might be excused if we shunned His teaching; but if He comes bearing the grief Himself that we may not bear it, and if those lines of agony were wrought in His countenance because He carried our griefs and our sorrows, they ought to be to us the most attractive of all beauties. I reckon that the scar across the warrior’s face, which he gained in defending his country, is no disfigurement to him; it is a beauty-spot. If my brother had, in saving my life, lost an arm, or received a hideous wound, he would be all the more beautiful in my esteem; certainly I could not shun him on that account. The wounds of Jesus are precious jewels which should charm our eyes, eloquent mouths which should win our hearts.—Spurgeon. The practical part of the Gospel is equally a stumbling-block to ungodly men, for when men inquire what they must do to be saved, they are told that they must receive the Gospel as little children, that they must repent of sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very humbling precepts for human self-sufficiency! “Be kindly affectioned one to another,” “forgiving one another and forbearing one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you;” to the world which loves conquerors, and blasts of trumpets, and chaplets of laurel, this kind of teaching has a marred visage, and an uncomely form. What seems even more humbling, the Lord sends this Gospel among us by men who are neither great nor noble, nor even among the wise of this world. Very simple is what they say: “Believe and live; Christ in your stead suffered for you, trust Him;” they say this and little more. Is not this the fool’s gospel? Is it not worthy to be called the foolishness of preaching? Men do not like this, it is an offence to their dignity. They would hear Cæsar if he would officiate in his purple, but they cannot endure Peter preaching in his fisherman’s coat. Worse still, the people who become converted and follow the Saviour are generally of the poorer sort, and lightly esteemed. “Have any of the rulers believed?” is still the question. [1608][1608] With what scorn do your literary men speak of professed Christians! Have you ever seen the sneer upon the face of your “advanced thought” gentleman, and of the far-gone school of infidels, when they speak of the old women and the semi-idiots who listen to the pious platitudes of evangelical doctrines? They know how to despise us, if they know nothing else! But is such scorn worthy of men? It is only another version of the old sneer of the Pharisees when they said, “Hearest Thou what these say?” and pointed to the boys and the rabble, who shouted, “Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” Contempt has always followed at the heels of Jesus, and it always will till the day of His glory.—Spurgeon. III. THE OF THE SPREAD OF CHRIST’S KINGDOM. As His face was marred, so surely “shall He sprinkle many nations.” This sprinkling we must interpret according to the Mosaic ceremonies, and you know there was a sprinkling with blood, to set forth pardon of sin, and a sprinkling with water to set forth purification from the power of sin. Jesus Christ, with “The water and the bloodFrom His riven side which flowed,”has sprinkled not only men but many nations, and the day will come when all nations shall feel the blessed drops which are scattered from His hands, and know them to be “of sin the double cure,” cleansing transgressors both from its guilt and power. The text claims for Christ that the influence of His grace and the power of His work shall be extended over many nations, and shall have power, not over the common people only, but over their rulers and leaders. “The kings shall shut their mouths at Him;” they shall have no word to say against Him; they shall be so subdued by the majesty of His power that they shall silently pay Him reverence, and prostrate themselves before His throne. The day will come when the mightiest prince shall count it his highest honour to have his name enrolled as a member of the Church of Christ (Psalms 72:11; Jeremiah 31:34). IV. THE MANNER OF THE OF THIS . How will it come to pass? Will there be a new machinery? Will the world be converted, and the kings be made to shut their mouths by some new mode of operation? No, the way which has been from the beginning of the dispensation will last to its close. It pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. To conceive that our Lord will end the present mode of warfare, as though it were admitted that the evil could not be conquered by the use of that instrumentality, is to my mind to do Him great dishonour. To me it is plain that, as He has chosen to magnify His power by using feeble instruments, He will continue to do so till the victory is won. According to this passage, these kings and nations are first of all to hear. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Well, brethren, if they are to hear, we must preach and teach, so that our clear line of duty is to go on spreading the Gospel. These people appear not only to have heard, but to have seen. “That which had not been told them shall they see.” This seeing is not with their bodily eyes, but by the perceptions of their minds. Faith comes by the soul perceiving what the Gospel means. We cannot believe in that which we do not perceive. Therefore we must go on telling people the Gospel till they see what the Gospel is. After they had seen, they considered. “That which they had not heard shall they consider.” This is how men are saved: they hear the Gospel, they catch the meaning of it, and then they consider it. Let us pray that God would set unconverted people considering. If we can but get them to think, we have great hopes of them. (See vol. i. pp. 7–12.) It is clear that those people, when they had seen and considered silently, accepted the Lord as their Lord, for they shut their mouths at Him; they ceased from all opposition; they quietly resigned their wills, and paid allegiance to the great King of kings. Now then, let us spread abroad the Saviour’s blessed name, for He is the world’s only hope. The cross is the banner of our victory. God help us to look to it ourselves, and then to hold it up before the eyes of others, till our Lord shall come upon His throne.—C. H. Spurgeon: The Metropolitan Pulpit, No. 1231. THE AND OF THE MESSIAH (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 52:13-15. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, &c.I. THE OF INTO THE WORLD BY THE OF ITS DIVINE FOUNDER. “Behold my servant! Many were astonished at Thee: His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” This “astonishment of many” evidently refers to the inconsistency apparent between the high pretensions and the depressed condition of this Servant of God. The prophecies concerning Him (Haggai 2:7; Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 9:6-7, &c.) A sordid and earthly interpretation had enshrined these promises in the hearts of the Jewish nation. The Jewish patriot hailed, in expectation, the brilliant hour in which the Messiah should break to shivers the chains which held his country in subjection to the Roman yoke; while the man of narrow and selfish ambition rejoiced in the vision that gleamed before his eyes, when the descendants of Abraham should hold dominion over the prostrate nations of the world. When, therefore, the Saviour of the world appeared in the lowly garb of the son of the carpenter of Nazareth; when He shunned every effort for personal aggrandisement—resisted every popular movement to advance His regal claims—put forth His power only to heal the diseased and comfort the wretched—and, with a humility without parallel, and a sympathy that knew no exclusion, constantly mingled with the meanest and most despised of His countrymen; then the mortified expectations of the Jewish rulers burst with tremendous efficacy upon His devoted head. The evidence in favour of His high claims was speedily examined; it was strong, clear, obvious (John 7:46; Matthew 9:33; Matthew 27:42); but it was as speedily rejected. The union in Him of power and suffering—of dignity and contempt—of riches to others and poverty to Himself, was a source of astonishment to many. Angels looked on, and wondered, and adored. In truth, the plan of Christianity, with its introduction into the world, is far above the calculations of human sagacity (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). II. THE WITH REGARD TO THE OF THE OF CHRIST ON THE EARTH. “My servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high.” 1. “He shall deal prudently” is in the margin translated “He shall prosper,” and thus the whole clause is declarative of the same truth—the triumph and success of the Son of God. If many were astonished at His humiliation, a far greater number shall be astonished at, and rejoice in, His exaltation. He has already established upon earth the heavenly kingdom over which He rules. 2. This grand and glorious achievement He effected by means that came not within the expectation of the Jewish people, although they were clearly predicted. It was by death that He conquered death. It was by a perfect obedience in action and suffering that He became the second Adam—the spiritual Head of a new and happier race (Romans 4:25). He planted His religion on the earth, opposed by hostile scorn, relentless malice, and despotic power. In a few years the banner of the Cross waved upon the conquered fortresses of Paganism, and enlisted under its folds the great and mighty of the earth. Yet no earthly weapon had been raised in its defence nor in its assaults. The cause of Christ had achieved its victories by its own inherent power. It was resistless by its truth, and by the silent operations of the Spirit of truth. Its adherents were indeed strong, but it was in faith, purity, and charity. Thus the Servant of God prospered, was extolled, and became very high. 3. But His reign on the earth is yet very limited, and His conquests incomplete. “There remaineth yet much land to be possessed.” Three-fourths of the human race are still the prey of idolatry or of imposture; and the ancient people of God are still outcasts from His favour, and the victims of unbelief. III. WHAT WE MAY GATHER FROM THIS ACCOUNT THE PROCESS BY WHICH THE KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH SHALL BE FULLY AND FINALLY . “As many … shall they consider” (1 Corinthians 14, 15). These declarations are full of information as to the process by which Christianity shall advance to her sacred and ultimate dominion. We are led to infer— 1. That there shall be a wide dispersion of Divine knowledge over heathen and Mohammedan nations; for men cannot see or consider that which is not presented to their notice. 2. The nations shall fix their anxious attention on the truths declared to them. Is there now before our eyes no such symptom of the approaching reign of Christ? 3. Impressed with holy awe, they shall assume the attitude of abasement and submission. The expression, “the kings shall shut their mouths at Him,” implies the submission of whole nations, here represented by kings; for, as the reception of Christianity on the part of the rulers of a country requires the overthrow of every system of religious polity previously established, such a reception, publicly made, implies, more or less, the submission of the mass of people. Enlightened by the Divine Spirit, they shall recognise His righteous claims, receive His law, trust to His grace, and bow to His sway. 4. He shall forgive their iniquities and sanctify their hearts. “He shall sprinkle many nations”—that is, in allusion to the aspersions under the law, by which the people were sanctified,. He shall apply to the souls of regenerated multitudes the blood of His great atonement, and the sacred influences of His Holy Spirit. Then the conquests of the Redeemer shall be visible and splendid (Psalms 72:17).—G. T. Noel, M.A., in Sketches of Sermons on Christian Missions, pp. 114–119. Of whom does the prophet speak? Not of the nation, but of an individual. That individual is not himself. No one corresponds, in the circumstances detailed, but the Christ. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently,” &c. I. HIS . “My servant.” He was appointed to a work. He assumed the human body, subjecting Himself to the conditions of a lowly human life, that He might be under law. He was voluntarily a servant under a master. He became subject to the Father’s will, although that will involved His suffering unto death. He was fully acquainted with the solemn necessity for His suffering, in order to the accomplishment of the end, on which His heart was set as much as the Father’s heart. Hence the sweep of His humiliation was all the way from the bosom of the Father—the glory which He had with the Father—in heaven, to the lowliest conditions of an earthly life. II. HIS CONDUCT. “Shall deal prudently.” His conduct was uniformly consistent with the end He had in view. He pursued that end steadily from the beginning of His course, both when He eluded the vigilant hostility of His enemies, and when He allowed Himself to fall into their hands. He conducted Himself with perfect wisdom, so that everything happened in the way and at the time He intended. III. HIS . “He shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high” (Isaiah 53:11-12).The exaltation follows the humiliation, and is its consequence (Philippians 2:6-10). Note how varied are the elements of His exaltation, and how we have in them a complete and glorious fulfilment of this prediction. We see it fulfilled. Let us observe how it has followed His humiliation. Note these facts— 1. In His resurrection from the dead. On the third day from His crucifixion He rose from the grave (1 Corinthians 15:4-8). Its moral grandeur as evidence of His truth, and of the Father’s acceptance of the work He had just performed in His death, is enhanced by the circumstance that He had predicted His resurrection on that day. This fact was made prominent in the apostolic ministry, especially at first; it was the main argument for the truth of Christ. 2. In His ascension to heaven. This was also witnessed by the apostolic company. And references to it in their sermons and epistles show how much importance they attached to it in relation to His personal distinction, and also in relation to His continued work and influence on His Church and on the world. 3. In the pre-eminence assigned to Him. He is at the right hand of God, which is the place of honour and prominence at the celestial court (Colossians 1:18; 1 Peter 3:22; Ephesians 1:20-23). All things are put under His feet. 4. In the functions He discharges. They arise out of the redemptive work which He accomplished on the Cross. They consist in (1.) The restoration of His Church. To this end He endowed His apostles with power to work miracles in His name. He commissioned them, and still commissions His ministers to preach the Gospel to every creature. He bestows spiritual blessings on sinful men (Acts 5:31; John 17:2; Hebrews 7:25; John 14:2). (2.) In the certain subjugation of His enemies (Psalms 110:1). The gradual extension and final triumph of His empire (H. E. I. 979). (3.) In the judgment of the world. All judgment is committed to Him. In Matthew 25 there is a representation of the proceedings of the great day of judgment, which represents the Lord Jesus Christ as the most august and illustrious personage in the universe. 5. In the honour He receives. From the Church on earth. The Church honours the Son even as it honours the Father. It renders to Him similar trust, love, and obedience. From the saints in heaven (Revelation 5:9-10). From the angelic ranks (Revelation 5:12). From the whole universe (Revelation 5:13-14). Christian brethren, see that you exalt your glorified Saviour. Be not ashamed of your connection with Him. Let it be your boast, as it is unquestionably the cause of your real dignity. Glorify and extol Him by your praises, and by the holiness of your lives. And expect the final glorification with Him. For, like your Saviour, your days of conflict, toil, and suffering will be followed by the exaltation to heaven.—J. Rawlinson.I. THE OF CHRIST. 1. The state of humiliation begins with the stupendous fact of His incarnation (Philippians 2:6-8; 2 Corinthians 8:9, &c.) While we believe and teach the supreme divinity of Christ, we also exult in the wondrous fact that He became man. Two natures mysteriously united. Revelation affirms the fact, but not the mode. “Great is the mystery of godliness.” A stoop of illimitable graciousness! His assumption of humanity was real and complete. It was “no God in disguise”—no mock assumption of humanity, the whole nature was taken on (H. E. I. 849–854). 2. His humiliation is seen in His humble and lowly life, in fixed obedience to the law. He was not born of “loins enthroned, or rulers of the earth,” but of a poor virgin, &c. (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-35; Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 6:3-4). He was born in a stable at a common inn, &c. (Luke 2:1-7; Luke 12:16). He wrought at the same employment with His reputed father (Matthew 13:55). The Lord of the world was subject to man! The Author of the law became its servant—submitted Himself to the rite of circumcision, and all the righteousness of the law, and accomplished it by a perfect obedience in deed and suffering. He was always poor (Matthew 8:20; Matthew 17:24-27; John 19:25-27). He toiled, hungered, thirsted, and was weary; tempted of the devil and despised by man. Again and again He was declared to be a deceiver and in league with hell (Matthew 4:1-11; John 7:12, &c.) That He might be the comforter of the poor and wretched, He shunned not the poverty and wretchedness of men, &c. 3. In His sufferings and death. His whole life was one of suffering (Isaiah 52:14). His general appearance was so disfigured by excessive grief and distress, as scarcely to retain the appearance of a man (see Barnes, in loco). In every struggle and conflict of which man is capable, the Captain of our salvation shared a part. His humiliation was deeper still: “He humbled Himself unto death, even the death of the cross.” The agony in the garden (Luke 23:41-44); the betrayal (Matthew 26:14-16; Matthew 27:3-4); the treachery of His disciples, &c. The weight of a world’s sin; the dread hiding of His Father’s countenance; the shameful, painful, and cursed death of the cross (Matthew 27:46; Isaiah 53:10; John 19:16-18; Philippians 2:7-8; Galatians 3:13). While we treat of the depth of this suffering, let us meditate upon the dignity of the person undergoing such agony. What immeasurable love and compassion! 4. He was humbled in His burial (John 19:38-42, &c.) The body of the Son of God lay lifeless in the grave until the morning of the third day! Note carefully and remember well that the humiliation of Christ was perfectly voluntary (Philippians 2:6-8, &c.) The will of the Father did not coerce the Son (John 10:11; John 10:17-18). With the entire concurrence of His will He thoughtfully and deliberately yielded Himself up to death, with all its attendant circumstances of shame and suffering, that He might accomplish the Father’s will, and effect the redemption of mankind. He was a willing victim (H. E. I. 918). This was essential. There can be no merit in exacted suffering. Herein we behold the wonderful love of Jesus. In this voluntariness we are called to imitate our great pattern. How willingly we should give ourselves to Him who so willingly gave all He could give for us! II. HIS . A happy transition. “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.” Concerning the fulfilment of this prediction, see preceding outline. .—From the wide field of instruction furnished by this subject, two or three reflections deserve particular consideration— 1. We have the Divine attributes exhibited in a manner and to a degree they would never otherwise have been. 2. We see the way in which His followers may expect to go to heaven. Like their Master, they must be humbled before they are exalted (Luke 18:14; James 4:10; 2 Timothy 2:11-12). Whatever we may have to pass through, let us remember that Jesus has gone before, &c. He prays that His people may be with Him (John 17:24), and in due time they who have suffered with Him shall also reign with Him. 3. The manner in which these stupendous facts must affect the finally impenitent. What are they to you? Only wonderful events? Is there no intelligent personal interest in them? Your condemnation will not proceed on the evidence that you have profaned God’s holy name, &c., but on the rejection of an offered Saviour—the one great, damning sin into which all other sins are merged (John 3:19). Again, this once humbled but now exalted and glorified Saviour is offered for your acceptance (Psalms 2:12).—Alfred Tucker. OUR Isaiah 52:14-15. As many were astonished at Thee; His visage, &c.This prophecy runs through chapter 53. It sets forth the exaltation of the Messiah, which was to be preceded by His humiliation. There would be surprise and disappointment in some cases, while there would be surprise and admiration in others. I. View the Saviour as attracting universal attention. “That which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” Some men cannot fail to attract attention whether they court it or not. There is something in their appearance, or manner, or intelligence, or power of expression, or sympathy, on account of which, wherever they are, they become the object of general interest. Jesus was one of these when here. Sometimes He tried to escape from the crowd. But He could not be hid. He was largely discussed by the people of His country and time; in some cases favourably, in other cases very unfavourably. In the end they rejected His claims. He soon after attracted very wide attention outside Judaism. For it was part of His plan and purpose that after His earthly life and work were completed, He should be proclaimed more extensively than among His own countrymen. His apostles preached Him freely among the heathen. Not without effect. Communities sprang up in every direction in Asia and in Europe, called by His name, and held together by their common belief of the things concerning Him. One apostle quotes this part of our text in illustration of his own action in spreading the knowledge of Christ among the heathen (Romans 15:20-21). He attracts attention still. He is extensively preached and believed in at the present time; more than at any previous time. He exerts the most valuable and gracious influence on those that receive His truth. He gradually through them leavens and modifies society, making His influence felt even where it is not recognised as His. His claims are regularly brought before the attention of countless multitudes, and are more or less considered by them. And they are, according to prophetic Scripture, destined to be made known over the wide world. II. View Him as exciting extreme astonishment. 1. His humiliation did. “As many were astonished at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Were the sufferings of Jesus depicted on His face? Was the personal beauty which tradition attributes to Him spoiled by His experience of suffering? That Messiah should appear in so lowly a form as did Jesus of Nazareth, excited disappointed astonishment. There was a revulsion of feeling even on the part of many who had been at first favourably inclined. They could not believe that the great Messianic King would come in so lowly a form. 2. His exaltation did. Even the disciples who believed in Him, and had heard Him speak of resurrection, were astonished when it occurred. The ascension surprised them still more. But they were joyfully surprised. The Jews could not believe that the Crucified One was crowned.—Thus it is still. Christ does not command universal faith even where His claims are known. Men do not trust those whom they deem unfortunate. They cannot receive a humbled Christ. The offence of the cross has not ceased. That He who was crucified should be exalted is of difficult belief to many. Yet some believe. They admire, while they wonder at, the wisdom and the love that shine through the redemptive plan. III. View Him as bestowing saving blessings. “So shall He sprinkle many nations.” This word is capable of two interpretations. 1. That which points directly to the impartation of the blessing. Under the law there were washings and sprinklings that made reconciliation for sinners, or cleansed them from sin. When Jesus comes with His salvation He reconciles to God, and cleanses the soul from sin. 2. That which points to the effect of the blessing. They shall spring up with joy, as those leap who have found great treasure. Is not the influence of Christ joy-creating everywhere? He does this on an extensive scale. “Many nations.” There is a universal sufficiency in His atoning blood. There is also a widely extensive efficacy. The Gospel is for man. Jesus bade His followers preach it among all nations. The redeemed are a multitude that no man can number (Revelation 5:9). IV. View Him as winning reverent homage. “The kings shall shut their mouths at Him.” It indicates the reverence in which they hold Him who conquers all opposition. It includes, 1. Honour. They see His power and glory, with which none can vie. Like conquered kings they confess His superiority. 2. Love. For He attaches them to Himself with personal admiration and love. 3. Obedience. They willingly obey His commands, although formerly they resisted His authority; for His laws are written on their hearts. Thus the text exhibits not only the glory of Christ, but the great importance of the sentiments with which He is regarded. 1. Some hate Him. The Gospel does not commend itself to their approbation. It is utterly distasteful to them. Its doctrines are too humbling, or its precepts are too holy. Their pride flies from the Crucified, their sinfulness from the crowned Saviour. A mighty change must take place in your spirit before you can be safe. 2. Some are indifferent to Him. You think it matters little what you think of Christ, so long as you are not actively hostile to Him. But it does matter. Union with Christ; a spiritual union, formed with consent of mind, and heart, and will, makes all the difference between life in Christ, and death without Him. 3. Some love Him. There is a deep personal love between Christ and His people. Although on the throne of the universe, He finds room in His heart for each believer, however lowly, and they for Him; “Whom, having not seen, ye love.”—J. Rawlinson. THE OF Isaiah 53:1. Who hath believed our report?I. THE HERE GIVEN OF THE GOSPEL. It is a “report.” A report is a statement made to us of facts existing, or of events that have occurred, at some distance of time or place, and which we ourselves have not witnessed. Reports we accept or reject according to the degree of credibility which attaches to those who bring them to us. The Gospel is a “report.” As such it surpasses all others— 1. In the importance of the truths which it professes to communicate to us. Consider what they are: What God hath done to deliver us from the bondage and condemnation of sin; how we may approach Him with favour and acceptance; what He has prepared for His people in the world to come; how we may qualify ourselves to share in “the inheritance of the saints in light.” What communications can be compared with these for importance? 2. In the evidence by which it is confirmed. No other report was ever so authenticated as this. It has in its favour the testimony of friends and enemies, Jews and Gentiles. The statements of its first preachers were confirmed by miracles (Mark 16:20). The predictions contained in their writings have been fulfilled: e.g., the dispersion of the Jews; the wide extension of Christ’s kingdom. We have the testimony of our own senses to the truth of this “report.” The Gospel professes, where it is received and obeyed, not only to ensure the possession of an eternal inheritance in heaven, but even on earth to work a great and glorious change in the hearts and characters of men, and to deliver them from the practice and power of sin. As a matter of fact, is not this change produced by the preaching of the Gospel? Might we not say to some of our acquaintances what Paul said to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:11)? Let us remember that every such instance of a moral change effected by the Gospel is a proof of its truth, a convincing evidence that it is indeed “the power of God unto salvation,” and an additional reason for believing that the promises which it makes concerning the life to come are equally worthy of credit (H. E. I. 1144–1148). Yet this “report,” so important and so completely authenticated, is extensively rejected. II. THE WHICH THE PROPHET ASKS IN TO IT. “Who hath believed our report?” There never has been an age in which this question might not have been asked. It may well be asked to-day. True, many nations are professedly Christian; true, the majority of our fellow-countrymen would consider it a grievous insult if we were to call them infidels. But to believe this report is not merely to assent to the truth of it. Belief in the truths it makes known to us implies such a reception of them into the heart as shall influence our conduct. The very nature of the report shows that such is the belief intended and required. They are not changes in which we have no concern, but changes in which consequences so momentous to ourselves depend, that it is impossible but that a hearty persuasion of their being true must lead us to act accordingly. If we do not so act, the inference is plain and just that we do not really believe the report. It is quite clear which of the Egyptians believed, and which of them rejected, the “report” Moses carried to them (Exodus 9:20-21). If a man were told that at a certain hour his house would be attacked, and his goods plundered; or that a certain part of a road along which he had to travel was infested by robbers, and he took no precautions to defend himself against the evil of which he was warned, would you not conclude that he gave no credit to the warning? Apply this test to the subject before us. Look round on society, and say whether it is not true that very few men really believe the “report” of the Gospel. Put on one side the openly irreligious, the self-righteous and the profane, the false and hypocritical professors of religion, all of whom, it is certain, do not “believe” the “report,” and what are the numbers that remain? Are they not few? few in comparison with those you have set aside. Do not call this inference uncharitable, it is Scriptural (Matthew 7:14). Instead of resisting a conclusion so clearly proved, make a practical use of it. Are there few that be saved? Then strive yourselves to enter in at the strait gate (Luke 13:24).—E. Cooper: Practical and Familiar Sermons, vol. vii. 68–84. Isaiah foresaw that his message concerning the Messiah would be received with unbelief, and our Lord and His apostles had sad experience of the correctness of the prophet’s anticipation (1 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 6:8, &c.) Want of faith in, and obedience to, the heavenly message was not the sin only of those to whom it was first sent. The nature of man is still the same. Still he is naturally inclined to unbelief, to refuse the good and to choose the evil, and to turn away from the truth when it is presented to him. Therefore the ministers of the Gospel still have to complain of the grievous neglect it meets with. I. THE NATURE AND OF THAT REPORT WHICH THE OF JESUS CHRIST MAKE KNOWN TO YOU. It is the same which the inspired prophet proclaimed—glad tidings of salvation in and through a suffering Redeemer. It sets before us, not temporal, but everlasting things; it deals with our eternal interests, and the way to heaven! It is “a report so marvellous, that it fills heaven and earth with wonder; so true, that we may as well doubt our own existence as entertain a doubt respecting it; so interesting, that all the things of time and sense are, in comparison with it, but as the dust of the balance; and so joyous, that it is a certain and inexhaustible source of happiness to all who receive it” (Simeon). It might be expected, then, that it would meet with universal attention. But when we look around and observe what manner of people the bulk of mankind are, we cannot but feel impressed with the sad truth that the religion of the crucified Saviour is of all objects the least attended to. II. WHY IS IT THAT SO MANY WILL NOT BELIEVE OUR REPORT? 1. Some believe not because they are too much exalted in the pride of human reason; think too highly of themselves, are too full of worldly wisdom to submit to be taught of God. The humbling doctrines of the Cross are against “the vanity of their minds,” they will not receive them. 2. The love of this world causes many to disregard our report. The doctrine of the Cross is diametrically against all worldly desires. It admits of no divided hearts (Luke 9:23; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Galatians 6:14). But “the children of this world” are devoted to it. Their whole heart is set upon it, and all their hopes, pleasures, and pains spring from it. Therefore, when the servant of God delivers his report to them, he is dismissed with the words, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” 3. Another great cause of the disbelief of our report is the prevailing power of sin. The doctrine of a crucified Redeemer is a “doctrine which is according to godliness” (Titus 2:11-12; Galatians 5:24). This is one main reason why we cannot prevail upon men to listen to the message from God which we deliver. The consciousness of guilt induces many to wish it were not as we testify. And when men wish earnestly, they soon bring themselves to believe. They persuade themselves, therefore, that heaven and hell are but names, and that the Gospel is no more than an empty sound (John 3:19). Thus, from one cause or another, the Saviour is still “despised and rejected of men.” .—Can any one imagine for a moment that God will suffer the greatest of His blessings to be thus lightly esteemed? To such men the servants of God are commissioned to lift up the awful voice of warning, and to proclaim the punishment of disobedience (Hebrews 2:3; 1 Peter 4:17; Hosea 12:2; Isaiah 66:14-15; Jeremiah 13:16-17; H. E. I. 2438).—Jonathan Walton, B.D.: Sermons, vol. ii. 410–427. 1. Let us reflect on the great guilt of unbelievers in a Gospel land, and the awful condemnation to which they stand exposed. 2. If there are many who hear the report of the Gospel, and yet believe it not, each one should be solicitous for himself. We believe that the doom of those around us who neglect the Gospel will be awful, and we flatter ourselves that we shall escape it. But what is the ground of our hope?—Some of you do not even pretend to an evidence of your present title to salvation, but you hope to obtain it by a future compliance with its conditions. But had not many who have perished in their sins, as strong resolutions of future repentance as you have? What will your intentions do for you? 3. We learn that the unsuccessfulness of the Gospel is not always to be imputed to the want of fidelity or ability in the preachers of it. It must often be ascribed to some other cause. The prophets of old, the apostles, yea, our Saviour complained, “Who hath believed our report?” Zeal and diligence in ministers are most important; but if you are unsaved, the probability is, that the fault lies, not in the ministers to whom you have listened, but in you.—Joseph Lathrop, D.D.: Eighty Sermons, pp. 243–247. I. The Gospel is a message or report to man, upon matters of supreme importance. 1. The character and claims of God. 2. The character and the condition of mankind. 3. The method of salvation by the intervention of a Mediator. II. The Gospel is communicated to man for the express purpose of being believed. 1. The Gospel is worthy of faith, on account of the evidence by which it is confirmed. 2. Faith in the report of the Gospel is the only medium by which it can be rendered available to our safety and final happiness. 3. Faith in the Gospel results from the operation of Divine power upon the soul. III. It frequently becomes a matter of solemn inquiry as to the number of those by whom the Gospel has been embraced. 1. Observe the implication which this inquiry involves—that there are but few persons comparatively to whom the testimony of the Gospel is presented, who cordially and truly embrace it. This implication was plainly truthful and correct, in connection with the prophet himself, in his own age. The same implication was correct, in regard to the ministry of the Lord Jesus, the apostles and preachers in the past and present age. 2. This being the nature of the implication, you must also observe the results which from that implication must be produced. (1.) Compassion must be produced. (2.) Exertion. Remember the obligation of faithful, and intense, and incessant exhortation lies also upon all and upon each of you; and if you lose your opportunity and sacrifice your influence in the world, when opportunity might be employed and influence might be exerted in the Church, and for Christ, and for souls, take heed how you answer for the deficiency, when blood shall be required at your hands. (3.) Prayer. The influence of the Divine Spirit, to which we have adverted, is to be sought and is to be obtained by prayer. .—If, amid these scenes of privilege, you die in your sins, and thus enter into a retributive eternity, you will know by your own history what it is to be a lost soul.—The Preacher’s Treasury: pp. 109–110. I. The “report” here spoken of. 1. Its general contents. 2. Its great importance. II. How we are required to believe it. 1. Practically, with our hearts. 2. Seasonably, without delay. 3. Perseveringly, without declension. III. The effects of this belief. 1. It delivers from the burden of guilt, and the dominion of sin. 2. It blesses instantly. 3. It keeps constantly. It rewards eternally.—Four Hundred Sketches, vol. ii. p. 89. WHY SO FEW BELIEVE THE GOSPEL Isaiah 53:1. Who hath believed our report?Generally the most powerful preaching of the Gospel has been with little fruit. So that Isaiah had this sad complaint, “Who hath believed our report?” Our Lord Jesus Christ had it also (John 12:37). When it was so with sweet Isaiah in the Old Testament, and with our blessed Lord in the New, who spoke with such power and authority, you may see there is reason for us to inquire, Why it is that so few believe? i.e., believe to the salvation of the soul. It is with those causes only which are most common and operative that I would now deal frankly, “speaking the truth in love.” I. LACK OF AND OF THE GOSPEL. 1. You do not think yourselves in danger. You confess that you are sinners, but in your hearts you do not think so. In your own opinion, you are good friends with God already. You do not believe that you are the slaves of Satan, and that you are on your way to hell. You are like the Scribes and Pharisees who were well satisfied with themselves, and thought they had no need of a physician, and therefore never sought Christ’s help. His offer of help they angrily rejected (John 8:33), and you resent any plain speaking concerning your real state. 2. Hence, also, you neither appreciate nor consider the glad tidings that are brought to you. You are not awake to the fact that the Gospel is the very thing you need to hear. You do not hear or read it as a merchant on the verge of ruin reads a cheque which a wealthy friend has sent to save him from bankruptcy. Thinking of yourselves as you do, you give no heed to it. Your sad lack in this matter is shown in three ways. (1.) By the way in which you come to hear the Gospel. How few hunger and thirst for it, and come desiring to learn from it how you are to prepare to meet with God! You come, not to profit by it, but for some defective and worthless reason (John 6:26). (2.) By the way you behave when you are here. Many of you are inattentive; your thoughts are running after your trade, &c.; and some of you even sleep! Were you in any other meeting about ordinary business, how different your outward and inward conduct would be! (3.) By the way you behave after you have heard the Word. In what unedifying conversation you will be engaged as soon as you have reached the door! When you have heard what plainly meets the needs of your soul, do you meditate upon it, and go to your knees with it before God, desiring Him to breathe upon it, and to make it a blessing to you?—You know these things are true. Oh, “take heed how you hear!” As long as you take no heed how you hear, you cannot profit (H. E. I., 2575, 2576, 2604). II. LACK OF REAL FAITH THAT THE GOSPEL IS FROM GOD. You resent the charge that you are practically infidels, but your conduct shows that it is unbelief, and not faith, that has possession of your heart. At the most, yours is what is called “an historical faith,” and that is worthless. [1611] Your conduct shows that you do not really believe what the Gospel teaches—that there is a holy, just, and powerful God, else you durst not live at enmity with Him; that your nature is corrupt, else you would seek regeneration and sanctification; that there will be a day of judgment, in which you must stand before God, else you would prepare for it; that the only way to peace with God is through Jesus Christ, and that there is no way to heaven but the way of holiness, else your whole life would be different from what it is. [1611] Many say they believe there is a Saviour, and that He is God and man, and that such as believe on Him shall be saved, and on this they rest. It is such as these who think they have believed ever since they had any knowledge, because the Word was always, or very long since, received in the place where they lived for the Word of God, and they believe it to be so, and know no difference between believing the Word and believing on Christ holden forth in it; though, alas! many of you believe not this much, for if you were among the Jews ye might soon be brought to question the truth of the Gospel. But though ye had the real faith of the truth of the Word, take not that for saving faith, for as there is a real sorrow that is not the saving grace of repentance unto life, so there is a sort of real faith that hath a real object and a real being in the judgment, which yet is not a real closing with Christ, and so not saving faith; as suppose a man pursued by his enemy should see a strong castle door standing open, or one in hazard at sea should see dry land, yet if he should stand still while the enemy pursues him, or abide still in the sinking vessel, the sight of the castle door open, or of the dry land, would not save him. So it is not believing that there is a Saviour come into the world to save sinners, that will save, except there be a resting on Him as He is holden forth in the Word of the Gospel. Historical faith is only (as it were) a looking on the Saviour; but saving faith cleaves to Him and rests on Him. Historical faith looks on Christ, but acts not on Him, closes not with Him; and therefore such as have this only, and no more, sink and perish without getting good of Him.—Durham. See H. E. I. 1935–1942, 1957–1968.III. LOVE OF THE WORLD—of its wealth and its pleasures. This is given as a main cause (Matthew 13:22). More perish in this pit of worldly-mindedness than in the pit of vice. [1614] Many who are civil, and esteemed virtuous and frugal, perish here! [1614] The operative cause against believing the Gospel is not oppression, nor stealing, but entanglement with and addictedness to the things of this present world; folks allowing themselves too much satisfaction in their riches and pelf, counting themselves as if all were well if they have it, and grieved if they want it; as if there were nothing but that to make happy, being wholly taken up about it, and leaving no room for the concerns of their souls, for prayer and seeking of God.—Durham. IV. AS TO THE NATURE OF TRUE . You do not look upon it as your happiness to have communion with God. Hence you are like those who were invited to the marriage of the king’s son (Matthew 22:5). The offer of the Gospel has no weight with you. If a market of fine things at a cheap rate were proclaimed, ye would all run to it; but ye delight not in the Word of God, ye prize not the Gospel and the precious things it offers you. You deny this? Well, then, 1. How often have you thanked God for sending the Gospel to you? You say grace before meat; how often have you said grace for the Gospel? 2. How is it that you are so intermittent in your attendance at the preaching of it? Were a messenger sent you from some great man, how you would arrange all your affairs so as not to miss it! But to the sanctuary, where messages from God are delivered, you come rarely, or at the most only once on the Lord’s-day. 3. If you had reason to believe that you were heir to an earthly estate, how careful you would be to put yourself in possession of all the evidence of your right to it! But how much trouble have you taken to make sure that the “inheritance” of which the Gospel speaks to us shall ever be yours? Alas! it is too clear that you think happiness is to be found in earthly things, and not in the heavenly things the Gospel offers you. V. AGAINST . Some of you have been made sometimes to tremble as Felix did; but like him you have pushed off the appeal, and put off your decision to another time, and gone away to some company or recreation, that so you might stifle the conviction, and drive it out of your thoughts. So you have struggled against conscience awakened and alarmed by sickness, bereavement, &c. VI. SAYING “PEACE, PEACE,” WHEN PEACE HAS NOT BEEN MADE. There are still in the world many Laodiceans (Revelation 3:17). 1. Some of you have attained to a sort of outside reformation, and you think on that account that you are well enough, and on good terms with God. But there must be more than reformation; there must be regeneration, a new heart! (H. E. I. 4069–4081). 2. Some of you pray, and you think something of that. But mere mechanical prayer is worthless (Matthew 6:7). 3. Some of you think you have faith enough, because you have “historical faith.” Alas! many of you have as much believing as keeps you from faith in Christ! [Like a man who believes that a certain life assurance company is a sound one, but does not insure his life with it, and yet feels that he has done all he ought to have done for the welfare of his family after his death! But in our secular life such folly is impossible.] 4. Some of you are satisfied because at times your heart has been tender, and then you formed good resolutions. But this is one of the rottenest of the props on which you could rest. Such tenderness of heart is transient, and mere resolutions, mere intentions, never profited any man. VII. BEING WITH THE OF MEN. It is not the commendation of men, but the commendation of God that you should seek mainly after; and yet if you think that good men esteem you, you suppose you are good enough; like the foolish virgins who were so secure because the wise took them and retained them in their company. This is the ruin of many, especially when they look about them, and observe in others some sin from which they abstain (Luke 18:11). Self-approval added to the approval of their fellow-men satisfies them, though they lack “the one thing needful.” VIII. RESTING IN THE MEANS OF GRACE. The things through which all men should be saved ruin many. Where the Gospel is in any measure powerfully preached, there are many more secure and fearless than if they had it not; having the Gospel, they feel as if they were in no danger, and could believe it when they pleased. Against this danger our Lord has expressly warned us (Luke 13:26). If you do this, ere long against you the door will be shut (Luke 13:25). Thank God for the means of grace, but do not rest in them (H. E. I. 3426–3437).—James Durham: Christ Crucified, pp. 50–55. AND FOR WORKERS Isaiah 53:1. Who hath believed our report, &c.Is this really the language with which you are obliged to return from your attacks on the kingdom of darkness? I would fain hope that this is not the case with you all, nor altogether the case with any of you. But to whatever extent you may thus justly complain, I express my sympathy with you. Such disappointment is unquestionably a source of grief, for, 1. Here is labour lost, and in a task on which our heart was set. 2. Your labour is without one of the most natural and satisfactory tokens of your heavenly Father’s acceptance of it. 3. The spiritual wretchedness of men continues, notwithstanding all your efforts to relieve it. 4. Perpetual dishonour is done to God. Still His name is blasphemed, His glory disregarded, His law trampled on, His mercy despised; and can you, as a friend of God, look on such a scene, and not glow with a holy indignation? To sympathy we add some considerations by which your feelings may be regulated and turned to advantage. I. Your judgment respecting your success is probably, and almost certainly, fallacious. 1. Even if everything were known to us, it is much too soon for any judgment to be formed. The time during which the instructions we have given may operate to produce conviction and conversion is not yet terminated, so that calculation is quite set at defiance. As seed may lie buried long in dust, and yet ultimately vegetate, so knowledge communicated and disregarded now may have decisive influence hereafter, when some circumstance shall induce reflection upon it. 2. Your opportunity for exertion is not yet past; so that if what you have already done be not of itself effectual, it may become so in combination with what you or others may hereafter do. 3. We are far from knowing everything which has already occurred. (1.) Some of those for whose good we have laboured are not under our observation at all, so that, if we have done them any good, we are not likely to know it until the day of God. (2.) There is something in the commencement of piety often dubious or studiously concealed.—We can never be entitled to affirm that we have had no success, until the arrival of the final day, when for the first time the volume of providential history will be laid open to our view. II. But, suppose that your success is quite as small as you imagine it to be. What then? Make it a matter of serious examination. 1. Whether your exertions have been such as to authorise the expectation of success. Defects and improprieties may have attended them, which will sufficiently account for their inefficiency, without attributing it to the absence of the Divine blessing. Have you really been trying to convert sinners? 2. Whether, when you have striven to save a soul, you have used the Divinely appointed and adapted means. The only means is the Word of God, which throws light into the understanding, and makes it appeal to the conscience and to the heart upon spiritual grounds. 3. Whether, if you have used the right means, you have used them in a proper manner. Have you, according to the Scriptures, made clear the grounds of duty, the nature and evil of sin, the righteousness of God’s anger, and the method of fleeing from the wrath to come? Or, have your instructions been defective, inconsistent, or obscure? How much of solemnity, faithfulness, and tenderness have you carried into the work? 4. Whether your labours have been conducted in a right spirit towards God. Have you devoutly acknowledged the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s aid, and rendered due honour to His gracious agency? What has been your leading aim and impelling motive? Has it been your first and ardent desire to glorify God, by bearing a testimony for Him in His controversy with a rebellious world, and thus striving to reconcile sinners to Him? When we think what means should be employed for the conversion of sinners, in what manner and in what spirit, we may find causes enough why we have not been successful, without ascribing it to the sovereignty of God. III. Perhaps, after the most serious examination, you may be ready to hope that your labours have contained something on which your Heavenly Father might smile, and yet you do not see the blessing you have hoped for on your toil. Conclude, then, that the Lord has been pleased to withhold from you His blessing; and observe the lights in which this state of things may be regarded. 1. It is to be considered, undoubtedly, as an act of that holy, wise, and gracious sovereignty which the Most High is continually exercising in the administration of His affairs. You would not for a moment deny that He is entitled to such a sovereignty, or imagine that He can make an improper use of it. Submit unquestioningly and unmurmuringly to what may be His will in regard to the conversion of sinners by your instrumentality. 2. If you look through the history of His ways, you will find that many of His most honoured servants have partaken of similar discipline. What but unsuccessful was the ministry of Enoch, Noah, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, and Isaiah—yea, of our Lord Himself? Now, the servant is not above his Lord: it is enough, and should be enough even for you, that the servant be as His Lord. 3. You tremble for the cause of God, which you have desired to see prospering in your hands. But you need not do this. Your individual exertions constitute but a small fraction of the agency which is employed for the advancement of His kingdom, and is far too insignificant to affect materially the measure of its success. The blasting of a single field does not sensibly affect the harvest. The resources of the Almighty are sufficiently ample to secure the accomplishment of His purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11). 4. No good work is really lost. If instruction and expostulation be not effectual to the conversion of the sinner, it is conducive to the glory of God, since it carries into operation that system of equitable and merciful probation which He has established in His government of mankind, and by the result of which, alike in the penitent and the impenitent, He will be eminently glorified. If sinners do not obey, we still bear a testimony for God, and not only uphold His rights and honours in the world now, but prepare for their fuller and more glorious manifestation hereafter. 5. God in His sovereignty is infinitely wise, and the ends which He brings to pass are, on the whole, the very best that can be attained. If any desirable end is passed by or frustrated, it is only that one more desirable may be secured. In this view, it may be truly affirmed that there is no failure, and no unsuccessfulness. And if He sees it good that an object should be produced by our labours differing somewhat from that which we have contemplated, a firm ground is laid for our acquiescence in His will. 6. We who labour shall not lose our reward. We may lose, indeed, what it would be unspeakably delightful to attain, namely, the rescue of sinners from the wrath to come; but still we shall gain something, even an appropriate and blessed recompense (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). IV. From whatever cause your want of success may have arisen, it is adapted to yield you instruction and benefit.1. If you feel justified in referring it to God’s sovereign pleasure, you will find occasion for corresponding exercises of mind. (1.) You must learn to blend ardent desire with silent submission, and to resign without a murmur an object for which you have striven with your utmost ardour. (2.) The object upon which our hearts should be chiefly set is the glory of God. But we are too apt, either to confine our view to the salvation of men, or to attach to it a disproportionate value. Let our disappointments rectify this evil. Without at all diminishing our desire for the salvation of men, which is much too feeble, let them teach us that we ought to contemplate the glory of God as our chief end, and be willing in any way to promote it by our labours.—The benefit of our learning these lessons effectually will not be confined to our personal experience, it will extend to our work. It is when we are annihilated before God that He may begin to exalt us; when we have learned to acquiesce in His will, He may grant us our own; when we come to seek first His glory, He may afford us more extensively the salvation of men. 2. If, on the other hand, we find reason to conclude that our want of success arises from our own defects, it is obvious that this is a loud call (1) to humiliation; and (2) to give all diligence in becoming better fitted for a work which we may not resign, and the issues of which are so unspeakably solemn. V. Want of success in our labour ought not to induce either abandonment or despondency.1. Never suffer yourselves to say, “It is of no use to try any longer.” (1.) Under no circumstances ought you to desist from taking a part with God in His righteous controversy with mankind. (2.) The object of saving men from everlasting destruction is clearly too important to be relinquished, while any possibility of accomplishing it remains. 2. As for despondency, it does endless mischief, and is utterly destitute of reason. (1.) The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save. It maybe that He only looks for another resolved effort on your part, and for a little more exercise of faith and patience, before He pours out an abundant blessing. It is characteristic of His ways to try faith before He rewards it. (2.) If you seem reduced to the necessity of despondency, that is just a reason why you should imbibe fresh hope. All your self-sufficiency having perished, now make another effort, more eminently in the name and strength of the Lord, and peradventure He will be with you. (3). Despondency is inevitably mischievous. Under its influence, you will either set about nothing at all, or nothing heartily. And nothing is to be wrought by a despairing hand (1 Corinthians 15:58; Galatians 6:9).—John Howard Hinton, A.M.: The Active Christian, pp. 241–264. THE GREAT Isaiah 53:2-12. For He shall grow up before Him, &c.Among the prophecies of Isaiah, that which is contained in the chapter before us stands eminent and illustrious. Received and interpreted according to the sense attached to it by Christians, it involves in it a striking proof of the truth and divinity of our holy religion. It does this simply as a prophecy, irrespective of its dogmatic or theological character. It is a prediction of what was to come to pass. It is not merely capable of being turned into a prediction by a little fancy or a little ingenuity, but it was uttered as such; it was meant when uttered to be received as such. And it was unquestionably in being—it was written and read—seven centuries before the events which are supposed to have fulfilled it. It is found in a Jewish, as distinguished from a Christian writing—in a writing admitted, preserved, believed, by those who have every reason for wishing this passage altered or expunged. After the appearing of Jesus Christ, a passage like this could not be introduced into the writings of Isaiah by Christians; the jealousy of the Jews would prevent that. It would not be introduced by the Jews; that would be inconsistent with their unbelief. To be here at all, it must have formed an original part of the prophetical Scriptures. Such it is admitted to be—and admitted by the Jew; he preserved and perused it as such before the appearance of the “Man of sorrows;” and after he had seen Him—seen Him “grow up as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground;” after he had looked upon Him and found in Him “nothing to desire,” “neither form nor comeliness,” nor verdure nor beauty; after he had “hid his face from Him” and “esteemed Him not,” “wounded” and “bruised,” and “imprisoned” and “oppressed” Him, “despised and rejected,” and “smitten Him to death;” after this it was impossible for them to recede. The book was in the hands of both parties, and the passage in the custody of both; the Jew could not have expunged it, for the Church would have detected and denounced the fraud; the Christian would not, for he exulted in its existence and import. It there stands an acknowledged portion of a writing strictly and intentionally prophetic, uttered and recorded as prophetical, hundreds of years before the occurrence of all that it so distinctly and graphically describes. Now, the thing to be observed in connection with these remarks is this—that the particulars of the prophecy are so many, so minute, so singular, previously so improbable, that they could never have been foreseen by human sagacity, and surely never thrown together by any lucky but hazardous guesses. They were all fulfilled, and fulfilled with minute and marvellous fidelity in Jesus Christ. They apply to no other person; to Him they do apply, and apply with an accuracy which would be admitted to be wonderful and which never would be doubted, did it not involve the admission of the truth of His pretensions. That it does this is seen by the simplest of all arguments:—none can foresee future events but God; a clear and indubitable prediction is produced, having long afterwards its fulfilment in the character and history of one claiming a Divine mission; therefore (it is impossible to hesitate) that mission was Divine; He must have sent Him, who foresaw His coming, and foreseeing, foretold it.Such is the value and use of every prophecy whose character and meaning are clearly ascertained, and whose import can be proved to have met its accomplishment. But the prophecy before us does more than this; it not only proves, in relation to Christ, the truth of His pretensions, but it proves what some at least of these pretensions were; it not only demonstrates that He came from God, but it also demonstrates what He came for—what He came to accomplish for man. If words are to be permitted to have any meaning, if the language of the Bible was intended to be understood, the prophecy is a declaration, positive, unequivocal, distinct—that Messiah was to be made a propitiatory sacrifice. His innocence is asserted, His righteousness declared, His exquisite agony, bodily and mental, alike described; Jehovah is represented as crushing Him, “bruising Him,” and “putting Him to grief,” and “making His soul an offering for sin;” He is Himself depicted as suffering as a substitute, as “bearing the griefs and carrying the sorrows” of others, as “wounded for their transgressions, bruised for their iniquities,” on their account afflicted and stricken and smitten to death, and as having “laid upon Him the iniquity of them all.” Every variety of phrase is employed, as if purposely to render mistake impossible, and to mark the importance of the subject itself.Many translations of the passage have been attempted, but none succeeds in getting rid of and excluding its pervading idea. The Jew who rejects. Christ, and who applies therefore the prophecy to his nation as a whole, and not to an individual, is endlessly embarrassed by its personal allusion; and the Christian (if Christian he be) who rejects the Redeemer’s sacrifice and atonement, may alter and attenuate the phraseology of the passage, may change and modify and emasculate it, but the great truth cannot be concealed; its existence is indicated and its presence is felt, whatever be the language in which it is conveyed—aye, even in that which is carefully selected, not for the purpose of expressing, but of hiding it. The nature of the work of Christ, the “decease which He accomplished at Jerusalem,” the efficacy of His sufferings, and the nature of His death, “His soul being made an offering for sin”—this truth is so abundantly borne out in the ample and illustrious prophecy before us, that it flames forth, however it may be clothed, just as the glory of Christ’s body, when transfigured upon the Mount, shone through and illumined the robes He wore. It rises up in spite of every effort to reduce and to subdue it, even as the mighty champion of. Israel snapped asunder the new ropes and the green withes by which he was attempted to be bound.—T. Binney: Sermons, Second Series, pp. 6–9.That this chapter contains a direct prophecy of Jesus Christ is so plain, that I can scarcely conceive any serious objection to be made to it. The principal doubt which is likely to arise in the mind, is that it is so literal and particular as to seem to be rather a history foisted into the texts after the events had taken place, than a prophecy delivered seven hundred years before them. But this doubt is instantly removed, by considering that the Jews, the grand enemies of Christ, were the very persons to whom the preservation of this prophecy was intrusted; that they acknowledge it to be genuine; nor ever suggested a doubt as to its authenticity.If, then, it is genuine, to whom can it relate? It would be a waste of time to attempt to confute the interpretations that have been given by the Jews of late years, by which it is made to apply to Hezekiah, to Jeremiah, &c. It will here be sufficient to observe, that as in a lock, consisting of numerous wards, that key alone is the true one which fits all the wards; so in prophecy, that only is the true interpretation of any prediction which fits every part of it; and the more numerous and uncommon such parts are, the more manifest is it, in the case of a perfect coincidence, that the true interpretation has been given. I say, the more uncommon; because if events are foretold which cannot possibly apply but to a few persons, the interpretation is then proportionably limited. If, for instance, a prophecy should relate to a king, this would narrow the range of interpretation to those who bore the kingly office; if to a king who had died a violent death, this would narrow it still more; if that death was inflicted by his own subjects, it would reduce still more considerably the number of persons to whom it could be applied. But in the present case there are circumstances so very peculiar that they can be applied to one person alone.The person here spoken of was to be the servant of God, the arm of the Lord, the subject of prophecy. Yet when he came into the world, he was to be despised and rejected of men; he was not to be received as the Messiah; he was to be put into prison; he was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter; many were to be astonished at him; his visage was to be marred more than any man’s; he was to be numbered with transgressors, and cut off by a judicial sentence out of the land of the living; his grave was to be appointed with the wicked, yet his tomb was to be with the rich man. And his sufferings were to be of no ordinary kind, and inflicted for no common cause. He was to be wounded for our transgressions, and smitten for our iniquities. Jehovah was pleased to put him to grief, and to make his soul an offering for sin, though “he had done no wrong, neither was any guile found in his mouth.” But after God had thus made his soul an offering for sin, then he was to revive again; to prolong his days; to erect a spiritual kingdom; to sprinkle many nations; to be advanced above kings, who should shut their mouths before him; to be exalted and extolled, and be very high; to see and be satisfied with the effect of the travail of his soul; to justify many by his knowledge; and to make intercession for transgressors.Now, of those particulars, it is evident that most of them can be applied only to a few persons; some, from their very nature, to none but such a divine and extraordinary person as Jesus Christ; but that to Him all are applicable in the plainest and most literal sense. We may conclude, therefore, that if the real import of any prophecy is clear and indisputable, that of this chapter is so when it is made to refer to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.—Venn. THE AND SAVIOUR Isaiah 53:3. He is despised and rejected of men, &c.This is a summary of the history of our Lord, as it is recorded by the four Evangelists. His very first hours on earth may be cited in proof of its correctness. No place could be found for Him even in an inn. His life was a life of poverty. Scorn and insult followed Him everywhere. His life closed amid circumstances of unspeakable ignominy. In these facts we have, I. A reason for not being very strongly desirous of popularity. It is natural to desire the approval of our fellow-men; but no wise and good man will make this the end of his actions. He will seek to do right; if men applaud him for doing so, well; but if not, he will not be greatly grieved. He will not murmur because he is called to drink of the cup that Christ drank of. Shall the servant be above his Lord? II. A consolation when fidelity to duty exposes us to unpopularity. To be reproached and ridiculed; to have our actions misjudged and our motives misrepresented; to be deserted by those whom we regarded as our friends, to be pursued by the enmity of foes whom we have not wronged, is a bitter trial. But if it should be ours, let us remember that Christ trod the same path of suffering, and sympathises with us. III. An argument for entire consecration to the service of Christ.—The shame and suffering of which the text speaks, Christ endured for us (2 Corinthians 5:14-16).—W. H. Sullivan, M.A.: Parish Sermons, pp. 206–222). THE MAN OF SORROWS Isaiah 53:3. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. The subject of the sorrows of the Saviour has proved to be more efficacious for comfort to mourners than any other theme in the compass of revelation, or out of it. Christ is in all attitudes “the consolation of Israel,” but He is most so as a man of sorrows. As Aaron’s rod swallowed up all the other rods, so the griefs of Jesus make our griefs disappear. I. “A MAN.” We can never meditate too much upon Christ’s blessed person as God and as man. He who is here called a man was certainly “very God of very God;” “a man,” and “a man of sorrows,” and yet at the same time “God over all, blessed for ever.” His manhood was not the less real and substantial. It differed from our own humanity in the absence of sin, but it differed in no other respect. He was no phantasm, but a man of flesh and blood, even as ourselves; a man needing sleep, requiring food and subject to pain, and a man who, in the end, yielded up His life to death (Philippians 2:7). This condescending participation in our nature brings the Lord Jesus very near to us in relationship. Inasmuch as He was man, though also God, He was, according to Hebrew law, our goel—our kinsman, next of kin. According to the law, if an inheritance had been lost, it was the right of the next of kin to redeem it. Our Lord Jesus exercised His legal right, and seeing us sold into bondage and our inheritance taken from us, came forward to redeem both us and all our lost estate. A blessed thing it was for us that we had such a kinsman!—It would not have been consistent with Divine justice for any other substitution to have been accepted for us, except that of a man. Man sinned, and man must make reparation for the injury done to the Divine honour. Sinner, thou mightest well tremble to approach Him whom thou hast so grievously offended; but there is a man ordained to mediate between thee and God (H. E. I. 889). Every child of God ought also to be comforted by the fact that our Redeemer is one of our own race, tempted in all points like as we are, that He might be able to succour them that are tempted. The sympathy of Jesus is the next most precious thing to His sacrifice. [1617][1617] It has been to me, in seasons of great pain, superlatively comfortable to know that in every pang which racks His people the Lord Jesus has a fellow-feeling. How completely it takes the bitterness out of grief to know that it, once was suffered by Him! The Macedonian soldiers, it is said, made long forced marches which seemed to be beyond the power of mortal endurance, but the reason for their untiring energy lay in Alexander’s presence. He was accustomed to walk with them, and bear the like fatigue. If the king himself had been carried like a Persian monarch in a palanquin, in the midst of easy, luxurious state, the soldiers would soon have grown tired; but, when they looked upon the king of men himself, hungering when they hungered, thirsting when they thirsted, often putting aside the cup of water offered to him, and passing it to a fellow-soldier who looked more faint than himself, they could not dream of repining. Every Macedonian felt that he could endure any fatigue if Alexander could. This day, assuredly, we can bear poverty, slander, contempt, or bodily pain, or death itself, because Jesus Christ our Lord has borne it.—Spurgeon. II. “A MAN OF SORROWS.” The expression is intended to be very emphatic, it is not “a sorrowful man,” but “a man of sorrows,” as if He were made up of sorrows, and they were constituent elements of His being. Some are men of pleasure, others men of wealth, but He was “a man of sorrows.” Our Lord is called “a man of sorrows,” (1.) For peculiarity, for this was His peculiar token and special mark. We might well call Him “a man of holiness;” for there was no fault in Him: or a man of labours, for He did His Father’s business earnestly; or “a man of eloquence,” for never man spake like this man. Yet had we gazed upon Christ and been asked afterwards what was the most striking peculiarity in Him, we should have said His sorrows. The various parts of His character were so singularly harmonious that no one quality predominated, so as to become a leading feature. But there was a peculiarity, and it lay in the fact that “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men,” through the excessive griefs which continually passed over His spirit. Tears were His insignia, and the cross His escutcheon. He was the warrior in black armour, and not as now the rider upon the white horse. He was the lord of grief, the prince of pain, the emperor of anguish, a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” 2. By way of eminence. He was not only sorrowful, but pre-eminent among the sorrowful. All men have a burden to bear, but His was heaviest of all. Common sufferers must give place, for none can match with Him in woe. He who was the most obedient Son smarted most under the rod when He was stricken of God and afflicted; no other of the smitten ones have sweat great drops of blood, or in the same bitterness of anguish cried, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” The reasons for this superior sorrow may be found in the fact that with His sorrow there was no admixture of sin. Sin deserves sorrow, but it also blunts the edge of grief by rendering the soul untender and unsympathetic. We do not start at sin as Jesus did, we do not tremble at the sinner’s doom as Jesus would. His was a perfect nature, which, because it knew no sin, was not in its element amid sorrow, but was like a land bird driven out to sea by the gale. To the robber the jail is his home, and the prison fare is the meat to which he is accustomed, but to an innocent man a prison is misery, and everything about it is strange and foreign. Our Lord’s pure nature was peculiarly sensitive of any contact with sin; we, alas! by the Fall, have lost much of that feeling. Our hands grow horny with toiling, and our hearts with sinning; but our Lord was, as it were, like a man whose flesh was all one quivering wound; He was delicately sensitive of every touch of sin. We go through thorn-brakes and briars of sin because we are clothed with indifference, but imagine a naked man, compelled to traverse a forest of briars—and such was the Saviour, as to His moral sensitiveness. He could see sin where we cannot see it, and feel its heinousness as we cannot feel it: there was therefore more to grieve Him, and He was more capable of being grieved. Side by side with His painful sensitiveness of the evil of sin, was His gracious tenderness towards the sorrows of others. All men’s sorrows were His sorrows. His heart was so large, that it was inevitable that He should become “a man of sorrows.” Besides this, our Saviour had a peculiar relationship to sin. Sin was laid upon Him, and He was Himself numbered with the transgressors; and therefore He was called to bear the terrible blows of Divine justice, and suffered unknown, immeasurable agonies. “It pleased the Father to bruise Him, He hath put Him to grief.” behold the man, and mark how vain it would be to seek His equal sorrow. 3. To indicate the constancy of His afflictions. Born in a stable, sorrow received Him, and only on the cross at His last breath did sorrow part with Him. His disciples might forsake Him, but His sorrows would not leave Him. He was often alone without a man, but never alone without a grief. 4. Because of the variety of His woes; He was a man not of sorrow only, but of “sorrows.” All the sufferings of the body and of the soul were known to Him. Affliction emptied its quiver upon Him, making His heart the target for all conceivable woes. (1.) Our Lord was a man of sorrows as to His poverty. Oh, you who are in want, your want is not so abject as His: He had not where to lay His head, but you have at least some humble roof to shelter you. (2.) Our Saviour knew the heart-rendings of bereavement. Jesus wept, as He stood at the tomb of Lazarus. (3.) Perhaps the bitterest of His sorrows were those which were connected with His gracious work. He came as the Messiah sent of God, on an embassage of love, and men rejected His claims. There was no name of contempt which they did not pour upon Him; nay, it was not merely contempt, but they proceeded to falsehood, slander, and blasphemy. There was not a word He spoke but they would wrest it; not a doctrine but what they would misrepresent it: He could not speak but what they would find in His words some occasion against Him. Was there ever man so full of goodwill to others, who received such disgraceful treatment from those He longed to serve? (4.) His was a lonely life; even when He was with His followers, He was alone. [1620] (5.) In the last crowning sorrows of His life, there came upon Him the penal inflictions from God, the chastisement of our peace, which was upon Him. The sharpest scourging and severest griefs were all within; while the hand of God bruised Him, and the iron rod of justice broke Him, as it were, upon the wheel. [1620] Even if they sympathised with Him to the utmost of their capacity, they could not enter into such griefs as His. A father in a house with many little children about him, cannot tell his babes his griefs; if he did they would not comprehend him. What know they of his anxious business transactions, or his crushing losses? Poor little things, their father does not wish they should be able to sympathise with him; he looks down upon them, and rejoices that their toys will comfort them, and that their little prattle will not be broken in upon by his great griefs. The Saviour, from the very dignity of His nature, must suffer alone. The mountain-side, with Christ upon it, seems to me to be a suggestive symbol of His earthly life. His great soul lived in vast solitudes, sublime and terrible, and there amid a midnight of trouble, His spirit communed with the Father, no one being able to accompany Him into the dark glens and gloomy ravines of His unique experience. Of all His life’s warfare He might have said in some senses, “of the people there was none with me;” and at the last it became literally true, for they all forsook Him—one denied Him and another betrayed Him, so that He trod the wine-press alone.—Spurgeon. III. “ WITH GRIEF.” 1. With grief He had an intimate acquaintance. He did not know merely what it was in others, but it came home to Himself. We have read of grief, sympathised with grief, sometimes felt grief: but the Lord felt it more intensely than other men in His innermost soul; He, beyond us all, was conversant with this black-letter lore. 2. It was a continuous acquaintance. It was indeed a growing acquaintance with grief, for each step took Him deeper down into the grim shades of sorrow. As there is a progress in the teaching of Christ and in the life of Christ, so is there also in the griefs of Christ. The tempest lowered darker, and darker, and darker. His sun rose in a cloud, but it set in congregated horrors of heaped-up night, till, in a moment, the clouds were suddenly rent in sunder, and, as a loud voice proclaimed, “It is finished!” glorious morning dawned where all expected an eternal night. 3. This acquaintance of Christ with grief was a voluntary acquaintance for our sakes. He need never have known a grief at all, and at any moment He might have said to grief, Farewell. But He remained to the end, out of love to us, grief’s acquaintance. What shall I say in conclusion, but just this: let us admire the superlative love of Jesus. O love, what hast thou done! Thou art omnipotent in suffering. Few of us can bear pain, perhaps fewer still of us can bear misrepresentation, slander, and ingratitude. These are horrible hornets which sting as with fire: men have been driven to madness by cruel scandals which have distilled from venomous tongues. Christ, throughout life, bore these and other sufferings. Let us love Him, as we think of how much He must have loved us.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1099. “Behold the man!” There is a fascination in His human sympathies, tears, words, that is irresistible. As we toil on our way amid sorrow and distress, we remember Who it is that has power to succour the tempted (Hebrews 4:15). The Redeemer was emphatically “a man of sorrows.” In the Gospel narrative this is more frequently implied than expressed, although there are not wanting passages in which it is definitely stated (Mark 3:5; John 11:35; Matthew 26:37-38). There are various causes for sorrow:— I. OF SPIRIT.—It is no mere conceit, in which the poet tells us that “Not e’en the tenderest heart, and next our own,Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh.”A wiser than he had said: “The heart knoweth its own bitterness,” &c. This solitariness of spirit was the heritage of Christ. 1. There was no spirit on earth that could claim perfect kindred with His spirit. No sympathy—in the true use of the word—could be between Him and sinful souls. The best and holiest could not look upon life from His standpoint, nor enter into His feelings, nor share His aspirations. 2. He was love personified; they were selfish. The affections of His heart were perpetually welling up like an inexhaustible fountain; they were wrapped up in self, and knew no higher delight than self-gratification—no higher principle than love of self. 3. His heart yearned after companionship, and found it not. It called to its fellows, but they understood not its language. Hence He was alone (Isaiah 63:3). II. THE OF SORROW IN OTHERS. This was pre-eminently the case with Jesus Christ. When the news of the Baptist’s death was brought to Him, He went into the wilderness, but at the cry of human need He soon came forth again; and as soon as He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion toward them, and healed their sick. As He journeyed from place to place there were always appeals to His tenderest feelings. Not often was He called to the house of mirth; but He was frequently sought to go to the house of mourning. We find Him once at a marriage feast; once at the table of Simon; twice “eating with publicans and sinners,” and sharing the modest hospitalities of Bethany; but sorrowing hearts were always seeking His comfort and His help. III. . The world has never heard a more touching story than that at Bethany. For Himself He shed no tears, and gently reproved those who wept for Him but; the sight of misery in others drew floods of tears from His eyes. IV. . Of this Jesus tasted to the full. “He went about doing good;” surely from all the seed He sowed He had a right to expect a bountiful harvest! Yet the seed fell for the most part on unproductive soil (Matthew 13:1-9). The nine lepers who returned not to give thanks for their cleansing were but typical of multitudes who selfishly received all and gave nothing in return (Psalms 106:13). Thousands followed Him, because “they did eat of the loaves and were filled;” Those who attached themselves to Him were but few, while even these left Him at the last. Was there not something of disappointment in the compassion that moved Him to say, “O Jerusalem,” &c.? (Matthew 23:37.) Said not Isaiah truly, He was “a man of sorrows”? Tears were His meat day and night, and He could say: “Reproach hath broken My beart,” &c. (Psalms 69:20).—Frederick Wagstaff: Study and Pulpit, New Series (1876), pp. 237–239. I. The sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. A sanctuary we should enter with reverence, &c. 1. His were chiefly agonies of the soul. 2. The magnitude and intensity of any soul’s sufferings are in proportion to the soul’s greatness. The greater the soul, the greater its capacity for suffering. 3. How the agonies of His soul and body reacted upon each other. The agony of His soul, acting upon the body, produced utter prostration. His physical suffering reacted again upon His soul. 4. We must also take into account their propitiatory character. II. The relation of His sufferings to those of whom it is here said that they despise and reject Him. 1. The object for which He came was to save them. 2. To despise and reject Him is a poor return for all His love. 3. We may well be ashamed that the Lord of life and glory should receive such treatment in our world. He is despised and rejected still. He that despiseth Christ wrongeth his own soul—deprives it of its highest and only true and enduring bliss. You cannot do without Christ.—L. H. Byrnes, B.A.: The Christian World, June 8, 1866. How pathetic is the designation here applied to the Messiah, and how truly was it verified in Jesus—“A Man of Sorrows!” I. The fact that the Lord Jesus was, in His humiliation, a Man of Sorrows. There are minds that resent this description, that deem it incredible that it should apply to a Divine Being, or regard such a picture as marred by an unwholesome sentiment. In fact, the true and full impression of the picture can only be received by those who acknowledge both the Deity and the Humanity of Christ. We recognise several elements in this sorrow. 1. There was personal sorrow when He wept tears of grief, when there escaped Him groans of disappointment. 2. The sorrow of sympathy and compassion, when He grieved for His friends, for His nation, for the disobedient and rebellious, for the sin stricken race of man. 3. Christ’s was progressive sorrow. It gathered thick as a cloud above His head as His ministry advanced. It culminated with life’s close in Gethsemane and on Calvary. II. How it came to pass that the Lord Jesus was a Man of Sorrows. 1. It was through His contact with sin and with sinners,—to a nature like His how specially painful and distressing. 2. It was also through His conscious bearing of sin; the sins of the whole world having been laid upon Him and assumed by Him. 3. He suffered through His conflict with sin, He endured the contradiction of sinners. Wounds and scars were inflicted upon His sensitive nature in this appalling battle. III. With what intent the Lord Jesus deigned to become a Man of Sorrows. 1. That He might be the representative man, the Head of an afflicted humanity. 2. That He might be the Saviour—perfect through sufferings, as the Captain of our salvation. 3. That He might be a sympathising High Priest, touched with a feeling of our infirmities. His sorrows were to avert our woes and to procure our bliss.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 78. I. The language of our text does not describe the case of one who encountered only the ordinary or the average amount of the trials which belong to human life. There is implied in it a pre-eminence in sorrow, a peculiarly deep experience of grief. II. Of all the many griefs of the Divine Redeemer in His human life, there was not one which He Himself either needed or deserved to bear. III. All the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, so painful, and so entirely unnecessary and undeserved on His own account, were endured with unwavering fortitude, [1623][1623] He was to the last moment of His life a willing sufferer. He was moved, deeply moved by sorrow; and He wept—wept often, it is probable. Tears are the innocent, and many times the sweet relief of the distressed. He dreaded suffering, too, like others, when He saw its near approach, and felt the instinctive desire to be saved from its bitter pangs; but, notwithstanding this, His fortitude was steady and unyielding; so that He met the hour of anguish, at all times, with a noble constancy of soul. When human nature, almost overborne by the weight of anguish, prompted the petition, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” the unbending strength of moral purpose, the enduring energy of perfect self-devotion, at once dictated the addition: “Father, Thy will be done.” … Even His last mournful exclamation under the hidings of the Father’s face, in the last affecting scene on Calvary, is no exception to the truth of these remarks; for that was only a testimony to the world of the extremity of the anguish which its Redeemer consented to endure, and not at all the utterance of faltering or failing resolution.—Ray Palmer. IV. In all the griefs and sorrows which the blessed Saviour suffered, His mind was chiefly occupied with the good results in which His sufferings were to issue (Hebrews 12:2). LESSONS. 1. If even the Son of God, when on earth, was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, we certainly should not think it strange that days of trial are appointed unto us. 2. If our blessed Lord felt keenly what He suffered, and was even moved to tears, we need not reproach ourselves because we deeply feel our trials, and cannot but weep in the fulness of our grief (P. D. 3287). 3. If Christ was a willing sufferer, deliberately choosing to suffer for the good of others, we surely should consent to suffer for our own advantage (H. E. I. 158; P. D. 3239, 3246). 4. If our blessed Lord made less account of what He suffered than of the good results which were to follow, it is wise at least in us to do the same (H. E. I. 2204–2221, 3678–3704).—Bay Palmer, D.D.: The National Preacher, vol. xxxviii. pp. 25–34.) THE SAVIOUR Isaiah 53:3-5. He is despised and rejected of men. &c.A deliverer was expected. “The desire of all nations.” What sort of personage was He? He was a disappointment, and was treated as one. For He was a suffering Saviour. Yet this is His glory. I. A SAVIOUR IN . The text predicts this. Picture out the kind of career indicated in the text. Men admire grandeur, despise poverty and suffering. But He was “a man of sorrows;” and it is quite possible that He carried in His countenance the marks of inward suffering. Prophecy required that He should be a sufferer: this chapter, and many other passages. There are in fact two classes of prophecies—the one represents Him as a sufferer, the other as a reigning King. If He had not suffered, the proof of His Messiahship would have been fatally defective (Luke 18:31-34; Luke 24:26-27; Luke 24:44-46; Acts 3:18). II. A SAVIOUR IN HISTORY. “Behold the man,” said Pilate. Was He not rejected, despised, “a man of sorrows”? Fine natures feel such a position as that in which He was placed, coarse natures do not. And there were deeper causes of sorrow than man could fathom. The prospect immediately before Him was sorrowful enough. He had said, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour.” “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” He had agonised in the garden. He had sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. He had cried out for the cup to pass away. He had felt the bitterness of betrayal. He had been tried by the Jewish court. He had been crowned and scourged by the Roman soldiery. Ere many hours had passed He felt the shame, the pain, the fever of crucifixion. He was forsaken of God. His heart broke. His sufferings ended only with His life. Such were the facts of history. Such were the requirements of prophecy. Thus— 1. Scripture was fulfilled. 2. His Messiahship was proved. 3. Satisfaction was made for sin. Repentance by itself is no satisfaction for past sin (H. E. 1. 4225–4228). Nor is reformation. Nor is there any force within man’s depraved nature that would impel to repentance. Therefore atonement is needed by another: Himself suitable as being Divine, human, sinless (Isaiah 53:4). Such is the Saviour. Thus He suffered. Measuring love by the labour it is willing to undergo, the suffering it is willing to endure, the sacrifices it is willing to make, does the love of Christ burn in our hearts with intensity such as might be expected from our obligations to Him? Have we indeed all received Him? Do not some, like the Jews, despise and reject Him? Reflect on this. 1. Its ingratitude. 2. Its presumption. In effect it says that God hath done an unnecessary thing in giving His Son: because the end could have been gained without it. Or, that the personal acceptance of Christ, though required in the Gospel, is an unnecessary requirement: because the salvation will be given without it. 3. Its rebelliousness. It is determined love of sin and resistance of God.—J. Rawlinson.The sufferings of Christ must always be the main subject of the believer’s thought, for no other can compare with this either in the intensity, the universality, or the duration of its interests. Strangers may think the Cross repulsive, for it is to the Greeks foolishness; but to believers it is a revelation of the power and the goodness of God. “We preach Christ crucified,” says St. Paul, and from his day unto our own “Christ crucified” is the only foundation of hope, the only rock of faith, and the only bulwark against death. No wonder, then, that the absorbing enthusiasm of Christianity has been proved able to break mighty empires in pieces, and to subdue to itself the fiercest of human passions! Neither is this a subject of merely local interest. Moses might be compared to one of those desert chiefs whose very name is unheard in civilised lands, but Christ rather resembles those majestic conquerors who have aspired after a universal and enduring kingdom. Not Jerusalem, or Rome, but all the races of mankind, are ransomed by His death. Of this theme the Church will never weary, for, so long as there is a sorrow to heal, a temptation to conquer, or a sin to pardon—so long, in fact, as man continues to be man, so long will there be need of Jesus and the Resurrection. No advancement of knowledge or civilisation can atone for the want of a Saviour. Now that same Saviour on whom we trust was also the hope of the ancient prophets. We look back on an accomplished fact, and they looked forward to a glorious promise. I. THE OF THE LORD’S LIFE. The sorrows of our Saviour’s life are in some respects more completely above our sympathy than those of His death; for, while we can understand the pang of the nail or the thorn, we cannot so easily realise His mental or moral sorrows. Yet these latter are not to be overlooked. There was, 1. Our Lord’s loneliness. Loneliness is the inevitable penalty of greatness. Our Lord’s loneliness may seem unimportant if we look only at His divinity, but He was as perfectly man as He was truly God. Whatever, therefore, is painful to sinless man was equally painful to Christ. Now no proof is needed that man hates to be alone. How lonely was His life! A few friends gathered round Him for a time, but forsook Him in His utmost need. Burdened with the world’s redemption, He was too great and high for human sympathy. The source of all kindness, and the Creator of all families, yet of Him we are compelled to say, “He hath trodden the winepress alone.” (See p. 478.) 2. His uninterrupted self-denial. No doubt an accomplished act of self-denial always produces satisfaction. The very nature of self-denial requires that the painful feelings predominate, otherwise the act would be self-indulgence. What life, then, can compare with the life of Christ? Whatever is pleasant He put far from Him, and whatever is painful He took as His own. Christ lived in sorrow because sorrow was His own free choice. Yet we may gladly remember the suffering Saviour. A Redeemer who lived in pomp and honour, amid the palaces of the state and the triumphs of nations, would be too grand for ordinary men; but when we see Him walking in weariness and in pain, or bitterly mourning at the tomb of a friend, or forsaken by the chosen twelve, then we remember that He was “bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.” 3. Our Lord’s purity and compassion. It may not at first be obvious that the purity of our Lord’s nature should produce sorrow; and yet, when we consider that He gave Himself up to the battle against impurity, we may conceive how He would shrink from contact with it. Contrast the splendid purity of that palace which He forsook, with that foul and loathsome dungeon of pollution which He entered, God’s holiness with our corruption, and then judge whether it was a small thing for Christ to live among men. Sin troubles only the pure, but sorrow appeals to all. Such an emotion always filled our Saviour’s breast. He saw all men, of every race and age, involved in one common ruin, &c. At last the burden of compassion became too heavy even for Him to bear, and He longed for the relief of the shame and agony of the cross (Luke 12:50). 4. The ingratitude and opposition of the Jews. Though no comparison can fully illustrate this subject, yet suppose that, when Satan’s host was cast down from heaven, a blessed spirit compassionated the awful ruin; suppose that, from the sacred light above, he journeys to the guilty darkness below, and there, by his own keen sorrow, he expiates the sin of the lost; yet suppose also that, while this strong spirit was kindling hope even in hell, all the spirits of the lost should agree to curse and torment their benefactor. “Impossible,” you cry; “impossible even in hell!” Alas! it was possible on earth. Count up the miracles of mercy, and then consider how soon indifference became ingratitude, and ingratitude ripened into opposition. We may blush for our humanity. Those who yesterday ate the sacred bread, to-day cry, “Crucify Him!” &c. II. THE OF OUR LORD’S DEATH. We may not press too closely into that mysterious scene of woe. It is rather a topic for thought than speech. 1. Our Lord’s death was bitter and painful. “They pierced,” says the prophet, “my hands and my feet;” and, adds Isaiah, “He was smitten of God and afflicted.” For six hours He hung upon the cross. Yet doubtless His sorest sufferings were mental, for He bore all the sins of all the world. In some mysterious manner, the debt which we could never pay through all eternity, He paid in a moment of time. Yet surely He was supported by Divine consolation? Alas, no! He who stands in my place stands beneath offended justice; and hence, perhaps, that strange, mysterious cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Yet, as these sufferings were extreme, so the result of them was excellent. By them He purchased everlasting redemption for man; and equally by them He inspires us with a holy horror of sin. 2. Our Lord’s death was apparently that of a criminal. He was numbered with the transgressors. “We did esteem Him judicially smitten,” says Isaiah, and, adds the Evangelist, “He was crucified between two thieves.” The vilest wretch who dies to-day, amid the horrors of a public execution, is kindlier treated, meets with more sympathy and less contempt than did the Lord of glory. Consider, then, the innocence of His character, and the apparent guilt of His death. How great the contrast! 3. Thus our Lord died amid ignominy and contempt. The Romans considered crucifixion to be a doom too base for any but the vilest slaves, &c. There is no need to add that these sorrows were the revelation of eternal love. “Herein is love,” herein and nowhere else is it so affectingly, so unequivocally proved, “Not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”—Bamford Burrows: The Methodist Recorder, March 29, 1877. WITH THE (A Hospital Sunday Sermon.) Isaiah 53:4. “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” This Scripture is quoted in 1 Peter 2:24, as expressing the Saviour’s substitutionary suffering on the cross. It is quoted in Matthew 8:17, as fulfilled by the Saviour’s healing miracles. It thus at first sight presents a considerable difficulty, which, however, disappears when you remember three things. First, that the scope of this chapter is to exhibit the suffering Saviour. Second, that the thing in the mind of Matthew was the Saviour’s intense sympathy, which took up into Himself the sorrows and sufferings of our fallen nature. Third, that some Scriptures are capable of many fulfilments. A passage may have one main meaning, yet that meaning may contain others within itself, as a tube may contain several tubes, or as a rose may contain many leaves overlapping each other. There is thus in the whole work of Jesus a twofold fulfilment of this important prophecy. I. THAT WHICH IN HIS ATONING DEATH FOR SIN. In this sense He took the infirmities and sicknesses of our souls. In the phraseology of the Old Testament the bearing of sin is equivalent to the consequences of its guilt. The Lord Jesus Christ was the great sin-bearer. He took upon Him our nature, not only that He might adequately represent humanity and be an example, but especially that He might bear the sin of man in His death on the cross (1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21). When you look for a reason why the Son of God became a man and was crucified, you cannot find it in any breach of law by Him, nor in the circumstance that He had provoked the authorities, and fallen under their power. You can only find it in the fact that His death was the atoning satisfaction for sin, on the ground of which its penal consequences can be removed from the sinner; and in the further fact that it is the fullest condemnation of sin, and the most powerful motive to abandon it. Thousands have believed this, and found peace to their consciences; and not only so, they find that faith in Him crucifies sin, and inspires them with the ardent desire to be free from its power. So that our text contains the three ideas essential to the Saviour’s work: viz., 1. Suffering. 2. Substitution. 3. Salvation. But this is not the only fulfilment of this prophecy. There is II. THAT WHICH IN HIS FEELING FOR, AND HELP IN, MEN’S BODILY . We must bear in mind the close connection between the body and the soul. Sin has affected both. While the seat of sin is the soul, the body, as its instrument, participates in the sin. It suffers in consequence of sin. In Scripture all bodily infirmity, suffering, death in man, is traced to sin. The disease of leprosy was selected by Moses as the representation of this truth. The exclusion of the leper from the congregation, and the ceremonies connected with his re-admission, marked and kept this great truth in memory. It was therefore fitting that He who came to destroy death and sin should take into His view and into His heart, not only the spiritual, but the physical aspects of the case He had undertaken. Man’s completed redemption will be the redemption of the body at the resurrection. The final state of the glorified is one in which there shall be no more sorrow, nor sickness, nor pain, nor death. How then could He who came to accomplish that redemption be indifferent to the sufferings in which He saw a part of the misery He came to remove? In this view, what a splendid career was His life on earth! There have been philanthropists, like Howard, and Wilberforce, and Clarkson, who have had compassion on the prisoner and the slave. But who has devoted Himself with such fulness of consecration and such forgetfulness of self? Whoever, in so short a time, accomplished so much, left such a mark behind Him in the grateful memories of those whom He had relieved and cured, and whose dark lives He had made bright by His healing touch? He could not see suffering without compassion, and He could not feel compassion without stretching out His hand to help. In those works of beneficence He furnished a pre-intimation of the spirit that would characterise His religion. We have heard something about the religion of humanity. Men are to live for man rather than for God. Its practical effect will be nothing, because it takes away the motive power that would impel man to live for man. Nothing but the love of God creates the love of man. The idea is as old as Christianity; it is a part of Christianity, it is essential to it, it is borrowed from it. One of the first principles of practical Christianity is that “none of us liveth to himself.” “We live unto the Lord,” and our life to Him is manifested in living and working for our fellow-men. Christianity inspires its votaries with the desire to communicate it to others. But that is not all. In keeping with the idea that Christ has redeemed the human body as well as the human soul, it interests itself in everything that concerns the wellbeing of man. Wherever it is extended, it improves his material condition. The savage becomes civilised. Slavery has been abolished. Even war has yielded to its influence. There is greater reluctance to engage in it; restrictions are imposed on its conduct; benevolent ministers attend friend and foe alike on the battlefield. Christianity leads men to use their material opportunities to the best advantage; yet it does not encourage its votaries to turn coldly from those who have been unsuccessful in the race of life. The numberless institutions of the present day for the improvement of the material condition of the people, as a rule owe their origination and perpetuation to the humanising influence of Christianity. And in these works of beneficence the Lord Jesus Christ furnished an example to His followers in all ages. Individually and personally they are called upon. They are to interest themselves in the spiritual and temporal wellbeing of man, as He did. They cannot work miracles. But they can perform the daily duties of life. Husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants, can imitate His consideration for others. There can be the visit to the sick and the troubled. The poor cannot perhaps be lifted out of their poverty; but they can be helped in it. It is of advantage to do such work personally as far as possible. But much of it can only, at least can best, be done by means of public institutions and societies. Thus the sending the gospel to the heathen. Thus ministration to the sick and wounded is most effectual by means of hospitals. Catch the spirit of Jesus. The example is enforced by the unparalleled sacrifices He made to gain His end. Think of the number and variety of diseases and sufferings, and do what you can, like Jesus, to heal.—J. Rawlinson.THE MYSTERY OF OUR LORD’S Isaiah 53:4-5. We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, &c.No man, free from bias and prejudice, can fail to see that in this chapter the Messiah—the suffering Messiah—is referred to. As little can any open-minded man fail to see, that in it the vicarious nature of Messiah’s sufferings is declared. He is the sinless One who bears on His own heart and life the burden of the sins of others. He is the sent One who bears that burden as God, and for Him. The pathway of shame which the humbled Saviour trod comes into our view. We see the thick clouds gathering over Him. We hear men reviling the seemingly helpless sufferer. We read the stricken heart that for a moment even fears the Divine forsaking. We catch the dying cry, “It is finished! “and the last heart-breaking sigh. And through the blinding, sympathising tears we read, “He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.” The mystery of Christ’s sufferings! It may be profitable for us to meditate upon them, asking, What is man’s explanation of them and what is God’s? I. THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST’S ,—MAN’S OF IT. “We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” And it is impossible to say that this is other than a fair view to take from man’s position and with man’s knowledge. 1. Try and realise the process of thought in a man who was told of Christ’s sufferings and death, but had no knowledge of His personal innocence. To such a man it would be plain that God has established an immediate connection between sin and suffering. Throughout His wide domain God “by no means clears the guilty.” The suffering often comes openly, so that men may see it; sometimes it comes only to the man’s spirit; but it always comes. Upon the basis of this constant union between sin and suffering, the man might fairly argue that there must be a connection between suffering and sin, so that wherever he saw suffering he would suspect that sin was its cause (H. E. I. 4490, 4603–4610). The discipline of chastisement through which the Christian passes may seem opposed to this view; it is only, however, lifting it up into a higher plane, and treating it with qualifying considerations. All discipline carries the idea of punishment; it is the recognition of some evil in the person on whom it rests. Since then the man is prepared to find sin wherever he finds suffering, he will be ready to explain the mystery of Christ’s sufferings by saying, “Christ had sinned.” and such a man, looking upon Christ as condemned by law, would further recognise God’s hand in His sufferings. For if human laws are to gain the respect of men, they must be regarded as the expression of God’s law. It was perhaps thus that the Jewish bigots thought of the Nazarene malefactor. Yet we know, we feel, that this explanation of the mystery of our Lord’s sufferings is insufficient and incorrect. Worthless—nay, wholly wrong—if He be the spotless Lamb of God. 2. Try to realise the process of thought in a man who has some knowledge of Christ’s life, and especially of His personal innocence. Such a man might say, Christ’s sufferings were a special and extraordinary Divine judgment. “He was smitten of God;” His death was a sad calamity. Calamity, that is, suffering of which the sufferer’s sin is not the immediate cause, is no such uncommon thing in the world. The tower of Siloam fell. The sin was Pilate’s; it did not belong to those whose blood was poured forth. They were smitten of God. The world has known many instances in which the innocent has been treated as the guilty. Such cases are mysteries; man can only say of the sufferers—“Smitten of God.” In the case of Christ, this, too, is insufficient; it is but the beginning of an explanation. A calamity! Yes, but only a seeming calamity, seeing that by dying He conquered death. Man cannot of himself explain the mystery of Christ’s sufferings. II. THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST’S —GOD’S OF IT. Notice— 1. That God sustains man’s view, that the sufferings of Christ were His appointment; but He further declares that they were an unusual, and altogether singular appointment. They were the voluntary fulfilment of a Divine decree; the carrying out to its completion, whatever that might involve, of a Divine mission (John 8:42; John 4:34; John 6:38). God the Father gave extraordinary witness to Him as His Son and Messenger (Mark 9:7); ancient prophecy represented Christ as saying, “Lo, I come,” &c. (Psalms 40:7-8); and apostles firmly declare, “We have seen, and do testify,” &c. (1 John 4:14). The direct connection of the life-work and the sufferings of Jesus with the redeeming plan and purpose of God, must be anxiously and watchfully maintained. The question of surpassing interest to us is, “What does God think of it all? How does it all stand related to His purposes of grace?” 2. God’s explanation declares that Christ’s sufferings bore no relation whatever to His own guilt. The text gives an explanation which excludes all others. If He had sinned, it is plain that He must have come under the condemnation of the Divine law, and must have been occupied with bearing the penalties of His own sin. But Christ suffered as the representative or substitute for others; His sufferings were wholly “vicarious;” borne in carrying out the great work He had undertaken, of delivering us from the penalty and the power of sin, and securing for us eternal peace with God. This is God’s wonderful solution of the question, “How shall man be just with God?” .—In the restoration of man to the Divine favour we can recognise three stages. 1. A loving purpose towards man cherished in the deep heart of the Holy Father. 2. That Divine and loving purpose effectually wrought out by God’s well-beloved and only begotten Song of Solomon 3. The voluntary and hearty acceptance, by the long-sought children, of the redemption thus gloriously wrought for them. The third stage is yet incomplete. For the love of God does not—perhaps we should say cannot—save you against your will. But is it so, can it be so, that you have no will to be saved? Put out the hand of faith. For “all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”—Rev. Robert Tuck, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv. pp. 8–10. (Sunday School Address.) Compare the progress and the unfolding clearness of the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah, to a picture which takes many hands and long years to paint. Picture one man beginning by putting in the bare outline; then another and another comes, and makes the outline more and more complete and clear. Then others come and paint in the figure, form, and dress; and yet others the features and expression of the face. When the picture is complete, behold, it is Jesus of Nazareth: the suffering Saviour. I. The suffering Saviour. Dwell on the terms in which His sufferings are detailed (see pp. 477–483). Carefully point out that He suffered more in His mind and heart than in His body. II. The suffering Saviour misunderstood. By those who only look on the surface. By all who have no personal conviction of sin. III. The mystery of the suffering Saviour revealed. It was vicarious suffering, borne according to the will of God, and borne for us. IV. The glorious results won by a suffering Saviour. Man’s redemption. His own eternal joy. The triumph of God’s love over man’s sin.—Sunday School Addresses, New Series, p. 157. THE OF CHRIST Isaiah 53:5. But He was wounded for our transgressions, &c.To any one who seriously contemplates the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ, three things suggest themselves as requiring explanation. 1. An innocent man suffers. All testimonies agree as to the purity and perfectness of the life of Jesus. There is a certain violence done to our sense of justice, when we see Him who boldly demanded, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” and to whose character the Roman judge bears unqualified witness, undergoing the double agonies of an iniquitous trial and a shameful death. 2. The death of Jesus is the apparent defeat and destruction of one who possessed extraordinary and supernatural powers. For Him, whose word could still a tempest, eject a devil, raise the dead, to have escaped the power of the Sanhedrim and of the soldiery would surely have been easy (Matthew 26:53). In the suffering of a person so mighty, there is an intellectual inconsistency quite as remarkable as the moral inconsistency already noted. 3. This apparent defeat and ruin, instead of hindering the progress of His work, became at once, and in all the history of the progress of His doctrine has been emphatically, the instrument whereby a world is conquered. The death of Jesus has not been mourned by His followers, has never been concealed, but rather exulted in and prominently set forward as that to which all men must chiefly look, if they would regard Christ and His mission aright. Here, again, is a difficulty for rationalism to overcome. The innocent suffers as if guilty, the mighty is seized as if in helpless weakness, the shame and the failure result in glory and completest success. What is the philosophy of this? We ask impatiently for the explanation of the wonder. Has any ever been given which approaches the Divinely-revealed meaning supplied to us by our text, “He was wounded,” &c.? We learn here, I. That the sufferings of Jesus Christ resulted from our sins. Whether absolutely and universally suffering is the result of sin, we need not now inquire. Two things, at least, are certain: a large amount of suffering is the direct consequence of sin, and it is the habit of men to associate the suffering which comes before them, either directly or indirectly, with sin. Broken law everywhere brings unhappiness, pain, and death.—Now, the sufferings of Jesus could not result from His sin, for He was sinless. What He endured was not in accordance with His deserts. He became the passive recipient of what was laid upon Him.—Much of this we may see: the sin of the people who refused Him, of the leaders who conspired against Him, of the judges who condemned Him. And inasmuch as these represent mankind, inasmuch as there is a corporate unity among all men, inasmuch as the sin of each is itself only an expression and even an outcome of the sin of all the individual specific wrongs against Jesus, and finally, inasmuch as these sins are being repeated by every man—wherever we find refusal of the good, blind and wilful rejection of truth, unfaithfulness to duty and right, ingratitude, craven fear, selfishness and pride—there is a profound meaning, even upon the plane of a merely human interpretation, in the words of the prophet, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.” It was sin, human sin, our sin, which slew Jesus (P. D. 459). II. That the sufferings of Jesus were related to the Divine law. Such an analysis of the sufferings of Christ as we have already indicated may be accepted by the inquirer, but it would suggest the further question, Does not this suffering of the innocent reflect upon the law and power of God? The presence of evil and sin everywhere around us is itself a great and awful mystery; but that the most terrible manifestation of evil should be found in the sufferings of the highest being ever revealed to man—this only adds to the horror of the mystery, and envelops our moral nature, the government of God, and God Himself, in a thicker darkness. Ought such a scene to be possible in a world where goodness is supreme? Either God is careless of the right, or indifferent to suffering, or powerless to prevent either the wrong or the result of it. Such must be the conclusion, if the foregoing analysis be final. But there is an alternative. God may have permitted, nay, even ordained, the sufferings of His Son. In the sacred unity of their nature, the suffering and death of Jesus may be a part of the will and purpose of the Godhead. That it is so, man can never know unless God reveals it. But what if God has revealed it? What if there be a still deeper meaning in the cross and the grave of Jesus, and that thereby God re-enacts His broken law, reveals the exceeding and awful wickedness of sin, and sets up a vindication of law as against wilfulness and sin more splendid than of nature, more powerful than that of conscience, more persuasive than that which thundered from Sinai? What are the facts? Divine law broken by human sin. Divine mercy willing to pardon, but not by a mere remission—a letting off. The sin of man would have been repeated in such a forgiveness by a God as careless of His law as man was disobedient to it. But behold the Son of God cometh. He meets and overcomes it, obeys law completely, perfectly, sets up a life of surpassing beauty and sweetness, nobler than law itself, and yet suffers and dies—at once the fulfiller of law and the victim of sin—in His obedience illustrating the former, and in His death condemning the latter. Now mercy is free. Mercy herself through Jesus Christ is highest justice. Forgiveness by His grace is not the suspension, the destruction of law, but it is the union of law and love—it is love arrayed in garments more awful than those of law, it is law sweetened and beautified by the lineaments of love. Pardon is declared, mercy is extended, forgiveness spoken, and we know not what words can better set forth the blessed truth than the expression of the prophet, “The chastisement making for our peace was upon Him.” III. That the sufferings of Jesus became remedial of human sinfulness. A consideration of our Lord’s death which placed it only in its historic relation, as one of the facts of the sad history of human wretchedness, and in its objective relation to the re-establishment of Divine law and the procuring of a free course for mercy, is wholly insufficient. In the death of Jesus there is a moral significance in respect of human character and life altogther unique. Its influence upon man’s heart and conduct is incalculable—indeed so great that many regard only these sides of it and neglect the Divine aspect altogether, and refer to this as a result and outcome of the former. The elevation of our Lord’s nature, especially as it comes out in the midst of His sufferings, would of itself have been a mighty force for the amelioration of all who contemplated it. All greatness ennobles, and when it is the greatness of the good and the gentle, the heroism of love and the power of self-sacrifice, the soul of man not only admires, but is inspired, emulates the example and joins in a holy fellowship. But Christ’s death was the death of one who loved men, and whose love is revealed to us by that wisdom which alone could fathom it, as being personal and individual. Christ was not a mere philanthropist, but before His infinite intelligence every man stood separate and alone; in His infinite heart every man had a place. Hence His sufferings were sufferings for me, for you; His death was in my place, in yours (P. D. 456). We find that in Him there gathers not only goodness, patience, all the virtues of which man is capable, there exhibited through hostility and even unto death, but there is love—a personal, direct, and individual love—such as would have been equal to all the claim made upon it, to all the burden which it had to bear even if there were only one soul in the world to be redeemed, and that mine or yours. Let this be realised by each man, and see how his spirit will be affected by that love of Christ. What a price for righteousness! What a hindrance to sin! What a discipline, a culture, is here! How life will be inspired, action directed, victory assured for him who lives with the ever-present thought of the love of Christ! This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/phc/ SHEEP Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. Comparisons in Scripture are frequently to be understood with great limitation: perhaps, out of many circumstances, one only is justly applicable to the case. Thus, when our Lord says, “Behold, I come as a thief” (Revelation 16:15)—common sense will fix the resemblance to a single point, that He will come suddenly and unexpectedly. So, when wandering sinners are compared to wandering sheep, we have a striking image of the danger of their state, and their inability to recover themselves. Sheep wandering without a shepherd are exposed, a defenceless and easy prey, to wild beasts and enemies, and liable to perish for want of pasture; for they are not able either to provide for themselves, or to find their way back to the place from whence they strayed. Whatever they suffer, they continue to wander, and if not sought out, will be lost. Thus far the allusion holds. But sheep in such a situation are not the subjects of blame. They would be highly blameable, if we could suppose them rational creatures; if they had been under the eye of a careful and provident shepherd, had been capable of knowing him, had wilfully and obstinately renounced his protection and guidance, and voluntarily chosen to plunge themselves into danger, rather than to remain in it any longer. Thus it is with man. 1. His wandering is rebellious. God made him upright, but he has sought out to himself many inventions (Ecclesiastes 7:29). 2. God has appointed for mankind a safe and pleasant path, by walking in which they shall find rest to their souls; but they say, “We will not walk therein” (Jeremiah 6:16). 3. They were capable of knowing the consequences of going astray, were repeatedly warned of them, were fenced in by wise and good laws, which they presumptuously broke through. 4. When they had wandered from Him, they were again and again invited to return to Him, but they refused. They mocked His messengers, and preferred the misery they had brought upon themselves to the happiness of being under His direction and care. Surely He emphatically deserves the name of the Good Shepherd, who freely laid down His life to restore sheep of this character.—John Newton: Works, p 712. We are like sheep, 1. In our proneness to err. No creature is more prone to wander and lose his way than a sheep without a shepherd. So are we apt to transgress the bounds whereby God has hedged up our way (Jeremiah 14:10). This has been manifest in every period of our life (Psalms 25:7; Psalms 19:12). 2. In our readiness to follow evil example. Sheep run after one another, and one straggler draweth away the whole flock; and so men take and do a great deal of hurt by sad examples. Sheep go by troops, and so do men follow the multitude to do evil; what is common passeth into our practice without observation (Ephesians 2:2-3). 3. In our danger when we have gone astray. Straying sheep, when out of the pasture, are in harm’s way, and exposed to a thousand dangers. Oh, consider what it is for a poor solitary lamb to wander through the mountains, where, it may be, some hungry lion or ravenous wolf looketh for such a prey. Even so is it with straying men: their judgments sleepeth not; it may be in the next hour they will be delivered to destruction (Jeremiah 7:6-7; Romans 3:16). 4. In our inability to return into the right way. Other animals can find their way home again, but a strayed sheep is irrecoverably lost without the shepherd’s diligence and care. “I could wander by myself, but could not return by myself” (Augustine). 5. In our need of a redeemer. .—Has the Good Shepherd brought us back? Then, 1. Let us magnify His self-sacrificing and tender mercy, in following us, and bringing us into the pastures where there is at once safety and true satisfaction. 2. Let us remember for ourselves, and preach to others, that the sheep do not fare the better for going out of the pasture. In departing from God, we turn our back upon our own happiness. The broad and easy ways of sin are pleasing to flesh and blood, but destructive to the soul. Adam thought to find much happiness in forbidden fruit, to mend and better his condition, but was miserably disappointed. The prodigal did not fare well in the far country (Luke 15:14). 3. Let us pray for grace that we may be watchful in the future. Alas, which of us has not sad need to make our own the Psalmist’s confession and prayer (Psalms 119:176)? Though our hearts be set to walk with God in the main, yet there is still in them a proneness to swerve from the right way, either by neglecting our duty to God, or by transgressing against His holy commandment; against this let us be on our guard, that we may not again grieve our Good Shepherd!—Thomas Manton, D.D.: Complete Works, vol. iii. pp. 300–303. We wander, I. Like sheep, without reason—the pasture was rich, the shepherd kind, the food scarce. II. Like sheep, aimlessly. The lion prowls for food, the hart in search of water, the sheep without aim. III. Like sheep, persistently, despising the coming shades of evening, the distant bleatings of the abandoned flock, the loss of fleece and smarting wounds. IV. Like sheep in peril—defenceless, surrounded by dangers and foes. V. Like sheep—sought; the Good Shepherd calls to us, “Return.”—Stems and Twigs, second series, pp. 267. It is acknowledged here by the person speaking, that all had, like sheep, broken the hedge of God’s law, forsaken their good and ever blessed Shepherd, and wandered into paths perilous and pernicious. We are not likened to one of the more noble and intelligent animals, but to a silly sheep. All sin is folly, all sinners are fools. You will observe that the creature selected for comparison is one that cannot live without care and attention. There is no such thing as a wild sheep. The creature’s happiness, its safety, and very existence, all depend upon its being under a nurture and care far above its own. Yet for all that the sheep strays from the shepherd. If there be but one gap in the hedge, the sheep will find it out. If there be but one possibility out of five hundred that by any means the flock shall wander, one of the flock will be quite certain to discover that possibility, and all its companions will avail themselves of it. So is it with man. He is quick of understanding for evil things. But that very creature which is so quickwitted to wander is the least likely of all animals to return. And such is man—wise to do evil, but foolish towards that which is good. With a hundred eyes, like Argus, he searches out opportunities for sinning; but, like Bartimeus, he is stone blind as to repentance and return to God. The sheep goes astray ungratefully. It owes everything to the shepherd, and yet forsakes the hand that feeds it and heals its diseases. The sheep goes astray repeatedly. If restored to-day, it may not stray to-day, if it cannot; but it will to-morrow, if it can. The sheep wanders further and further, from bad to worse. There is no limit to its wandering except its weakness. See ye not your own selves as in a mirror?—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 925. AND IN Isaiah 53:6. We have turned every one to his own way. I. A FACT. We all resemble each other, in that we all like sheep have gone astray; but we all differ from each other, more or less, in the manner of our departure from God. There are many ways of sinning; though there be one path to heaven, there are many roads to hell. Each man chooses his own road and the choices vary for several reasons:— 1. Because each mind is more or less individually active. While in an unrenewed condition, it is active in devising means for its own gratification (Psalms 64:6). 2. Because of the diversity of our constitutions. We see plainly that the body hath some indirect influence on the mind, and that the condition of the mind follows the constitution of the body. Moreover, Satan adapts his temptation according to what he perceives to be our constitutional tendencies (H. E. I. 4680). 3. Because of the variety of our businesses and position in the world. Many men are engaged in ways of sin because they best suit with their employments; it is the sin of their calling, as vainglory in a minister (1 Timothy 3:6). So worldliness suits a man of business, or deceitfulness in his trade. Callings and businesses have their several corruptions, and into these, through the wickedness of their hearts, men slide. 4. Because of the differences in our education. Their education in the home as well as in school! 5. Because of the differences in the company into which we are drawn, and of the examples that are thus set before us. Men learn from those with whom they converse. Hence come national sins, partly, as they run in the blood, but more by way of example. Of the German we learn drunkenness and gluttony; of the French wantonness, &c. Hence also come individual sins. Hence the importance of shunning the society of the evil, and consorting only with the godly (H. E. I. 2123–2148, 4693, 4700). II. USES TO BE MADE OF THIS FACT. 1. Do not be too ready to bless yourselves, merely because the sins of others do not break out upon you; do not flatter yourselves because you do not run into the same sins that others do. The devil may take you in another snare that suiteth more with your temper and condition of life. Some are sensual, some vainglorious, some worldly, &c.; many meet in hell that do not go thither the same way. A man may not be as other men, and yet he may not be as he should be (Luke 18:11). For many reasons men made light of the invitation to the marriage feast (Matthew 22:5), but each excuse ruined. One hath business to keep him from Christ, another pleasures, another the pomps and vanities of the present world, another his superstitious observances; but each of these things obstructs the power of the truth, and the receiving of Christ into the soul. Thou hatest this or that public blemish, but what are thy faults? (John 8:7.) Do not rashly censure others, and descant on their faults; look within! 2. Stop your way of sinning; pluck out thy right eye, cut off thy right hand (Matthew 5:29-30). Your trial lieth there, as Abraham was tried in the call to offer up his Isaac; and David voucheth it as a mark of his sincerity (Psalms 18:23). 3. As we look back upon our past, and humble ourselves before God, let us penitently confess, not only the sinfulness of our nature, which we have in common with all men, but also the personal transgressions by which individually we have grieved Him. 4. As to our future, there are two things we must do. (1.) We must walk circumspectly. We must look carefully at and around our way, and make sure that it is also the way of God (Proverbs 4:26-27; Proverbs 14:12); remembering that while there are many evil paths, there is but one right one. To save us from mistake, four waymarks have been mercifully given us. First, at the entrance of the way which leads to life everlasting there is a strait gate—so strait that we can enter it only by putting off all our sins, and giving ourselves entirely to the Lord. Secondly, it is a narrow way, and sometimes a very rugged way, so that much self-denial is needed to enable us to continue in it. Thirdly, it is a way in which you have little company (Matthew 7:14). Fourthly, it is a way in which, if we look carefully, we can discern Christ’s footsteps (1 Peter 2:21). (2.) We must walk prayerfully, day by day asking God to keep us in His way. It is pleasanter the further it is pursued, and it conducts to a glorious resting place (Proverbs 3:17).—Thomas Manton, D.D.: Works, vol. iii. pp. 304–308. GUILT , MERCY Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray, &c.Our text expresses the sentiment of those, and of those only, who are acquainted with the misery of our fallen state, feel their own concern in it, and approve of the method which God has provided for their deliverance and recovery. It contains— I. A OF GUILT AND . “All we … way.” 1. It is a sufficient proof of our depravity, that we prefer our own ways to the Lord’s; nor can He inflict a heavier judgment upon us in this life, than to give us up entirely to the way of our own hearts. 2. There is only one right way, but a thousand ways of being wrong. If you are not following Christ, you are wandering from God. The profane and the self-righteous, the open sinner and the hypocrite, the lover of pleasure and the lover of gold, the formal Papist and the formal Protestant, though they seem to travel different roads, though they pity or censure each other, will meet at last (unless the grace of God prevent) in the same state of final and hopeless misery. Whatever character you may bear amongst men, if you have not faith and holiness, you certainly are not in the way of life (Mark 16:16; Hebrews 12:14). 3. As wandering sheep are liable to innumerable dangers which they can neither see nor prevent, such is our condition, until, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are stopped, and turned, and brought into the fold of the Good Shepherd. II. AN OF MERCY. Where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded. Man sinned, and Messiah suffered. “The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” On what grounds! On the ground of His voluntary substitution for sinners, as their covenant head and representative (H. E. I. 396).—John Newton: Complete Works, pp. 712, 713. In few words, this text contains the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It consists of lamentation and consolation. I. . It is a lamentation over human sinfulness. “All we … way.” Here is sinfulness— 1. In its nature. It is a departure from God. It is transgression of the law which defines the boundaries within which God’s responsible creatures should keep. If they overleap or break them down, if they trespass into the territories beyond, they become sinners. Man has strayed from God. 2. In its reality. It is no ideal thing. It has passed into history. It is the sternest of living facts. From the fatal hour when the first transgression was committed, the holy God has witnessed the perpetration of sins beyond the power of any intellect other than His own to enumerate or estimate. But He numbers and estimates them with unerring accuracy. 3. In its universality. There are no exceptions. “All.” The whole flock has followed the leader. The manner in which this is to be accounted for may be disputable, may be mysterious. The fact is neither. Scripture, history, observation, experience unite in the testimony that, with the exception of the incarnate Son of God, all have sinned. 4. In its variety. It does not run onwards in a straight line, as the sinfulness which appears in action would if it were merely imitation of example. The various modes of sin show that it results from a radical tendency to sin in the present state of human nature. According to peculiarities of circumstances, taste, temperament, men transgress. Ten thousand paths of sin strike off in as many directions, each possessing its peculiar attraction to different characters and dispositions. A lamentable ingenuity is displayed in the invention of various ways in which God may be sinned against. 5. In its degrees. The universality predicted of it does not imply that every one is equally sinful. Every sheep of the flock has wandered from the fold, some further than others. But let not this be made a refuge from the accusations of conscience. Because some one has committed fewer crimes than his neighbour, he persuades himself that his case calls for no alarm. He imagines that because wickedness is universal, it has overgrown the power of God to punish it; that there is something in the crowd which lessens the wretchedness of the individual; that the sin and misery of others will be greater than his own. He deems it impossible for himself to fall over the precipice, because it is not so near the point of departure as the pit which opens to engulph another who has chosen a different and swifter road to ruin. One transgression constitutes a sinner. Perhaps you underrate your own transgressions and overrate those of others. The degrees of guilt God alone understands. He sees and knows the heart’s wickedness. All, then, have gone astray. All are guilty. All need mercy. This is the lamentation of the text. But it contains also II. . “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It is found in the substitution of the suffering Saviour. This truth may be— 1. Explained. Our iniquities have been laid on Christ the Son of God. No inferior person could bear such a load. The story of Jesus is the story of Him who has placed Himself, although innocent, in the sinner’s position before the law. His death was instead of the death the sinner deserved. 2. Confirmed. Those who by wicked hands crucified Him were the instruments by whom the determinate counsel of God was carried out. The Lord appointed Him. He prepared the way by type, and prophecy, and history. He has accepted the atoning sacrifice. He declared it openly by the resurrection from the dead. He was thus proclaimed in the preaching of apostles (2 Corinthians 5:21). 3. Applied. Is this consolation for you? Are you drinking life from this fountain? Have you, as a penitent sinner, applied for this mercy? Is Jesus your trust? Then your debt is paid. You owe it no longer. What you owe is gratitude and love to Jesus. Dismiss distress and fear. Enter into the liberty which shows itself in loving services.—J. Rawlinson.SIN LAID ON JESUS Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The verse opens with a confession of sin common to all the persons intended in the verse. The confession is also special and particular. It is the mark of genuine repentance that while it naturally associates itself with other penitents, it also feels that it must take up a position of loneliness. “We have turned every one to his own way” is a confession importing that each man had sinned against light peculiar to himself, or sinned with an aggravation which he at least could not perceive in his fellow. It is very unreserved. There is not a single syllable by way of excuse; there is not a word to detract from the force of the confession. It is moreover singularly thoughtful, for thoughtless persons do not use a metaphor so appropriate as the text: “All we like sheep have gone astray”—like a creature cared for, but not capable of grateful attachment to the hand that cares for it; like a creature wise enough to find the gap in the hedge by which to escape, but so silly as to have no propensity or desire to return to the place from which it had perversely wandered; like sheep habitually, constantly, wilfully, foolishly, without power to return, we have gone astray. I wish that all our confessions of sin showed a like thoughtfulness, for to use words of general confession without our soul entering into them may be but a “repentance that needeth to be repented of,” an insult and mockery to high Heaven vented in that very place where there ought to have been the greatest possible tenderness and holy fear. I. Let us consider the text by way of exposition.1. It may be well to give the marginal translation of the text, “Jehovah hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all.” The first thought that demands notice is the meeting of sin. Sin I may compare to the rays of some evil sun. Sin was scattered throughout this world as abundantly as light, and Christ is made to suffer the full effect of the baleful rays which stream from the sun of sin. God as it were holds up a burning glass, and concentrates all the scattered rays in a focus upon Christ. That seems to be the thought of the text, “The Lord hath focused upon Him the iniquity of us all.” That which was scattered abroad everywhere is here brought into terrible concentration; upon the devoted head of our blessed Lord all the sin of His people was made to meet. [1632][1632] Before a great storm when the sky is growing black and the wind is beginning to howl, you have seen the clouds hurrying from almost every point of the compass as though the great day of battle were come, and all the dread artillery of God were hurrying to the field. In the centre of the whirlwind and the storm, when the lightnings threaten to set all heaven on a blaze, and the black clouds fold on fold labour to conceal the light of day, you have a very graphic metaphor of the meeting of all sin upon the person of Christ; the sin of the ages past and the sin of the ages to come, the sins of those of the elect who were in heathendom, and of those who were in Jewry; the sin of the young and of the old, sin original and sin actual, all made to meet, all the black clouds concentrated and brought together into one great tempest, that it might rush in one tremendous tornado upon the person of the great Redeemer and substitute. As when a thousand streamlets dash down the mountain side in the day of rain, and all meet in one deep swollen lake; that lake the Saviour’s heart, those gushing torrents, the sins of us all who are here described as making a full confession of our sins. Or, to take a metaphor not from nature but from commerce, suppose the debts of a great number of persons to be all gathered up, the scattered bonds and bills that are to be honoured or dishonoured on such and such a day, and all these laid upon one person who undertakes the responsibility of meeting every one of them without a single assistant; such was the condition of the Saviour; the Lord made to meet on Him the debts of all His people, so that He became responsible for all the obligations of every one of those whom His Father had given Him, whatsoever their debts might be. Or if these metaphors do not suffice to set forth the meaning, take the text in our own version, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all;” put upon Him, as a burden is laid upon a man’s back, all the burdens of all His people; put upon His head, as the high priest of old laid upon the scape-goat, all the sin of the beloved ones that He might bear them in His own person. The two translations are perfectly consistent; all sins are made to meet, and then having met together and been tied up in one crushing load the whole burden is laid upon Him.—Spurgeon. The expression “laid on Him” is rendered in the margin “hath made to meet on Him,” and allusion is supposed to be made to the scape-goat (Leviticus 16:8-14). This ceremony was typical of the Great Sinbearer; but it is only a part of Christ’s atoning work, the other part being represented by the other goat which was slain in sacrifice. The scape-goat alone is not an adequate representation. Besides, the verb has a stronger meaning than the laying of hands on the head. It conveys the idea of violent collision—to strike, push, urge. “Jehovah hath made to strike or rush upon Him the iniquity of us all.” Our sin was the procuring cause of Christ’s death, and actually brought it about. He was appointed to occupy the place of sinners, and to bear the punishment which they had incurred, and which, but for His enduring it, they must have suffered in their own persons. Other interpreters see a different figure in this clause. The verse, they think, would be disjointed and broken, unless the image introduced at the beginning be regarded as underlying the whole. As man’s transgression is exhibited as a strayed flock, the atonement made for them would naturally be represented as the means employed to bring them back to the fold, or to avert the evils to which they are exposed. Our iniquity is like a band of ravening wolves, but Jehovah appoints His Son to come in between us and our destroyers. This is the very picture which Jesus Himself draws (John 10:11). But we cannot understand the passage in this light, without doing violence to the language of the prophet. Were the figure carried out in the last clause, we should have some such statement as that of Peter (1 Peter 2:25). We, therefore, take the words in their literal sense. The statement, no doubt, is obscure, and could not be fully comprehended until its fulfilment; but, viewed in the light of Gethsemane and Calvary, it has a fulness of meaning and a completeness of realisation. We must remember that the prophet views the death of Christ as just over; all His agonies are vividly before him, and he says, “The Lord hath caused the iniquity of us all to strike upon Him.” The standpoint of the prophet, from which he surveys his subject, is placed between the humiliation and the exaltation of our Lord, when He lay in Joseph’s tomb. From that point he looks back on the sufferings, and forward to the triumphs and glories of the Redeemer.—William Guthrie, M.A.2. Sin was made to meet upon the suffering person of the innocent substitute. I have said “the suffering person,” because the connection of the text requires it (Isaiah 53:5). The Lord Jesus would have been incapable of receiving the sin of all His people as their substitute, had He been Himself a sinner; but He was the spotless Lamb of God, and therefore He was on all accounts capable of standing in the room, place, and stead of sinful men. The doctrine of the text is, that Christ did stand in such a position as to take upon Himself the iniquity of all His people, remaining still Himself innocent; having no personal sin, being incapable of any, but yet taking the sin of others upon Himself. Not only was Christ treated as if He had been guilty, but the very sin itself was, I know not how, laid upon His head (2 Corinthians 5:21). Is it not written, “He shall bear,” not merely the punishment of their sin, nor the imputation of their sin, but “He shall bear their iniquities”? Our sin is laid on Jesus in even a deeper and truer sense than is expressed by the term “imputation.” 3. It has been asked, Was it just that sin should thus be laid upon Christ? Our reply is fourfold. We believe it was rightly so, (1.) Because it was the act of Him who must do right, for “the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (2.) Christ voluntarily took this sin upon Himself (John 10:18; H. E. I. 913). (3.) There was a relationship between our Lord and His people, which is too often forgotten, but which rendered it natural that He should bear the sin of His people. Why does the text speak of our sinning like sheep? I think it is because it would call to our recollection that Christ is our Shepherd. It is not that Christ took upon Himself the sins of strangers. Remember that there always was a union of a most mysterious and intimate kind between those who sinned and the Christ who suffered. The Lord Jesus stood in the relationship of a married husband unto His Church, and it was not, therefore, a strange thing that He should bear her burdens. (4.) This plan of salvation is precisely similar to the method of our ruin. How did we fall? Not by any one of us actually ruining himself. Our own sin is the ground of ultimate punishment, but the ground of our original fall lay in another. If we grant the fall,—and we must grant the fact, however we may dislike the principle,—we cannot think it unjust that God should give us a plan of salvation based upon the same principle of federal headship. 4. Sin lying upon Christ brought upon Him all the consequences connected with it. [1635] God cannot look where there is sin with any pleasure, and though, as far as Jesus is personally concerned, He is the Father’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased, it was not possible that He should enjoy the light of His Father’s presence while He was made sin for us; consequently He went through a horror of great darkness, the root and source of which was the withdrawing of the conscious enjoyment of His Father’s presence. More than that, not only was light withdrawn, but positive sorrow was inflicted. God must punish sin [1638] and though the sin was not Christ’s by His actually doing it, yet it was laid upon Him, and therefore He was made a curse for us. [1635] For a more careful and discriminating statement of this point, see the outline by Dr. Alexander, p. 506. [1638] 1. His attribute of justice, which is as undoubtedly a part of His glory as His attribute of love, required that sin should be punished. 2. As God had been pleased to make a moral universe to be governed by laws, there would be an end of all government if the breaking of law involved no penalty whatever. 3. Inasmuch as there is sin in the world, it is the highest benevolence to do all that can be done to restrain the horrible pest. It would be far from benevolent for our government to throw wide the doors of all the jails, to abolish the office of the judge, to suffer every thief and every offender of every kind to go unpunished; instead of mercy it would be cruelty; it might be mercy to the offending, but it would be intolerable injustice towards the upright and inoffensive. God’s very benevolence demands that the detestable rebellion of sin against. His supreme authority should be put down with a firm hand, that men may not flatter themselves that they can do evil and yet go unpunished. The necessities of moral government require that sin must be punished.—Spurgeon. What were the pangs which Christ endured? I cannot tell you. You have read the story of His crucifixion. That is only the shell, but the inward kernel who shall describe? His griefs are worthy to be described according to the Greek Liturgy as “unknown sufferings.” The height and depth, the length and breadth of what Jesus Christ endured nor heart can guess, nor tongue can tell, nor can imagination frame; God only knows the griefs to which the Son of God was put when the Lord made to meet upon Him the iniquity of us all (H. E. I. 915). To crown all there came death itself. Death is the punishment for sin, and whatever it may mean, whatever over and beyond natural death was intended in the sentence, “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” Christ felt. Death went through and through Him, until “He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.” “He became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross.” II. Now consecrate a few moments to hallowed contemplation. Think, 1. Of the astounding mass of sin that must have been laid on Christ (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2). All the sins against light and knowledge, sins against law and gospel, week-day sins, Sabbath sins, hand sins, lip sins, heart sins, sins against the Father, sins against the Son, sins against the Holy Ghost, sins of all shapes, all laid upon Him! 2. The amazing love of Jesus, which brought Him to do all this (Romans 5:6-8. H. E. I. 920, 946–949). 3. The matchless security which this plan of salvation offers. I do not see in what point that man is vulnerable who can feel and know that Christ has borne his sin. I look at the attributes of God, and though to me, as a sinner, they all seem bristling as with sharp points, thrusting themselves upon me; yet when I know that Jesus died for me, and did literally take my sin, what fear I the attributes of God? (H. E. I. 2286). There is justice, sharp and bright, like a lance; but justice is my friend. If God be just, He cannot punish me for sin for which Jesus has offered satisfaction. As long as there is justice in the heart of Deity, it cannot be that a soul justly claiming Christ as his substitute can himself be punished. As for mercy, love, truth, honour, everything matchless, Godlike, and divine about Deity, I say of all these, “You are my friends; you are all guarantees that since Jesus died for me I cannot die.” How grandly does the apostle put it! (Romans 8:33-34). 4. What, then, are the claims of Jesus Christ upon you and upon me? Did our blessed Lord take your sin, my brethren, and suffer all its terrific consequences for you, so that you are delivered? By His blood and wounds, by His death, and by the love that made Him die, I conjure you treat Him as He should be treated! You will tell me that you have obeyed His precepts. I am glad to hear it. But if you can say this, I am not content; it does not seem to me that with such a leader as Christ mere obedience should be all. Napoleon singularly enough had power to get the hearts of men twisted and twined about him; when he was in his wars there were many of his captains and even of his private soldiers who not only marched with the quick obedience of a soldier wherever they were bidden, but who felt an enthusiasm for him. Have you never heard of him who threw himself in the way of the shot to receive it in his bosom to save the Emperor? No obedience, no law could have required that, of him, but enthusiastic love moved him to it; and it is such enthusiasm that my Master deserves in the very highest degree from us.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 694. Our faith is retrospective as Isaiah’s was anticipatory; faith annihilates the past, and the believer stands in the presence of an actual cross. A stupendous fact is that to which our faith turns. Satan tried to lay iniquity on Christ, and failed. Having met Satan and the powers of evil in struggle after struggle, He yet challenged blame with absolute assurance (John 8:46). Wicked men strove to lay iniquity on Christ. Judas (Matthew 26:4), Pilate (Matthew 22:21). The Church of Jerusalem sought to lay iniquity on Him as guilty of impiety. But he was most devout. He received the sign of the covenant in circumcision, and feast days, &c., were observed by Him with conscientious devotion and carefulness. All these many powers were foiled in attaching sin to the person or character of Jesus Christ. What, then, means the darkness that gathers around the cross? “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” That which sinners failed to do, God in sovereignty that day accomplished, and this sinless Man has become the substitute for the race (2 Corinthians 5:21). I. THE MEETING-PLACE OF ALL SIN IS THE CROSS OF CHRIST. In the margin, our text is rendered, “Hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him.” II. THE MEETING-PLACE OF SIN IS THE MERCY-SEAT FOR ALL SINNERS. 1. How gracious is the assurance! 2. To rest in this assurance is to make sure of our salvation. 3. This should render our worship grateful. .—The imperative claim Christ has upon the soul. If you will not consent that your iniquites shall meet on Christ, bear them you must yourself.—Stephen H. Tyng, jr., D.D.: Study and Homilitic Monthly, new series, vol. iv. pp. 328, 329. CHRIST BEARING OUR SINS Isaiah 53:6. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 1 Peter 2:24. Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree. These texts are not unusual declarations of Scripture, but are of a very numerous class. The doctrine which they set before us is woven into the very texture of Christianity, and furnishes the great resting-place of faith. And, what is especially proper to be observed this day, it is the truth of all others which we are coming to celebrate at the holy table. Yet it has been so altered, and diminished, and shorn of its genuine dignity and proportions, that we often need to reexamine its meaning, and reassert the foundations of our faith. In our own day there is a manifest tendency to explain away its import, and to concede undue force to the objections of opponents. These objections have in many instances been aimed at opinions charged upon us, which we do not hold; at exaggerations, perversions, and even caricatures of the truth: and all the changes have been rung on the terms imputation, satisfaction, and substitution, as if these had been found chargeable with inherent injustice or absurdity. The very first thing, therefore, which we should attempt, is to clear away certain mists which have been conjured up around the Scriptural statement. I. WHAT WE DO NOT MEAN BY CHRIST BEARING OUR SINS. 1. When we assert that Christ bore our sins, we do not mean that He was a sinner. He is, by way of eminence, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” Only as such could He ever have cleared away our guilt. He bore our sins, without bearing their power or their pollution. Of their vileness and lawlessness His soul had no experience. 2. We do not mean that He suffered, pain of conscience. Remorse is the necessary consequence of sin, and part of its punishment. But He who knew no sin, could know no repentance, no contrition, no personal regrets, no anguish of guilty self-accusation. Even in Gethsemane, when His soul was exceeding sorrowful, and on the cross, when He pierced heaven with His imploring cry, He could no more suffer compunction of conscience, than He could speak falsehood, or blaspheme. 3. We do not mean that Christ was at any time personally displeasing to God. He bore the wrath of God, but He bore it representatively. He never was more pleasing to God, He never was more righteous, He never was more acceptable and lovely, He never was more intensely and immeasurably fulfilling the will of God, than when He cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani! If this exclamation has a difficulty, it is a difficulty for the adversaries of substitution: let them explain it. For our part, we hold it to be an awfully mysterious expression of the truth, that at that moment of darkness and earthquake, Jesus Christ was so involved in the consequences of our sin, as to sink under the sense of agony, and to feel the absence of all consoling divine influence. But while angels stooped to look into these things, they might have heard from the invisible throne the words of infinite complacency: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” The all-holy Jehovah cannot hate holiness, and could not hate His only-begotten Son, in the exercise of the sublimest holiness which the universe has known. 4. We do not mean that there was any transfer of personal character. The chief strength of our opposers lies in this fallacy. They charge us with maintaining a transfer of personal attributes, and moral qualities, and easily triumph over the phantom which they have raised. We, as well they, hold such a transfer to be impossible and absurd: and (be it declared for the thousandth time) it is no such thing which we mean by the imputation of sins to Christ. Our sins must ever remain our sins, and the sins of no one else, as a matter of fact, as a historical verity, as a personal transaction. As deeds, and as connected with sinful motives and desires, they attach to our own persons, and are to be repented of, and eternally remembered by us as our own. And, on the other hand, Christ’s acts and sufferings, as matter of fact and history, are and cannot but for ever be, His own acts and sufferings, and those of no other being in the universe. There is no confounding of personality, nor has such a thing ever been maintained by our theologians, though assiduously and pertinaciously charged, during at least two centuries. We hold indeed an intimate and blessed union between the head and the members; we hold that our sins were visited on Him, and that His righteousness enures to our benefit, but we repudiate all such commingling of personality as this imagined tenet would convey. II. WHAT WE DO MEAN WHEN WE ASSERT THAT CHRIST BORE OUR SINS. 1. The Lord Jesus Christ bore our nature. It was the all-essential preliminary to His whole work. To be our Head, “the Word was made flesh.” 2. Christ actually endured pain, It was in this way only that He could bear our sins. 3. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. It is one of those truths which lie on the very surface of the Scripture, and which must be twisted into violent metaphor, before it can be robbed of its meaning. To give but a few instances—Isaiah 53:4-5; Romans 5:6; Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:10; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 4:1. They declare, first, that Christ’s sufferings were for us, and secondly, that they were for our sins. A friend, a father, a husband, a sister, may suffer, and yet not for us; or these beloved ones may suffer for us, and yet not for our sins. But the suffering of Jesus stands out with this striking peculiarity, that it is always represented as being, not only for our sakes, but for our sins. 4. Christ bore our sins, in this sense, that He bore the penalty of our sins. This is the primary, obvious, and necessary meaning of the words. “Christ died for us,” that is, died in our stead. But here the adversary rejoins, that penalty must always attach to the person; that he who has sinned must be punished; and that the suffering of the innocent cannot benefit the guilty. If this were true, it would at once cut off all our hopes, and put an end to all proper atonement. But it is not true. The Church in all ages has held first, that sin for its own sake deserves the wrath and curse of God; and secondly, that to redeem us from the law, God sent His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, who in His own person fulfilled those demands, and endured that curse in our stead. And this is so far from violating any of our natural principles of justice, that it is of all things most suited to relieve and pacify the afflicted conscience. The Scriptures represent the penalty as a debt, which our Surety pays for us (H. E. I. 383). We are familiar with substitution of this kind in civil cases, which would not be true, if such commutation were in itself repugnant to the common sense of justice among mankind. Ancient history has striking instances of similar substitution in criminal and capital cases. And the reason why this is not admitted in such cases, under modern jurisdiction, is not any injustice in the principle. The case, we admit, must be a peculiar one in which such a substitution can take place; and if ever there was a case thus peculiar, in which the innocent might suffer for the guilty, it is surely this. To make such suffering allowable, the innocent person must be one who has lordship and dominion over his own life; which men in common life have not; but which the Son of God had: “I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Again, the innocent surety must assume the place and penalty of his own free will: which was eminently and gloriously true of the Lord Jesus. Again, he must be able to answer all the demands of the law, for those whom he represented. Again, he must be able to restore himself from death: no mere man could do this, and therefore if such a substitution were to take place in a capital instance, the state would lose a good citizen. In the substitution, then, of this willing, glorious, triumphant Surety, there is no injustice, but infinite grace. They object to us that it is incredible that the holy and just God should charge upon Christ the sins of others, and thus make the innocent suffer in the place of the guilty. But let them answer, Is it more credible, or more equitable, that the holy and just God should subject the innocent Redeemer to such sufferings, without any such imputation? Christ suffered and died. This is the admitted fact. Now, did He suffer as a surety for the sinner, taking his place? or did He suffer, without being a surety, as an innocent being, by a mere arbitrary infliction? The difficulty appears to be altogether with the objectors to atonement. [1641][1641] All the ancient sacrifices wrote in letters of blood the word Substitution. For what, after all, is the idea of sacrifice but the innocent dying for the guilty? It was an emblem which the feeblest mind might comprehend. There, on the altar, is a spotless lamb—the emblem of innocence. Here am I, a polluted sinner. I lay my right hand on the unblemished victim, and straightway it becomes in type a sinner. I should have died—but now the victim dies: it dies for me—it dies in my place. It was thus the way was prepared for the Lamb of God, that taketh away thesinof the world. It is not here and there, but everywhere, that the Bible thus represents the method of our salvation (Isaiah 53:5-6; Isaiah 53:10-12; Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21). This doctrine is taught in expressions which cannot be mistaken by an unbiassed mind. And we never find unsophisticated persons troubled with those difficulties which have made this doctrine a stumbling-block to Jews and philosophers. There is something intelligible and lovely in Christ’s coming into our place and dying for us. Especially when a soul is overwhelmed with a sense of sin and dread of eternal wrath, the truth is the only thing which can give life.—Alexander.5. Christ so bore our sins, as to remove from us all their penal consequences, and secure our salvation. By that suffering He exhausted the penalty and discharged the debt. He who believes, in the very moment of believing, becomes one with Christ, and graciously entitled to all that Christ has purchased for His people. The death of Christ is not merely a transaction which makes our pardon possible, contingent, or even probable: it secures it. It breaks all the penal force of the law. Whatever chastisements, even death itself, may henceforth befall the believer, none of them can befall him in the character of punishment. The law is as fully and eternally at peace with a justified sinner, as though he had never sinned. And this is the glad news which first of all brings peace to the soul of a convinced penitent. He beholds the Cross, and sees how God can be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly that believeth in Jesus. .— 1. When we behold Christ bearing our sins, we should learn to look on sin with shame and horror. How intense must that evil be which demands such a sacrifice! 2. When we behold Christ bearing our sins, we should see in Him the object of saving faith. In all the universe of nature and grace—this is the point for the eye of a convinced sinner. 3. When we behold Christ bearing our sins, we have before us the greatest of all motives to personal holiness. When temptation comes in a like tide, cast your eyes to the Cross (H. E. I. 4589, 4590).—J. W. Alexander, D.D.: The Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii. pp. 222–226. DIVINE LOVE IN CHRIST’S PASSION Isaiah 53:6. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil,” said the Lord to His people. And if we could know the thoughts He thinks towards us, we should hardly tell how to admire sufficiently His love for us, or to humble ourselves enough for our baseness towards Him. The love which God hath for us is manifested in our creation, and in His continual care over us ever since we were born. But in a measure far beyond that in all other instances of His love, it is displayed in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ. But, unhappily, after all that is said of the redeeming love of God, with all the proofs of it in the wonderful things done for our salvation, many have little notion of the Divine kindness exercised in this great and glorious work. Were it better understood, more hearts would be melted into sorrowful contrition for sin, and thence brought to faith and holiness, and so prepared for the kingdom of God. Let us consider, then, how awful is the accumulated weight of sin laid upon Jesus—“the iniquities of us all,” of the entire human race! (1 John 2:2). Oh, how can we calculate the weight of this burden? how can we number and measure the sins of the whole world? how can we estimate the punishment due to them which our Saviour endured in our stead? The sins that began with the sins of Eve and Adam, and have been increasing in all times and climes ever since, how appalling their number! When we call to mind that one sin was sufficient, in the judgment of the righteous God, to condemn men to sorrow and death, we wonder not that the contemplation of the burden that awaited our Saviour in atoning for “the iniquities of us all” laid Him prostrate in Gethsemane, caused Him to sweat “as it were great drops of blood,” and to pray that if it were possible that “cup” might pass from Him. No man with his present confined faculties can form an adequate notion of the weight of affliction which Christ endured, when He stood in the place of a world of sinners. All we can say is, that it was something which was equivalent, in the scales of Divine justice, to the eternal punishment due to the sins of all mankind (1 Peter 2:24; Romans 3:26). After all the notions I can form of the sufferings of Jesus, all that I can do as a thinker is to stand with awful astonishment contemplating the cross, overwhelmed with thoughts of the unseen and unknown sufferings of my Redeemer. I. Now, our apprehension of the love of Jesus must run parallel with our apprehension of His sufferings. The more He had to endure, the greater effort of love must have been required to urge Him to undergo it. If a man, seeing another whom he loved condemned to a cruel death, were to go and suffer in his place, we should stand amazed at such a man, and say that he was possessed of an extraordinary measure of charity. How much more, if he were to endure for him the everlasting sufferings of hell! But, how incomprehensibly great would his charity appear, if he could call down upon himself sufferings equivalent to the eternal sufferings of the whole race of mankind! Yet when we contemplate Jesus on the cross, we see one having thus acted. How infinitely great, how stupendous, this makes the love of Christ appear! The manner in which He suffered also manifests His love for us. With all the mighty love with which He was urged through His sufferings, with all the strength of firmness and resolution with which He endured to the end, with all the immeasurable greatness of His passion, and the vast amount of good He was accomplishing, still there was no vain display of His love or of His endurance, no boast of the great things He was effecting. Not a word did He utter of what He was enduring, or what He was purchasing for us. Humble and quiet lowliness and gentle meekness were the dispositions manifested in Him, through all that He did and suffered for us (Isaiah 53:7). Now, it is always true love that is the secret of lowly suffering for others. Who can see lowly sorrow, and humble patience and resignation in bitter affliction, especially when it is endured for the benefit of others, without a feeling of love towards the charitable sufferer? Must not that which we see manifested in Jesus attract us to Him, and excite in our hearts admiring love? (P. D. 2340, 2341). II. In proportion to the sorrow and pain which were laid upon the Son of God, is the measure of the Father’s love in giving Him up to such suffering abasement for us. Here also we see that the Divine love is beyond all bound or measure of ours. If the sufferings and abasements of the Son were infinitely, immeasurably great, the love of the Father, who gave Him up to the pain and humiliation of the cross, must be incomprehensible also. Oh, where is our heart, that we are so little affected with God’s redeeming love; that our return for it is ingratitude and sin? But our very worthlessness magnifies the Divine love. Had it been for unhappy creatures in misery, but not in fault, that God gave His beloved Son, had it been even for those who would one and all prize, highly value, and abound in love for what was done for them, still the love of God in this unspeakable gift would have been immeasurably great; but how incomprehensibly vast does it appear, when we consider how offensive in God’s sight sin has made mankind, how great a portion of mankind never take any notice at all of the Divine love in the great redemption, and how slow the best of us are to see and be grateful for “the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness to us through Christ Jesus!” We feel that it rises above all speech or thought of ours (Romans 5:7-8. H. E. I. 2318–2337. P. D. 1468, 2345).—R. L. Cotton, M.A.: The Way of Salvation, pp. 78–91. OUR SAVIOUR’S AND Isaiah 53:7. He was oppressed, &c.The whole field of Scripture is of infinite value, yet the Christian peculiarly prizes those parts of it wherein Christ, the hidden treasure, the one pearl of great price, is most fully exhibited to the view. This chapter holds a first rank in His esteem, because here, long before our Redeemer’s incarnation, He was evidently set forth crucified. Isaiah here discourses of Him with a pathetic tenderness and minuteness of detail, as if he had been an eyewitness of His sufferings. Had he stood with John at the cross, or watched with Mary at the sepulchre, he could scarcely have presented a more vivid and touching picture of the sufferings of Christ and the glory by which they were followed. The purport of the chapter is, that the Messiah would devote Himself as a voluntary sacrifice, a real and effectual expiation, suffering the heaviest woes and all the bitterness of death, in concurrence with the gracious intention of Jehovah, and for the salvation of rebellious men. I. THE NATURE OF THE ’S The suffering of Christ in Gethsemane was not bodily pain; physically he was in health and vigour, at the prime of life, and in the flower of His age. The torture of the cross was before Him, with all the preliminary accumulation of woe; but I cannot think that the mere apprehension of these will sufficiently account for what He endured. His mind had long been familiar with the death that He was to die, and He knew and had predicted His speedy resurrection to a glorious life. Now, it seems impossible that an event, however painful, which was to be immediately succeeded by “fulness of joy,” could have thrown Him into such mysterious agony of mind. In after times, martyrs—men and women—had to entertain the prospect and undergo the infliction of death in forms as lingering and dreadful as His; and they anticipated and endured with cheerfulness, joy, magnanimity, rapture … Some other cause must certainly be found for Christ’s darkness and distress of mind, distinct from the mere apprehension of the cross. The seat of His suffering was the soul. But it is again and again affirmed that He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners;” that He was “without spot”—had no speck or stain of guilt upon His conscience. He could not therefore be oppressed by any feeling of personal demerit. He had no frailty, no defect; He had never erred in thought, word, or deed; He had no conscious deficiencies to oppress Him, nothing to acknowledge and confess with shame, no necessity to pray for mercy, no iniquity to fill Him with terror at the thought of God: in spite of all this, however, His soul was “troubled”—was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death”—overpowered and beset with bitter anguish. I know of no principle on which this mental suffering of a perfectly innocent and holy being can be rationally accounted for, except that which refers it to the fact of His being a sacrificial and propitiatory victim. “His soul was made an offering for sin,” &c.… Can any account be given on this ground of the causes and nature of His extraordinary mental agony and terror? The Scriptures, I think, seem to refer to three sources of this distress and anguish. There was some mysterious conflict with the great adversary of God and man, from whose tyranny He came to redeem us. When discomfited in the Temptation, the Devil, it is said, “departed from Him for a season,” and in Gethsemane he seems to have returned, for it was then, as Christ Himself expressed it, “the hour of the power of darkness.” … The combined forces of the bottomless pit were brought against Him, and in some way, impossible to be explained, overwhelmed Him with darkness, discomposed His spirit, and alarmed His soul by infamous suggestions. Then it is also said, that “it pleased the Father to bruise Him and to put Him to grief,” that “Jehovah made His soul an offering for sin;” that He called for the sword, and awoke it against the Shepherd, and pierced and smote Him. Here was some mysterious infliction direct from the hand of God, some wonderful withdrawal of His countenance and complacency, or at least of their sensible manifestation; fire descended from heaven to consume the sacrifice. It is also said that our iniquities were “laid upon Him,” and that, in some sense, He bore the curse and penalty of transgression. I need hardly say, that we reject the notion that He literally endured the punishment of sin; this would have been impossible, since that includes actual remorse, and Christ could never feel that He was a sinner, though He was treated as if He were; nor would it have consisted with the nature of the Gospel and the display of mercy, since, the penalty literally exacted, mercy would be impossible, and the sinner might demand his release from justice. Still there was suffering in the mind of Christ, flowing into it from human guilt; His pure mind had such an apprehension of sin, such a view of all its vile and malignant properties; its possible attributes and gigantic magnitude so rose and spread before Him, that He started in amazement from the dreadful object, and trembled, and was terrified exceedingly; sin was “laid upon Him,” and it sank and crushed. Him, and, in some sense, its poison and bitterness entered into His soul. The conclusion to which I am led, I confess, is this, that while I deem it impossible for Jesus to have endured that literal remorse, which is the natural and direct punishment of sin, yet I do think that His agony of mind was the nearest to this which it was possible for Him to experience. He was so affected by the pressure of sin on all sides, that He felt something like the terror, anguish, and agitation of a burdened conscience and a wounded spirit. His mind was in a tempest when His agony was at its height; it wrought upon His frame till His sweat was blood; the arrows of God seemed to have entered into His soul, He had all the appearance of a sinner stricken for his sins. I again repeat, that this could not literally be the case; I can only say that it was the nearest to it that Christ could feel or God inflict; and I see not that there is any more mystery in something of this nature being felt, than in the fact of a perfectly pure and spotless being suffering at all.—T. Binney, LL.D.: Sermons, Second Series, pp. 157–162. As it was no common sufferer who is here pointed out, so they were no common sufferings He endured. “He was oppressed.” Who? “The brightness of the Father’s glory!” We are so constituted as to be more affected by the afflictions of distinguished men than by those of the multitude; our sympathy is awakened when princes endure great reverses and hardships; when sickness clouds the royal brow, and death enters the pavilion of the mighty, whence we are ready to imagine every care is excluded. But here you have the extreme of greatness in conjunction with the extreme of suffering. “HE was oppressed!” The union and combination of various forms of suffering is implied: “despised,” “rejected,” “Man of sorrows,” “acquainted with grief.” Described as bearing griefs, carrying sorrows, stricken and smitten of God, afflicted, wounded, bruised, subjected to chastisement and stripes, and here “oppressed.” It did not suffice that He was shorn as a sheep—stripped and deprived of His riches, ornaments, and comforts; but His life is demanded. “He is brought to the slaughter.” 1. He suffered at the hand of God. “Smitten of God.” Voluntarily standing in the sinner’s place, He must endure the first penalty of sin. In nothing is the righteous displeasure of God against sin more displayed, His determination to visit us to the uttermost more exemplified, than in the sufferings of Christ. He, even He, must be smitten with the sharp sword of sin-avenging justice (Zechariah 13:7). It would seem as though all the former executions of justice had only been inflicted as with a sword asleep, or in the scabbard, compared with what Jesus felt. Against Him it was awakened, unsheathed, and made to descend with unmitigated force and severity. 2. He suffered at the hand of man. It was much that He was to be “a Man of sorrows,” but more that He was “despised and rejected of men.” He who was ready to relieve every burden and break every yoke, was Himself afflicted by those whom He came to redeem. He who would not so much as “break a bruised reed,” was oppressed through the whole course of His life. Contempt, reproach, and persecution were the requitals for His acts of mercy (Matthew 12:22; Matthew 12:24; Matthew 9:2-3; John 5:8-9; John 5:16). Let this console His suffering disciples, that they only follow the footsteps of the Prince of sufferers; they only drink of His cup. Let them examine, and they will find that the very grief that oppresses them oppressed Him. Be consoled by the consciousness of sharing His sympathy, and by the certain prospect of sharing His triumph. The cross, the grave, the stone, the seal, the Roman guard, and the watchful Sanhedrim were in His case all in vain; and He has promised that the rebuke of His people shall be taken away. 3. He suffered from the assaults of hell (Luke 22:53). The temptation in the wilderness, the agony in the garden, and the sufferings of the cross were all connected with Satanic agency. Satan will not fail to trouble even where he despairs to conquer. II. THE SILENT WITH WHICH CHRIST ENDURED . “He is brought as a lamb,” &c. The lamb goes as quietly to the slaughter as to the fold. By this similitude the patience of Christ is exemplified, not that He was absolutely silent, for more than once He replied to the falsehoods and slanders of His enemies; but it refers to His patience, submission, and moral fortitude. From the beginning to the end He was in a perfect calm; as in His external behaviour, so in His internal frame and temper of soul. Not one repining thought against God, not one revengeful thought against man, ruffled His spirit. What were the principles that supported Him? Pity for the world that knew not its Saviour; love for the Church He came to redeem; conformity of sentiment with the mind and will of His Father; devout anticipation of the happy results that should flow from His sufferings; the joy that was set before Him—the joy of saving souls. III. THE PROPER RESULTS IN US OF OUR OF THE AND OF OUR SAVIOUR. 1. Faith in His sacrifice. 2. Imitation of His example. 3. Devout remembrance of His love. 4. Exultant anticipation of His glory. —Samuel Thodey.A Experimental piety does not exempt us from sufferings, but it teaches us how to bear them, especially when we contemplate a suffering Saviour (Hebrews 12:3). Let us take our stand once more by the cross of Christ, and we shall find our grief absorbed in the grief of Jesus, and as we look upon His sufferings, the remembrance of our own will be forgotten. I. Let us meditate upon the nature and extent of His sufferings. They were anticipated, voluntary, vicarious, unparalleled. II. Let us muse upon the salutary lessons which Christ’s sufferings teach. 1. The immeasurableness of His love (John 15:9). 2. The enormity of our sins. 3. The debt of gratitude we owe to Jesus. 4. The spirit we should evince in suffering. Renew your vows of perpetual fealty, and seal them at this sacramental board.—A. Tucker.CHRIST’S SILENCE UNDER (Sermon before the Lord’s Supper.) Isaiah 53:7. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. I. The fact that Christ was silent under His sufferings.1. He was silent before man. He was oppressed and afflicted, mocked and reviled by wicked men, yet He did not justify Himself before man. This is true— (1.) When He was taken prisoner. (2.) In His trial before Caiaphas. (3.) In His trial before Pilate. (4.) Upon the cross. 2. Christ was silent before God. (1.) In the garden; how He was bruised there (Luke 22:44). He might have said, “This is no cup of mine; let them drink it that filled it by their sins.” But no; He only cries that it may pass from Him. Prayer is the cry of one who feels no right to demand. (2.) On the cross. There God hid His face from Him. Yet. did He say it was unjust? No. II. The reasons why Christ was silent under His sufferings1. Because He knew His sufferings were all infinitely just. He was a substitute in the room of sinners. 2. Because He would keep His part of the covenant. Before the world was He entered into covenant with His Father, that He would stand as a substitute for sinners; and therefore when He did come to suffer, His very righteousness sustained and restrained Him. 3. Because of His love. Love to perishing sinners made the Son of God enter into covenant with His Father to bear wrath in their stead. The same love made Him keep the covenant He had made. It was love that tied His tongue, &c. 4. Because He sought His Father’s glory. It is more glorifying to God when sin is punished in His own Son than when it is punished in the poor worms that committed it. III. The broken bread represents the silent sufferings of ChristI set before you the plainest and simplest picture of the silent sufferings of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. In that night in which He was betrayed He took bread. Why bread? 1. Because of its plainness and commonness. He did not take silver, or gold, or jewels, to represent His body, but plain bread, to show you that when He became a surety for sinners, He did not come in His original glory, with His Father’s angels (Hebrews 2:16). 2. He chose bread to show you that He was dumb, and opened not His mouth. When I break the bread it resists not—it complains not—it yields to my hand. So it was with Christ. Some of you believe not. You do not consent to take this silent Lamb as a sin-offering for your soul. Either you do not feel your need of Him, or you have not faith to look to Him. But if you do not truly look to Him, be not so rash, so daring, so inconsistent as to take the bread and wine. You say: It was my sin that lay so heavy on His heart, &c. Come, then, to the broken bread and poured-out wine; feed on them; appropriate Christ in them; and whilst you feed on the emblems of the silent Lamb, do this in remembrance of Jesus.—R. M. M‘Cheyne.I. There never was such a sufferer. II. There never were such sufferings. III. There never was such conduct under suffering.—I. E. Page.THE SHEEP BEFORE THE Isaiah 53:7. As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, &c.I. Consider our Saviour’s patience under the figure of a sheep before her shearers. Our Lord was dumb and opened not his mouth— 1. Against his adversaries. He did not accuse one of them of cruelty or injustice. 2. Against any one of us. No doubt he looked across the ages; for that eye of His was not dim, even when bloodshot on the tree, and He might have looked at your indifference and mine, at our coldness of heart and unfaithfulness, and He might have left on record some such words as these: “I am suffering for those who are utterly unworthy of my regard; their love will be a very poor return for mine,” &c. But there is not a hint of such a feeling, not a trace of it. 3. Against His Father. 4. Against the severity of the punishment of our sins. I see in this complete submission; a complete absorption in His work [1647][1647] He had never been slow of speech when He could bless the sons of men, but He would not say a single word for Himself. “Never man spake like this Han,” and never man wag silent like Him. Was this singular silence the index of His perfect self-sacrifice? Did it show that He would not utter a word to stay the slaughter of His sacred person, which he had dedicated as an offering for us? Had He so entirely surrendered Himself that He would not interfere in His own behalf, even in the minutest degree, but be bound and slain an unstruggling, uncomplaining victim. Was this silence a type of the defencelessness of sin? Nothing can be said in palliation or excuse of human guilt; and, therefore, He who bore its whole weight stood speechless before His judge. Is not patient silence the best reply to a gainsaying world? Calm endurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence. The best apologists for Christianity in the early days were martyrs. The anvil breaks a host of hammers by quietly bearing their blows. Did not the silent Lamb of God furnish us with a grand example of wisdom? Where every word was occasion for new blasphemy, it was the line of duty to afford no fuel for the flame of sin. The ambiguous and the false, the unworthy and the mean, will ere long overthrow and confute themselves, and therefore the true can afford to be quiet, and finds silence to be its wisdom. Evidently our Lord, by His silence, furnished a remarkable fulfilment of prophecy. A long defence of Himself would have been contrary to Isaiah’s prediction. By His quiet He conclusively proved Himself to be the true Lamb of God.—Spurgeon.II. View our own case under the same metaphor. We can go, and do go, as sheep under the shearers’ hands. Just as a sheep is taken by the shearer, and its wool is all cut off, so doth the Lord take His people and shear them, taking away all their earthly comforts at times, and leaving them bare as shorn sheep. I wish when it came to our turn to undergo this shearing operation it could be said of us as of our Lord. I fear that we open our mouths a great deal, and make no end of complaint. 1. A sheep rewards its owner for all his care and trouble by being shorn. There is nothing else that I know of that a sheep can do. Some of God’s people can give to Christ a tribute of gratitude by active service, and they should do so gladly every day of their lives; but many others cannot do much in active service, and about the only reward they can give to their Lord is to give up their fleece by suffering when He calls upon them to suffer; submissively yielding to be shorn of their personal comfort when the time comes for patient endurance (H. E. I. 157, 158). 2. The sheep is itself benefited by the operation of shearing. So when the Lord shears us, we do not like the operation any more than the sheep do; but it is for His glory, and for our benefit, and therefore we are bound most willingly to submit (H. E. I. 204–212). 3. Before sheep are shorn they are always washed. Whenever a trial threatens to overtake you, before it actually arrives you should ask the Lord to sanctify you. If He is going to clip the wool, ask Him to wash it before He takes it off; ask to be cleansed in spirit, soul, and body. 4. After the washing, and the sheep has dried, it actually loses what was its comfort. It is thrown down, and you see the shearers; you wonder at them, and pity the poor sheep. It will happen to you that you shall lose what is your comfort. Will you recollect this? Because the next time you receive a fresh comfort you must say, this is a loan. 5. The shearers, when they are taking the wool off the sheep, take care not to hurt the sheep. They clip as close as they can, but they do not cut the skin. Be ye sure that when the Lord is clipping and shearing us He will not hurt us; He will take our comforts away, but He will not really injure us, or cause a wound to our spirits. If ever the shears do make us bleed, it is because we kick, because we struggle. 6. The shearers always shear at a suitable time. It would be a very wicked, cruel, and unwise thing to begin sheep-shearing in winter time. Whenever the Lord afflicts us He selects the best possible time. 7. When God takes away our mercies He is ready to supply us with more. It is with us as with the sheep, there is new wool coming. Whenever the Lord takes away our earthly comforts with one hand, one, two, three, He restores with the other hand six, twelve, scores, a hundred; He takes away by spoonfuls, and He gives by cartloads; we are crying and whining about the little loss, and yet it is necessary in order that we may be able to receive the great mercy. III. Imitate the example of our blessed Lord when our turn comes to be shorn. Let us be dumb before the shearers—submissive, quiescent, even as He was.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1543. CHRIST (Sacramental Service.) Isaiah 53:8. For the transgression of my people was He stricken. The general doctrine of the text is that of an expiation for sinners, made by an innocent victim substituted in their place. In the substitution of an innocent being to suffer in the room of the guilty (and especially such a being as Jesus Christ), and in pardoning and accepting the guilty into favour on that account, there appears a departure from all our common ideas of justice and propriety, &c. We have no disposition to diminish this singularity. It stands alone. But we certainly shall fail of the just and real essence of the Christian religion in our hearts, if we do not have faith in this expiation; and if our minds cannot compass the whole amazing matter, we may hope at least to have some gleams of illumination, like the lightning’s flash on the dark bosom of the storm. Let us see: I. The wonder of this punishment for sin laid upon an innocent and Divine Being accords with our best conceptions of God. The most just conception of God that we have ever had is that of an incomprehensible Being. The high wonder of this expiation agrees with the infinitude of God. A suffering Christ is an infinite wonder; and, therefore, the wonder of the doctrine of an expiation for sinners by the sufferings of the innocent, instead of being a reason for our incredulity, is really a reason for our faith. The innocence, the person, and the expiation of the Victim, all accord with the incomprehensible God, &c. Be yond us, and peculiar in everything else, He is beyond us and peculiar in the great atonement. II. Our God has different modes of giving intimations of Himself. We cannot learn all that we are able to know of Him in any one spot, or by any one transaction. To lead us on He has employed grades, and built one scaffolding above another. There is matter which came from nothing at His bidding; and in this world we may learn something of His control over matter. We may lift our eyes beyond this world, and as we look out upon the stars, we may add to our knowledge of God’s government over material things. Beyond matter is mind. Beyond mere intelligence there is a kingdom of sensibilities. Still beyond there is a moral kingdom. The world of grace is still higher. Redemption—the salvation of sinners—is not a matter of mere creation, or mere government or recovery from ruin merely; it is a matter of mercy to the sinning and the punishment of sin. This matter evidently lies beyond all others. “Stricken for my people” is just the amazing thing which the rising gradations of the revelations of God demand. III. The mystery, the wonder of this redemption of sinners, by “stripes” laid on Christ, accords with us, as well as it accords with God. We are sinners. See what sin hath done. Some symbols of its mischief are visible. It blasted paradise, &c.! Sin has broken up our relations with God. Our Creator, our final Judge, is against us! The law which sin has broken is God’s law—the law for the immortal spirit—the law for eternity to come! Eternity! The mind staggers under the weight of that idea. To last on for ever, a sinner cut off from God, and no more at peace with myself than with Him; to feel eternally the gnawings of “the worm that dieth not” and the wrath of God! Sooner come annihilation! Now, in the presence of these wants, this sin which has no analogy, which has broken up our peace relations with God, this conscience, these agonies of a fearing spirit, and this dreadful eternity—what shall God do for us? What do we want Him to do? Just what He has done. We want Him to meet our infinite fears with His infinite offers, our worst foes with His ineffable grace; to show us while we stand trembling before His justice, that something has been done which that justice cannot find fault with—something which shall wave the peace-branch over the door into eternity! He has done it. It is His own work, on His own authority, like Him, and just because it has such wonders about it as the innocence and mysterious person of a suffering Christ, our faith can trust it. Where we most fear, God is most wonderful. The excellence and the innocence of the sacrifice as the ground of our peace, shows us that the august redemption perfectly assorts with the ineffable woes and wants of our sinful condition. 4. The uses we ought to make of this subject are not trivial. There are those who have no living faith in this atonement, and who will not come to the memorial of it. Why? Simply because of two things. (1.) They have low and grovelling ideas of God—ideas very much confined to His earthly things and His natural attributes. (2.) They do not justly realise their condition and necessities as sinners. If men have inadequate notions of God, they will have inadequate notions of sin. If they have inadequate notions of sin, they will have inadequate notions of Christ; and then there will be nothing seen in their condition to drive them, and nothing in His character to draw them, to His infinite sacrifice. If they had anything like a just idea of what it is to be a sinner, they would look to the sacrifice of Christ with amazing gladness and gratitude.—Ichabod S. Spencer, D.D.: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 412–431. THE BURIAL OF JESUS Isaiah 53:9. And He made His grave with the wicked, &c.The death and resurrection of Christ are frequently dwelt upon by preachers and writers; but His burial is seldom distinctly alluded to. Yet it is spoken of in Scripture as a most important fact (Acts 13:29; 1 Corinthians 15:4; Ephesians 4:9-10). I. THE BURIAL GRANTED TO JESUS WHO HAD BEEN SO PUT TO DEATH. 1. He was to have been buried with criminals. “They appointed Him His grave with criminals” (Dr. Calkins). Not satisfied with His sufferings and death, they sought to insult Him even in death by wishing to bury His corpse with criminals (Matthew 27:38; John 19:31). They intended to heap the highest possible indignity upon Him, denying him the privilege of an honourable burial (1 Kings 21:19; Isaiah 14:19; Jeremiah 26:23). As a matter of course, since He was put to death with wicked men, He would naturally have been buried with them, unless there had been some special interposition in His case. He was given up to be treated as a criminal; He was made to take the place of a murderer, Barabbas, on the cross; He was subjected to the same indignity and cruelty to which the two malefactors were, and it was evidently designed also that He should be buried in the same manner, and probably in the same grave (John 19:31). Who can but wonder at the striking accuracy of the prediction? 2. He was really buried in a grave that was intended for the corpse of a rich man. “With a rich man after His death.” The purpose which had been cherished in regard to His burial was not accomplished. He was buried by persons of distinction: Joseph and Nicodemus—men of rank—secret disciples now emboldened. How different this from the interment of malefactors! How striking and accurate the fulfilment of prophecy! (Matthew 27:57-60; John 19:39-40). “He who died as a malefactor was buried as a king.” All the more remarkable because during His life He was associated with the poor, and was Himself poor. The humiliation was over, and the exaltation was begun! II. THE REASON WHY JESUS SUCH . It was found in the fact— 1. That He had done no wrong. “Because,” rather, although “He had done no violence”,—had not by harsh and injurious conduct provoked such treatment, or in any way deserved it at their hands. He was perfectly innocent—suffered without having committed any crime. To none did He do wrong. He was charged with perverting the nation and sowing sedition, but the charge was utterly false. He had done no violence, but “went about doing good.” His actions were always prompted by purest benevolence. Evidently with this passage in view, the Apostle Peter says of the Lord Jesus: “Who did no sin,” &c. (1 Peter 2:20). Those who knew Him best spake thus. Well did Peter remember the unsullied purity, the loving gentleness, the high principles of our Lord. As he looked back on that life, it must have seemed like a pure pellucid stream flowing amid charred unsightly rocks. 2. That there was no deceit in His mouth. He was no deceiver, though He was regarded and treated as one. He was perfectly candid and sincere, true and holy. He was in all respects what He professed to be, and He imposed on no one by any false and unfounded claim (Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22). Duplicity, craft, and deceit are the accustomed methods of false teachers. He neither pandered to the rich nor flattered the poor. When in the greatest peril, He adopts no ingenious arguments nor methods for escape. All He said was plain, undisguised, unclouded, bold. He never disguised His abhorrence of falsehood. He did not promise more than He intended to perform. He did not hide from His followers the consequences of their position: “Ye must be hated,” &c. None of His enemies could take up that challenge of His, “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” The judge that tried Him declared, “I find no fault in Him,” and the centurion that executed Him professed that “certainly He was a righteous man.” Thus, by Divine arrangement, Jesus received such honourable treatment immediately after His ignominious death as a vindication of His spotless character. III. LESSONS BY THE BURIAL OF JESUS. 1. The character of Jesus is unique. He stands alone among men. He was spotlessly pure in the midst of universal pollution. Then He must be something more than a mere man. “Truly this is THE SON OF GOD.” How admirably qualified is He to act as our substitute, and to present a sacrifice for our sin! Had He been guilty of a single sin, what could He have done for us? of what merit His obedience? of what value His death? of what efficacy His intercession? 2. The purity of Jesus in word and deed should be sought by us. Here on earth, in flesh and blood, and under the conditions to which men in general are subject, He exhibited a perfect character, and so stands before us as a true, complete, and universal pattern and example. We are commanded to be imitators of Him (Ephesians 5:1; 1 Peter 2:21). Let us follow Him as if we trod exactly behind Him. Let there be the closest imitation. Take heed to your deceitful heart (Psalms 32:2). Guard against deceit of mouth (Psalms 120:3), and deceit in practice, &c. If we suffer, let us be careful that it shall not be on account of our faults. Let us seek grace so to live as not to deserve the reproaches of others, and to be able to bear them with patience if we are called to suffer them. The purity of Jesus can never be congenial to us until our hearts are regenerated. 3. The burial of Jesus should divest the grave of its terror. These bodies of ours must fail and faint and die, and go down to the cold grave to return to their native dust. What then? Shall we who are “risen with Christ,” dread to rest where He Himself lay? Shall we fear to be consigned to the place in which He, who is the “resurrection and the life,” reposed? Shall we doubt that He will bring us forth in triumph from the dominion of the grave; that He will clothe us with a body all beauteous and immortal like His own, &c.? The darkness of the grave is the forerunner of the unparalleled brightness of the resurrection life. “Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” and learn to view without fear your own final resting-place, and rejoice in the assurance that His resurrection is the pledge and earnest of your own.—A. Tucker. Isaiah 53:10. Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. Both Jews and Gentiles knew pretty well what “an offering for sin” meant. The Gentiles had been in the habit of offering sacrifices. The Jews, however, had by far the clearer idea of it. What was meant by a sin-offering?… This was always the idea of a sin-offering—a perfect victim taking the place of the offender. Christ has been made by God an offering for sin. Oh, that we may be able to do in reality what the Jew did in symbol! May we put our hand upon the head of Christ Jesus; as we see Him offered up upon the cross for guilty men, may we know that our sins are transferred to Him! I. SIN AND DEMANDS . Some say that there is no reason in sin itself why it should be punished, but that God punishes offences for the sake of society at large. This is what is called the governmental theory—that it is necessary for the maintenance of good order that an offender should be punished, but that there is nothing in sin itself which absolutely requires a penalty. Now, we assert, and we believe we have God’s warrant for it, that sin intrinsically and in itself demands and deserves the just anger of God, and that that anger should be displayed in the form of a punishment. To establish this, let me appeal to the conscience, not of a man who has, by years of sin, dwindled it down to the very lowest degree, but of an awakened sinner under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Ask this man, who is now really in the possession of his true senses, whether he believes that sin deserves punishment, and his answer will be quick, sharp, and decisive—“Deserve it? Ay, indeed; and the wonder is that I have not suffered it. I feel that if God should smite me now, without hope or offer of mercy, to the lowest hell, I should only have what I justly deserve; and I feel that if I be not punished for my sins, or if there be not some plan found by which my sin can be punished in another, I cannot understand how God can be just at all. How shall He be the Judge of all the earth if He suffer offences to go unpunished?” There has been a dispute whether men have any innate ideas, but surely this idea is in us as early as anything, that virtue deserves reward, and sin deserves punishment. Add to this, that God has absolutely declared His displeasure against sin itself (Jeremiah 44:4; Deuteronomy 25:16, &c). There is nothing more clear in Scripture than the truth that sin is in itself so detestable to God that He must and will put forth His tremendous strength to crush it, and to make the offender feel that it is an evil and a bitter thing to offend against the Most High (H. E. I., 2281, 2282). The other idea, that sin is only to be punished for the sake of the community, involves injustice. If I am to be damned for the sake of other people, I demur to it. If my sin intrinsically deserves the wrath of God, and I am sent to perdition as the result of this fact, I have nothing to say. Conscience binds my tongue. But if I am told that I am only sent there as a part of a scheme of moral government, and that I am sent into torment to impress others with a sense of right, I ask that some one else should have the place of preacher to the people, and that I may be one of those whose felicity it shall be to be preached to, for I see no reason in justice why I should be selected as the victim. Really, when men run away from the simplicities of the Gospel in order to make Jehovah more kind, it is strange how unjust and unkind they make Him. The reverse of this doctrine, that sin demands punishment, may be used to prove it, for it is highly immoral, dangerous, and opens the flood-gates of licentiousness to teach that sin can go unpunished. If sin deserve not to be punished, what is Tophet but injustice on a monstrous scale? Go and preach this in hell, and you will have quenched the fire which is for ever to burn, and the worm of conscience will die. And then come to earth, and go, like Jonah went, though with another message than Jonah carried, through the streets and thoroughfares of the exceeding great city, and proclaim that sin is not to be punished for its own intrinsic desert and baseness. But, if you expect your prophecy to be believed, enlarge the number of your jails, and seek for fresh fields for transportation in the interests of society; for if any doctrine can breed villains, this will. It is written clearly upon the conscience of every one of us, that sin must be punished. Here are you and I brought into this dilemma—we have sinned, and we must be punished for it: it is impossible, absolutely, that sin can be forgiven without a sacrifice: God must be just, if heaven falls. But God, in His infinite wisdom, has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied, and yet mercy be triumphant. Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, took upon Himself the form of man, and offered unto divine justice that which was accepted as an equivalent for the punishment due to all His people. II. THE AND OF A FOR SINNERS IS AN ACT OF GRACE. It is no act of grace for a person to accept a pecuniary debt on my behalf of another person. If I owe a man twenty pounds, it is no matter to him who shall pay the twenty pounds, so long as it is paid. But it is not so in penal matters. If a man be condemned to be imprisoned, there is no law, no justice which can compel the lawgiver to accept a substitute for him. If the sovereign should permit another to suffer in his stead, it must be the sovereign’s own act and deed; he must use his own discretion as to whether he will accept the substitute or not, and if he do so, it is an act of grace. In God’s case, if He had said, in the infinite sovereignty of His absolute will, “I will have no substitute, but each man shall suffer for himself, he who sinneth shall die,” none could have murmured. It was grace, and only grace which led God to say, “I will accept a substitute.” This grace of God is yet further magnified in the providing of such a substitute as Christ—on Christ’s part that He should give up Himself, the prince of life, to die; the king of glory to be despised and rejected of men. Think of the unexampled love which shines in Christ’s gift of Himself. But the Father gives the Son (John 3:16). To give your wealth is something, if you make yourself poor, but to give your child is something more. I implore you, do not look upon the sacrifice of Christ as an act of mere vengeance on the Father’s part. Never imagine that Jesus died to make the Father complacent towards us. Jesus’ death is the effect of overwhelming and infinite love on the Father’s part. Never indulge the atrocious thought that there was justice, and justice only here; but magnify the love and pity of God in that He did devise and accomplish the great plan of salvation by an atoning sacrifice (H. E. I. 390, 2319–2321). III. JESUS IS THE MOST FITTING PERSON TO BE A , AND HIS WORK IS THE MOST FITTING WORK TO BE A . Consider what sort of a mediator was needed. He must be one who had no debt of his own. If Christ had been at all under the law naturally, if it had been His duty to do what it is our duty to do, it is plain He could only have lived for Himself; and if He had any sin of His own, He could only have died for Himself, seeing His obligations to do and to suffer would have been His just due to the righteousness and the vengeance of God. Jesus Christ was perfectly exempt from service, and therefore could volunteer to undertake it for our sake. There was needed, also, one of the same nature with us. Such was Jesus Christ. For this purpose He became man. Made in all points like unto us, being a man, and standing exactly in a man’s place, becoming a real Adam, standing quite in the first Adam’s place, He was a fit person to become a substitute for us. The dignity of His sacred person made Him the most proper substitute. A mere man could at most be a substitute for one other man. Crush him as you will, and make him feel in his life every pang which flesh is heir to, but he can only suffer what one man would have suffered. He could not even then have suffered an equivalent for that eternal misery which the ungodly deserve; and if he were a mere man, he must suffer precisely the same. A difference may be made in the penalty, when there is a difference in the person, but if the person be the same, the penalty must be exactly the same in degree and quality. But the dignity of the Son of God, the dignity of His nature, changes the whole matter; it puts such a singular efficacy into every groan and every pang, that it needs not that His pang should be eternal, or that He should die a second death; it adds a special force to the substitution, and thus one bleeding Saviour can make atonement for millions of sinful men, and the Captain of our salvation can bring multitudes unto glory. One other condition needs to be fulfilled. The person so free from personal service, and so truly in our nature, and yet so exalted in person, should also be accepted and ordained of God. Our text gives this a full solution, in that it says, “He shall make His soul an offering for sin.” Christ did not make Himself a sin-offering without a warrant from the Most High: God made Him so. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” IV. CHRIST’S WORK AND THE EFFECTS OF THAT WORK ARE NOW . Christ has made an atonement so complete that He never need suffer again. The death-knell of the penalty rings in the dying words of the Saviour, “It is finished.” Do you ask for a proof of this? Remember that Christ rose again from the dead. If he had not completed His work of penalty-suffering, He would have been left in the tomb till now. More than that; He has ascended up on high. Think you He would have returned thither with unexpiated sin red upon His garments? Do you suppose He would have ascended to the rest and to the reward of an accomplished work? Complete also in its effects. There is now complete pardon for every soul which believeth in Christ. You need not do anything to make the atonement of Christ sufficient to pardon you. It wants no ekeing out—pardon, full and free, is now presented in the name of Jesus, proclaimed to every creature under heaven.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 561. THE Isaiah 53:10. When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, &c.I. THE SOUL OF THE MESSIAH WAS TO BE MADE AN FOR SIN. The word here used (àùî, asham) signifies either guilty,—or, by a figure, an offering for guilt. We may consider it in both senses. He was not in Himself guilty, but innocent and perfectly so (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 7:26). But our sins were imputed to Him, or “laid upon Him;” that is, they were laid to His charge, and He was made accountable for them (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24); “made a curse” (Galatians 3:13). Hence He was made an offering for guilt. Two things were to be done, that the glory of God might be fully displayed, in the redemption of man. Sin must be pardoned, otherwise the sinner could not be saved. It was necessary also it should be punished; otherwise, its evil could not appear, nor the Divine attributes escape impeachment; the law of God, which had forbidden sin, must be magnified, or the equity of His government asserted. Sin must, therefore, be pardoned in a way that marks and publishes the evil of the offence. The sacrifice of bulls and goats, or of any creature inferior to man, was insufficient for this purpose (Hebrews 10:4). Nor could any man atone for his own sins, or suffer a punishment adequate to their demerit, without suffering eternally, and to the utmost extent of his capacity, much less could one man atone for many, or many for all. It was necessary, therefore, one should suffer, who, although possessed of human nature, yet had a nature superior to man, who could bear unlimited sufferings—sufferings adequate to the demerit of all human offences, in a limited time. This the Messiah did, whose Godhead supported His manhood, and enabled Him to bear, partly in His body, and especially in His soul, an anguish so great as might give not only men, but angels, a proper view of the evil and bitterness of sin, and the purity, justice, and wrath of God, in hating, condemning, and punishing it. No mere bodily sufferings could do this, and, therefore, “His soul” was made “an offering for sin.” (See Matthew 26:36-45. Comp. Mark 14:34-36; Luke 22:41-44). II. BY WHOM IT WAS TO BE MADE AN . By the Father; “when Thou,” &c. (Isaiah 53:6; Isaiah 53:10). It was done by His “determinate counsel” (Acts 2:23). This does not excuse those who became the instruments of His death. It was God who required an offering for sin; His purity, His justice, His truth, the authority of His law, the rights of His government required it. His glory demanded it, as a consideration on account of which He might pardon sin, and save the sinner with honour to Himself (Romans 8:3; Romans 3:25-26). God provided it in mercy and love to mankind (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10; Titus 3:4). He provided even His own Son to be made flesh, to be poor, despised, afflicted, to die in ignominy and torture, for men who were sinners, enemies, rebels! (Romans 5:6-10). III. THE EFFECTS WHICH SHOULD BE . 1. “He shall see His seed,”—a numerous race of sons and daughters begotten by the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles (Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 53:8; Psalms 110:3). 2. “He shall prolong His days.” His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation are here alluded to, whereby He obtained an everlasting life at God’s right hand (Psalms 21:4). The end of it is threefold: (1.) For a recompense of His own labours and sufferings (Philippians 2:9). (2.) For the salvation of His seed, whose Prophet, Priest, and King; whose wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; whose Saviour, Protector, Judge, Rewarder, &c., He thus becomes (Matthew 25:34). (3.) For the judgment, condemnation, and punishment of those that reject Him, and are not His seed (Matthew 25:41; Psalms 110:1; Hebrews 10:13; 1 Corinthians 15:25). 3. “The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” By “the pleasure of the Lord” is intended the progress of truth and goodness, of wisdom, holiness, and happiness in the world, the advancement of God’s glory, and the salvation of mankind, the felicity of the righteous, and the destruction of the wicked. 4. Hence we need not wonder that “He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied.” .— 1. Was it necessary that Christ should be made “an offering for sin?” How great, then, is its evil! How dreadful its effects! It is of so heinous a nature that its guilt could not be expiated, so that it might be pardoned, consistently with the Divine perfections, without the sacrifice of so glorious a person. How great, then, will be the punishment of those in the other world, who, by rejecting or neglecting this sacrifice, are not saved from sin? 2. Are God’s holiness and justice so inviolable, and His law so honourable, and the rights of His government so sacred, that such a sacrifice was required for the manifestation of His glory? Then, what a powerful call and motive have we here for reverence and fear, solemnity and awe! 3. Did God judge it proper that such a price as this should be paid for man’s redemption? Then, how important, how valuable are the souls of men! 4. Has the Father provided such an atonement? And is it actually made? Then, how great, how astonishing, His mercy and love! What a foundation is laid for confidence in Him, and love to Him in return (Romans 8:32; Romans 5:9-10). 5. Has God been thus kind and bountiful? Then what a loud call upon your gratitude! 6. Shall the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hands? Then, if it be your anxiety to know, experience, and do the will of the Lord, you may commit your cause to Him. 7. Are you His seed? If so, rejoice; for He has prolonged His days for your benefit. If not, tremble; for He is your Judges 8. Does He see of the travail of His soul, and is He satisfied? Then, sympathise with Him in His sufferings and His satisfaction. Being conformed to the motives and ends for which He suffered and died on our behalf, let us become instances of the efficacy of His gracious undertaking and objects of His joy, in consequence of it (Titus 2:14).—Joseph Benson: Sermons, vol. i. p. 236–243. I. A OF THE SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO BE . 1. Christ died in the room of sinners. Not as the death of an individual may be the occasion of benefit to others, but by a legal substitution. 2. He died to satisfy Divine justice. Not to satisfy any thirst of vengeance in the Father, but to satisfy His justice, which requires Him to punish sin as sin, and not merely for its consequences. 3. He died to expiate human guilt. Man is guilty or liable to punishment for sin. He has a sense of guilt latent or awakened. The death of Christ is intended to deliver him from his guilt, and to remove the sense of guilt from his conscience. 4. He died to propitiate the Divine favour. Wrath against sin is not incompatible with love. It is infinite abhorrence of sin, and an inflexible determination to punish it. It is displayed in the cross of Christ. The death of Christ averts it from all who believe in Him. II. AN OF THE DIVINE THAT NEEDS TO BE . 1. It is said that God, as a being of infinite love, might forgive sin without atonement. Perhaps He might, if sin were a personal insult or a debt. It is a crime, a violation of law, rebellion against legitimate authority. It must be punished before it can be pardoned. 2. It is said that atonement involves the substitution of the innocent for the guilty, which is cruel and unjust. Admit that Christ was innocent, and His death presents a problem of which the doctrine of the atonement is the only satisfactory solution. It was voluntary. 3. It is said that atonement is inconsistent with grace. All is grace to the sinner. 4. It is said that atonement is subversive of the interests of morality. It has a man-ward as well as a God-ward aspect. It exercises a moral influence. It supplies the strongest motive-power that was ever brought to bear on the formation of character (H. E. I., 396–398). III. A REMEDY FOR THE ILLS OF MEN THAT NEEDS TO BE APPLIED. 1. The atonement unappropriated will not avail any one. It does not operate mechanically or magically. Many will perish although Christ has died. 2. The benefits of the atonement are offered to all. There are no limitations in the offer. “To you, O men, I call.” 3. The benefits of the atonement are conferred on all who believe on Christ. Faith is a condition of human nature rather than of the Gospel. Man is a voluntary being, having the power of choice. He must choose Christ as his Saviour; trust in His ability and His willingness to save; rest on His finished work. He must receive Him, or be undone for ever.—G. Brooks: Outlines, p. 91–93. I. The atonement of Christ was necessary to save the guilty. Denied by some, who say, “God can pardon sin as easily as a father pardons a disobedient child;” and further contend that for God to require an atonement in order to forgive would be an act of unnecessary severity. But God is not only the “Father of mercies;” He is also the moral governor of the universe. He has a public character to sustain, and in His public character He could not consistently pardon sin without an atonement, any more than could a judge on the bench pardon a guilty criminal when the law required that he should be punished. God is a just as well as a merciful Being; and would not, and could not, sacrifice one attribute to the exaltation of another (Romans 5:21). II. The atonement of Christ was not designed to make God merciful, but to open up an honourable way for Him to show mercy. It is a grievous mistake to represent God the Father, all justice, and God the Son, all mercy, and to suppose that by the sacrifice of Christ God the Father was influenced to become merciful. “God is love,” &c. Besides, the great design of saving man originated with God the Father as such. It was from His love and mercy that He gave His Son to die for sinners (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10). Christ’s death did not make Him merciful, but opened up an honourable way for showing mercy (see pp. 92, 93). III. The atonement of Christ was an expedient in the government of God that would answer the same end as the eternal punishment of the transgressor. The law of God requires that the transgressor should die; had we been left to perish like fallen angels, His justice and holiness would have been eternally glorified. But all that Divine justice required is done by the substitution of Christ in the sinner’s place. IV. The atonement of Christ must not be considered as a commercial affair, but as a moral act. It is an error to represent sin literally as a debt: it is a crime. Those texts which speak of it as a debt must not be taken literally but figuratively. If sin were merely a debt it would not be so aggravated in its nature as it really is: a crime against the high authority of heaven. Further, if it were a debt, God could pardon it without a sacrifice, as easily as a creditor can forgive a debtor, if disposed so to do. Christ’s atonement is not a pecuniary payment of debt, but a moral satisfaction to the Lawgiver to atone for a crime (1 Peter 1:18; 1 Peter 1:20; H. E. I. 383). V. The atonement of Christ is an arrangement that protects the character of God, and establishes His government even while pardoning sinners. The character of God must stand unimpeached and unimpeachable, and His government must stand on the unalterable laws of truth and justice. Now, by the sacrifice of Christ sin appears exceedingly sinful, the justice of God stands out in all its awful glory, and the government of Jehovah (or His moral influence over His creatures) appears stronger than if men had never sinned, or if, after sinning, they had been eternally punished. All the perfections of God harmonise even while forgiving believing sinners (Psalms 85:10-11). VI. The atonement of Christ was not designed to save us in our sin, but from it, and all its dreadful consequences. It leads not to licentiousness, as some affirm (Romans 3:8), but the reverse, since it gives stronger motives for obedience. We fear sin, not only because we fear hell, but because we see how awful a thing it is, in the death of Christ. We hate sin, not merely because it ruined us, but because it caused Him so much suffering. We obey God, not merely as creatures, but from love as redeemed sinners (Matthew 1:21; Galatians 6:14). VII. The atonement of Christ was not made for few only, but for many. Such is the aggravation of sin, that it would have been equally necessary for Christ to have suffered as He did, if but one sinner were to be saved. His atonement is equally sufficient for all that believe (1 John 2:1-2). VIII. There is no defect or insufficiency in the atonement of Christ to save any who believe. If we are not saved, it will not be from any want of virtue in the atonement of Christ, but for not believing in Him for salvation (John 3:18; Mark 16:16). Have we received the atonement, or rather, reconciliation through the atonement? (Romans 5:11.)—Studies for the Pulpit, part 1, pp. 467–469. THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST’S DEATH I. It was the good pleasure of God. His eternal, wise, gracious purpose. II. It was an offering for sin. Life for life. To expiate guilt. By Divine appointment. III. It is the source of inexhaustible wonders of grace and glory. A holy seed. A mysterious life. A triumphant work.—J. Lyth, D.D.MESSIAH HIS Isaiah 53:10. He shall see His seed. Observing that Messiah, though He did no sin, suffered even unto death—astonished while they read of an incarnate, obedient, and expiring God, many will ever be ready to inquire, Why, and for what great purpose, was it so? To all such questions, this chapter, nay, this verse, enables us to reply. “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, &c.” A part of the high remuneration is set forth in these few short words—“He shall see His seed.” I. He shall see them all born and brought in. To Him they are children of sure promise (Romans 9:8; Galatians 4:28); He is acquainted with them individually. Messiah’s offspring may differ much at different times, in respect of the measure of its increase. Now, it may be slow; anon, it may be rapid; but at all times, and in all places, the measure of its increase will just accord with His own expectation (Psalms 145:4; Psalms 22:30-31). II. He shall see them all educated and brought up. The practical object is to imbue them with the spirit of children. Great varieties may exist as to their talents, &c.; but in one thing they are all alike (Jeremiah 24:7). Of their education, Messiah Himself has the principal charge (Isaiah 54:13); and the means He employs are worthy of Him, for He instructs them by the truth of His word, by the light of His Spirit, and by the events of His providence. The charge is weighty, but it is His pleasant work. In evidence of this, He invites them to His school, arguing with them from the attractions of His own character, and the blessedness of such as are under His tuition (Matthew 11:28-30; Proverbs 8:32-34). “Experience,” it is said, “is the best schoolmaster;” let us, therefore, listen to one who, being at once proficient in the learning of his time, and a partaker of heavenly wisdom, could compare and contrast the two (Philippians 3:8). III. He shall see them all supported and brought through. God’s rich providence is their inheritance for a present world; His sure promise is their charter for a better; and for all their work and warfare, there is more than enough in the wisdom, grace, and strength that are in Christ Jesus. The history of Messiah’s offspring is full of illustrations of this. IV. He shall see them all perfected and brought home. As Christ Himself was made a perfect Saviour by the sufferings which He underwent, even so His honour requires, and it belongs to His office, that He confer on all His offspring a perfect salvation. With this view He has appointed His Church for the perfecting of the saints, &c. The Bible speaks of a future and fixed period, which it significantly styles the “manifestation of the sons of God,” and the “coming of Christ with all His saints.” Home! delightful word to such as have sojourned in a land of strangers. Home! where? To the house not made with hands—to the prepared city, which is also the city of habitation. With what rapture and triumph will Messiah exclaim in the presence of His great Father, and before an assembled universe—“Behold I, and the children whom God hath given Me!” This is a home of which Messiah shall not be ashamed; it will do Him infinite honour. Nor is this all: arrived at home, their ineffable and inconceivable felicity is to be absolutely without end. .—Our subject shows that Messiah’s glory is inseparably bound up with the happiness of His offspring; that the application is not less certain than the purchase of redemption; it contains a seasonable and powerful antidote against undue depression in the Church (Romans 9:26); it shows, also, that it is our duty and our honour to concur, after our measure, in carrying this scripture into effect.—Robert Muter, D.D.: Weekly Christian Teacher, vol. ii. pp. 713–718. THE HIGH PRIEST Isaiah 53:10. He shall prolong His days. Hebrews 7:15-16; Hebrews 7:25. In these passages we have, first in Hebrew prophecy, and then in Christian teaching, the doctrine of the enduring life of the Christ after His sufferings are over. The Old Testament prophet sees from afar the new life of the Messiah, in a blaze of glory. The New Testament prophet declares the life already begun, and indicates the purposes for which that life is being spent as well as the glory with which it is crowned. I. The Lord Jesus now lives as the Priest upon His throne. Calvary’s night is over. The Christ is not here, He is risen. He has entered “within the veil,” there to appear in the presence of God for us, and is now the “Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” His atoning work was finished on earth once for all,—His administrative work is being carried on in perpetuity—sustaining a like relation to the work accomplished by His death, that God’s upholding of all things does to His first acts of creative power. II. The supreme fitness of Christ for this vast work, is owing to His possessing all the power of an indissoluble life. The word “endless” is inadequate; it merely signifies a life that will not end. But the word in the original signifies a life that cannot end;—one that is and must be perpetuated, by virtue of its own inherent energy and power. With whatever devotion and care the high-priest might bear the concerns of the Israel of God on his heart, and with whatever skill he might administer Israel’s affairs, he must sooner or later resign the office, and give it up to another, when death called him away. But the life that resides in that Christ whom God raised from the dead, is a life infinitely full of spontaneous, self-sustaining energy, not dependent on aught without for its maintenance. There is within it no cause of decay; there is no wasting of energy, however much is spent; no outside power can weaken or obstruct that glorious life. It has in it all Divine perfections to the full—.strength, wisdom, intelligence, fidelity, and love—each and all of these being “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever!” That life which is dependent on none, is the life on which all things depend! Since His life can never be weakened by decay from within, or imperilled by assaults from without—time, which makes other power to crumble, does but give grander scope for the manifestation of His. Kings, thrones, and empires, may rise up, flourish, decline, pass away, and be succeeded by others, and yet the power of Christ’s endless life shall be “ever new, ever young,” “And firm endure, while endless yearsTheir everlasting circles run.”III. Because Christ’s life is indissoluble, His Priesthood cannot change hands. Long as the human race shall need an Advocate with God, Jesus will be that Advocate to interpose on their behalf. He ever liveth with a view to intercession. Can we frame to ourselves an intelligible conception of the method of this Redeemer’s interposition? There seem to be four things involved in it. (1.) Christ appears in the presence of God for us; the seer beholds Him like a Lamb as it had been slain, bearing the marks of Calvary’s work—marks full of their own infinite meaning—how He has borne away the sins of the world. As that offering was well pleasing to God then, so it ever will be; neither its meaning nor its worth can change throughout eternity. (2.) Christ pleads in the presence of God, continuing there for sinners the plea He urged on the Cross; continuing for those who believe on Him His wondrous intercessory prayer! (3.) He acts in the presence of God for us: “I go to prepare a place for you.” The Son of God prepares a place for us, while the Spirit of God is preparing us for the place. (4.) He is governing for us—He is Head over all things to the Church. All things are working together for good to them that love God, because their working is in our Redeemer’s hands. IV. The effect of a priesthood that is unchanging, is a redemption that is unvarying. Because of the Redeemer’s sway in heaven, the work of salvation is advancing on earth. V. This great Redeemer ever living, this great Redemption being unvarying, is the guarantee of the salvation being carried on to the uttermost! Who can set forth all that that glorious phrase means? (1.) This Saviour can reach to the uttermost depth of sin and guilt and misery. His sacrifice, appropriated by faith, can cause the highest pile of guilt to disappear for ever. His power can eradicate the most inveterate and apparently hopeless corruption. The hardest heart can be melted down by Jesus’ love—to the uttermost. (2.) Jesus can reach souls through the uttermost extent of His domain. No human spirit can be too far off for contact with Jesus. (3.) However varied the demands which may be made on the saved one at any moment, Christ can help to the uttermost (H. E. I. 934, 945). Though the longer each believer lives, the greater will be his demands on his Saviour, he cannot overtax Him. This bank can be drawn upon to the uttermost, and yet be rich as ever! (4.) Christ’s salvation can lay hold of every part of our nature. Body, soul, and spirit; all will be sanctified by Him. (5.) Christ’s salvation will reach to the uttermost point of time. (6.) However believers may multiply—let myriads on myriads be added to the roll, for myriads on myriads of ages—the salvation will be large enough and strong enough for all, even to the uttermost! (7.) Believers shall be gathered unto Christ: all presented to Him, a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Then, when they are without fault before the throne of God, they will have proved the truth of salvation to the uttermost! No. I am wrong. They will not have proved it; they will be proving it still, for, when they reach that point which is now the “uttermost” of our conception, that goal of glory will be but a starting point for eternity!—Clement Clemance, D.D.: The Christian Era, vol. i. pp. 39, 40. THE DIVINE PURPOSE (Missionary Discourse.) Isaiah 53:10. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Some have affirmed that this chapter relates to the mission of Jeremiah, and to the hostile treatment he had to encounter in performing it; some that it sets forth the approaching downfall and subsequent exaltation of the Jewish nation; some that it refers entirely to the history of the Messiah. The former two of these interpretations have been suggested only under the influence of mental perversion, and are utterly untenable. The last is confirmed by the best evidence that can be afforded. Philip declared that this prophecy referred to Jesus (Acts 8:35). On several occasions in the New Testament the prophecy is expressly announced as having been fulfilled in Christ. The whole course of the Saviour’s life, and the circumstances associated with His final sufferings and death, correspond so exactly with the description given by the prophet, that had he been a personal witness of that course and of these circumstances, his statements could not have been more accurate or more striking. I. God has formed a purpose of mercy toward mankind. “The pleasure of the Lord” (Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 2:11). His purpose was— 1. Formed before the foundations of the earth were laid. 2. Manifested on earth as soon as the need of mercy existed, in the promise made to our first parents even on the day that they sinned. 3. Unfolded more and more clearly to patriarchs and prophets. 4. Fully disclosed in the Christian economy. II. The fulfilment of this purpose of mercy is committed to the Lord Jesus. The pleasure of the Lord is in His hand. It was He to whom the first promise referred (Genesis 3:15); of whom Abraham was informed (Genesis 26:4); whose coming Jacob anticipated (Genesis 49:10); and of whom Moses and all the prophets wrote and spoke (Deuteronomy 18:18, &c.). The Lord Jesus performs the purpose of mercy— 1. By His atonement for human sin. 2. By the communication of the Holy Spirit, by whose influence men are brought to a cordial reception of the Saviour’s meritorious work, so as to render that work their own. III. Under the administration of the Lord Jesus the purpose of mercy shall be perfectly and triumphantly accomplished. Every Divine purpose is certain to be accomplished (Isaiah 46:9-11; Psalms 33:11). But apart from this general reason, the certainty of the accomplishment of the work which has been entrusted to the Lord Jesus rests, 1. On His own character. It is essentially Divine. His proper Deity imparts to His atoning sacrifice an absolute fulness of merit, and renders failure in His work impossible. 2. On the Divine assurance solemnly pledged to that effect (Isaiah 53:10-11; Philippians 2:9-11; John 12:32; Hebrews 12:12-13). . God has formed a purpose of mercy toward mankind. Hence— 1. Those theologies are false which represent God as a God of vengeance. In the Scriptures He appears in consistency with all His perfections as the God of love. The redemption of our race is His “pleasure.” 2. The perfect unity of the Father with the Son is exemplified in the eutrustment of this work to the Son. He came into the world, and “made His soul an offering for sin,” not to change the Father’s purposes but to fulfil them (see p. 92). 3. If we sympathise with this purpose, which God cherished from all eternity, and in the fulness of time entrusted to Christ for its accomplishment, let us show that we do so by making known to all nations the glad tidings of His grace. If we cannot personally carry to perishing men the good news, let us do our utmost to send it.—James Parsons: Christian World Pulpit, 1:440. ALL THINGS IN CHRIST’S HAND Isaiah 53:10. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. I. WHAT THINGS ARE PUT INTO CHRIST’S HAND? The Father is here, as everywhere else in Scripture, looked on as the originator and disposer of all things. The Son is the medium through whom, and for whom things come to be what they are, and come to be arranged as they are. At least, one reason why all things are put into Christ’s hand is,—the great love of the Father towards Him. Ere Christ made His appearance into this world, there had been a sublime transaction between the Father and the Son, in which vast affairs had been entrusted on the one hand and accepted on the other. For the knowledge of this we are indebted to revelation alone. All things are put into Christ’s hand. 1. Creation is put into Christ’s hand (John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1). Here, Christ, as the Son of the Father, is very clearly marked off from ought that is created, by being distinctly declared to be, Himself, the Creator. The Father, indeed, appoints, and the Son executes, the Father’s appointment. Subordination of office is perfectly consistent with equality of nature (see p. 83). And if we would seize the most adequate view of our Divine Lord which it is possible for us to attain unto, we must let all the Scriptures concerning Him have their right place and power. All creation was formed and is upheld by our Redeemer’s hand! 2. Revelation is also put into His hand. God speaks to us in His Son. When we speak of the work of creation being Christ’s, we speak of that which includes all worlds. But here, when revelation is our theme, we have to do, so far as we know, with only one world. Not, indeed, that there are not hints in the Word of God, that the Son is the revealer of the Father to other worlds than this. On earth, Christ is the clearest and brightest beam of glory that is let down from heaven for us to see! We see in Him, One in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily!” 3. But we must limit our field of thought yet again. It might have been that Jesus had been a revelation of God to this world, quite irrespective of any element of sin. But where sin is, a declaration of what God is, is not enough. If relations of friendship and love are to be established between a holy God and sinful men, it must be in such a way as shall clear the holy throne from all compromise with sin, and as shall make even those who are conscious of guilt feel at home in the blaze of pure and holy love. It was reserved for Christ to institute these gracious relations between us and heaven. Mediation is put into Christ’s hand. He is the way along which the penitent may come and hold converse with the great Supreme! And, owing to sin, His mediation involved not only an incarnation, but expiation. Christ, owing to the two-foldness of His nature, could make an offering which should be effective as towards God, and suitable as towards man. The Father loveth the Son, and hath put expiation into His hand! 4. Creation, revelation, mediation. Two more steps have yet to be taken. A power is needed to ensure that the mediation shall not fail through men refusing to accept it. Such a power is lodged in Christ. He gives the Spirit to convict and to renew. And by His own living energy bestowed through the Holy Ghost, He will regenerate the sinner and perfect the saint. This great work of the conquest and training of hearts is put into His hand!5. The administration of the affairs of the globe on behalf of the Church is put into His hand. He is now a Priest upon His throne. He is the King and Lord of His Church. He builds up that Church by the word of truth and by the Spirit of His grace. He watches over the Church everywhere in this world, presides over the departure of every soul, and governs the “spacious world unseen” with a view to the judgment day. “He died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.” 6. The consummation of all things is put into His hand. He who sent Peter to gather in the first-fruits, will send forth His angels to reap when the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when, for all believers, He shall have conquered death, having raised them up at the last day. Then the redeemed shall be gathered home from all lands, shall be without spot before the throne of God, and presented before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Then shall our Saviour have manifested the wisdom of the Father in putting all things into His hand; He shall everlastingly have proved His infinite capacity for the trust; and then shall Christ and His Church be glorified together. II. WHAT IS THE BEARING OF THIS THEME? 1. We see that Christ’s work in saving us, is but part of a vast, boundless, infinite scheme of glory and of grandeur which it will take ages on ages to develop and reveal! 2. We see a reason why every preacher should follow the example of John the Baptist, and point away from himself to Christ (John 3:26-35). 3. We see the imperativeness of insisting on the Lordship of Christ over men and nations. Governments only lay up sorrow for themselves if they contravene the holy will of Christ. 4. We see why we must point to Jesus only as the exclusive object of a sinner’s trust. 5. We see the security of the redemption of those who are in Christ. 6. We see the certainty of the ruin of those who persist in rebelling against Christ.—Clemant Clemance, D.D.: The Christian Era, vol. ii. p. 41, &c. OUR SAVIOUR , , Isaiah 53:10-11. When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin.… He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. I. The aspect in which that work of the Saviour by which He accomplished the redemption of the world is here represented: “The travail of His soul.” The New Testament teaches that the Saviour’s sufferings were— 1. Sacrificial and expiatory. 2. Voluntary. The first clause of the text should read: “When His soul shall make an offering for sin.” 3. Most intense and awful. [1650][1650] See outlines on this clause, and on the description: “A man of sorrows,” &c. II. The nature of that sublime and heavenly satisfaction described in this passage, as accruing to the Redeemer from witnessing the effect of His work and sufferings in the salvation of men. 1. It is the satisfaction arising from enlarged success of a pleasure always proportionate to the difficulties of the task we have fulfilled, and to the zeal with which it has been prosecuted. 2. It is the satisfaction of most pure and exalted benevolence. No joy can be compared with the peaceful and exquisite delight arising from this principle, when it is effectual in the mitigation of calamity or the removal of necessity or danger [1653][1653] What ecstasy were it to reflect that we had snatched a fellow-creature from the devouring flame or the tempestuous deep; that we had stayed the progress of contagion or pestilence in its march of silence and desolation; that we had unbarred the dungeon of the prisoner, or burst the fetter of the slave! How exalted, then, the joy with which the adorable Redeemer must behold the helpless ruin of mankind exchanged for happiness and safety!—M‘All. 3. It is such as springs from contemplating the greatness, the importance, and the difficulties of the work itself. Salvation is an illustrious and an arduous work. The obstacles that present themselves in the way of its accomplishment are, to all but the power of God, insuperable. 4. It is to be estimated only by the perfection of the Saviour’s knowledge, relative to the whole progress and issue of that event which he so joyously contemplates. 5. It arises principally from the peculiar relation of His character and work to the event itself and to all its consequences [1656][1656] With what holy and elevated transport may the martyrs and confessors, the prophets and apostles, be supposed to look now upon the scene of their labours and the progress of their cause! How may we suppose them now to exult in the remembrance of their self-denying efforts and oppressive privations, their wants and trials and griefs, and, more than all, that terrible moment when they sealed their last testimony, and closed their career in blood! With what unspeakable felicity must those devoted missionaries, lately removed from us, behold, amidst the mansions of blessedness, the first-fruits of their labours—the poor wanderer of Africa or the wretched slave of Demerara—now mingling in the chorus of the redeemed! But who shall describe the interest taken in all that relates to the salvation of His people by their ascended and sympathising Lord? Here all the causes of interest and joy are united in the highest operation. The affection of the Saviour is infinite. The relation He bears to the saved is the closest and most indissoluble; and their rescue and happiness are the results only of His dying agonies and His ever-living intercession.—M‘All. III. The certainty that this satisfaction shall be finally realised. This is certain, because the most unlimited diffusion of Christianity throughout the world is certain. We cherish this confidence— 1. Because of the natural attraction and influence of the great doctrine of the atonement, which forms the very substance of the Gospel [1659][1659] Never, amongst all the diversity of sacrificial institutions in any country or in any age, has there appeared even a distant resemblance to many of the most essential features of this great Christian propitiation. Never has the guilt of sin been represented as forgiven, in consequence of a design mercifully originating in the Deity Himself, and that, too, in opposition to the provocation and obstinate rebellion of the miserable offender. Never has the part to be sustained by the worshipper been declared to be that only of the free and joyous reception of unpurchased favour and the simple reliance of a grateful heart. Never has the victim been represented as provided, not by man, but God, and that victim the object of His own unspeakable and infinite attachment. Never has that victim been represented as offering himself willingly to suffer, not on behalf of his friends, but of his enemies, and for the pardon of the very crime by which he died. The manner in which it addresses itself to the heart is equally peculiar. Other systems effectuate their purpose the most fully when they can alarm and agitate and appal. It is this alone which lulls the breast into sacred tranquillity, and, banishing every fear, ravishes the soul with ceaseless adoration, and allures to the cheerful obedience of gratitude and love, and unites the tears of contrition with the ardour of thankfulness and the exultation of hope.—M‘All.2. Because of the tendency of the Gospel to an unlimited and ceaseless diffusion. This characteristic was exhibited in the age of its first promulgation. It still continues, for in every heart in which the Gospel is truly received it kindles a strong desire to make it known to others. Wherever it is received, it blesses men in temporal as well as in spiritual things. 3. Because of its resistless and triumphant progress in past ages. There remains no new form of opposition or of danger which has not already been successfully encountered; no enemy to combat who has not been already vanquished; no power which has not already been overthrown [1662][1662] No subtlety of philosophical scepticism can be harder to subdue than that which was opposed to the first proclamation of the Gospel by Porphyry, Celsus, and Julian, and the learned of Greece and Asia; nor any political power more terrible than that which was exercised by Nero, Domitian, and Maximus; no barbarism more fierce than that of the Scythians, the Sarmatians, and the Gauls; no ignorance more gross, no darkness of the understanding more intense, than that of the Greenlander and the Esquimaux. But over these the Gospel has already triumphed; and what cause have we then to tremble for the future!—M‘All. 4. Because of the peculiar and encouraging appearances which are now everywhere beheld in the condition and circumstances of the Church. Awaking from her long and inglorious repose, she has thrown aside that lethargy by which she was restrained from asserting her ancient glories. She has heard and is responding to the voice of Him who summons her to extend her conquests, and to inherit the desolate heritages.—R. S. M‘All, LL.D.: Sermons, pp. 422–472. THE TRAVAIL AND OF THE ’S SOUL Isaiah 53:11. He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. Three distinct ideas presented:— I. THE TRAVAIL OF OUR ’S SOUL. The “travail” of the Redeemer signifies the sufferings He underwent. By “the travail of His soul” is meant that peculiar agony of grief by which His soul was affected in the course of His sufferings. The physical sufferings of some of “the noble army of martyrs” equalled, perhaps surpassed, those of their Lord. But the sorrows of His soul forced from Him His bloody sweat, and His cry, “My God,” &c. These sorrows were wisely designated by the ancient fathers of the Church, “the unknown sufferings of the Son of God.” But it is revealed that two of the ingredients in that cup of mental suffering were the burden of the sins of a guilty world, and the furious onslaught of Satan and his emissaries in the utmost violence and plenitude of their power. We must also take into view certain considerations of a peculiar nature which tend to heighten our conceptions of their character and extent:— 1. The soul of the Redeemer was perfect in holiness. In proportion to a man’s purity of heart is the shock and revulsion of soul of which he is conscious, when he is compelled to witness the debasing and desolating effects of sin. Inconceivably painful must have been the travail of our Redeemer’s soul when He was brought into the nearest relation to sin that is possible to a being perfectly pure, when surveying its horrors in the light of His own spotless holiness, when bearing the wrath of His heavenly Father on account of it. 2. The soul of the Redeemer was full of light. Confined to a small spot of the surface of the globe, and capable of interpreting only to a very small degree those revelations of the future which have been vouchsafed to us, our conception of the real extent of the tendencies and effects of sin is very limited. But to the mind of the Redeemer all the awful effects of sin throughout time and eternity lay bare, and the impression thereby produced must have been correspondingly deep and solemn. Moreover, when man suffers, his sufferings come on him by a gradual process, and he is sustained by the hope of deliverance at every stage of his journey. But to our Redeemer all the parts and constituents of His sufferings were by clear anticipation present at one and the same instant. What, then, must have been “the travail of His soul?” 3. The soul of the Redeemer was full of love. A philanthropist feels with tender acuteness for the distresses of his fellowmen. What, then, must have been the travail of the Redeemer’s soul when, in the full flow of His ardent and unlimited benevolence, He surveyed the ruin of man’s moral greatness, and died that He might restore him to his forfeited honour? II. THE RESULTS OF OUR SAVIOUR’S AS SEEN BY HIMSELF. In the preceding part of the chapter, He is represented as suffering the most cruel and ignominious inflictions on account of sin. Here He is represented as beholding the results of His sufferings—in the deliverance of unnumbered millions of sinful men from the condemnation and misery of sin, and their exaltation to blessedness and glory in heaven. Those results began to appear in the entrance of Abel into heaven; and have been seen in every heart, every home, every country in which the work that Christ came into the world to do has been accomplished. What glorious and exquisitely beautiful results! III. THE WHICH THE FEELS IN THE RESULTS OF “THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL.” A debased mind is satisfied with what is mean and degrading; a narrow mind will rest contented with what is little and trifling; but an enlarged and comprehensive mind will be pleased only with what is dignified and noble! What, then, can be that which can satisfy the soul of the Divine Redeemer? It is by us inconceivable. But some things we do see— 1. That the scheme of redemption affords a bright display of the attributes of God. 2. That through the sufferings and death of Christ the great interests of holiness have been most effectually secured. His people are delivered from the dominion as well as the condemnation of sin. On holiness the welfare and happiness of the universe depend. 3. That by His blood countless myriads of the human race have been redeemed. As He contemplates these things, we may say with reverent confidence, His mind, expanded with the noblest and purest benevolence, must become filled with delight and satisfaction indescribable. .— 1. This great theme reminds us of the inestimable value of the human soul. Surely that must be inestimably precious the redemption of which, at such a cost, can satisfy the Son of God (P. D. 3204). 2. If the salvation of a soul gives delight to the mind of God, surely He will not reject any awakened sinner who comes to Him in faith (John 6:37; Revelation 22:17; H. E. I. 928, 929). 3. The subject furnishes the most powerful motives to love and obey the Saviour. By so doing we co-operate in the accomplishment of His great design, and contribute to the satisfaction of His soul. 4. The subject furnishes most ample encouragement in the labours and trials of the Christian ministry. The enterprise in which we are engaged is the opposite of hopeless, for God has promised that by the results of it His Son shall be satisfied, and “He is faithful who hath promised!” Besides, in what can we find greater delight than in doing something to contribute to the satisfaction of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us?—Robert Burns, D.D.: Protestant Preacher, vol iii. pp. 399–408. (Missionary Sermon.) I. A FEW OF THE MEANING OF THE TEXT. 1. Mark the singularity and greatness which our text would seem to teach us to attach to Christ. It implies a distinction between Christ and the Church. He is not a part of it; He does not rank with saved men. He, looking upon them, “shall see of the travail of His soul;” they, looking unto Him, shall behold the source of their spiritual existence. In such a case there must be an essential difference between the parties. To confound them together, as of the same nature, and possessing nothing else on either side, would seem like confounding the potter with the material substance he can fashion as he will, or the Creator of the world with the work of His hands. God is not a part of the creation; nor is Christ a part of the Church. This essential distinction, or at least the supremacy resulting from it, would seem to be indicated by the declaration that “He shall be satisfied;” as if to intimate that were He not, whatever else might be achieved, nothing comparatively would seem to be accomplished. 2. The passage also indicates the peculiar work of Christ, and attaches preeminent importance to that. (1.) This remarkable expression would seem to imply that all the glory of the Church, all the salvation of sinners, the perfection of the faithful, whatever in the consequences of His undertaking connected either with God or man can be regarded as a source of satisfaction to Messiah, is to be attributed to the fact that “His soul was made an offering for sin.” The sufferings of Christ and the salvation of men are connected together as cause and effect. (2.) It suggests also an important truth in relation to the nature of those sufferings. “The travail of His soul” would seem to indicate that the mind of Messiah was more immediately the seat of His atoning agonies [1665] (3.) Of those agonies the passage further depicts the intense and aggravated character—“the travail of His soul.” The pangs of “a woman in travail” is a phrase sanctioned and employed again and again by the Divine Spirit, as an image combining in itself all that can be conceived of the extreme and the terrible in human suffering. And this image, among others, is here employed to depict the mental sensations of the Son of God when “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him,” &c. “Travail” is the peculiar suffering connected with the natural birth of a human being; and as applied to Christ it intimates that in the throes and pangs of His soul, He endured what was necessary to give spiritual existence to the Church. [1665] “The travail of His soul” carries us further than to what was physical; it teaches us to attach inferior importance to the bruising and the piercing of the flesh—to the animal pain (if I may so speak) which the Redeemer endured, and which, whatever was its extent, was probably surpassed in many of the martyrs. “The travail of His soul” would seem to explain that mysterious amazement which overtook and overwhelmed the Lord Jesus previous to His public rejection by the people, before the hand of man had touched Him, when alone with His disciples and in the attitude of prayer. If it be proper to use such an expression with respect to Him, with all reverence I would say that at that moment He seemed destitute or bereft of the high bearing, the calm serenity, the magnanimous heroism, the contempt of danger, pain, death, which have often illustrated the conduct of His followers, even women, under circumstances similar or worse—worse, if the external circumstances were all. Now, this is a fact in the history of Jesus eternally irreconcileable with the idea of His dying merely as a witness for truth, or an example to others; it can be accounted for, with honour to His character, only on the ground of His sustaining as sacrificial victim, and sustaining in His soul, sufferings exclusively and pre-eminently His own—Binney. It was not what Christ was in His moral character, nor what He did as a prophet, “mighty in deed and in word,” that constituted that peculiar work by which He became personally and alone the Saviour of men. 3. The greatness of the results which are to flow from the Redeemer’s sufferings. Implied in the declaration, “He shall be satisfied;” the mind of Messiah shall be filled with joy when He witnesses the effect of His sufferings in the salvation of the redeemed. That the results productive in Him of this feeling must be surpassingly and inconceivably great appears from several considerations. (1.) Messiah is the Creator of the universe (John 1:3). All its vastness and magnificence was needed to satisfy Him as such. How much sublimer must those spiritual results necessarily be with which He is to be “satisfied!” The new creation may reasonably be expected to surpass as far the old and the earthly as the human intellect is superior to dead brute matter, or the love of God’s heart must necessarily excel the power of His hand, or the redemption of the lost exceeds and surpasses the support of the living. (2.) The extent and intensity of His sufferings [1668] For all those sufferings He is to be recompensed (John 16:21), but in an infinitely higher degree. (3.) Consider the period occupied, the care expended, and the anxiety sustained in carrying on the process, the result of which is to satisfy Messiah. In nature, that which is of slow growth is always distinguished by proportionate excellence. Among men, long—continued and arduous labour is expected to be followed by corresponding results, both in the effects produced and in the rewards enjoyed. But the work of redemption abounds over history of all time. Nay, previous to the birth of time, it occupied the thought and councils of the Eternal. In actual operation it stretches from the fall of man to the restitution of all things. The reward will be proportioned to the magnitude and costliness of the work performed. [1668] What the sufferings of Messiah really were in themselves, it is as impossible to say as it is to conceive of their magnitude and their depth. They could not be literally the agonies of the damned; literally the curse due to sin, or the direct results on a spiritual nature of the foul act of personal transgression. And yet if anything there be bearing any resemblance to them at all—which probably there is not—it must be found among the victims of retributive justice. The sufferings of Christ, whatever they were, in fact were those which resulted from the presentation of Himself as a real sacrifice, the sacrifice of a living, sensitive Being in an “offering made by fire unto the Lord.” The fire, indeed, was spiritual, like the thing it touched; and from that very circumstance it was the more terrible, It was not that element that can become the servant of man, and minister to his wrath, and be made to seize upon and “destroy the body, and after that hath nothing more that it can do;” but it was fire which nothing but heaven could furnish, something which God alone could inflict and which a spiritual nature alone could feel. It descended upon the soul of the Redeemer, and (if I may so speak) consumed it, like the fire which descended upon the altar of the prophet, “which consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” Sufferings flowing from a source like this cannot but be felt to have been unparalleled and unspeakable; they necessarily transcend not only the power of language, but the power of thought—Binney.4. Those things with which we may suppose the Saviour will be “satisfied.” (1.) The inconceivable number of the saved [1671] (2.) The equally inconceivable perfection of their character. (3.) The love and adoration of the redeemed. (4.) The effect of the work of redemption on the moral universe, revealing God more fully to it, and helping to keep it loyal to Him. [1671] Messiah, it is said, is to “see His seed,” “justify many,” and “the pleasure of the Lord is to prosper in His hand.” This work could not, I think, be said to “prosper” if the number of the lost should exceed that of the saved; nor if the number of the lost and saved were nearly balanced; nor if the success of Messiah in rescuing from death were to be but little superior to that of His adversary in seducing to destruction. The saved will, I imagine, as to numbers surpass the lost to a degree that shall destroy everything like parallel or proportion between them. They shall be brought from all lands, and from under every dispensation; they shall be “of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues;” they shall be of every class, and colour, and condition; and they shall constitute “a number which no man can number,” equalling or exceeding the sands of the sea, or “the stars of heaven,” or “the grass of the field,” or “the drops of dew from the womb of the morning.”—Binney. II. HOW WE WHO AND BELIEVE THE MEANING OF THE TEXT OUGHT TO BE . 1. We should be moved to humility. The continued prevalence in the world of what grieves and offends Him ought to have disappeared long since, and would have done so, had the Church been faithful to her office and her Lord. In the unfaithfulness of the Church we have had our share. 2. The declaration of our text should stimulate our faith and missionary activity. “He shall see, &c.” Christianity is yet to be acknowledged and professed by universal man (H. E. I. 979, 1166–1169). But this end, however confidently expected, even faith expects not without the employment of appropriate instrumentality. Among the means employed, there must be the sending forth of the Bible and the preacher, the letter of the message and the loving messenger. 3. The subject ought to lead us, individually and personally, seriously to examine whether we are contributing to the Saviour’s “satisfaction” either by what we are, or what we are doing (H. E. I. 4423–4428, 4446–4466).—T. Binney, LL.D.; Sermons, second series, pp. 1–50. Christ’s bodily travail was great. On this part of the Messiah’s sufferings the prophet lays no particular emphasis, because, though most visible, it was not the main part of His atoning sufferings. He emphasizes the inward mental spiritual agony as that in which he chiefly bore our iniquities. Let us reverently note some of those things which we may conceive constituted for our Lord, “the travail of His soul”—first, during his life, and secondly, in connection with His death; though this distinction is not to be pressed, since the sufferings of the life and of the death overlap each other, and constitute together “the travail of His soul.” I. IN LIFE. We must not limit Christ’s atoning mental sufferings to His actual endurance on the cross, or forget what He endured before the last scenes of His ministry on earth. The whole period of His public ministry was a “temptation,” and to Him temptation was suffering, as He met and fought it. 1. He endured “the contradiction of sinners against Himself.” 2. The sight and contact of human sin and misery as they lay passive around Him must have deeply wounded His soul. If Lot could vex his righteous soul in Sodom, what must Christ have endured as He saw all that was debased and repulsive in humanity with His holy eye (see p. 476), as He sighed over human pains and sorrows, and made them in sympathy His own (Matthew 8:17; see p. 484). 3. His foresight of the doom coming on God’s chosen people caused Him pain (Luke 19:41-44). 4. The shadow of the cross projecting itself over His life cast a burden on His spirit as He anticipated the end of His ministry (Mark 8:31, &c.). II. IN WITH DEATH. The travail of soul during life culminated at death, assuming a distinctness and bitterness peculiarly great as that crisis arrived. All the past was intensified and concentrated, and additional elements of pain were experienced. Thus His friends forsook Him and fled. One denied Him. One betrayed Him. Did not this experience, to one who was so sympathetic and social Himself, and who then needed all the human sympathy and society which His friends could give Him, cause sorrow of soul of no ordinary kind? His enemies, too, the people He came to save, trampled His love under foot, insulted, maligned, cast Him out, and crucified Him, inflicting sorer wounds upon His generous heart and loving soul than on His body by their shameful treatment of Him. The lifelong vision and contact of sin came to a head in its most painful and repulsive form, and He would see more vividly and feel more acutely in His own maltreatment the depravity, not only of the nation, but of the race which He had come to save, and of which He was one. The fierce passions that raged against Him, His actual collision with the world’s evil, His suffering of its concentrated hatred of good must have caused Him, the’ only sinless One of the race, unspeakable horror and anguish of soul. But there was also— 1. The human and natural shrinking from death as the dissolution of soul and body; in His case peculiarly painful because of the perfection of His human nature, the consciousness of His own sinlessness, the fulness of His indwelling power of life, the clear insight He had into the dread connection between sin and death, and that His death was by judicial murder. He was not a Stoic. He was not ignorant of what it involved, and had not the feeling that it was natural for Him to submit to the “common lot,” or die a death of refined and wilful cruelty. 2. Satanic temptation. The prince of this world came back to find something in Him, and found nothing. But the search was painful, as the devil did his last and worst, since all temptation is suffering. It was the hour and power of darkness for our Lord when the seed of the serpent bruised the heel of the seed of the woman. The bruising of the heel might indicate only a slight injury in comparison with the wounding of the head, but who can tell what in itself it was to Jesus Christ; how manifold and searching were the assaults of Satan, and how they intensified the bitterness of Christ’s sorrow of soul? 3. His treatment as a sinner. Christ realised sin in the, to Him, most painful form of bearing it and suffering for it. He was “made sin for us”—enduring for us, in some real but mysterious way, the wrath of God due to us for our sins. Every view of His death which ignores this wraps His whole suffering in inexplicable mystery, and provokes men to despair, not only of themselves, but even of God. What pain for the Holy One to be treated, not merely by man, but by God as a sinner, to feel in His soul the anger of God, to be forsaken for a time by His Father! Who can fathom the depth of soul-sorrow in the cry, “My God,” &c., as it came from the heart of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son? LEARN— (1.) The costliness of His redemption. (2.) The evil and shamefulness of sin. (3.) The reality of our Lord’s sympathy for all who are in the world as He was, and follow in His footsteps. (4.) The greatness of the suffering of the impenitent.—The Homiletical Library, vol: ii. pp. 78–82. Throughout the chapter the Messiah appears as a suffering individual. He is represented as bearing the punishment of sin, though not on His own account, but on behalf of others, for whom He appears as a substitute. The expression, “travail of His soul,” is elliptical, and evidently means, that He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. The mighty and benevolent objects He had in view would certainly be accomplished, and would be fully satisfactory to Him. I. SOME OF THOSE OBJECTS WHICH THE MESSIAH SHALL BEHOLD AS THE RESULT OF HIS . 1. Obstructions removed out of the way of the sinner’s salvation. The apostasy and rebellion of man have subjected him to the curse of the divine law. No offer of mercy can be made to him, while that law, by which God rules all worlds, is trampled upon and dishonoured. The substitution of the innocent for the guilty, was the great moral expedient by which God determined to save His apostate creatures, and to preserve unsullied the honour of His government. The object of divine mercy was to save transgressors, but the government of God required that sin should be condemned in the flesh. The obedience of the Son of God has magnified the law, as law. God can now, as a moral governor, exercise mercy without doing violence to His character, or weakening the obligations of His law. 2. His own people saved. Every sinner that has been saved, from the beginning of the world, has been saved by virtue of the death of Christ (Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 10:4). After His humiliation and death, He was to see the fruit of His sufferings (Isaiah 53:10). The death of Christ was to be followed by the rapid and extensive diffusion of the truth. Christianity widely spread in every direction. It took root in every soil—it visited every clime—and gained converts from every rank in society. 3. The moral disorders of our nature rectified. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and to establish an empire of righteousness, truth, and joy in the Holy Ghost. As the doctrines of the cross extend, the Saviour is “purifying to Himself a people zealous of good works.” This process is going on in the world; the latter-day glory will consist in the wide and extended reign of holy principles. The great mass of human society will be pervaded by them. Instead of wrath, hatred, envyings, covetousness, and all unrighteousness, love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, temperance, will become the dominant principles of action. II. THE WITH WHICH THE SAVIOUR WILL BEHOLD THE OF HIS . 1. The completion of any great undertaking is accompanied with pleasure and satisfaction. To see a wise and mighty scheme of action working out the anticipated results, cannot fail to be gratifying to the projector. 2. The consciousness of having accomplished a work of infinite beneficence. One of the purest and highest pleasures we can enjoy on earth is the consciousness of having performed a disinterested act of benevolence. To impart happiness is pleasurable to all virtuous minds, and our enjoyment will be in proportion to the magnitude of the blessing bestowed. Jesus Christ gives eternal life—an infinite good, and His satisfaction will be proportionably large and enduring. In the Saviour’s consciousness of having bestowed an infinite blessing, there is an element of happiness peculiarly His own. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/phc/ THE WORK AND THE REWARD OF CHRIST Isaiah 53:12. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, &c.Both the work and the reward of the Saviour were included in the prophecies concerning Him. I. HIS WORK. 1. Its culminating act. “He hath poured out His soul unto death.” Not His incarnation, poverty, miracles, teaching, obedience. All these necessary. But the grand act was His death. 2. Its humiliating circumstances. “He was numbered with the transgressors.” On the cross as a male-factor with malefactors. 3. Its vicarious character. “And He bore the sin of many.” This conducts our thoughts farther than the outward spectacle, to the reason of it. 4. Its mediatorial power. “He made intercession for the transgressors” (Luke 23:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2). II. HIS REWARD. “Therefore will I divide Him,” &c. The allusion is to the conqueror receiving as his reward a portion of the spoils taken in war. Christ’s triumphal entry into heaven and seat upon the throne. His acquisition of the souls rescued from the power of the enemy. Illustrate by the progress of the Church from small beginnings to the present time. Also its further progress as indicated in prophecy as yet unfulfilled. This includes a multitude which no man can number; and all the intelleot, wealth, holy character, talent, power of usefulness of each. .— 1. These glorious results will be secured by human agency. 2. The work is committed to the Church of Christ, every member of which is responsible for his proper portion of it. 3. The strongest motives to engagement in this enterprise exist. They are the united obligations of love and loyalty.—J. Rawlinson.Be careful not to mistake the pleasure with which you listen to a subject like this for real religion and acceptable devotion. Many weep over Christ’s sufferings who never weep over their sins, &c. The true feeling with which we should contemplate His work. I. Christ as a sufferer. This chapter forms rather a history of His passion, than a prophecy. It appears to be a part of God’s procedure that the most important blessings should arise out of suffering. Christ has consecrated and ennobled the path of suffering. 1. Christ’s sufferings were penal. Ours are salutary. We have many alleviations under them, and have cheerful hopes of benefit by them, but Christ was unsustained by the prospect of any moral benefit to Himself. 2. Christ’s sufferings were vicarious. 3. Christ’s sufferings were chiefly intellectual. Some of the advantages arising from the fact that our Saviour was a sufferer.— (1.) It reconciles us to the endurance of trial. (2.) It secures to us support and sympathy under the pressure of our various trials. (3.) It leads us to anticipate a final conquest over trial. Glory preceded by humiliation, &c. II. Christ as a conqueror (Colossians 2:15; Philippians 2:9). Innumerable multitudes shall enjoy the benefits of His death. He is still conquering. The final triumph is certain. III. Christ as an intercessor.In Christ we have a complete and all-sufficient Saviour.—Samuel. Thodey.LESSONS AT THE CROSS (For Good Friday, or Sacramental Service.) Isaiah 53:12. He hath poured out His soul unto death. Of all wonderful deaths, that of the Son of God is the most wonderful. Let us take our stand at the cross, and gather up some of the lessons taught by His death— I. THE DEPTH OF MAN’S MISERY. He had sunk so low that he could sink no lower, except he sank into hell. He might justly have been left to perish, and must have perished but for the interposition of the Son of God, who assumed the nature that had sinned, &c., and “poured out His soul unto death” on the accursed tree. He alone could rescue man from Satan’s grasp, &c. (Isaiah 49:24-26). II. THE OF SIN. It is evident that to a God of perfect purity sin must be infinitely hateful. Call to mind the destruction of fallen angels, the expulsion from Eden of the parents of our race, &c. The Apostle Paul maintains that sin subjects the sinner to temporal, spiritual, and eternal death, by a law perfectly holy, just, and good, and is consequently set forth in its true colours as “exceeding sinful”—out of measure, beyond all expression or conception sinful (Romans 7:13). But the crowning evidence is seen in the cross of Christ: not so much in the fact that impenitent sinners are damned by it, as that the immaculate Son of God died for it. What must be its enormity when God’s mercy could not consistently pardon it till His own Son had undergone its punishment—a person of infinite purity, dignity, and worth, &c.? Cease to regard sin as a trifle, &c. Put yourself in the line of God’s view of it. A right estimate of sin is a vital point in the process of personal salvation. Repent, and believe on Christ, or you must perish eternally, for “there is no other sacrifice for sin.” If God spared not His own sinless Son, when He bore the sins of the guilty, much less will He spare impenitent sinners when they bear their own sins. III. THE ALL- FOR SIN, AND THE ONLY OF HOPE FOR SINNERS. Christ did not die as a martyr, or as a spotless example of virtue, &c. These were important ends secured by His death, but they were not the direct and supreme purpose of His death, which was, according to the uniform teaching of the sacred word, “for our sins,” &c.—a substitutionary sacrifice, &c. Though God is a being of infinite love, He cannot pardon sin apart from an adequate atonement. All ideas of Divine mercy separate from the great atoning scheme are erroneous, valueless, dangerous. “God was in Christ,” &c. God has always dealt with humanity “in Christ,” whether they have known it or not. The dealings of an absolute God with a sinner—a God out of Christ, what would that be? What is the appropriate retort of offended Omnipotence? Annihilation. The history of mankind is a history of redemption. All the characteristics and conditions of an adequate atonement met in the Christ. That the Father has accepted His atoning work as all-sufficient is evident by His raising Him from the dead, and exalting Him, &c. (Acts 5:31, and others). And, that His death is now available as an atonement for sin, is manifest from the fact, that He is set before us in the Gospel, by the supreme authority of the Father, as the only object of faith and ground of acceptance (Romans 3:25-26; Galatians 2:21, and others). Have you “received the atonement?” If not, you have not found the ground on which you can venture without fear into the presence of the Holy One, &c. IV. THE SUPREME OF DIVINE LOVE. All other manifestations are but faint compared with the love exhibited in our redemption. Either Christ must assume our nature, &c., or the race must perish. Will God’s love to a world of sinners induce Him to give His Son? The everlasting interests of humanity were suspended upon that question (Romans 8:32; John 3:16, and others). He might have formed a more glorious world, &c., but He could not manifest His love in a higher degree than He has done. What more convincing proof can you want that God loves you? Can you continue to grieve such love? Yield to His love’s all-conquering power. Let us, then, often visit the cross to learn the depth of our misery, &c.; the one great theme of all true Christian preaching, and the supreme object of Christian glorying (Galatians 6:14-15; P. D. 595).—A. Tucker.THE FRIEND OF SINNERS Isaiah 53:12. He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. A vague notion is abroad in the world that the benefit of Christ’s passion is intended only for good people. How inconsistent is such a supposition with the whole teaching of Scripture. Consider the plan itself. It was a plan of salvation and of necessity, it was intended to bless sinners. The plan was based in grace, but how “grace,” unless it was meant for persons who deserve nothing? Moreover, think of the work itself. The work of Christ was to bring in a perfect righteousness. For whom? For those who had a righteousness? That were a superfluity. And then look at God’s end in the whole work. It was to glorify Himself; but how could God be glorified by washing spotless souls, and by bringing to everlasting glory by grace those who could have entered heaven by merit? Our text, in its threefold character, shows the intimate connection which exists between Jesus and sinners, for in none of its sentences is there meaning unless there be a sinner, and unless Christ has come into connection with him. It is this one point I want to work out. I. CHRIST IS AMONG SINNERS. In what sense are we to understand this? He was numbered with them— 1. In the census of the Roman Empire. There went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and the espoused wife of Joseph, being great with child, must travel to Bethlehem that Christ may be born there, and that He may be numbered with the transgressing people, who, for their sins, were subject to the Roman yoke. 2. In the scroll of fame. Ask public rumour “What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth?” and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. “This—” they sometimes said; and our translators have inserted the word “fellow,” because in the original there is an ellipsis, the Evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ. Fame, with her lying tongue, said He was a drunken man and a wine-bibber, &c. 3. In the courts of law. The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, “Thou blasphemest;” and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The civil courts also asserted the same. Pilate may wash his hands in water, and say, “I find no fault in Him,” but still, driven by the infernal clamours of an angry people, he is compelled to write, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews;” and he gives Him up to die as a malefactor who has rebelled against the sovereign law of the land. Herod, too, the Jewish tetrarch, confirms the sentence, and so, with two pens at once, Jesus Christ is written down by the civil leaders among transgressors. 4. By the whole Jewish people. Barabbas is put in competition with Christ, and they say, “Not this man, but Barabbas.” His being numbered with transgressors is no fiction. Lo, He bears the transgressor’s scourging! He bears the felon’s cross. All earth holds up its hands for His death; it is carried unanimously. Of all men is He accounted to be the offscouring of all things, and is put to grief. 5. God, the Eternal Judge, shows that He too considers Him to be in the roll of transgressors, for He veils His face till Jesus shrieks in agony so unutterable, that the words cannot express the meaning of the Redeemer’s soul, “My God,” &c.? The only answer from heaven being, “I must forsake transgressors; thou art numbered with them, and therefore I must forsake thee.” He dies without a protest on the part of earth, or heaven, or hell; He that was numbered with the transgressors, having worn the transgressor’s crown of thorns, lies in the trangressor’s grave. Pause here a moment, and think this matter over. It is a strange and wonderful thing, and ought not to be passed by in silence. Why, think you, was Christ numbered with transgressors? (1.) Because He could the better become their advocate. I believe, in legal phraseology, in civil cases, the advocate considers himself to be part and partner with the person for whom he pleads. You hear the counsellor continually using the word “we;” he is considered by the judge to represent the person for whom he is an advocate. Now, Christ, when the sinner is brought to the bar, appears there Himself. What is the accusation? He stands to answer it; He points to His side, His hands, His feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom He represents; He pleads His blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the judge proclaims, “Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for He at their head hath found a ransom.” (2.) That He might plead with them. Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old jails, and there is a person desirous to do them good, imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them, they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, “Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves.” “Well,” they say, “but have you done aught that is wrong?” “I will not answer you that,” saith he; “but if you will just refer to the calendar you will find my name there; I am written down there among you as a criminal.” Oh, how they open their hearts now! They opened their eyes with wonder first, but now they open their hearts, and they say, “Art thou become like one of us? Then we will talk with thee.” And he begins to plead with them. Sinner, dost thou see this? Christ puts Himself as near on a level with thee as He can. He cannot be sinful as thou art, but He so puts His name down in the list that when the roll is called His name is called over with thine. Oh, how near doth He come to thee in thy ruined state! (3.) That sinners may feel their hearts drawn to Him. There is a tendency in awakened sinners to be afraid of Christ; but who will be afraid of a man that is numbered with us? Surely now we may come boldly to Him, and confess our guilt. He that is numbered with us cannot condemn us. (4.) That we might be written in the red roll of the saints. He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and numbered among the guilty; He transfers His name from yonder list to this black indictment, and ours are taken from the indictment, foul and filthy, and written in the roll which is fair and glorious, for there is a transfer made between Christ and His people. All that we have goes to Christ; and all that Christ has comes to us. II. CHRIST BARE THE SINS OF MANY. 1. Here it is as clear as noon-day, that Christ dealt with sinners. Do not say Christ died for those who have done no wrong. That is not the description given. It is clear to every one that chooses to look, that Christ could not bear the sins of those who had no sins, but could only bear the sins of men who were sinful and guilty. Their sins were really, not in a legal fiction, but really transferred from them to Him. You see, a man cannot bear a thing which is not on his back; it is impossible that he can bear it unless it is actually there. The word “bear” implies weight, and weight is the sure indicator of reality. Christ did bear sin in its fulness, vileness, and condemnation upon His own shoulders. Comprehend this, then, and you have the marrow of the subject. 2. Then notice, that as He did bear them, so other texts tell us that He did bear them away (John 1:29). Sin being on His head, the scapegoat took it away. Where? Into the wilderness of forgetfulness. If it be sought for it shall not be found; the Everlasting God seeth it no more, it hath ceased to be, for He hath finished iniquity and made an end of sin; and when there is an end of it what more can be said? 3. There is now no sin abiding upon those for whom Jesus died. “And who are they?” you say. Why all those who trust Him. Are you a sinner? Yes or no. If you say “No,” then I have nothing to say to you; Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you are a sinner, to you is the word of this salvation sent. “But I have been a thief!” I suppose a thief is a sinner? “But I have been a drunkard!” &c. &c. You come in under the list of sinners, and I say that such Christ contemplated, and the two sentences we have already considered prove this to a demonstration. He contemplated such as you are when He came to save, for “He was numbered with transgressors,” and He “bare”—not the virtues, not the merits, not the good works of many, but “the sin of many.” So, if you have any sin, here is Christ the sin-bearer; and if you are a sinner, here is Christ numbered with you. III. JESUS FOR SINNERS. He prays for His saints, but remember that by nature they are transgressors, and nothing more. 1. There is a transgressor here this morning. He has been hearing the Gospel for many years, &c. I hear a voice saying—“Lo, these three years I come seeking fruit,” &c. The woodman feels his axe; it is sharp and keen. “Now,” says he, “I will lay to at this barren tree, and cut it down.” But hark! There is One that maketh intercession for transgressors, hear Him, “Spare it yet a little while, till I dig about it and dung it,” &c. Bless God that Christ pleads for you in that way. 2. But that done, He pleads for their forgiveness. “Father, forgive them,” &c. It is this that breaks a man’s heart; to think that Christ should have been loving me, with the whole force of His soul, while I was despising Him, and would have nothing to do with Him. 3. He next prays that those for whom He intercedes may be saved, and may have a new life given them. Every soul that is quickened by the Holy Spirit is so quickened as the result of His intercession for transgressors. His prayer brings down the life, and dead sinners live. When they live He does not cease to pray for them, for by His intercession they are preserved. And more, our coming to glory is the result of the pleading of Christ for transgressors (John 17:24).—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 458. THE OF THE CHURCH (Missionary Sermon) Isaiah 54:1-3. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c.Vast accessions to the Church are here predicted. Consider— I. The comparative sterility of the Jewish Church.The union between God and His people is often compared to that between husband and wife (ch. 5; Isaiah 62:5; Revelation 21:2-9; Revelation 22:17). The Church is here represented without inherent strength, apparently forsaken by God her head and husband, and therefore destitute of spiritual children (Galatians 4:22). Comparatively few real believers—children of God and the Church—had been raised up within the narrow limits of the nation. And when the Messiah came, formalism, scepticism, and open impiety had become almost universal, which caused the small remnant of the faithful to mourn for Zion. But better times would be introduced by the advent of Christ, and the accomplishment of His redemptive work. St. Paul contrasts the universal Church of the New Testament, with the Church of the Old Testament legal dispensation, quoting this very passage (Galatians 4:27; Ephesians 3:5-8). II. The surprising increase of the Christian Church.1. Increase surpassing all experience, hope, faith. The Jews, with comparatively few exceptions, “despised and rejected” the Saviour, and were cast off, but numerous children were born into the Church. The Gentile converts were adopted into her family, and those nations which had been wholly destitute of Church privileges—“strangers to the covenants of promise”—produced a far larger increase of true believers than the nation of Israel, which had been married to the Lord by their national covenant and distinguished advantages. Pentecost and the Acts of the Apostles—the first missionary record of the Church. How wonderful are these records of evangelistic triumph. Modern Christian missions not a failure, as some have the audacity to say. Their success far exceeds the most sanguine expectations of their founders. There are more conversions in heathen countries in the present day, in proportion to the number of preachers, than there are at home. “What hath God wrought!” 2. The full accomplishment of this prediction is yet future. The Church is as yet upon the threshold of missionary triumphs, and with but few exceptions is still doing preliminary work. All that has been done is only like a few stepping-stones towards the citadel that remains to be taken. But the accomplishment of the prediction is certain, because it is the revealed purpose of God. All difficulties shall be surmounted (Galatians 3:29, and others). The Gospel shall spread with surprising rapidity—“shall break forth,” as the breaking forth of waters, “on the right and on the left”—on every side, and into every land, until the now destitute world is replenished with the adopted and rejoicing children of God (Isaiah 54:3; Isaiah 49:19-20). 3. With such a prospect, necessary preparations must be made (Isaiah 54:2; Isaiah 49:19-20, &c.). The boundaries of the Church must be greatly enlarged to accommodate the vast accessions, nor need she fear making too large preparations (Isaiah 54:3; Zechariah 8:20-23; Malachi 1:9-11) [1683][1683] This text has an interesting history as the subject of Carey’s memorable sermon, the preaching of which, at Nottingham, in June 1792, may be affirmed, without extravagance, to have marked an epoch in the history of modern missions. After observing that the Church was, in these words, compared to some poor, desolate widow who lived alone in a small tent, that she who thus lived in a manner forlorn and childless, was told to expect such an increase in her family as would require a much larger dwelling, and this because her Maker was her husband whose name was not only the Lord of Hosts and the Holy one of Israel, but the God of the whole earth, he proceeded to bring out the spirit of the passage in two memorable exhortations—1. Expect great things from God. 2. Attempt great things for God. In private conference with his brethren immediately afterwards, Carey formally laid himself on the missionary altar, saying to Pearce and Fuller in those immortal words, ‘I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes;’ and so was formed the Baptist Missionary Society, and a mightier impulse given to missionary zeal all over the world.—W. Guthrie, M.A.III. The exultant joy at the astonishing increase. Common to Isaiah to interpose a song of praise on the announcement of any great and glorious truth (Isaiah 12:5-6; Isaiah 42:10-11; Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 49:13). The Church is here called on to break out into loud and glad exclamations at the remarkable accession. 1. The joy of individual believers. Nothing so adapted to gladden the heart as the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom. For every subject of saving grace is not only blessed in himself, but he is made a blessing to others, and thus God’s glory and the world’s happiness are promoted. 2. The joy of the family. Nothing conduces so much to make our homes and households glad as the salvation of the family circle. It heals their strifes, soothes their sorrows, &c. 3. The joy of the collective Church. Nothing so adapted to make a people happy (Acts 8:8; Acts 15:3). The object of Christ’s mission, and the Church’s labours and prayers, are realised, &c. .— 1. The gradual development of God’s purposes may well rebuke our impatience as to missionary success. We are most imperfect judges of what constitutes success. 2. Our own position and duty. Be incited to activity in the Redeemer’s cause—seek in order to save the lost, &c. Let your gifts cease to be patronage, and become sacrifice, &c. 3. Are you children of God, born from above, &c? Accept Christ as your Saviour, and yield yourselves to His blessed service, &c. (Psalms 77:1-2).—A. Tucker.THE POWER OF (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 54:2-3. Enlarge the place of thy tent, &c.It is pre-eminently by aggressive movements that the Church is to prosper—to maintain her spiritual life and cause religion to flourish at home, and extend its triumphs abroad. The truth of this doctrine is suggested by— I. THE FIRST OF THE , THE SPIRIT OF LOVE IN EVERY ’S BOSOM. This is strikingly exhibited in young converts. It is illustrated with great beauty in the conduct of Christ’s earliest disciples. True religion is the spirit of Christ. Its language is, “something must be done,” &c. It conceives plans, it demands efforts, for the world’s conversion. Every real Christian that lives in the spirit of religion may consult his own consciousness on this subject. In his most favoured hours and nearest approaches to God, he will find his impulses to religious effort strongest. II. THE FACT THAT TRUTH IS THE GRAND WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO THE KINGDOM OF SATAN, AND ADVANCE AND THE KINGDOM OF HIS SON. The Word of God must not only be translated into all the languages of the earth, but it must be carried to every man’s door; nay, its great truths must be pressed home upon every man’s conscience. What a mighty work here opens for Christians of every name! III. THE VERY OF A FALLEN WORLD TOWARD GOD. It is one of hostility to His character and opposition to His truth (John 3:19-20). The world will not come to the Church and crave instruction at her lips. As her Saviour sought her, so He requires her to seek sinners. She must make external and aggressive movements—must not study so much her own comfort as her enlargement. And this general rule of duty for the Church as a body applies to each member of the Church individually. So Christ teaches. IV. THE WHOLE CURRENT OF PRECEPT AND . The Bible never instructs the Church that she is to conquer the world by her passive virtues, nor by any means which aim chiefly at conservation rather than aggression (Matthew 28:18-19, and others). V. THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE GOSPEL. When has any signal advance been made in the work of human salvation, except by a movement similar to that described in the text? Christ’s great redeeming enterprise—what was it but one of aggression? His was a missionary career: “He went about doing good.” The Mosaic institution was peculiar. It was conservative rather than aggressive. Still, it was true then as now, that religion made no decided progress, even in Israel, except as the servants of the Lord made specific movements for this purpose. If this aspect of things strikes us in the Old Testament dispensation, how much more in that of the New? Mark how faithfully the first preachers of the Gospel carried out their Divine commission. Turn to a still later page in the history of the Church. How was it at the Reformation? When Whitfield and Wesley appeared? Just in proportion as any Church, in the spirit of Christ, attempts spiritual aggression, in the same proportion its interests are smiled upon and prospered. REMARKS:— 1. We see why the Church is organised. Pre-eminently, with a view to united and powerful external action. 2. The grand object of all preaching. The conversion of sinners. 3. This subject throws light upon the providences of God towards the Church. Now, as in former days, He allows heresies, persecutions, schisms, and various forms of affliction, from time to time, to invade the Church, thereby quickening our love for Christ and for souls.—J. H. Linsley, D.D.: The Preacher’s Treasury, part iii., p. 55, &c. CHEER FOR THE CHURCH Isaiah 54:4-5. Fear not … for thy Maker is thine husband, &c.I. THE TO BE DERIVED FROM THE POWER AND GRACE OF THE GREAT HEAD OF THE CHURCH. Here is the happy union of opposite attributes—the union of Majesty and Mercy, of the utmost grandeur and the utmost tenderness, &c. Here are certain relations specified, “thy Maker,” &c., and the infinite resources specified by which those relations are sustained: “The Lord of Hosts,” &c. 1. Thy Maker—therefore trust Him. God’s power as a Creator is adequate to all the exigencies in which His people can be placed (Isaiah 51:12-13; Isaiah 40:27-29; Job 10:9; Job 35:10). 2. Thy husband—therefore trust Him. A title which combines all the charities of all other relationships (Ephesians 5:25-27). A relation that cannot be broken—all others may (Isaiah 1:1; Hosea 2:17; Hosea 2:20). 3. Thy Redeemer—therefore trust Him (Job 19:25; Galatians 4:4-5). Christ became a member of the human family, and stood forth as our near kinsman, our Goêl, to whom the right of inheritance belonged. He did not refuse the office. Whom God redeems He exalts, and restores to all the privileges and immunities of which sin had deprived us. God’s salvation is every way infinite; the extinction of an infinite evil, the bestowment of an infinite good, &c. 4. The Holy One of Israel—therefore trust Him. Every provision is made under the Gospel to uphold the obligations of the law, and to guard the legislative administration of the Blessed and only Potentate. The redeemed family is under most binding obligations to obedience, love, &c. 5. The Lord of Hosts, the God of the whole earth—therefore trust Him. Infinite greatness is here combined with infinite goodness; the supremacy of dominion with the divinity of kindness, &c. II. THE OF THESE . 1. As a dissuasive from fear. If the frequency of this exhortation supposes there is much to fear in the estimation of nature, it also supposes that there is more than enough to raise us above fear in the estimation of Grace. Comfort to every real Christian is richly furnished from the mighty power of God. Goodness is sufficient to make a promise, but Power is necessary to perform a promise. In God there is no limit to His willingness, &c. Trust this power in the performance of duty, in the resistance of temptations, in the endurance of trial, &c. 2. As a persuasive to hope. 3. As an incentive to exertion. 4. As a plea to be constantly urged in prayer.—Samuel Thodey.GOD THE HUSBAND OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 54:5. Thy Maker is thine husband. In exhibiting His wonderful grace to man, God stoops and assumes the most endearing relationship to him. How surprising that the Monarch of the skies should condescend to represent Himself the “husband” of His people. Yet He did so to wayward, rebellious Israel, and He does so to all who constitute His Church or people now. Each believer may consider the text as addressed to him. I. THE UNION . When rightly formed it is— 1. Grounded in love, which is immeasurable—surpassing all created understanding. 2. Most intimate and endearing. There is a community of interests, and the connexion is one of the most close that can be formed. The apostle refers to this in several passages. 3. Most abiding. Believers yield themselves to be His for ever. God engages to be their present salvation, and everlasting portion and reward. 4. Entirely mutual. Personal interest is lost, and the mutual interests of both is the professed end of this union. The husband careth for the things of his wife, and the wife for the things of her husband. Thus God manifests His sympathy, love, and care, for His Church. And the Church professes in all things to show forth the glory of God. She engages to hallow His name, to revere His laws, to maintain His ordinances, and to show forth everywhere His praises, by devout and fervent thanksgiving to His name. II. THE OF THIS UNION. 1. It originated in God’s amazing love. He purposed man’s restoration to Himself. He determined to raise him to dignity and bliss, and this through the conjugal union with Himself. 2. It was rendered possible by the work of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19). 3. To this union God invites sinners in His blessed Gospel (Matthew 22:1-13). The great end of the Gospel is to bring men to a state of gracious and saving union with God. 4. This union is consummated on the day when the believer yields himself to God. III. THE OF THIS UNION TO . 1. It is their exaltation. This is rank and elevation above that of angels. Dignity which human language cannot express. 2. It is their unspeakable riches. The blessed God, in all His attributes and glories, is their portion, and present and eternal reward. “All are yours,” &c. “Heirs of God.” 3. It is their present blessedness. Brings comfort, peace, &c. 4. It will be their everlasting salvation. The very essence of that glory and happiness which the redeemed will enjoy for ever. This will annihilate all sources of evil. .— 1. From this union various duties and obligations arise. Love, reverence, subjection, obedience, fidelity, confidence, and dependence. Zeal for His glory; jealousy for His honour; activity in His service; and entire devotedness to His cause. 2. Urge upon sinners immediate self-dedication to God. Every possible reason and motive should induce them so to do. This is the basis of all good.—J. Burns, LL.D.: Sketches on Types, &c., pp. 122–126. Both Testaments abound with striking metaphors, which exemplify the dear and intimate union which subsists between Christ and those who compose His Church. He calls them friends, children, brethren, &c. But no metaphor shows the tender and peculiar regard which Christ has to His Church, equal to this. How gracious the condescension, how endearing the appellation! I. THE DIGNITY OF THE . He is— 1. Thy Maker. 2. The Lord of Hosts. And who are these “hosts?” (Psalms 148) 3. Thy Redeemer. He assumed flesh in order that He might be your near kinsman, that in that nature He might have a right to redeem you. But how did He redeem? “He gave Himself.” 4. The Holy One of Israel. 5. The God of the whole earth. II. THE NATURE OF THIS UNION. 1. It is a union which springs entirely from grace. What else can it be on His part? What can charm Him, to unite Himself to thee? 2. It is a union accomplished by Almighty power. One would suppose that it were enough for the Lord of all to present Himself to the heart, for that heart immediately to open. Yet, strange to say, the moment these propositions are made, the human heart is barred against all enjoyments of the kind: it will not receive this heavenly lover. But in some favoured happy day He passes by, and the time is a time of love: He speaks, and the heart opens. 3. It is a spiritual union (Ephesians 5:32; 1 Corinthians 6:17). 4. A very blessed union. Think of— (1.) The Dignity of those who are united to Him. Their name; their inheritance; their prospects. To be united with Christ for ever, in holiness, &c. (2.) Their present privileges, communion, support, protection, &c. III. THE TERMS OF THE UNION. 1. A total divorce from all other lords. If you are wedded to sin, or to the world, or to the law, until you are divorced there is no union with Christ. Are you ready to break your allegiance to the world and sin? If so, then, on these terms you may come to Christ. 2. The mutual consent of both parties. Christ is willing. His invitations, His appeals, His voluntary death on your behalf are proofs. Sinner, are you willing? .—Congratulate such as are already united to Him. What a blessed people are you!—J. Sherman: The Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 465–474. GODS OF HIMSELF Isaiah 54:5. The Holy One of Israel thy Redeemer (R. V.). This subject requires to be approached with the utmost reverence, and with a deep consciousness of the imperfection of our powers. I. THE OF GOD. The Bible is full of declarations of His holiness. 1. The nature of Divine holiness. (1.) It is underived. (2.) It is absolutely perfect. He is incapable of impurity (Habakkuk 1:13). If we could conceive of God in any other character than this, we should revolt at the very idea of His existence and character, and our minds would be in perpetual anxiety and apprehension respecting His dealings toward us. But He always does right, and is always opposed to wrong. He is perfectly just and true—these are the two great branches of this attribute (Deuteronomy 32:4). (3.) It is the glory of His nature (Exodus 15:11; 2 Chronicles 20:21; 2 Kings 19:22; Isaiah 4:4; Ephesians 4:18). He represents Himself more frequently in this character than in any other. (4.) It is the basis of His blessedness. 2. The demonstration of the Divine holiness. It appears— (1.) In creating man holy (Ecclesiastes 7:29; Colossians 3:10). (2.) In the law by which He governs humanity (Romans 7:12). (3.) In the infliction of punishment upon man when he sinned. (4.) In the restoration of man (2 Corinthians 3:18; Hebrews 7:26). The economy of grace is devised that polluted man may be restored to holiness. The cross of Christ is the highest possible expression of God’s love of holiness. Our justification is not by the imperfect works of creatures, but by an exact and infinite righteousness (Romans 3:25-26). See p. 295. What a foundation for the trust and confidence of His people! How great is the sin of unbelief and pride. How earnestly we should long to be ever growing in likeness to Him, for His holiness is the reason and the standard of ours (1 Peter 1:16). How terrible is God’s infinite holiness to the ungodly!” “Who can stand before this Holy Lord God?” II. THE UNITY OF GOD. Contrary to the many gods of the heathen. Polytheism has been far more common than Atheism. How deplorable is the blindness of the heathen, who, instead of the one true God, worship innumerable deities. Some of the heathens had better notions—Epictetus, Plato, &c. 1. The nature of the Divine unity. (1.) It is simple or uncompounded. He has no parts—His perfect nature admits of no composition. (2.) It is singular and unshared unity. He is not one of a genus or kind. He admits of no rival—no partner of His peculiar nature: it is an absolutely exclusive unity. 2. The scriptural proof of the Divine unity. 3. The corroborative evidence of the Divine unity. (1.) The self-existence of God. Two prime and original causes of all things are unimaginable. “If there is not one only God, there is no God.” (2.) The infinite perfections of God. An absolutely perfect being must be one, &c. (3.) The supreme dominion of God: there can only be one supreme governor of the world. (4.) The analogy of nature. Everywhere signs of a monarchy. The unity of design observable in all the works of God. The practical application of this subject is found in Deuteronomy 6:5, compared with Mark 12:29-30. III. THE WHICH THIS BEING TOWARD HIS PEOPLE. “Thy redeemer”—vindicator or deliverer. 1. The need of redemption. The Babylonians had taken Israel into captivity, and oppressed them, &c. Man is enslaved by sin, led captive by the devil; his spiritual enemies are numerous, and subtle, and powerful; and he is unable to overcome them, &c. He needs an emancipator—a redeemer. 2. The nature of redemption. May be considered both negatively and positively—what we are redeemed from, and what we are redeemed to. The spiritual Israel are redeemed, from the love and practice of sin, to the love and practice of holiness; from death to life; from the service of Satan to the service of God; from misery to bliss; from hell to heaven, &c. 3. The author of redemption. The doctrine of redemption is often underestimated and undervalued, from an inadequate conception of the majesty of its author. In the heart of God our redemption took its rise. Effected by the sacrifice of THE SON OF GOD (see p. 438). Redemption was made possible for all Israel, but it was open to any to reject the privileges it involved. So Christ has died for all, yet the benefits of His death will be secured only to those who believe. No other way of deliverance from the deadly evils in which sin has involved you (H. E. I. 443).—A. Tucker. LITTLE WRATH AND Isaiah 54:7-10. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, &c.This precious passage is the property of all true believers in Christ (Isaiah 54:17). The people of God are often very severely afflicted. At such times there is powerful comfort for them in the fact that whatever the Lord may do unto them, He cannot be wroth with them, nor rebuke them, in the weightiest sense of those words. There may be much that is bitter in their cup, but since Jesus has made atonement on their behalf, there cannot be in it even a single drop of judicial punishment of sin, because Christ has borne all that justice could inflict. The Lord may be angry with us as a father is angry with his child, but never as a judge is angry with a criminal. God’s little wrath may light upon His beloved, but there is a great wrath which burns as a consuming fire; and this cannot fall upon them, for He has sworn that He will not be wroth with them nor rebuke them. Consider— I. WHAT THE LORD CALLS HIS “LITTLE WRATH.”. 1. Our view of it, and God’s view of it may differ very greatly. To a child of God in a right state even the most modified form of the Divine anger is very painful. This may lead us to over-estimate— (1.) Its severity, and, unless we are on our guard, we may fall into despair. (2.) Its duration. The time during which God withdraws Himself from His people is very short: “For a moment,” He says; yea, He puts it less than that, “For a small moment!” 2. After the little wrath comes abundant mercies. Not merely “mercy,” nor “mercies,” but “great mercies.” God’s dealings never seem so merciful to us as after a time of trial. With great mercies will the Lord come to us, silence our fears, and help us to gather up our scattered hopes and confidences. These great favours are not to be sent to us by angels or external providences, but He Himself will bring them. 3. The wrath is in itself little. God’s wrath against His own people, as compared with that which burns against the ungodly, is little, and it can never get beyond that point. It is the wrath of a husband against his wife (Isaiah 54:5); not the wrath of a king against rebellious subjects, not that of an enemy against his foe, but the tender jealousy, the affectionate grief of a loving husband when his wife has treated him ill. It is the wrath of a Redeemer against those He has redeemed (ver, 8). It is, moreover, the anger of One who pities us (Isaiah 54:10). “Saith the Lord, that hath mercy upon thee,” is in the Hebrew, “Saith the Lord thy Pitier.” It is the wrath of one who is tender and compassionate, and pities while He smites. 4. The expression of His little anger is after all not so severe. “I hid my face.” Why? It is because the sight of it would be pleasant to us. It is a face of love; for if it were a face of anger, He would not need to hide it from His erring child. 5. This little wrath is perfectly consistent with everlasting love (Isaiah 54:8.) The Lord’s own people are as dear to Him in the furnace of affliction as on the mount of communion. You have no right to infer from the greatness of your grief that God is ceasing to love you, or that He loves you less. II. THE GREAT WRATH OF GOD AND OUR AGAINST IT. This is given in Isaiah 54:8. As the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so if you believe in Christ, the Lord will never be wroth with you, nor rebuke you, so as to destroy you. 1. The oath of God is our security. 2. Guaranteed by a covenant (Isaiah 54:10; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 37:26). Christ has fulfilled His side of the covenant by bearing all the penalty for His people’s sin, and fulfilling all righteousness, and now that covenant stands fast to be assuredly executed on the Father’s side. 3. What blessed illustrations of our security are added in Isaiah 54:10.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1306. THE AND THE LOVE Isaiah 54:10. For the mountains shall depart, &c.There is something of music in the very sound of these words. The stately march of the grand English translation lends itself with wonderful beauty to the melody of Isaiah’s words. But the thought that lies below them, sweeping as it does through the whole creation, and parting all things into the transient and eternal, the mortal and immortal, is still greater than the music of the words—these are removed—this abides. And the thing in God which abides is all gentle tenderness, that strange love mightier than all the powers of Deity beside, permanent with the permanence of His changeless heart.… And grander than all that, we have the revelation of the inmost nature and character of God in its bearing upon men: “Saith the Lord that hath mercy on you,” I. THE BETWEEN THE WHICH PASSES, AND THAT WHICH TRULY ABIDES. 1. The mountains shall depart.… And so we begin to think that humanity is small and life insignificant, and sometimes we feel as if we were ruined and there was nothing left to us, and so my text comes and says, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving-kindness shall not depart from thee,” &c. 2. The other side of that great truth. There rises high above all that is mortal, which although it counts its existence by millenniums, is but for an instant, and there appears to the eye of faith the Great Spirit who moves all the material universe Himself unmoved, and lives undiminished by creation, and undiminished if creation were swept out of existence. Let that which may pass, pass; let that which can perish, perish; let the mountains crumble and the hills melt away; beyond the smoke and conflagration, and rising high above destruction and chaos stands the calm throne of God, with a living heart upon it, with a council of peace and purpose of mercy for you and for me, the creatures of a day, but that shall live when the days shall cease to be. And so look how wonderfully there come out in these words phases of that Divine revelation to us, which are meant to strengthen us in the contemplation of that that changes. “My kindness!” The tender-heartedness of an infinite love, the abounding favour of the Father of my spirit, &c. What a revelation of God! If only our hearts could open to the right acquaintance of that thought, sorrow and care and anxiety, and every other form of trouble, would fade away and we should be at rest. The infinite, undying, imperishable love of God is mine. 3. And then there is the other side to the same thought. The consequent outcoming of the imperishable and immovable loving-kindness is what my text calls “the covenant of my peace”—that is to say, we are to think of this great, tender, changeless, love of God, which underlies all things and towers above all things, as being placed, so to speak, under the guarantee of a solemn obligation. God’s covenant is the great thought of Scripture which we far too little apprehend in the depth and power of its meaning; and this covenant with you and me, poor creatures, is this, “I promise that My love shall never leave thee.” Have you entered into this covenant of peace with God? Then you may be sure that that covenant will stand for evermore, though the mountains depart and the hills be removed. II. A FEW LESSONS WE MAY GATHER FROM THESE GREAT HERE, BETWEEN THE MORTAL AND THE DIVINE LOVE. 1. To warn you and me from setting our hearts upon these perishable things. What folly it is, looked at from the last point of view, for a man to risk his peace and the strength of the joy of his life upon things that crumble and change, when all the while there is lying before him open for his entrance, and wooing him to come into the eternal home of his spirit, this covenant! 2. To stay the soul in seasons which come to everybody sometimes, when we are made painfully conscious of the transientness of this present. Whatever comes thou canst not be desolate if thou hast God’s loving-kindness. 3. To give to us hopes of years as immortal as itself. We are immortal as the tenderness that encloses us. God’s endless love must have undying creatures on whom to pour itself out. The hope that is built upon the eternal love of God in Christ is the true guarantee to me of immortal existence, and this all turns on the one thing. Come into the covenant—the covenant of peace. Take the covenant God offers you, close with the offer, and then life and death, principalities and powers, things to come, height and depth, and every other creature shall be impotent to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—A. Maclaren, D.D.: The Freeman, April 29, 1881. I. THE TEXT ASSUMES THE MUTABLE AND NATURE OF ALL EARTHLY THINGS. 1. The Lord fixes not on things most evanescent, but on those which are obviously the most enduring. 2. Even these stupendous works shall be shaken and removed. The discoveries of modern science. The Bible assumes it. 3. May be regarded as a type of the evanescence of all earthly things. Of human nature itself. “All flesh is grass,” &c. Of our earthly possessions, &c. II. THE TEXT ASSERTS THE DURABLE AND NATURE OF AND THINGS. These are put strikingly in contrast with the objects of time and sense (Hebrews 12:28, and others). 1. The benefits comprehended in the engagement. The favour of Jehovah—the love which He bears to His redeemed people. This love is traced up to eternity, and gave birth to the covenant of peace. 2. The nature of the affirmation. His covenant shall not be broken, His favour not removed. We are tempted to fear the reverse. He sometimes appears to withdraw His favour. His covenant is established on immutable principles. His regard for His people is unchangeable. III. THE MOST AMPLE AND IS OF THE OF THIS FACT. No higher kind of evidence could be afforded or even desired than that contained in the text. 1. We have the assurance of the word of Jehovah: “Saith the Lord.” 2. We have an appeal to the exercise of former mercy. 3. We have an assurance of a personal kind, and therefore most encouraging. The personal pronoun, more than once employed, may well encourage our hearts. When the mind is oppressed with a consciousness of guilt; in times of affliction; in the hour of death; in anticipation of the judgment. Such, then, are the glorious privileges of true believers. Are you one of them? Have you obtained mercy, &c.? “Incline your ear,” &c.—George Smith, D.D.I. THE AND OF GOD’S REGARD TO HIS CHURCH, BE THE AND WHICH OBTAIN IN THE WORLD. 1. That God should be unchangeable in His own nature is a necessary property of His infinite perfection. 2. Of equal importance is the doctrine of the Divine unchangeableness to the general interests of religion.… Hence the incalculable importance of those Scriptures which speak of God’s incapacity of change, and hence the value of the assurance of the text, as establishing our confidence in the Divine character, and furnishing a basis of certainty for our present and future hopes. Whatever else perishes the Church shall live, &c. You may take the text figuratively—or comparatively—or in its most direct and literal sense. What is true respecting the Church as a whole is true of every individual of which it is composed. The promise of the text is sure to all the seed. Many things may depart, and hope and life itself may depart, but God’s loving-kindness shall never depart. II. THE OF GOD TO THE IN HIS WORD. The covenant of grace. The promises are made to Christ, and in the application of it they are made to us in Him. Confirmed by an oath (Hebrews 6:17-18). Think of God’s condescension in giving such a pledge. Come and rest your all upon this great foundation. By faith in Christ you become a party to this covenant, and have a claim to all its stupendous blessings, &c. .— 1. Appropriate the character in order to share the consolation. 2. Expect faith and hope to be put to the test. 3. Walk worthy of your high expectations.—Samuel Thodey.All earthly things are uncertain. But we have here something unchangeable. God speaks of Himself as having entered into a covenant respecting man; and He pledges Himself that it shall not be changed. Contemplate— I. ITS NATURE. In what sense can the Divine Being be properly said to enter into covenant with man? Certainly not in the sense in which equal parties bind themselves to do certain things on given conditions. Man has no claim on God, nor right to bind Him to anything. If God enters into covenant with sinful man it is an act of grace. He binds Himself. And man’s interest is to accept the conditions imposed upon him. Accordingly, in the Scriptures, the term covenant is variously used to express the Divine purposes, promises, laws, dispensations, institutions, relations to man, established through the operation of God’s grace. Thus the covenant may be viewed— 1. In relation to God. Then, it is an infinite purpose and plan of the Godhead that sinners should be saved in a certain way. 2. In relation to the Mediator. Then it is the inscrutable arrangement that He should have a people saved out of the world as the result of His redeeming death. 3. In relation to man. Then, it is God’s gracious promise, His purpose revealed and made known, that He will bestow the blessing on the persons described. It is, therefore, God’s gracious purpose, plan, and promise to save sinners through the Gospel of Christ II. ITS . In covenanting to bestow salvation He meant all that leads to it— 1. The sending the Redeemer. 2. The gift of the Holy Spirit. 3. The communication of spiritual blessings. The sinner is justified, and sanctified, and will be glorified. III. ITS . It is assured to us— 1. By the pledged word of God. Better than the word of a king, which has often been falsified. Better than the word of a father, which he may be unable to perform. Better than man’s word of honour, which is not always respected. 2. By the past acts of God. (1.) He prepared for it by prophecies, types, historic events. (2.) He ratified it. Each form of it by blood (Genesis 15; Exodus 24:6-8; Hebrews 9:15-26). (3.) He sealed it. By His Spirit, which is the “earnest” in our hearts. 3. By the revealed nature of God. Consider the love, the faithfulness, the immutability of the Divine nature. .—Have you an interest in this covenant? Will you accept its blessings? You are free to do so. You are freely invited. Those who are willing can have no greater encouragement as to the certainty of obtaining anything than the certainty of salvation.—J. Rawlinson. THE CHURCH, Isaiah 54:11-12. I. The distressed condition of the Church. Without. Within. II. The promised glory of the Church. Completed. Adorned. Perfected with grace. III. The perpetuation of the Church. Her children instructed—blessed with abundant peace. IV. The inviolable security of the Church. Established. Protected from oppression, fear, terror.—Dr. Lyth.THE AND CHURCH Isaiah 54:11-12. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, &c.These verses, which doubtless had a reference to the future glory of Israel, are in a spiritual sense true of God’s people in all time. In them God sees His people as they often are, and as they will be when His purposes concerning them shall have been accomplished. We find in them— I. GOD’S PEOPLE . “O thou afflicted.” How often this has been true of the Church; of the individual believer (Psalms 34:19). “Tossed with tempest.” How often have heresies and dissensions shaken the Church to its foundations! “And not comforted:” all ordinary sources of comfort having proved vain; the true source of comfort not having been sought. How often it is our own fault that we are comfortless! Herein we are apprised— 1. Of God’s knowledge. How important is this, that God knows our sins and our sorrows! (John 10:14). 2. God’s sympathy. The tone is sympathetic; the speaker is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. 3. God’s affection. This is not a taunt, nor a complaint, nor a rebuke. Love speaks here: true love, deep love, Divine love. Mere friendship leaves us when our dark days come; but love calls us by our name in the darkness as in the light. II. GOD’S PROMISE . We may leave all fanciful speculation and content ourselves with seeing here the contrast between the present and future condition, (1) of Israel; (2) of the Church. This is a picture of a beautiful city; its pavements fair, its foundations firm, its windows—or rather its battlements—all radiant, its gates like a burning coal, its borders—its whole circuit—full of glory. We may note— 1. That God promises what is needful. Stones, foundations, battlements; no city is complete without these. It is that which we most need that God offers to bestow upon us. 2. God promises that which is valuable. Zion is to be rebuilt, not merely with “stones,” but with “precious stones.” God acts like Himself in blessing His people. He gives the best of the best. 3. What God promises He undertakes to carry out (Joshua 21:45; Joshua 23:14; 1 Kings 8:56). “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” Who will “taste and see that the Lord is gracious?”—Walter J. Mayers.I. A desolate condition described. Apply it— 1. To the history of the Church at large. Like a vessel in a storm, but always saved from shipwreck. 2. To the experience of individual Christians. It may be with— 1. Outward calamities. 2. Mental griefs. 3. Fore-boding fears. But God beholds with a complacent eye. He is no indifferent observer. All the relations He sustains breathe consolation (Isaiah 54:5). Make sure of the friendship of Him who is the pilot of the vessel, and then commit your interests to His guidance; otherwise when storms come you will have no anchor, and when death comes no hope. II. The gracious promise given. Not only taken off the tossing wave, but promised a city rising from ruins. A promise of the final restoration of the Church, begun on earth, perfected in heaven. 1. The skill of the architect. God claims the work as His own (Ephesians 1:19). 2. The strength of the foundation. Combining beauty and durability. 3. The beauty of the super-structure. What beauty like the beauty of holiness. 4. The happiness and security of the worshippers.—Samuel Thodey.GOD’S PUPILS Isaiah 54:13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Teaching and learning are the universal and everlasting occupations of all mankind. It is well to learn of wise men; it is better still to learn of the all-wise God. A precious promise is this given to Israel, and through Israel to mankind. I. THE SCHOOL. What, where, is God’s school? The largest and truest answer is— 1. The world, which to those who apprehend it aright, is not altogether a workshop or a play-ground, but a school, in which the highest lessons are taught and may be acquired. 2. The Church, which is a higher form of the school, where the teaching is, as it were, more advanced. II. THE . All who will learn may learn. It is the education of mankind which is proceeding in this school; and there are those who do not know it, who little think it, who are the pupils of the giver of light and wisdom. III. THE TEACHER. Upon this, in-deed, all depends. The Lord under-takes to be our teacher. This office He fulfils by His servants inspired to convey His mind and will, but, above all, by His Son, the Great Teacher, “the Light of the world.” IV. THE LESSONS. They are mainly— 1. God’s truth concerning His own character and relationship to men. 2. God’s will, which is the same as our duty, the summons addressed to our faith and obedience. V. THE . Knowledge alone is no blessing. In all education the moral result, the influence upon character is of supreme concern. God’s discipline is unspeakably precious. Just it is; and yet, gentle too. VI. THE PURPOSE BY DIVINE AND . 1. Knowledge. When of the right sort a priceless boon. 2. Character. The ultimate result of the highest teaching. 3. Usefulness. God teaches us, that, through us, He may teach our fellowmen. 4. Eternal life. Life is eternal learning, and heaven is the approach of the soul to Him from whose fulness it drinks in unfailing and everlasting supplies. Application. There is needed, in-order to learn, a lowly and teachable disposition. The cry of the heart should be, “Teach me Thy way, O God!”—Homiletical Library, vol. ii., p. 76. I. The relation which believers sustain to the Church—thy children. II. The advantages they enjoy in the Church. 1. Divine instruction. 2. Great peace: “the peace of God”—profound, strengthening, satisfying, enduring, &c. Isaiah 54:14. I. The foundation of the Church—righteousness. II. The security of it. III. The comfort of it. Oppression, and terror, and fear excluded. IV. The permanency of it. Isaiah 54:15. I. The last combination of the Church’s enemies. II. Its unauthorised character. III. Utter abortiveness. IV. The blessed assurance. Isaiah 54:16-17. I. All agencies and forces are the creation of God. II. He licenses, employs, controls them as He pleases. III. Hence no weapon or power can prosper against the Church which He has redeemed.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE ’S Isaiah 54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, &c.I. THE ’S . 1. Weapons are formed against him. No Christian need expect aught else. As Israel’s experience in the wilderness, so the Christian’s in the world. The devil will try to hinder his progress, &c The world, too, in various ways—by its cares, snares, &c. The law in his members also will war against the law of his mind. He must fight his way, “fight the good fight of faith,” fight under the banner “Jehovah-Nissi,” fight, “putting on the whole armour of God.” 2. Tongues rise against him. From the days of Cain it has been so, and will be so to the end. Christians need not think it strange if they are mocked, maligned, misrepresented, all manner of evil said against them. So they treated the Lord, and so they will treat His disciples (John 15:9). But while this shall be, more or less, the experience of every Christian, learn, over against it— II. THE ’S . 1. No weapon shall prosper. His enemies may be mighty, &c; but more mighty, wise, watchful, indefatigable and loving is his protector. He is perfectly safe. This does not mean, however, that he is not to use expedients—to watch and pray, to resist and strive. 2. Every tongue he shall condemn. (I.) He shall do it himself by welldoing (1 Peter 2:15). (2.) God shall do it for him. (3.) It shall be done sufficiently on earth (Psalms 37:6). (4.) Perfectly in eternity (Job 19:25). 3. Let Christians see to it that they so live that men speaking evil of them shall do it “falsely,” and God shall fully vindicate them. But now the question comes, Who has this security? and in answer see— III. THE ’S . “The servants of the Lord.” Only real Christians, to whom this security is given, i.e., those whose faith is a real root within and bears corresponding fruit without. Many arrogate such promises as this who have no right to them. They only who keep the precepts reap the promises. We must be servants if we would be safe. It is he who serves that the Lord preserves; none other (Matthew 7:21). This secunty is further described as— IV. THE ’S . This description may teach us— 1. That while he is a servant, he is also a son—son and heir. Each believer may say with John (1 John 3:1-2). 2. That his security is a thing not of merit, but of inheritance. It is a legacy secured to him by the death of Christ (Luke 12:32). 3. We may be sure that a heritage from God is a certain possession (James 1:17). V. THE ’S TITLE. 1. The Christian’s justification is of God (Philippians 3:9). 2. His sanctification is of God (Philippians 2:13). 3. Boasting is excluded. “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” 4. His security is perfect. If God justify, who can condemn? (Romans 8:34.) And if God sanctify, He will perfect that which concerneth us. This clause thus explains as well as ratifies the promise, and, further, it tells us how we may secure this promise for ourselves. Righteousness we have not by nature; we cannot attain it of ourselves; but we may receive it from God. Let us seek it by faith in Christ, and He will be “the Lord our righteousness,” and then this glorious heritage is ours. What a different one from that of the wicked (Job 20:1-29).—David Jamison, B.A.: The Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv. p. 538. WEAPONS Isaiah 54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosperOld castles contain many relics of the past, and on the walls hang many weapons of ancient date. To such a place the Church may be likened. A divine and secure citadel, it contains not a few victorious trophies—signs of its enemies’ defeat. I. Some of the weapons that have been used against the Church collectively.1. The first that we notice is very old. It was employed against Noah, Job, David, all who have been called to do great things for God. What is its name? Infidelity. But it has not prospered. Humanity refuses to be infidel. Sinners abound, not sceptics. Atheism, like physical deformity, is the exception, not the rule. The soul must have something to live upon. Again and again the foes of Christianity have become its converts in their very attempts to destroy it: Athenagoras, Gilbert West, Lord Lyttelton. 2. Behold another of these hostile implements. Its edge is keen; it gleams with cruel hate; there are crimson stains on it. Its name? Persecution. It has inflicted frightful, gaping wounds; it has taken many an innocent life; history is full of records of its merciless deeds. But it is a weak weapon, nevertheless. It has purified the Church oftentimes, by driving away the hypocrites and leaving the true believers; it has increased the Church by scattering abroad its preachers, who in new fields have made fresh converts; but it has not destroyed the Church. It has not prospered. II. But the promise is true of the individual believer as well as of the Church. How hopeful, how happy, ought every believer to be! The soul of the good man is invulnerable. 1. The weapon of SLANDER shall not prosper. At one time or another all God’s servants are attacked by it. But in the end none of them is any the worse for it. God will take care of the reputations of His people. Are you slandered? Do as David did (Psalms 119:6). So you may smile at your calumniators. The hour of your vindication is at hand (Psalms 37:5-6). 2. The weapon of DOUBT shall not prosper. Like other men, the believer is assailed by doubts; but they do but cause him, as they did John the Baptist (Matthew 11:2-3), to apply to Christ for their solution; and by Him he is settled and grounded in the truth, to which he clings the more firmly because he remembers how nearly he lost it. 3. The weapon of DEATH shall not prosper. He who trusts in God’s mercy through the substitution of Jesus Christ need not be alarmed at this weapon. You probably recollect handsome, brave Sir Walter Raleigh’s remark when he put his finger on the edge of the horrible axe which was speedily to end his life: “It is a sharp medicine, but it is a cure for all ills.”—T. R. Stevenson: Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 244. The meaning of this is that the Church of God cannot be destroyed. I. GOD’S CHURCH HAS ALWAYS . It has been persecuted. Its Divine origin has been and is disputed. There have always been enemies that have sought its destruction, &c.That the Head of the Church should expose His truth to attack at all, is strange at first sight. But, 1. Opposition tests the sincerity of discipleship. 2. Keeps alive the evidence for the truth, which otherwise might drop out of recollection. II. GOD’S CHURCH HAS . Thus this word has been hitherto fulfilled. [1686][1686] The language here is derived probably from courts of justice, and the idea is, that truth and victory, in every strife of words, would be on the side of the Church. To those who have watched the progress of discussions thus far on the subject of the true religion, it is needless to say that this has been triumphantly fulfilled. Argument, sophism, ridicule, have all been tried to overthrow the truth of the Christian religion. Appeals have been made to astronomy, geology, antiquities, history, and indeed to almost every department of science, and with the same want of success. Poetry has lent the charm of its numbers; the grave historian has interwoven with the thread of his narrative covert attacks and sly insinuations against the Bible; the earth has been explored to prove that “He who made the world and revealed its age to Moses was mistaken in its age;” and the records of Oriental nations, tracing their history up cycles of ages beyond the Scripture account of the creation of the world, have been appealed to; but thus far, in all these contests, ultimate victory has declared in favour of the Bible. And no matter from what quarter the attack has come, and no matter how much learning and talent have been evinced by the adversaries of the Bible; God has raised up some Watson, or Lardner, or Chalmers, or Buckland, or Cuvier, or Wiseman, to meet these charges, and to turn the scales in favour of the cause of truth.—Albert Barnes, D.D., Commentary, in loco.1. Through persecution it has been preserved. 2. Notwithstanding enfeebling influences it has been preserved. It has often been exposed to bad air. For malism and superstition. Yet it has more adherents to-day than ever, and is growing. 3. Notwithstanding the attitude of scepticism and unbelief. Changes its front at different periods. Sometimes the literary history of the Bible is attacked; sometimes the reality of its facts; sometimes its miracles; some times its supposed incompatibility with scientific doctrines. Hitherto, however, it has always stood its ground, and emerges from every conflict stronger than before. All this proves— 1. That the Gospel, which is the life of the Church, is commended by the strongest evidence. 2. That the Gospel is perpetuated by supernatural influences. Gibbon elaborated five secondary causes of the rapid and extensive propagation of the Gospel in the first centuries. They are true as far as they go. But he slurs over in a sentence a cause still greater, namely, the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a continuous miracle. Conversion is always the work of God. Every fresh convert is a fresh evidence of the truth. 3. That God’s Church and cause shall be maintained until its mission is accomplished. Notwithstanding all difficulty, all opposition, all new forms of unbelief, it shall fulfil this prophecy in the future as it has in the past.—J. Rawlinson. THE DIVINE FOR HUMAN NEED Isaiah 55:1-2. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, &c.The world owes much to the Hebrew mind, and the fine foreshadowings of the ancient prophets. Isaiah touches a chord to which all hearts vibrate, speaking of the birth of Christ, &c. And like a true friend of our suffering race, he sympathises with those who hunger, with those who are weary, and with those who are athirst, No wonder that this old book should still be welcome to man, should never exhaust itself, never grow old, because there is so much in it which appeals to the living heart of humanity. Take the text as an instance, which exhibits the blessings of the Gospel under the most delightful aspects. Consider— I. How DEEPLY THE OF THE GOSPEL ARE NEEDED. 1. They are not blessings which we can do very well with, or very well without, but they are absolutely vital to our existence. The Gospel is one thing in all ages, and it is the one thing needful for sinful, suffering, dying man—needful to youth and age, &c. 2. But besides this, the thirst of the soul for something greater or nobler than earth can give, is universal 3. The text especially addresses those who thirst after the blessings of pardon and salvation, who feel their destitution of grace, &c. How precious are Gospel blessings to those who feel their need of them! II. HOW ADAPTED THEY ARE TO OUR NEED. Water, milk, wine, bread, are not more suited to the wants of the body, than Christ and salvation are to the deeper wants of the immortal mind. The real ground of the adaptation of the Gospel to man’s need, arises from its power to meet the twofold difficulty under which we labour—the guilt of past sin, and the present love of sin. The Gospel experimentally received, acts with the fixedness and certainty of a general law, and becomes “the power of God unto salvation,” &c. III. HOW FREELY THEY ARE . Our encouragement to seek these blessings is as ample as our need is great. “Come ye to the waters,” &c. There can be no contrariety between the absolute freeness of Divine grace, and the appeals and invitations to sinners in the Gospel. The doctrine of the Scripture is that all are welcome to Gospel grace to whom Gospel grace is welcome, &c. The invitation is very free and full, designed to meet all the discouragements of grace-wanting spirits. Come, and come NOW. IV. HOW FEARFUL ARE THE OF THEM. An eternal famine must be the result. The greatest guilt must be involved in the rejection of the greatest mercy; and by the grandeur of the blessedness of the saved, you may calculate the depth of the misery of the lost. This ruin is aggravated— 1. By the thought that it is self-caused. 2. By the thought of the worthlessness of the objects for which it is resigned. “Wherefore do ye spend,” &c. Though the Gospel is absolutely free and gratuitous, yet its blessings must be sought.—Samuel Thodey.We may term these words the Gospel summons, the trumpet call from Heaven to man, bidding him to the great fulness of God’s redeeming love. The call reminds us— I. That the religious wants of man are imperious, and they are universal. By their being imperious we mean that they have a power to assert themselves in such a way that we must feel them, however we may explain them. The opening verses of this chapter supply us with the strongest illustration of the religious feeling in man, for they describe it as a hunger and a thirst—a view of the matter very familiar to us in the Scriptures. And what more imperious feelings does the body experience than those of hunger and thirst? So is it with the soul. It hungers and thirsts quite as truly, quite as deeply, as the body. No thirst was ever more real than that described by the psalmist (Psalms 42:1-2). The religious need is also universal, i.e., it is involved in the life of every human soul. It may be more or less developed, but the spiritual capacity is there, and will in due time assert its strength. We may say that the spiritual craving is— 1. Conscious, i.e., has become distinctly intelligible to the soul who is alive with yearnings after God. This is the state of which our Lord speaks (Matthew 5:6). 2. Or, it may be said to be unconscious, i.e., all the elements of yearning and dissatisfaction may be there, though the soul does not recognise their true meaning and treat them in the right way. Hence we may trace the hunger and thirst of the spirit in the very perversions of life, such as the following:—Undue eagerness after earthly possessions; vices, by which men seek spurious happiness; tyrannies, by which they seek undue mastery, &c. These very disorders witness to the active spirit within, and the facts are everywhere present: “that religious instincts are as truly a part of our nature as are our appetites and our nerves, is a fact which all history establishes, and which forms one of the strongest proofs of the reality of that unseen world to which the soul of man continually tends.” II. Our text announces that these spiritual wants are provided for. “Come ye to the waters: come and eat.” This is a great secret of the Gospel message, that it not only describes our need, but also offers the supply. The former without the latter would prove a cruel mockery. “The waters” here spoken of set forth the fitting and overflowing provisions of God for our wants. When we rightly know our need, we shall eagerly respond to His message:—e.g., the Gospel declares— 1. God’s love for human souls. We are not Fatherless. With a deep and infinite love far beyond expression or thought, He cares for us (John 3:16). 2. God’s help for human souls. In order to attain to our true life, we need—light in our mind: cleansing of the heart: redemption from the power of all sin. All these things are meant by the one word salvation, and they are comprised in the saving work of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). Salvation, then, is a great word, and it means a great provision. “Come ye to the waters.” The provision is as wide as the need—“Every one.” III. The terms are within the reach of all. In this matter of salvation there is no privilege of aristocracy, or money, or position, or power. It is not a question of purchasing. What can I offer to God for what He gives me? All that I have, worth possessing, first came from Him: I have nothing of my own. In this respect we all stand upon equal footing before God. The richest has nothing to give, and the poorest is not kept back by his poverty. And yet there is a condition in the matter which we must all face. There is one thing we have to do—we have to come to the waters. This indicates the personal trust and the voluntary surrender that God requires of us, and this is what we mean by faith. The condition upon which God saves us may be fulfilled by any and all of us. IV. From all this it follows, that those who come short of the blessings of God’s redemption, are themselves to blame.—W. Manning.Here are plain words, in which plain facts and truths are stated, for the instruction and encouragement of plain people. The prophet uses figures drawn from the common experience of common life to set forth the promises of Divine revelation. I. MAN’S WANT. As hunger and thirst are primary and universal facts of human nature, so has man’s soul appetites which call for satisfaction. We experience desire and need for true happiness, for the favour of God, for joy and peace of heart, for a law of life, for comfort under trials, for a hope, an assurance of immortality. Man’s wants are real, numerous, and pressing. II. MAN’S VAIN TO SATISFY THE WANTS OF THE SOUL. As the miserable inhabitants of a besieged city buy the vilest carrion to stay their hunger, as wretched slaves toil beneath the sun for long hours with no wages in prospect, so the irreligious, in their folly and delusion, seek to satisfy the needs of the soul with the vain things of this perishing world; so the misguided and superstitious strive to appease the conscience with unprofitable observances (H. E. I. 2378–2387, 4627–4630). III. GOD’S SUPPLY IS FOR MAN’S WANTS. In contradistinction from the foul carrion and the polluted waters of the world, we have here set before us the wholesome bread, the new milk, the pure wine of the Gospel of Divine grace. Here you may find in Christ a provision of salvation; in the gift of the Holy Spirit all spiritual help and guidance. The fact that the Gospel is from God is a guarantee that it is adapted to the necessities of men; and He has caused it to be published from His fatherly desire that our hunger and thirst should no longer distress and torment our spirits. IV. THE TERMS UPON WHICH THE GOSPEL OFFERS TO SUPPLY HUMAN WANTS. 1. The blessings of Divine love are offered to every one who both needs and desires them—to every one who will receive them by faith. 2. They are offered without any demand for payment, without money, and without price. In fact, it is impossible for us to give anything which can purchase them; and it is impossible for the Giver to accept any recompense save that of love and obedience.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii., p. 117, 118. THE GOSPEL . Men seek happiness. But they usually seek happiness in some wrong way. There is in many men a craving for religious peace and satisfaction. The soul’s craving is met by this Gospel. Here is— I. THE OF A . “Water,” “wine,” “milk.” The metaphors come from the East. We must place ourselves in the circumstances of Oriental life. Wine, such as was commonly used in Palestine. Milk, so precious everywhere. Water Travellers in the desert know the value of water when the supply is exhausted and no stream appears. Also those who have climbed a mountain on a hot summer’s day. Suppose the case of a great city, with the supply of water completely exhausted. Suppose, by some change in the course of nature, water was entirely withdrawn from the earth. It would be speedily reduced to a dreary waste, where desolation and death would reign supreme. But this is man’s condition when destitute of the Gospel of Christ. II. THE TERMS OF A . 1. The act which it contemplates. “Come.” “Buy.” “Eat.” This is the attitude of the Gospel towards mankind as distinguished from other religions. They say to poor, helpless, fallen humanity, “Go and do something.” The Gospel says, “Come.” It is the attitude of the loving Father toward His wandering child; of the wealthy friend who says to the needy one in whom he is interested, “Come to me;” of the strong and gracious Saviour, Who bids the weary and heavy laden come. Can anything be simpler than to come and take what you need? To come to Jesus is to believe in Him, &c. 2. The condition it specifies. In many parts of our cities benevolent individuals have placed drinking fountains where men and cattle may quench their thirst freely by simply coming and taking the water as it flows. It is a good emblem of the Gospel, and of the terms on which sinners are invited to partake its blessings. When God provided salvation in Christ, He provided it on terms that illustrate its derivation from His love. He does not demand, and will not accept a price at our hands. What price could we bring? Our righteousness is an inadequate price. Self-righteous pride must be abandoned when we come to Jesus. He has paid the price. We hold our empty hands and take the gift. The condition of absolute spiritual impoverishment to which man is reduced, demands that the salvation be free. 3. The characters it comprehends. The consciousness of need is the only qualification. Have you seen the emptiness of the world, and are you reaching forth, even blindly, towards something better? He invites you to Himself, where you will find what you need, and more than you at present think of. Do you desire salvation? Desire is a prominent element of thirst (Matthew 5:6). Is there in your heart such a consciousness of sin as disturbs your comfort in it, produces distress, excites desire of mercy? Your case is described in the invitation. You are “one that thirsteth.” Are you sensible of your inability to save yourself—your utter spiritual impoverishment? The invitation includes him that hath no money. It is addressed to every one. No need to hesitate because of unworthiness, or the greatness of your sin. This “every one” is equivalent to Christ’s “whosoever.” Do not exclude yourself from it. Let me urge the acceptance of this gracious invitation (Revelation 22:17). 1. God’s Spirit says “Come.” 2. God’s Church says “Come.” Those who have accepted the invitation are bound to pass it on. 3. Your urgent need says “Come.”—J. Rawlinson.By these emblems are set forth—I. THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. “Come ye”—not merely to the water, but—“to the waters.” “The waters”— 1. Of forgiveness, in which all our sins are buried out of sight (Micah 7:19). 2. Of purification, by which every trace of defilement shall be washed away. 3. Of refreshment. II. THE , &c. The blessings of the Gospel cheer and satisfy like wine and milk. III. THE , &c. 1. The blessings of the Gospel are offered to all. “Ho!”—a call to arrest the attention of the travellers along life’s highway, whoever they may be—“every one that thirsteth.” 2. They are offered to all freely. IV. THE OF THE OF THE GOSPEL. “Without money and without price.” . 1. To man’s needs. 2. To man’s condition—morally bankrupt. (1.) God’s invitations are not mere complimentary words, such as are sometimes current in society—invitations made with a secret fear least they should be accepted. God is in earnest. (2.) Sincere invitations cannot be slighted without offence. This is true of invitations addressed by men to their equals; much more, of invitations addressed by men to their inferiors. The Queen’s “invitation” is a “command.” What excuse then shall we offer if we slight the invitations addressed to us by Almighty God? (3.) If we slight the gracious invitations which He has addressed to us, where shall we obtain the “waters” needed to satisfy our spiritual thirst, the “wine and milk” needed to sustain our soul’s life? The alternative before us is to turn to Him and live, or to turn away from Him and die!—J. H. Stewart: Lectures on Isaiah lv., pp. 1–24. I. The moral condition of the persons invited. The description implies— 1. A conviction of the need of spiritual blessings. 2. A discovery of the abundant fulness in Christ for salvation and enjoyment. 3. An ardent desire for the blessings of His grace. Are you thus thirsting, &c? II. The benefits they are invited to share. Figurative expressions, pointing to the blessings of the New Covenant procured for us by the Atonement and resurrection of Christ. The phraseology refers— 1. To their variety and fulness. 2. To their perfect adaptation. 3. To their gracious freeness. III. The nature of the invitation addressed to them. 1. You are to “come.” But where, and to whom? You are to come to the appointed source. 2. You are to come and purchase covenant blessings. They are invaluable. They have been procured by the Saviour. They are to be obtained as free undeserved gifts. 3. You are to participate in the blessings of the Gospel. .—What response do you give to this invitation? Some perhaps will make light of it—postpone compliance—begin to make excuse, &c. See what you reject None need despair.—George Smith, D.D.The benefits of the Gospel are offered to the perishing. I. The fulness of the offered gift. II. The freeness of the offered gift. III. The universality of the offer. 1. Offered to all nations of mankind. 2. To men of every state, class, and character. 3. The salvation is free to the chief of sinners. 4. The offer of life ought, therefore, to be considered by each individual hearer as addressed personally to himself.—J. W. Alexander, D.D.: The Preachers’ Monthly, New Series, vol. vii. pp. 41–44. THE WAY TO TRUE Isaiah 55:2-5. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, &c.?Having set forth in Isaiah 55:1 the perfect freeness of the grace offered in the Gospel, and its adaptation to the wants of sinners, the prophet now expostulates with those who are unwilling to receive it, and exposes the absurdity of thus refusing to embrace the only real good, while at the same time they are toiling in pursuit of that which is imaginary. The question presupposes that the soul is hungry, that it must be hungry until it is fed, that the gnawings of hunger will constrain it to seek food, and that the instinct of self-preservation, no less than the desire of enjoyment, will induce it to give anything it has in exchange for the necessary means of its subsistence and enjoyment; that the fatal error lies not in the seeking after something to sustain it and to make it happy, but in imagining that this end can be answered by the pleasures, gains, and honours of the world, which are not only brief in their duration, but unsuited in their nature to satisfy the wants of an immortal spirit. It is this view of man’s natural condition upon which the invitations of the Gospel are all founded. Observe, then— I. THE PROPHET MAKES THE OF EARTHLY GOOD AN FOR FIXING THE DESIRES ON OBJECTS ADAPTED TO OUR NATURE. He assures the disappointed soul that happiness is really attainable. But is this indefinite assurance that there is a good sufficient and attainable, the highest and best offer that the Gospel makes to sinners? If this were all, the tender mercies of the Gospel would be cruel. The voice of God has no such “uncertain sound,” for— II. THE OF THE SOUL TO A AND OBJECT AS ITS ONLY GROUND OF HOPE AND TRUST IS A FEATURE OF THE GOSPEL. God stands at the fountain of life, and cries, “Ho, every one that thirsteth,” &c. Annexed to this gracious invitation is the specific promise of a sure salvation, “And I will make,” &c. (2 Samuel 7:16; cf. Luke 1:32-33; Jeremiah 23:5-6, and others). 1. The offer of salvation is specific. It is not mercy in general that is offered, but the mercies of David—purchased by the second David—promised to the ancient David, which he hoped for, which he trusted in, and of which he could say, “This is all my salvation,” &c. 2. It is sure. It is a covenanted blessing, and it therefore cannot fail; it is a permanent blessing, and can undergo no change; it is a durable blessing, and shall last for ever. III. ALL, WITHOUT , ARE TO CONFIDE IN THE SAME ALL- SAVIOUR (Isaiah 55:4-5). The connection leaves no doubt that Christ is here the subject of discourse. To the nations generally He reveals the Father, and brings life and immortality to light (Isaiah 55:5). In addition to the doctrinal instructions of this passage, we may learn from it a lesson in the art of invitation. 1. We must not address our invitations to a nature of which man is not possessed, but to his actual capacities and wants, admitting or assuming their reality and strength, and striving to convince him that they never can be satisfied by anything but that which is so freely offered in the Gospel [1689] 2. Let us see to it, that this great offer of the Gospel be distinctly and specifically held up to the sinner’s view, instead of suffering his mind to rest in a mere negative conviction that the world is not a satisfying portion, or allowing it to roam at large in search of untried sources of enjoyment. 3. Let no man be invited to a general, indefinite reliance upon mercy as an attribute of God, without regard to that particular and only way in which it can and will be exercised to fallen man; but let him be invited to a share in the provisions of that everlasting covenant which God has promised to bestow upon him.—J. A. Alexander: Gospel of Jesus Christ, pp. 345–356. [1689] A strange plant, called the nardoo, closely allied to the fern tribe, grows in the deserts of Central Australia. A peculiarly melancholy interest is connected with it, owing to the fact that its seeds formed for months together almost the sole food of the party of explorers who a few years ago crossed the continent. The nardoo satisfied their hunger; it produced a pleasant feeling of comfort and repletion. The natives were accustomed to eat it in the absence of their usual roots and fruits, not only without injury, but actually with positive benefit to their health. And yet day after day King and his friends became weaker and more emaciated upon this diet. Their flesh wasted from their bones, their strength was reduced to an infant’s feebleness, and they could only crawl painfully a mile or two a day. At last, when nearing the bourne of their hopes, they perished one by one of starvation, a solitary survivor being found in the last extremity under a tree, where he had laid him down to die, by a party sent out in search of the missing expedition. When analysed, the nardoo bread was ascertained to be destitute of certain nutritious elements indispensable to the support of a European, though an Australian savage might for a while find it beneficial as an alterative. And thus it happened that these poor unfortunate Englishmen perished of starvation, even while feeding fully day by day upon food that served to satisfy their hunger. Is it not precisely so in the experience of those who are seeking and finding their portion in earthly things? They are contented with it, and yet their hunger is in reality unappeased. Their desires are crowned, and yet they are actually perishing of want. God gives them their request, but sends leanness to their souls.—H. Macmillan.We are reminded— I. OF THE SINNER’S MISTAKE. He seeks happiness in the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world; sustenance for his soul in mere confectionery, which may allure the eye and gratify the palate, but which leaves the appetite craving, and the frame unrefreshed. II. OF THE SINNER’S FROM GOD, implied in the invitation, “Come unto me.” Considered as a fact, how astonishing it is—that the younger and well-beloved son should be found in this “far country;” how sorrowful—that he should be a swine-herd, and be hungrily devouring husks which cannot satisfy; how perilful—what must he the end of this alienation from God, and this vain attempt to satisfy the hunger of the soul with “carobs”? III. OF THE SINNER’S DISLIKE TO THE GOSPEL, implied in the exhortation, “Incline your ear.” The evidences of this fact are all around us; what are its causes? 1. Unbelief—unbelief in the great fact that true happiness is only to be found in the service of God. 2. Pride, which rebels against the humbling declarations of the Gospel as to man’s natural condition, and his entire inability to do anything to merit salvation. 3. Love of the world and fear of man. These things go together. Men shrink from the necessity which the Gospel imposes of adopting a standard differing from that acknowledged by “society,” and fear that by doing so they will hinder their worldly advancement. 4. Desire for self-indulgence. The fact that the Gospel will make no compromise with sin renders it offensive to vast multitudes. IV. OF THE OF THE WHICH GOD OFFERS TO THE AND SINNER. These are— 1. True satisfaction. 2. True and eternal life.—J. H. Stewart, M.A.: Lectures on Isaiah lv., pp. 25–40. We have already considered the hunger and thirst which men feel in the way of spiritual cravings. Our text expostulates with those who resort to unhealthy and unnatural ways to satisfy those cravings in the pursuit of sin. It reminds us that— I. Godless effort is misdirected, and therefore foolish expenditure. It is spending money for that which is not bread. Picture the folly which this would be in the case of famine and starvation. In spiritual matters this is being continually done. E.g.— 1. The mammon-worshipper is doing it. He spends all his energies upon the tasks of gain. What does he get? (Luke 12:20.) 2. The voluptuary is doing it. When the round of “pleasures” is exhausted, what is his reward? Vanity and vexation of spirit. 3. The merely religious formalist is doing it. Isaiah 1 clearly suggests what is to be got by the hollow pretences of religion. (See also Matthew 7:22-23.) II. All this involves not merely expenditure, but spiritual loss. “You labour for that which satisfieth not.” Not only money, but strength also goes; and therefore the loss is not external to ourselves, but a part of ourselves. Labour wears men down physically, &c. So here: the supreme matter of concern is the soul-loss that results. Consider our Lord’s question on this point: “What shall a man gain,” &c. Even suppose we get the little all that we seek in the realm of mere materialism, what then? Think of the soul degraded, impoverished, helpless, hopeless. What can compensate for a soul in ruins? The life of the soul is everything to us. III. This is a matter for reflection and decision. “Hearken,” &c. Observe— 1. One of the delusions of sin is that it throws men into a state of indifference. 2. The Gospel requires a man’s whole judgment and thought (Isaiah 1:18). 3. The Gospel also requires our voluntary surrender and obedience to God. IV. The foundation of the Gospel offer. “I will make,” &c. Much is said of this Davidic covenant, and the brief interpretation of it is, that David’s history runs in the line of God’s saving purpose, begun in Abraham and fulfilled in Christ. Love is at the root of it all (chap. Isaiah 54:8; Psalms 89:28). Christ is the real David of our faith. In Him we see the sureness of God’s infinite love (Romans 8:31-32). All else is fickle, transitory, perishing. The one hope of the world that abides amidst all change is God’s love. Here only can our enduring satisfaction be found, therefore give heed to Christ’s own word (John 7:27).—W. Manning. THE WAY TO LIFE Isaiah 55:3. Hear, and your soul shall live. The great secret of all true happiness is obedience to the will of God. And the fruitful cause of misery and discomfort, is the spirit of indifference to the Divine authority and contempt for the commands of Heaven. It is therefore of infinite importance that we should be acquainted with the rule and principle of obedience, and that its delightful effect in promoting our happiness should be so exhibited to our view, and impressed upon our hearts, as to induce and secure the performance of that which God commands. This is one great end of the Scripture revelation, &c. Obedience is enforced by a regard to our own happiness.… Nowhere, perhaps, is this more conspicuous than in this chapter.… And in the text, the principle is again displayed, that obedience to the Divine will is needful in order to receive any good. I. A FOR . 1. The Almighty Sovereign by whom the proclamation is made. Marvellous that He should stoop to speak to man, &c. Yet a latent scepticism prevails, leading men to overlook the fact that it is God who addresses them. God is speaking in His Word. 2. The solemn business to which the proclamation relates. The life of our soul—the life of God in the soul, &c. 3. The serious attention to this proclamation demanded. Several terms are brought together. Implies attention, humble submission, obedience (1 Samuel 15:22; Proverbs 1:24-26). II. A OF DIVINE FAVOUR. 1. The nature of the engagement proposed. 2. The peculiar properties of the covenant. Divine in its origin, eternal in its duration. 3. The invaluable blessings that flow from submission. These mercies are great, numerous, valid. Have you submitted to God? (Romans 10:1-4).—George Smith, D.D.I. THE MESSAGE IMPLIED. When we are commanded to “hear,” it is supposed that there is a voice which addresses us. This is none else than the voice of Jehovah, who addresses us in this chapter with peculiar energy and feeling. In the first verse we have an epitome of the whole Gospel. This is the message implied in the text. II. THE REGARD THIS MESSAGE DEMANDS. “Hear.” This command condemns such as do not hear the gospel when they have the opportunity of doing so. It also reproves such as do so only occasionally, and permit the most trivial engagements and excuses to keep them away from the sanctuary. But more is meant by hearing than your presence in the place where the Gospel is preached. Hear, 1. With attention (H. E. I. 2573–2576); 2. With affection; 3. With believing application (H. E. I. 2654–2658); 4. With obedient compliance; 5. With humble prayer. III. THE . It is a personal, spiritual, great, and sure advantage.—Thornhill Kidd: Fifty-three Sermons, pp. 1–7. How much of the language of Scripture is language of invitation! He who has the most and best to give is most free in disposing of it; and in this the Divine Benefactor proves that His thoughts and ways are above those of men. I. THE : the life of the soul. 1. The soul was originally made for life. 2. The soul’s life is endangered by sin, the wages of which are death. 3. The soul is redeemed by the death of Him who was and is “the Life,” even Jesus Christ. 4. The soul is capable of renewal and revival by the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, “the Lord and Giver of life.” 5. It is God’s pleasure that the soul should live. The true life of the soul is an immortal life. “Life and immortality” are Gospel gifts. II. THE IMPOSED: attention to the Divine voice. 1. A voluntary act. The first indispensable step in order to life is the giving heed to Heaven’s quickening voice. 2. Submission and self-surrender. This is involved in “Hear!” for this requires that self-sufficiency be given up, and that God’s voice be heeded as of supreme authority. 3. The approach and obedience of faith. “Come!” 4. The condition is one compatible both with God’s grace and with men’s freedom. Desert is out of the question; by hearing men cannot merit or earn life. At the same time the condition imposes a true probation to all who are addressed. The terms of life are not hard; they are suitable to man, the receiver; they are honourable to God, the Giver!—Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 117. I. Reasons for a diligent attention to the voice of Christ in His Word. 1. The majesty and grace of Him who addresses you (Isaiah 55:4, and others). 2. The great end proposed by Christ, for which He seeks a conference with you. That your souls may live—live a life of faith, holiness, happiness, &c. 3. The rich consolations which follow a devout reception of the Word. All the blessings of grace and glory. 4. The awful denunciations following a neglected Gospel. II. Requisites for a profitable attendance. 1. Before you come—meditation and prayer. 2. When you come—with prayer, reverence, faith—Christ is present with all His capacity to bless. 3. Afterwards, aim to retain the impression. Where hearing ends practising begins.—Samuel Thodey. CHRIST GIVEN FOR A WITNESS, LEADER, AND Isaiah 55:4. Behold, I have given Him for a witness, &c.In going into the wide world and entering upon the stern battle of life, feelings of doubt and uncertainty are not unfrequently experienced, especially by the young. They are comparatively ignorant of the difficulties, &c., that are before them; they have heard much from their seniors of the snares, &c., in life’s path; they have read many a story of moral wreck and ruin, or of suffering innocence and unprincipled prosperity, and consequently they often shrink from the arduous duties which spread out before them. How eagerly at this juncture of life do they long for some friend or guide to direct them, and when such an one is found with what unshrinking adherence and tenacity do they cling to that friend. What they so naturally and earnestly desire, and what we all stand in need of, our Heavenly Father has graciously provided in Christ, of whom the prophet speaks in the text. I. GOD’S GIFT TO MAN. 1. The Person given. His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Isaiah 55:3; Ezekiel 37:25; John 3:16, and others). Given in purpose and in promise, He came “in the fulness of time”—the completion of the designed period, the exact date when all things were ready for His coming (Galatians 4:4). What an infinitely great and glorious gift! manifesting in the highest possible degree God’s boundless love towards us, for His Son was infinitely dear to Him, and sinners were infinitely vile in His sight (John 3:16; John 15:13; Romans 5:7-8; Romans 8:32). “Thanks”—eternal thanks—“be unto God for His gift!” (Cf. p. 112, 113). 2. To whom He was given. To the peoples or nations of the world universally, as the subsequent verses express The Evangelical Prophet loved to dwell on this delightful truth—one of the chief glories of the Gospel (Isaiah 25:6, and others). The Messiah was given to be the Saviour, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles—the race that had rebelled, and were in a hopeless condition (Isaiah 49:6; Luke 2:10; John 6:33; John 17:21; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 John 2:2; Hebrews 2:9). What “glad tidings of great joy!” Christ is God’s great gift to you; receive Him here and NOW. II. GOD’S PURPOSE IN THE GIFT OF HIS SON. He has given Him— 1. For a Witness. The office of a witness is to give evidence of some important fact or facts. Thus Christ is a witness (John 18:37). He states facts. He is the great Prophet and Teacher, the perfect Revealer of Divine truth to mankind, of everything necessary to salvation. By the fall man has lost the knowledge of God, and Christ is the only source of spiritual light (John 1:9; John 8:12). All who lived before His advent were enlightened by Him (1 Peter 1:10-11). He bore witness even unto death (1 Timothy 6:13). (1.) To the beneficence of God’s laws. (2.) To the mercifulness of God’s character, manifested especially in His gracious provision for man’s salvation—provision full and free, &c. (3.) To the justness of God’s claims—based upon redeeming love. (4.) To the reliableness of God’s promises. (5.) To the condemnation of the unbelieving and disobedient (John 3:16-19; John 3:36, and others). As a witness He is (1.) credible and competent; His credentials are supreme; He is thoroughly acquainted with everything of which He testifies; He can be trusted implicitly without fear. (2.) Faithful and final, because Divine. False witnesses abound—beware! But this witness cannot be deceived, nor can He deceive us. Thank God for such a “faithful and true witness.” Listen to, and confide in His testimony as recorded in the Scriptures of truth (John 8:12). 2. For a Leader. The same word is translated “Captain,” “Ruler,” “Prince” (2 Samuel 5:2; 1 Samuel 25:30; Ezekiel 28:2; Daniel 9:25). The expression may be understood in such an extensive meaning, as applied to Christ as possessed of supreme authority and jurisdiction over the Church, and over the world, in His mediatorial capacity. This is the grand glory of Christ our King (Ephesians 1:20-23; Revelation 19:16). The office of a leader is to go before, to conduct, &c. As such Christ executes this office— (1.) By the instructions of His Word. (2.) By His perfect example (John 13:15; 1 Peter 2:21; Hebrews 12:2). He never says go, always come; because He has gone before us in hardship and suffering, &c. “He leads us through no darker roomsThan He went through before.”(3.) By the light of His Spirit. (4.) By the events of His providence. He has never led one astray, but millions to a glorious character and heaven. Is He your Leader? Can you say, “He leadeth me”? What an unspeakable blessing is a Divinely guided life (P. D. 1640). 3. FOR A (Zechariah 6:13; 1 Chronicles 16:15-16; Psalms 33:9; Psalms 110:2-3; Isaiah 2:3-4). As Commander— (1.) He enlists for the conflict against foes. (2.) He trains for service. (3.) He gives orders. (4.) He provides the weapons—not carnal. (5.) He encourages by His presence. (6.) He leads and goes forward to victory. Are you submitting to His rule, obeying His commands, fighting under His banner, &c. (2 Timothy 2:3-4)? Let not “other lords” have dominion over you—He only has the right. You have been called into His kingdom. But you cannot have Him as your Saviour unless you take Him as your Sovereign. “Where Jesus comes He comes to reign.” Trajan won the heart of his soldiers by tearing up his royal robe to bind a soldier’s wound. “The King Immortal” gave His life for you.! But if you refuse His righteous reign your danger and doom cannot be exaggerated.—A. Tucker.I. THE GRAND . Christ is the greatest gift God could bestow, or man receive. All that He is, has done, has obtained, is given. This is a gift— 1. We could not claim. 2. We did not deserve. 3. We did not ask. 4. We cannot adequately estimate. “God only knows the love of God.” II. THE SPECIAL UNDER WHICH CHRIST IS . 1. As a Witness to the people. 2. As a Leader, &c. 3. As a Commander, &c. III. THE REGARD DUE TO HIM UNDER THESE . 1. Is He a Gift? Receive Him with cheerfulness, gratitude, affection. 2. Is He a Witness? Believe and rest upon His faithful word. 3. Is He a Leader? Follow Him in every conflict. Rely upon His presence and wisdom in every emergency, &c. 4. Is He a Commander? Let your obedience to Him as a Sovereign attest your love to Him as God’s chief gift.—Samuel Thodey.I. The representation afforded of the Mediatorial offices of the Saviour. Numerous and varied epithets are employed in sacred Scripture to describe Christ. They are not empty and unmeaning, as among men; but describe a corresponding variety and excellence in His Person and work. Examine the several terms used in the text, and mark their mutual relation and bearing on each other. 1. As a Witness. 2. As a Leader. 3. As a Commander. II. The circumstances connected with His designation to these offices. They are remarkable, and claim our best attention. 1. He is Divinely appointed. 2. He is graciously bestowed. 3. He was given for the advantage of a countless number. 4. He was given in such a way as to demand our attention. “Behold!” Contemplate the fact with astonishment. Put yourself under the guidance and control of this great Leader. Confide in Him. “Follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.”—George Smith, D.D. THE CALLING OF THE Isaiah 55:5. Behold, Thou shalt call a nation that Thou knowest not, &c.It early obtained belief in the Christian Church, that Isaiah was sawn assunder for predicting so freely the vocation of the Gentiles by Messiah. Paul mentions it as a proof of his moral heroism (Romans 10:20-21, with Ch. Isaiah 49:6). These words were uttered long after this country was a part of the Gentile world; and perhaps, in importance, it is the principal instance of it, considering what we have become, what we have done, what we are doing, and what we seem destined to accomplish. The text calls for our attention—“Behold!” And what you are to behold regards the Messiah, and consists in these four things— I. HIS . 1. A nation that He knew not. This seems a paradox. Did He not know all His creatures? The apparent difficulty may be easily solved, when you remember that the word “knowledge,” in the Scriptures, signifies not merely intelligence, perception, apprehension; but approbation, regard, due acknowledgment (1 Thessalonians 5:13, and others). The Messiah did not, and could not, view the Gentiles with regard and complacency; He could not thus know them. There was everything among them offensive to the eyes of His holiness. Idolatry is the essence of all evil—accompanied with cruelty, impurity, &c. Yet we do not deem it impossible that the heathen should be saved. 2. Nations that knew Him not. It is true, they did not love Him, but they could not, because they were destitute of the knowledge of Him, “sitting in darkness,” &c. It is not the reality of things, therefore, but the knowledge of them, which must affect and influence us (Romans 10:13-15; Ch. Isaiah 53:11, and others). This implies, therefore, the importance of what follows; viz.— II. HIS WORK. He will “call.” This takes in very much. He calls by the blessings of His gracious providence; by affliction, &c. You are all, therefore, among the called of God. Perhaps you have never, to this hour, obeyed His voice. But the calling here intended, is principally by preaching of the Gospel; for “faith cometh by hearing,” &c. His calling by the Gospel is not only to inform, but to accomplish their pardon. His calling was to awaken their attention, and to justify the appropriation of the blessings displayed. III. HIS SUCCESS. 1. Observe the centre—“Thee” (Genesis 49:10; John 6:68, and others). 2. The swiftness, “They shall,” not walk to Thee—they “shall run to Thee” (Ch. Isaiah 60:8; Hebrews 6:18). What can there be in any case that would induce a man to run, that might not be applied in a much higher degree to sinners, who are seeking salvation? The nearness of the danger? The magnitude of the object? The extreme want of it? The strength of their desire? The shortness and uncertainty of their opportunity? IV. THE CAUSE OF HIS SUCCESS. 1. The glorification of the Messiah. 2. The season “hath,” marks the certainty of the accomplishment. 3. The connection this glory has with, and the influence it has over, this conversion of sinners. His glorification is the ground of all our confidence in God. Surely this is enough to induce and encourage them. This glorification furnishes Him as Mediator with His power to save, and it ensures the salvation of sinners. “This day this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”—W. Jay: The Pulpit.I. The Father speaking to the Messiah, assures Him of success.I. The Call.—Behold, Thou shalt call a nation that Thou knowest not. Does not mean that Christ is ignorant of any nation, but that He does not know them as His followers, since they are not His followers. And nations that know not Thee. Perhaps, absolutely ignorant of Him; ignorant of Him, however, as the Messiah, the Son of God, their Saviour. He shall call them by His servants, His Spirit. 2. The result.—They shall, not walk, but run unto Him, indicating their eagerness and joy to receive Him. Has been partially realised in the past, is being realised somewhere every day, will be fully realised in the future. Every habitation of cruelty in the world to become the abode of peace and love. The dark places of the earth, to be lit up with the light of His Gospel. The knowledge of the Lord to cover the whole earth. Nations to be born to Him in a day. The kingdoms of this world, &c. II. The cause of His success.The nations will see by the agency of the Holy Spirit that God had appointed Christ to be the Saviour of man, and had glorified Him. May we give, labour, and pray, to hasten the dawn of this glorious day.—A. M’Auslane, D.D.I. The condition of the Gentiles. Unknown. Unknowing. II. Their call. Effected by the Gospel. Eagerly received. III. The cause. Displays of Divine power. Diffusion of the Divine Spirit. Consequent on Christ’s glorification.—J. Lyth, D.D.I. The gospel is for the world. II. The world is ready to receive it. III. Divine power accompanies it. IV. Therefore send it.—J. Lyth, D.D. GOD UNKNOWN YET KNOWN Isaiah 55:6-9. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, &c.There is a paradox in these words. They invite us to seek a God who yet cannot be found, to know a God who yet cannot be known. For where should we seek God if not in His “ways;” or how shall we know Him except by coming to know His “thoughts”? And yet, while we are urged to seek Him, we are expressly told that His thoughts and ways are as high above ours as the heavens are high above the earth. Is God, then, unknowable absolutely? Consider—I. THE ANSWER TO THAT BY SCIENCE AND . Science says, or some of her disciples say for her: “In the whole range of visible and observed phenomena we find no proof of God.” What then? If men will go to the visible for the invisible, to phenomena for realities, how can they hope to find what they seek? They might as well go to the sand of the desert for water, or to the troubled sea for a solid foundation. Votaries of philosophy say: “In the whole range of human experience and knowledge we can find no proof that God is, or no means of coming to know Him as He is.” What then? So far as their affirmation is true, do they say anything the world has not heard on still higher authority before?—anything which the Bible does not say again and again? “Canst thou by searching find out God!” No doubt we know Him, in part, by our reason. According to one great thinker, the starry heavens and the law of conscience are a sufficient proof of the being and rule of God to the thoughtful and susceptible heart. Still, it is an open question whether the logic and researches of reason can carry us further than the position assumed by one of the leading expositors of modern science, who says, “that there is a God I can neither affirm nor deny; that we can discover and know Him I wholly doubt: and yet in my most open and best moods I am dimly aware of the Creative Power which we call God.” And perhaps we shall never be able to prove the existence of God any more than we can prove our own.II. THE ANSWER BY . The Scriptures, in a great variety of forms, do proclaim God to be above our reach. The Bible nowhere undertakes to demonstrate His existence, though it everywhere assumes and asserts it; and God Himself has warned us that we must wait for a full and perfect knowledge of Him until this mortal put on immortality. Admitting God to be unknowable, the Bible yet affirms that He may be known. We cannot find Him out to perfection, but He sufficiently and most truly reveals Himself to us in His works, in His Word, in His Son. Take the illustration of the text. God’s thoughts and ways, we are told, are as high above ours as the heavens above the earth. But the heavens, high as they are, are yet known to us, and, though known, are yet unknown. The most accomplished astronomer will tell you that in the heaven above, as in the earth beneath us, there is very much more to be learned than he has acquired or hopes to acquire. But though “heaven” be so imperfectly known to us, does any sane man doubt that there is a heaven, or that it holds within it the sun, moon, and stars? We know at least enough of the heavens to guide us in all the practical purposes of life. And it is precisely in the same sense that God is both known to us and unknown. We cannot learn all that He is, all that He does, or all the reasons which determine the several aspects of His providence; but we may know, we do know and are sure, that He is, and that He rules over all. For consider—III. THAT IN MAN TO WHICH GOD REVEALS HIMSELF. The pure in heart shall see God. The Bible says: “The righteous God reveals Himself to righteousness, the pure God to purity, the kind God to kindness.” In proportion as we approach to moral purity and perfection, we possess ourselves of the organ or instrument by which we may see Him. Paul affirms that as we nourish ourselves in faith, in hope, in charity, we shall come to know Him even as also we are known by Him; and John, that if we purify ourselves we shall hereafter see Him as He is, and be like Him. Is not that the way in which we come to know all persons, and especially good persons? The child does not know his father perfectly; but need he doubt that he has a father? Do we not know that God is, although we are but children in understanding? Is not this scriptural, this Divine way of coming to know God the natural and reasonable way? It is not by arbitrary caprice that God often hides Himself from the wise who want to find Him out by logic, by quest of intellect, by force of reason and induction, and reveals Himself to the “babes” who keep a simple, sincere, and loving heart. It is only because goodness and purity and kindness can only reveal themselves to kindness and purity and goodness. The true way to know God is by the heart, by the great moral qualities and emotions through which we are most closely akin to Him.—Samuel Cox, D.D.: Genesis of Evil, pp. 61–76.The incredible Mercy of GodIf there be some who find it hard to believe that there is a God, there are others who find it equally hard to believe that He is good,—so good that He can forgive all sins, even theirs, and cleanse them from all their iniquities. The Prophet had been commissioned to carry a message to the captive Jews. It was that, heinous as their iniquity had been, it was pardoned; and that to the merciful and relenting heart of Jehovah it seemed as if they had already endured “double” for all their sins, i.e., twice as much as their sins had deserved (Isaiah 40:2). Hence He was about to appear for them, to appear among them, delivering them from their captivity (Isaiah 40:3-11; Isaiah 55:12-13). In this message, God was drawing near to them; finding them, that they might find Him. But sinful men, especially when they are suffering the bitter punishment of their sins, are apt to be hopeless men.As nothing is possible to doubt and despair, God sets Himself to remove the natural incredulity and hopelessness of the men He was about to save. That His mercy is incredible, He admits; but He affirms that it is only incredible in the sense of being incredibly larger and better than they imagine it to be. They might have found it impossible to forgive those who had sinned against them as they had sinned against Him. “But,” pleads God, “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” &c. The main point of these verses is not so much that God Himself is unknowable to us, as that His mercy is incredible to us. If, then, we would learn the lesson of these words, and take their comfort, what we have to do is,I. TO AND THAT THE MERCY OF GOD IS , , GREATER THAN WE HAVE IT TO BE, SO MUCH GREATER THAT IT APPEARS TO BE TO US. We must get ourselves to believe, that the more largely we think of the Divine Mercy the more truly we think of it, if only we remember that it is a mercy which does not condone men’s sins, which calls upon them and compels them to abandon their “wicked ways” and their “unrighteous thoughts.” No mercy short of this would be true mercy. To make men happy in their sins is impossible, as impossible as to make them good in their sins. For sin is misery. And even if this ignoble miracle were possible, who that is capable of reflection, of virtue, of goodness, would care to have such a miracle wrought upon him? To be happy in sin he must cease to be himself, cease to be a man. What we really desire when we ask for mercy is a mercy that will be at the pains to cleanse us from the soils of evil and strike its fetters from our souls. And so long as we cherish this desire, we may be sure that the mercy of God stands waiting to meet it, to outrun all our thoughts and expectations, all our wishes and hopes. The very punishments that wait on sin, since they wait on it by a constant and invariable law, are designed for our good. This law makes us terribly aware that we have sinned,—a fact we are very slow to realise. We ought to take the retributions which wait on sin, not as proofs that God has abandoned us and ceased to care for us, but as proofs that He is near us, so near that, if we seek, we shall find Him, that, if we call on Him, He will answer us. By His merciful punishments God is at once convicting us of sin and calling on us to repent, that, repenting, we may be forgiven, purged, saved.II. WE MUST EXPECT TO BE OF THE PITY AND OF GOD, NOT SO MUCH BY HAVING THE OF HIS LAWS TO US, AS BY TO THE MEN WHOM WE BELIEVE TO HAVE HAD THE LARGEST OF HIS WAYS AND TO ENJOY THE WITH HIS . This is a corollary from the conclusion, that it is not by arguments addressed to the understanding that we come to know God, or the mercy of God, but by experience and sympathy. Just as we come to know the righteous God by becoming righteous, so we may hope to learn more of Him from the men whose righteousness is far more eminent and conspicuous than our own. Just as we come to know the mercy of God by becoming merciful, so we may hope to acquaint ourselves more fully with Him by listening to men far more merciful and gracious than ourselves. Such a man, and teacher, was the prophet who penned these words. This man has a claim to speak of God with an authority which few can rival. And this is what he has to say to you of God,—that God’s mercy transcends all your conceptions of mercy, that it seems incredible to you only because it is so large and rich and free that you can very hardly bring yourselves to believe in it. Isaiah’s testimony is, that in all those painful, restless, self-despairing moods bred in you by the sense of sin, God is drawing near to you, and calling on you to seek His face; and that, if you do seek Him, you shall find Him.—Samuel Cox, D.D., Genesis of Evil, pp. 77–90.SEEKING THE LORD Isaiah 55:6-8. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, &c.The previous context was addressed, in the first instance, to the Jews; and now the prophet seems to press upon them the practical question—What, then, ought you to do? Shall the Gentiles (Isaiah 55:5) enter the kingdom of heaven before you? How will you prevent it? By excluding them? No; the true course is to enter with them, or, if you will, before them. But it may be doubted whether this is the chief meaning of the text. Its terms are in no respect more restricted than those of the preceding verses, and especially the first part of the chapter, which obviously relates to the wants of men in general, and the best way to supply them. Notice in this passage— I. THE REASON IMPLIED FOR THE COMMAND. If the words “while He is near” denote “while He continues in a special covenant relation to the Jews,” then the command would seem to imply that by seeking the Lord and calling upon Him, that peculiar, exclusive covenant relation might be rendered perpetual, which was not the case. Or if, on the other hand, “while He may be found” denotes in a general way the possibility of finding favour and forgiveness at His hands, then the reason suggested is in no respect more applicable to the Jews than to the Gentiles. In this sense God was just as near to the one as to the other. The principles on which He would forgive and save were just the same in either case. The necessity of seeking, the nature of the object sought, the way of seeking it, are wholly independent of external circumstances. There is a limit to the offer of salvation, which is made to all. If there were not, sin would be without control. If the sinner could suspend his choice for ever, there would be no punishment. Even in this life there is a limit. There is a time when God is near, and when He may be found. There must be a time, therefore, when He is no longer near, and is no longer to be found. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD IS TO BE SOUGHT. Not in this or that locality. Regard not those who say, “Lo, here; lo, there!” “Call upon Him.” But is no reformation, no change of life required? Not as the meritorious cause of salvation. It is purchased by another. But you cannot avail yourselves of it and continue as you are. The same voice which says, “Seek ye the Lord,” says likewise (Isaiah 55:7), “Let the wicked forsake his way”—a common figure for the course of conduct. He who would tread the way of God must forsake the way of sin. How?—by a mere external reformation? No; the law of God extends to the “thoughts,” &c. But this is still merely negative. It cannot be that what God calls men to is a mere negation, a mere abstinence. There must be commands as well as prohibitions. The mere cessation of former habits would be insufficient; nay, it is impossible. An active being must have something to seek as well as something to avoid. Evil courses can be really abandoned in no other way than by exchanging them for good ones. This is a dictate of nature, of reason, of experience, of revelation. “Let him return unto the Lord.” The fact is assumed that all have departed from Him. The words may seem strictly applicable only to backsliders; but they are indeed appropriate to all mankind. Can any departure be more real or deplorable than that which involves, not merely individuals, but the whole human family? The terms of the summons do indeed point back to that original apostasy under the curse of which the whole race groans. In the exercise of faith in Christ, and of that repentance which has never yet failed to accompany it since the world began, and of that zeal and obedience which can no more fail to spring from such repentance and such faith than the fruit can fail to spring from the prolific seed, “Let the wicked forsake his way,” &c. III. THE HELD OUT TO RETURN. It is man’s part to forsake his evil ways and thoughts, to return to God, to seek Him, and to call upon Him. None of these can he do until God enable him. But this is true of every service which man ever renders. Though unable of himself to do these things, he is still bound to do them. It is his part to do them; and when he has performed his part, what does God promise in return? What will He do for man? He will have mercy upon him. Mercy is the inducement offered, and mercy is precisely what the sinner needs. Without this nothing can be given, or, if given, can do him any good. Mercy implies two things, misery and guilt. In all of us, the two pre-requisites are found abundantly—misery present and prospective, misery not produced by chance, but by our own sin. To us, then, this inducement ought to be a strong one. But, alas! the sinner is insensible of his condition. IV. THE PROOF THAT SIN AND ARE . Isaiah 55:8 gives a reason for the call to reformation and repentance. Here the same two words are placed in opposition—“ways” and “thoughts”—“let the wicked,” &c., i.e., you cannot walk in My ways and the ways of sin; you cannot think My thoughts, and yet cherish thoughts of sin; you must choose between sin and salvation. Many are afraid of hell; they are willing to be saved from it, but that is all. That slavish fear is the sum of their religion. They must keep their sins. Judge not God by man. God pardons nothing, or He pardons all. Man may be unforgiving when he is not just. God can be just, and yet not unforgiving. Man can be himself unjust, and yet condemn the innocent. God can be just, and yet justify the guilty. His grace will not save men in sin, but will freely save them from sin—since it will pardon sin itself to the believer, and whenever it pardons at all, will abundantly pardon even the chief of sinners—however foreign such forgiveness may be from human passions and human feelings: let the sinner hesitate and doubt no longer.—J. Alexander, D.D.: Gospel of Jesus Christ, pp. 357–370. The characters here described. All are sinners, but some have repented and obtained forgiveness; while some remain impenitent and unforgiven. To which class do you belong? If to the latter, this discourse is especially addressed to you. I. A . The Lord, “may be found. “He is near.” “He will have mercy.” “He will abundantly pardon.” God is ready to save sinners. As a father, who follows the steps of his wayward son, unwilling to cast him off, anxious to induce his return, ready to receive him on the first indication of a change. His heart is full of mercy. He desires to bestow a full forgiveness and make the reconciliation complete. There is the fullest proof of this— 1. In the atonement of Christ, which in itself and by the Divine arrangement affords a satisfactory basis for the exercise of mercy. 2. In the declarations of His word. 3. In the preaching of the gospel. This proclamation of mercy to man proceeds from the Divine love. II. AN EARNEST CALL. “Seek ye the Lord,” &c. 1. It is practical. It implies that the sinner must not lie still and wait for some hitherto unexperienced impulse. In the work of salvation there is doubtless something he cannot do. But there is something he can do. The text demands action. Do that which lies within your own province and is in your own power. 2. It is plain. What do these directions involve? (1.) Repentance. (2.) Abandonment of sin—God will save no man in his sins. (3.) Prayer. He is to be called upon. God’s readiness and desire to save do not dispense with the necessity for prayer. He does not force salvation on any. He excites the desire for it, and then responds to the sinner’s cry. The penitent is sure to cry. The first sign of a child’s life is when it cries. (4.) Faith. Faith in the word of God, faith in the saving power of Christ, which, however feeble at first, renounces self-righteousness as well as sin, and rests simply in Him (Romans 10:11; Romans 10:14). 3. It is essential. III. A SOLEMN . “While He may be found.” “While He is near.” This is clearly a monition. It indicates that there is a limit beyond which the opportunity is not extended. The opportunity is limited to the present life. We will not enter upon the awful question of judicial blindness; the terrible case of those who so persistently refuse to see the truth of Christ that their blindness and hardness become a punitive infliction. Nor on the cases of those whose opportunities are terminated by removal of residence, or by sickness. Nor on the cases of those whose opportunities are cut short by the terrible occurrence of insanity before the gospel is accepted; except to remark that the question is fairly suggested, how they will be dealt with, who up to the moment when the condition of responsibility ceased to exist, failed to seek the mercy which had been proffered. We will assume that ordinarily the opportunity, the possibility of salvation, continues during the present life. But the text implies the termination of that possibility. The present life is the grand opportunity. There is none beyond. At least, whatever may be the principle on which those will be dealt with to whom the gospel was never made known, the warnings addressed in Scripture to the hearers of the gospel imply that, so far as they are concerned, no second opportunity will be afforded. And none can say how near death is. Accept the offer of mercy without delay.—J. Rawlinson.I. A DUTY , viz., to make the favour of God the object of our pursuit. “Seek ye the Lord,” “Call ye upon Him.” We must seek Him; 1, in the way of genuine repentance. It is vain to think of seeking God without such sorrow for sin and hatred of it, as lead on to “cease to do evil, and to learn to do well” (H. E. I. 4269–4273). 2. In the exercise of faith in Christ. He alone has made provision for our return to God; and if we do not take advantage of the provision thus made for us, we must remain at a distance from God for ever (John 14:6). 3. In the use of those outward means of grace which He has appointed, such as the Word of God and prayer. We cannot expect that God will work miracles on our behalf. If we wish for the manifestation of His favour, we must wait for it in the use of such means as He has instituted for the purpose of making such manifestation to the soul (H. E. I., 3444–3459). II. A TIME FOR ITS . There is one sense in which God is ever to be found, and is ever near us. But Isaiah does not here refer to His omnipresence, for that is perpetual. He means a nearness of God in a way of grace and favour, a readiness in His appointed way to bestow every blessing upon us. In this sense, it is the plain doctrine of the text, that there is a time when He is near us and will be found of us, and that there is also a time when He is distant from us and will not be found of us. 1. This is a truth which holds good in the case of collective bodies of men. For nations there is a time of mercy. God affords them in rich abundance the means of grace; this is the accepted time, when God is near and ready to be found. If these privileges are abused or neglected, there follows a time of wrath, and He will no longer be found of a people who have thus slighted His mercy. Examples: (1) Compare what is said of the Jewish nation (in Deuteronomy 4) with their present condition. (2) The nations among whom Christian churches were planted by the apostles and their immediate successors, now, as the just reward of the abuse of their privileges, groaning, for the most part, under the scourge of Mohammedan tyranny and imposture. How full of solemn admonition are these instances for the inhabitants of this land! 2. It holds good also in respect to individuals.— (1) With respect to every person who is favoured with the means of grace there is a time of mercy, in which, if he seeks the Lord, He will be found of him. Generally speaking, this is the time of the present life. More especially it is vouchsafed when, by means of His Word, His Spirit strives in our hearts. The hour of conviction should be the hour of conversion. (2) But for individuals also there is a time of wrath, in which God will no longer be found of them. If we neglect to seek Him until we are removed out of this world by death, it will then be for ever too late to do so (Luke 13:25). But it is by no means impossible that that time may arrive even on this side of the grave. If we persevere in acting in defiance of our convictions, if we refuse to yield to the salutary motions of His Spirit, He may be provoked to give us over to final impenitence and to judicial hardness of heart (H. E. I., 2349, 4249, 4250).—John Natt, B.D.: Posthumous Sermons, pp. 168–183. Implies— I. THAT MANKIND HAVE LOST HIM. 1. This loss is caused by sin (Isaiah 53:6; Isaiah 59:2). Sin has offended the Divine Lawgiver. Hence there is moral distance between Him and us. We are aliens, strangers, far off by wicked works. While man was holy he had communion with Him; but the pure One cannot commune with transgressors. We have lost the Divine friendship, image, &c. 2. This loss is the precursor of infinite and eternal loss. Who can fully estimate it? 3. It is a loss which no human resources can repair (Micah 6:6-7; Romans 9:31-32; Romans 10:1-3). II. THAT A WAY HAS BEEN DEVISED BY WHICH THE DIVINE FAVOUR MAY BE . That way is through the mediation of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19; John 3:16; Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12). Formerly, the Lord was sought through sacrifices; but all were typical of the one great sacrifice offered up on Calvary. Those harbingers of the cross are now no more, a Divine Victim has bled, and the way of salvation is through Christ (Hebrews 7:25). III. TO THE PLAN OF BY THE USE OF THOSE MEANS . Man has sought out many inventions by which to be saved Romans 10:1-3, with Philippians 3:4-9; 1 Corinthians 3:11). 1. A deep conviction that we cannot be happy till we have found the Lord, combined with the renunciation of self-righteousness (Acts 2:37). 2. Diligent inquiry and attention. 3. Faith in Christ and earnest prayer. IV. SEEKING THE LORD . We are prone to procrastinate. Some say they are too young, &c. The Lord may be more easily found— 1. In early life. 2. Under the preaching of the Gospel (Galatians 3:1). 3. When under Divine conviction. .—The privilege of seeking the Lord is limited to the present life. Our opportunities are passing away, &c. Seek Him now.—Helps for the Pulpit: Second series, pp. 10–14. Propose and answer three questions— I. Why you should seek the Lord?We could give many reasons why you should, but you cannot give one why you should not. That a man should be religious is the first dictate of reason, and the first command of Revelation. It is recommended too by the sense of interest (1 Timothy 4:8). Seek the Lord for three reasons— 1. Because you cannot be happy without Him. 2. Because you have much to apprehend from His displeasure as sinners. 3. Because you have everything to hope for from His friendship. “In His favour is life.” II. When you should seek the Lord?1. Now, while He may be found. 2. Now, while He is near. III. How you should seek the Lord?1. Penitently. Renouncing the sins you have loved. 2. Believingly, without distrust. 3. Joyfully, without despondence. 4. Continually, without end.—S. Thodey.I. The character of the persons to whom the invitation is directed. Partly implied, and in part declared. They are distinguished not by their excellence and valuable qualities, but rather by those marks which prove them unworthy of the Divine regard or consideration. Such is our natural condition, and hence to us is the word of salvation sent. 1. To such as are ignorant of God. This is implied in the exhortation to seek Him. Man is naturally unacquainted with Him. 2. To those whose characters are marked by the wickedness of their lives. 3. To those whose state is indicated by their thoughts. Men look at the outward appearance, God at the heart. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” II. The nature of the exhortations addressed to them. It is the manner of God and not of men thus to speak. 1. The import of the injunctions. These are suited to the characters of the persons addressed. They are exhorted— (1.) To seek the Lord. (2.) To the exercise of prayer. (3.) The abandonment of every sinful course. (4.) Return to God. No more neutrality. 2. The season to which these exhortations apply. III. The encouragements afforded to an immediate obedience. 1. The promise of mercy. 2. A plenitude of forgiveness. 3. Confirmation derived from the experience of others: “And to our God”—the God of His people. The language of piety—the experience of those who have found mercy. The idea is, He who has bestowed mercy upon us, will be ready to bestow it on others. “I obtained mercy.” .—Learn the duty of immediate return to God and submission to Christ. Come as you are.—George Smith, D.D.I. There is moral distance between Christ and unconverted sinners. He thinks of them; they do not think of Him. He loves them; they do not love Him. He wishes them to do His will for their own benefit; they refuse. Awful antagonism. II. This moral distance can be removed. How? Not by sinners remaining passive. They must seek the Lord; know Him; call upon Him; pray to Him; trust Him. III. A time when this moral distance cannot be removed. When will this be? No day nor hour specified. The duty of sinners, therefore, is to seek and call now. Do not delay for a moment, lest then it may be too late.—A. M’Auslane, D.D.PARDON TOR THE Isaiah 55:7-9. Let the wicked forsake his way, &c.I. AN TO . Embraces three particulars. 1. The wicked man must forsake his way—the way of the multitude who do evil, the broad way which leadeth to destruction. We should confess our sin. But true repentance is something more than a bare confession of sin; it is a forsaking of sin (Isaiah 1:16; H. E. I. 4269–4272). 2. The unrighteous man must forsake his thoughts. It is not enough that the outward conduct should become moral, decent, and amiable. This is the case with many who yet know nothing of the grace of God in truth. Repentance, when it is genuine, strikes at the root of the evil: it will no more allow its possessor to indulge impure ideas, sinful thoughts, and unholy affections than it will suffer him to become guilty of gross immoralities and abominable crimes. It labours to expel from the temple of the heart whatever is displeasing in the sight of God, and endeavours to keep it swept and garnished for His reception (Psalms 19:12; Psalms 19:14), 3. His evil way and his evil thoughts forsaken, the penitent must next return unto the Lord, like the prodigal son in the parable. II. A PROMISE OF PARDON. Upon the man who really obeys the exhortation God will have mercy, and will abundantly pardon him. Penitence is the indispensable pre-requisite to pardon. Not that it entitles any man to it (H. E. I. 4225–4228); but it qualifies us for it. III. AN TO LAY HOLD ON THE PROMISE (Isaiah 55:8-9). Before the truly penitent, their guilt often lies so clear and huge, that it seems to them that it would be presumption were they to hope for pardon. They are awe-stricken by the number of their sins, or by their enormity, or by the fact that they are the transgressions of backsliders. They feel that they could not forgive corresponding offenders and offences against themselves. See how the prophet answers them (Isaiah 55:8-9; H. E. I. 2331–2337.—Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 170–186. I. The resemblance between God and man. 1. God has His “thoughts.” Multitudes of these have been manifested in creative works, providential events, the plan of salvation, &c. Man has his “thoughts.” He is always thinking, even when sleeping. Cannot prevent him from thinking. This is the grandeur of his nature. 2. God has His “ways”—His methods of working. So has man. II. The difference between God and man in regard to thoughts and ways. Might be illustrated variously; the text limits us to pardon. 1. Men unwilling to pardon. God extremely willing. 2. Men disposed to pardon a few. God ready to pardon all. 3. Men inclined to pardon certain offences. God will blot out all iniquities. 4. Where are the men who make sacrifices to pardon? God, to pardon, gave His Son, &c. III. This difference renders a moral change on the part of man necessary.1. Unless he does so he cannot have fellowship with God. Two cannot walk together except they are agreed. God does not require to change, therefore man must change or be lost for ever. 2. If man returns to God, He will most mercifully deal with him. What encouragement!—A. M’Auslane, D.D. MAN’S ABILITY TO TURN TO GOD AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL Isaiah 55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, &c.God has done and is doing, in the work of Christ and in the work of the Holy Spirit, all that is needful for the salvation of every child of Adam, and having done this He now commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel. That man is able to turn to God and believe the Gospel is evident from the following considerations:— I. The distinction between the work of God and the work of man in conversion. A clear distinction between them is manifest from what God is said to do, and what man is required to do. God says that He will teach man in the way he should go; man’s work is to learn of God, &c In short, God’s work is to enlighten, to renew, to beget, to change the heart, to turn man to Himself; man’s work is to hear, to repent, to believe, to turn to God. Hence it is that conversion is ascribed sometimes to God, and sometimes to man; sometimes to the Word, and sometimes to the sinner himself. And all this accords with the nature of the case. [1692][1692] Suppose a traveller is on a wrong road, and another calls him to turn, and he believes and obeys the call. What then? The other turned him, his word turned him, and he turned himself. There is no contradiction here. So in conversion. God calls all men to turn from their wicked ways; one hears and obeys the call. What then? God turned him, His word turned him, and he turned himself. Suppose the traveller refused to hear and believe the call, he would not have turned. So, in like manner, if the sinner refuse to hear and obey the call of God, he is not converted; God does not turn him, because he would not turn. In what sense the work of the fall was Satan’s, the work of conversion is God’s; in what sense the work of the fall was our first parents’, the work of conversion is man’s.—Johnston.II. Conversion to God is a duty required of man. Conversion is a command binding upon all men. God commands all men to turn to Himself. Is not man bound to obey the moment God calls? Every moment he refuses, he is adding to his rebellion and guilt. But if man cannot turn to God, he cannot obey the call, nor is he bound to obey; and consequently, he is not guilty of disobedience should he not turn. It is impossible to prove man’s guilt in not being converted, and deny his ability to turn to God. Nothing could be more striking and remarkable than the words of Eze 18:30-32; Ezekiel 33:11. See also Acts 3:19, “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out;” or more properly, “Change your mind and turn, that your sins may be blotted out.” To change the mind is the same as to make a new heart and a new spirit. And surely man can change his mind when God shows him something capable of working a change. Man can change his mind regarding anything he learns from man; and surely he can change his mind regarding what he learns from God. The words, “be converted” in this verse, ought to be simply “turn.” III. God never requires impossibilities. He requires and commands man to turn to Him, but if man cannot do so, then He requires an impossibility, a thing which God cannot do. God requires man to love Him with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and his neighbour as himself; but He requires no man to love Him more than with all his might; that is, more than he is able: nor his neighbour more than Himself. [1695][1695] We refer to this both as an apt illustration, and because some entertain the most extraordinary notion that this is an instance of God’s requiring of man an impossibility. Such a notion is a positive slight against the character of God. We are told that man is fallen and depraved; true, but still God does not require man to love Him beyond the strength which He has given him. The word is “with all thy might,” not beyond thy might. There can be only two cases in which man cannot turn to God and believe in Jesus. The one is the case of those who have not the truth—the means by which God turns man to Himself. The other is the case of those who have not faculties of mind capable of understanding and receiving the truth. The former are destitute of objective ability; the latter of subjective ability, without both of which it is impossible to believe in Jesus. Any man who comes under one or other of these cases will never be punished for unbelief. This is plainly taught by our Lord, in John 9:41; John 15:22-24. All those, therefore, who have the truth, the gospel, and the faculty—mind, are able to turn to God and believe in Jesus. God commands them to do so, and He will not command what is not duty; and that cannot be duty to a man which the man is not able to do. It is not a blind man’s duty to see; nor a deaf man’s to hear; no more is it the duty of man to believe if he cannot believe. Our Saviour frequently alludes to this very thought, when He so often says, “He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” And mark how He remonstrates with His disciples (Mark 8:18).—Johnston.IV. Conversion requires resolute determination. If a man is not determined, he will never turn to God. Nothing is more necessary to conversion than earnestness and resolution; and perhaps nothing is a greater hindrance than want of decision. Many allow the religion of Jesus to be a good thing, and absolutely necessary to salvation, yet for want of manfully making up their minds, they live and die unconverted. Nothing could more clearly show man’s activity in his own conversion, and his ability to turn to God. The necessity of resolution is clearly seen from the following Scriptures: Lamentations 3:40-41; Hosea 5:4; these verses show what man wants in order to his conversion. Let him only search and try his ways, &c. But no, he does not like this. Here is the reason why he does not turn. It is not because he is not able. Our Saviour shows the necessity of resolution, when He says, “Strive,” &c. Mark the difference between seeking and striving; agonize, as the Greek has it. Now if man has nothing to do in his own conversion, if he is unable to turn to God, if he is as passive as a stone, such an exhortation has no meaning; the half of the Bible becomes meaningless. [1698][1698] The prodigal son affords a pleasing illustration of resolution, and of man’s ability to turn to God. The rich young man is an affecting illustration of the fatal consequences of wanting resolution. He came to our Lord, asking what he must do to inherit eternal life; yet when he found that he must sell all which he had and follow Jesus, he was not ready to make such a sacrifice. The truth is, his mind was not made up to have eternal life at all costs; and, for want of this resolution, he lost all. What a fatal choice! Will you make the same, or resolve, come what will, to have eternal life?—Johnston.V. Unconverted Gospel hearers are those and those only who refuse to turn to God at His call. This refusal is the only reason why every Gospel hearer is not a Christian, &c. Men harden their hearts lest they should turn, and God should save them. [1701][1701] This is evident from our Lord’s quotation from Isaiah, in Matthew 13:15. Paul also quotes the same words as being the reason why the Jews at Rome believed not his preaching (Acts 28:17). Those who hear the Word and are not converted, are those only who put it away from them, judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life, as Paul told the Jews at Antioch (Acts 13:46). Those who hearths Word, and turn to God, are those and those only who take it to themselves, and are bent upon everlasting life at all hazards. The manner in which some account for the difference between gospel hearers, ascribing it to election and the sovereign withholding or bestowing of a special influence, arises from mistaken views of Scripture statements, and is utterly subversive of the responsibility of man. We believe that upon no other view of the case than that which we have stated can the calls and invitations of the Gospel, and the promises and threatenings attached to them, have any meaning or consistency. Mark the words of the glorious invitation in Isaiah 55:1-7. In the same manner we might examine all the calls, promises, and threatenings of the gospel; all teaching the same thing—man’s duty, ability, and consequent responsibility. What is the difference between him who believeth, and him who believeth not (John 3:18; John 3:36)? But if the sinner is not able to believe, these promises and threatenings have no consistency. But no, the sinner who believes not is righteously condemned, because he is able to believe, but stubbornly refuses to obey God.—Johnston. Conclusion.—What is your state? Have you believed on the Lord Jesus? Have you forsaken your evil ways and thoughts and turned to God? If so, happy are you; your sins are all forgiven; eternal life is yours. But if not, except you repent, &c., there is nothing for you but everlasting woe. Let me ask you: why have you not believed? Do you think you are unable? How strange that you should be able to believe man, and not be able to believe God! &c. “Awake, thou that sleepest,” &c.—F. Johnston: The Work of God and Man in Conversion, pp. 110–124. GOD’S WAY OF ABOVE MEN’S Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, &c.Suppose your sovereign taking a personal interest in you. But you have become a rebel. She has every justification in casting you off. Instead of this she makes an arrangement at great cost by which she is able to offer a free pardon. And this purely because of the benevolent interest she takes in you. Think of the Divine greatness (2 Chronicles 6:18) and holiness. Contrast these with our littleness and sinfulness. Yet He offers pardon. He will have mercy. It is because His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. You cannot measure the distance between heaven and earth. You only think of it as immeasurable vastness. This is true in relation to every thought and every action about subjects on which we think or act. Especially so as regards forgiveness. God’s magnanimity is asserted here. It is illustrated— I. IN THE TO FORGIVE. How different from man! When injured he seeks revenge. Usually difficult to turn aside from this. God’s nature is to forgive (Exodus 34:5-7). This is one phase of His love. II. IN THE TERMS OF . The statement of this part of the case involves the fact that He not merely stands in the attitude of readiness to forgive, but also that He overcame the formidable difficulties in the way of forgiveness. And this at great cost and sacrifice. We hear much at present of the demands of man’s moral nature. One demand of our moral nature is that the supreme ruler be just, as a primary condition of our confidence and respect. Here, then, was the problem that demanded solution. And God’s thoughts were equal to it. When in His love He desired to exercise mercy, He in His wisdom discovered a way by which mercy could be exercised while justice should be satisfied. By the sacrifice of His dear Son. A Divine victim for human sin. God vindicates His justice in the forgiveness of sin on the ground of the satisfaction He has made (Romans 3:25-26). Hence the terms, so far as we are concerned, are perfectly free (Isaiah 55:1). Salvation is not of works, but grace. You have simply to trust. III. IN THE OF . Remember the number and aggravation of your sins. Remember God’s hatred of sin. Yet He forgives fully. Casts them into the depths of the sea. Blots them out as a cloud. Will not remember them. Men remember offences against them, and make a difference. God forgets them. IV. IN THE RANGE OF . The promises and invitations and overtures of the Gospel are made to all sinners everywhere. “Whosoever will let him come.” There is sufficient in God’s love, sufficient in Christ’s blood for all. If all mankind would come they would find the ample provision and the loving heart. Nor shall His mercy be provided in vain (Isaiah 55:10-11, &c.) So magnanimous is God. So much higher than ours are His thoughts and ways. They are the thoughts that are unfolded in the proclamation of mercy to sinners in the Gospel. It is gracious; necessary; all-sufficient.—J. Rawlinson, THE MYSTERY AND GLORY OF GOD’S WAYS IN The whole Bible is but the expansion of one sentence, one utterance of the Eternal, “I am the Lord.” Hence the revelation must be incomplete, for a god that could fully reveal himself to his creatures would be no god; and it must also be astonishing and amazing, for a professed record of any part of God’s thoughts and ways that did not land in mystery, and tend to wonder would be self-condemned, and proved to be neither true nor divine. It is not only here and there that God’s thoughts and ways are superhuman, but throughout; just as a circle is everywhere a circle, and nowhere a square or capable at any point of being reduced to the other figure. How man can at all lay hold of God, or frame any conception of Him with his finite and infinitely inferior mental faculties, this is the wonder and has sometimes been the stumbling-block of philosophy; and it is only removed out of the way by devoutly and thankfully accepting the fact that we do know Him (though darkly), and are so far made in His image that there may be and ought to be reverential contact and communion with Him. We must be constantly reminded that though brought near we are not brought up to Him, though companions we are not equals, and that while our line touches His, it cannot run parallel with it as it sweeps in its own awful circle from eternity to eternity. The lesson is one of humility but also of consolation; for the depths of God’s mind are depths of truth, of wisdom, and of love; and therefore we may be not only cast down, but lifted up as we study together in this lofty chapter the great words: “For my thoughts,” &c. In order to give unity to the subject I shall say nothing of the ways of God in creation and natural providence, but limit myself to redemption, showing how in various departments the ways of God are superhumanly mysterious and yet divinely glorious. God’s ways are not our ways, nor our thoughts His thoughts— I. In regard to the occasion of redemption.—Take the entrance of sin into our world, and its continuance in it, which occasioned the need of redemption—can anything be less like what man would have anticipated and conceived. [1704][1704] Had man been able to make a creature like himself, he would either have made him without any inward liability to fall, or any possible risk from without, and if be could not or would not exclude both, he would have made no creation at all. This is the way in which an earthly philanthropist would act in such a supposed case, and therefore in his hands sin could never enter at all, and hence the extreme difficulty, we may say impossibility, of accounting for the origin of evil on any theory framed in the present state by the human mind. I have read over many such theories and considered them; but to my mind this one verse is far more true and far more philosophical than all of them put together: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” We are sure on the one hand that there is a God, we are equally sure also that there is evil in His universe. Hence there must be something yet to be cleared up, something that without alienating from God His moral attributes, making Him either the author of sin, or the accomplice in it, for any fancied exaltation of His character would, if known, vindicate His ways and show them to be not only mysterious but right, as far above ours as the heavens are above the earth. Absolute faith might here come in and wait the disclosure of the mystery, why evil entered and wrought its ravages, and why it remains and works them still. But there are in the Gospel some further glimpses, not in the way of full explanation, but of indirect reference to this awful subject, whereby simple and naked faith in God may be assisted. These do not warrant us to say that evil entered in order that God might glorify Himself in overcoming it, or that the fall was a necessary stepping-stone to redemption; for language like this aspires to rise to a giddy height where the finite mind cannot support itself and where it mistakes its own reasonings or fancies for the thoughts of God. But the lessons of Scripture, while leaving the entrance of evil in its awful mystery, assist our faith by showing first that nothing derogatory to God could be implied in its introduction, and then that God dealing with it as a fact has overruled it for His own glory. The shadow which the entrance of evil casts on God’s redemption rolls away. It was not for want of power in God that sin entered, for in Christ He defeats it. It was not for want of righteousness, for redemption is one continued death-blow to its dominion. It was not for want of wisdom, for the wisdom that cures is higher than the wisdom that was required to prevent. It was not for want of love, for the love that provided the second Adam to humanity could not have been wanting in the trial of the first. There is thus a reply on Calvary to the vexing thoughts that cluster around Eden, and while the mystery remains it loses its terror. And further, the undoubted outburst of the glory of God on the darkened theatre of sin, though we dare not say that the theatre was darkened for the purpose, assists our faith in God. It has been conclusively shown that evil can be overruled for good, that attributes of God are brought out that might otherwise have slumbered, and emotions called forth in His creatures which without danger and deliverance would have been impossible. Where sin abounded grace has much more abounded. God has become more glorious in His dealings with sin for its expulsion; saved sinners more blessed, angels more instructed and confirmed. The thoughts of God all through have been unlike the thoughts of man, and yet there are gleams from a higher heaven sufficient to relieve the darkness and point to the day when it shall be dispelled; and thus is vindicated the assertion that in this matter His ways are as much above our ways as the heavens are above the earth.—Cairns. II. In regard to the purpose of redemption. Man is not the only being who has fallen, and yet man is the only being who is redeemed. When we inquire as to the reason of this arrangement we find none. It is one of the deep things which belong to God. It is an impressive display of sovereignty, where all that is left for us is to bow and to adore. We might have supposed that the higher race would have been selected, and that God would have glorified His mercy on the still more conspicuous theatre from which they had sought to cast themselves down. And altogether independently of the example of their rejection, we might have anticipated that man’s ruin would have been final and hopeless. Man does not forgive where he has been insulted as God was in man’s rebellion. Nations do not tolerate blows aimed at their independence and their very existence, and therefore man’s revolt might have been expected to draw down swift and remediless destruction, for it was a blow aimed at God’s throne and being. That God’s thoughts should in such a crisis have been thoughts of peace is the wonder of unfallen beings and of those who are redeemed. They cannot rise in thought to that awful council wherein, though every foreseen trespass demanded vengeance, mercy yet rejoiced against judgment, without exclaiming, “This is not the manner of man, O Lord God.” “O the depth of the riches,” &c. III. In regard to the plan of redemption. How utterly unlike to any means of man’s devising are those which God has chosen for the recovery of His lost creation to His favour and image! That God’s Son should become incarnate, and die on the cross for the world’s redemption, and that God’s Spirit should descend into the guilty and polluted hearts of sinners, and work out there a blessed transformation, and that all this should be effected by the free and sovereign grace of God himself, and laid open to the very chief of sinners as the unconditional gift of God’s love, this, as universal experience attests, is something so far from having entered into the heart of man, that it needs incessant effort to keep it before him even when it has been revealed. [1707][1707] The world had four thousand years to learn the lesson. God had made the outline of it known to His Church from the beginning. He had raised up a special people to be the depository of the revelation; and He had taught them by priests and prophets, by types and signs without number, and yet when redemption came how few received it, how few understood it, so that when the Saviour was actually hanging on the cross and finishing the work given Him to do, it is questionable if so much as one, even of His disciples, comprehended the design or saw the glory of His sacrifice. Man sees so little of the evil of sin, that he cannot understand why an infinite satisfaction is needed. His own heart is so narrow that he cannot embrace the love of God in the gift of an infinite sacrifice. His own benevolence is so contracted that he distrusts the offer of an unlimited pardon, and his moral perceptions are so blunted that he is afronted rather than consoled by the promise of an Almighty Spirit to work out his deliverance from the bondage of evil. Hence when man is left to work his will upon the plan of redemption, he strikes out all its characteristic features, away goes the incarnation, and Christ is no more the co-equal Son of His Father, but the son of Joseph and Mary. Away goes the Atonement; and the cross is no longer the means of reconciling God and sinners, but the testimony to a God from the first reconciled. Away goes the offer of pardon through a Saviour’s blood; and back comes the voice of the law “Do and live,” and as there is now no call for a Divine Spirit to renew and sanctify, the last pillar of redemption falls amidst its other broken columns, and man’s own effort and struggle return as the source of his repentance and reformation. What is Socinianism, what is Mohammedanism, what is Judaism, sinking from the level of Isaiah to the Talmud, but so many testimonies that God’s ways in redemption are too high for man’s fallen reason, and that it is easier to bring down heaven to earth than to lift up earth to heaven? All the opposition to evangelical religion wherewith we are surrounded, and that incessantly repeats “Give us a Christianity that is rational, give us a Christianity that meets the advancement of the age,” what does it amount to but this: “Give us a Christianity without God; give us a Christianity without that element of grandeur, of mystery, of overwhelming superiority to man’s thoughts and ways which compels awe and humbles pride”? We accept the demand, come from what quarter it may, as an involuntary homage to the super-human glory of the faith we stand by, as a tribute to the Christianity which still moves in her own orbit, and, though surrounded by cloud and darkness, refuses to leave her native heaven. Nor do we lose anything, but gain everything, by retaining the Gospel as its original elevation. Pointing to Him who is the Son of the Highest, we can say to the wandering children of men, “Here is God Himself come to seek and to save you!” Appealing to the matchless virtue of His sacrifice we can turn, not to the whole who need no physician, but to the sick and sore-wounded, and testify, “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” Taking our stand upon the completeness of His work and the freeness of His salvation, we can ply the most distrustful and desponding with the overtures of His love; “Let the wicked forsake his way,” &c. And when the pardoned sinner feels his utter weakness, blindness, worthlessness, and helplessness, then can we, standing by the fountain of spiritual influence which Christ has opened, invite all to be washed and sanctified as well as justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.—Cairns. The grandeur of these provisions comes home with a consoling and peace-giving as well as purifying power to the sin-burdened conscience and heart. They reveal the majesty and strength as well as the love of the Godhead, and are thus the support and stay of dying men. Never can we surrender this Godlike greatness of the Gospel, or suffer this high stronghold to be dismantled and destroyed. It were to surrender our own soul’s refuge, and that of all the guilty, and with a heaven above that stooped not to our rescue, and an earth at our foot that crumbled to our tread, to sink unpitied in the waste of sin and ruin. IV. In regard to the progress of redemption. Redemption has a history, and this is, of all others, the most difficult to scan, not only as it lies in the Bible, but in uninspired records. It has been said, “Interpret the Bible as any other book;” but this ultimately means, “Interpret God as you interpret man,” and you cannot even interpret Church history as you do other history. It is, in a sense which belongs to no other history, the story of a battle not yet fought out, or of a campaign not yet ended; and there are combatants at work beyond the range of human observation, and a supreme celestial Leader whose point of survey none can share. It was to be expected, therefore, that the progress of redemption, as surveyed by human eyes, would present many anomalies and many difficulties, while at the same time, true to the analogy of the substance of redemption, there would be a lofty, all-pervading grandeur that spoke to the devout observer the presence and the hand of God. I will illustrate this union of mysteriousness and Divine greatness in regard to three features in the progress of redemption. 1. The rate of the progress of redemption. How much is there here, unlike the thoughts of man! But no one can deny that there is a Divine hand in the onward movements, and that it is all the more glorious for its incessant recovery from retardation and retrogression. When the whole is known it will be pre-eminently Godlike, and it will be seen that God’s law of progress, both as to time and space, was as far above man’s law as the heavens above the earth. 2. The instruments of the progress of redemption. How unlike all that man would have conceived or devised! This applies even to the Old Testament dispensation, but far more to Christianity. Its leaders were the poor; its soldiers were slaves and women; its heroes were martyrs. How unlike the agents in any other revolution, and yet God chose “the weak things to confound the mighty,” &c. By similar instrumentalities has Christianity perpetually renewed its strength. What new development of glorious possibilities, undreamt of before, has the Gospel everywhere achieved and made tributary to its progress! Nothing so unlike to human predictions, nothing so far above human thought as the march of this Gospel. 3. The hindrances to the progress of redemption. Man would have thought that hindrances would be speedily removed, or, if suffered to remain or to return, would constitute unmingled evils to the Church. But God, on the other hand, we can see, by giving the victory slowly, trains the faith and courage of successive generations; and by permitting old enemies to return or new ones to spring up, shows the unexhausted and inexhaustible power of His Gospel to face and put down every hostile power. The variety and vicissitude of attack when it is once surmounted, surrounds the Gospel with richer trophies and places on its head more crowns. As it has been so it shall be. The onsets of unbelief that now disturb us shall be the consolation of our successors, and its scarce-remembered names and war-cries shall swell their song of peace. V. In regard to the limits of redemption. Why should redemption have limits at all? Why should not all be saved as God wishes, and come to a knowledge of the truth? Thus man fondly argues, and by arguing like this not a few are in our day plausibly deceived, in forgetfulness of the warnings of conscience and the solemn voice of God, to the effect that he that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. On this awful subject we cannot in this darkling state profess to justify the ways of God to man, for this He will do Himself in the day of the revelation of His righteous judgment. But it may be seen, even here, that whatever God appoints for the impenitent, cannot be inconsistent with His moral attributes. If the cross clears God from every aspersion in regard to the entrance of evil, not less does it do so in regard to the continuance of evil in His universe. What He has done in Christ is a sufficient proof that the fault is not His, and that man is the author of his own undoing. Of this let us be sure, that though His ways are above us, they are so only as the heavens to supply a pathway for the sun and a fountain for the dew, and that shall break in blessings on our head.—Professor John Cairns, D.D.GOD’S WAYS ABOVE MEN’S There is the strongest reason to believe that these memorable declarations refer to God’s pardoning mercy. His method of forgiveness is contrasted and exhibited as vastly superior to that of men. They find it difficult to pardon at all; they are slow to forgive an injury, &c. But God is not reluctant to forgive, &c. It may refer to the number and aggravation of offences, or to the number of offenders, &c. But while the passage refers primarily to pardon, and should be interpreted as having a main reference to it, it is also true of the ways of God in general. I SOME OF THE TRUTH . Anything in the shape of proof might be justly deemed superfluous, if not profane, inasmuch as it is affirmed by Him who cannot lie. The purposes, plans, and actions of God are exceedingly unlike ours; they are beyond measure more noble and excellent than ours can be. Any illustrations must be vastly beneath the greatness of our theme— 1. In the fact that He produces the most important results from apparently insignificant causes. 2. As He accomplishes the most glorious designs by feeble instrumentality. 3. As He accomplishes the plan of salvation on a principle totally different from what we should have determined. 4. In the sovereignty with which He bestows mercy. 5. In the varied and mysterious dealings by which He trains up His people for glory. II. THE ON WHICH THIS IS FOUNDED AND . 1. The Divine knowledge is infinitely more extensive than ours. 2. The Divine purposes are inconceivably superior to ours. 3. It is His fixed, unalterable purpose to fulfil His plans in such a way as to hide pride from man. III. WHICH THIS VIEW OF THE DIVINE CONDUCT . 1. It should awaken emotions of gratitude. 2. We should seek to have our will and our ways conformed to those of God. His will is the wisest, the kindest, and the best, and must be carried into effect: hence it is the highest wisdom of the creature to submit to His will and bow to His authority. 3. Learn to confide in His wisdom and love. 4. Anticipate the clearer light of heaven.—George Smith, D.D.I. OBVIOUS REASONS FOR THE BETWEEN GOD AND . God’s ways and thoughts must be far above ours— 1. Because in situation and office He is exalted far above us. He is in heaven, we are upon earth. We occupy the footstool, He the throne. Consider the extent and duration of His kingdom. Must not the thoughts and ways of a powerful earthly monarch be far above those of one of his subjects who is employed in manufacturing pins, or cultivating a few acres of ground? Can such a subject be competent to judge of his sovereign’s designs, or even to comprehend them? How far, then, must the thoughts and ways of the eternal King of kings exceed ours; and how little able are we to judge of them, further than the revelation which He has been pleased to give enables us! 2. Because He is infinitely superior to us in knowledge and wisdom. He must, therefore, be able to devise a thousand plans and expedients, and to bring good out of evil in numberless ways, of which we could never have conceived, and of which we are by no means competent to judge, even after they are revealed to us. 3. Because He is perfectly benevolent and holy. We love sin, and care for nothing but our own private interest, while His concern is for the interests of the universe. Hence His thoughts, affections, maxims, and pursuits must be entirely different from ours. Do not even the thoughts and ways of good men differ from those of the wicked? How infinitely, then, must a perfectly holy God differ from us! II. SOME IN WHICH THIS MOST APPEARS. 1. In permitting the introduction and continuance of natural and moral evil. 2. In devising a way of salvation for sinners. [1710] 3. In God’s choice of means and instruments for propagating the religion of Christ. Not angels, but men; and those at the outset the humblest (1 Corinthians 1:27; see p. 583). 4. In His choice of the best methods of dealing with His people, and carrying on the work of grace in their souls after it is begun. [1710] We should have thought that, if God intended to save sinners, He would bring them to repentance and save them at once; or at least after suffering them to endure, for a season, the bitter consequences of their own folly and disobedience. We never should have thought of providing for them a redeemer; still leas should we have thought of proposing that God’s only Son, the Creator and Preserver of all things, should undertake this office; and, least of all, should we have expected that He would, for this purpose, think it necessary to become man. If we had been informed that this was necessary, and if it had been left to us to fix the time and manner of His appearing, we should have concluded that He ought to come soon after the fall; to be born of illustrious parents; to make his appearance on earth in all the splendour, pomp, and glory imaginable; to overcome all opposition by a display of irresistible power; to ride through the world in triumph, conquering and to conquer. Such were the expectations of the Jews; and such, most probably, would have been ours. But never should we have thought of His being born of a virgin in abject circumstances; born in a stable; cradled in a manger, living for many years as a humble artificer; wandering, despised and rejected of men, without a place to lay His head; and finally arraigned, condemned, and crucified as a vile criminal, that He might thus expiate our sins, and by His death give life to the world.—Payson. III. SOME LESSONS. If God’s ways and thoughts differ thus widely from ours, then, (1), it is no reasonable objection against the truth of any doctrine, or the propriety of any dispensation, that it is above our comprehension and appears mysterious to us. On the contrary, we should have reason to doubt the truth of the Scriptures, and to suspect that they are not the Word of God, if they did not contain many things which appear mysterious, and which we cannot fully comprehend. In this case, they would want one great proof of having proceeded from Him whose thoughts and ways must be infinitely above ours (H. E. I., 587; see p. 581). 2. It must be abominable pride, impiety, folly, and presumption in us to censure them even in thought. For an illiterate peasant to censure the conduct of his prince, with the reasons of which he is utterly unacquainted; for a child three years old to condemn the proceedings of his parent, would be nothing to this (Proverbs 13:13). [1713][1713] An ancient writer teller us of a man who, having a house for sale, carried a brick to market to exhibit as a specimen. You smile at his folly in supposing that any purchaser would or could judge of a whole house, which he never saw, by so small a part of it. But are we not guilty of much greater folly in attempting to form an opinion of God’s conduct from that little part of it which we are able to discover? In order to form a correct opinion of it, we ought to have a correct view of the whole; we ought to see the whole extent and duration of God’s kingdom; to be equal with Him in wisdom, knowledge, power, and goodness; in one word, we ought to be God ourselves, for none but God is capable of judging accurately the conduct of God. Hence, whenever we attempt to judge of it, we do, in effect, set up ourselves as gods, knowing good and evil.—Payson.3. From this subject we infer the reasonableness of the implicit faith in God which Christians exercise, believing what they cannot fully comprehend. For this they are ridiculed. But if God’s ways and thoughts are thus high above ours, ought we not implicitly to believe that all He says and does is perfectly right? Is it not reasonable for children thus to believe their parents? for a sick man to trust in a skilful physician? for a passenger unacquainted with navigation to trust to the master of the vessel? If so, then it certainly is much more reasonable for us to trust implicitly to an infinitely wise, good, and infallible Being; and when any of His words or works appear wrong, to ascribe it to our own ignorance, blindness, or prejudice, rather than to suppose that there is anything wrong in Him. Is it not more likely that we should be wrong or mistaken, than that God should be?—Edward Payson, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 37–55. THE ERRAND OF THE WORD Isaiah 55:10-11. For as the rain cometh down, &c.Upon what errand has God sent forth His Word? It publishes “salvation” with all its tongues. It has tidings for us of great truth; and the fault will be ours if the tidings be not also of great joy. These words of the prophet are the more powerful because they are so pleasant. They have the charm and vigour of Nature in them. Every one cares about rain, and believes in it. Every one does not care about truth, and believe in that. The prophet takes that in which we believe most to help our faith in that in which we believe less. And this is the lesson he would have sink into the heart of dull unbelieving man as the rain does into the earth, that the heavenly errands of Nature are not more sure of success than the heavenly errands of Grace; that the God of husbandry is even more the God of the husbandman; that, if water nourishes the earth, much more truth nourishes the soul; that if God’s bidding is done by the winds that carry about the clouds to water the world, so also is it done—as surely, and in a higher way—by the Spirit that brings and dispenses to us the words of holy instruction and comfort. Let us speak further— I. OF THE WORD. God has His word of instruction and kindness for particular men at particular times; but His great general word of assurance is this, “I am thy God and Saviour, and all things round thee are subject to Me: trust Me and it shall be well with thee.” Many minds besides the mind of God have to do with the affairs of the world; but His is supreme. This word of God, by which the world is ruled, is a word that has been uttered, that is uttered, that will be uttered. He settled at first the order of the outward heaven and earth (Psalms 33:9). He settled at first the order of the inward heaven and earth; but He made souls free, and, in His wise good will, subjected them to trial amid scenes of disorder and distress. And His word to them is one of direction, and of mercy, and of warning. It is specially a word inspiring humble spiritual trust in Himself, as the Source of all goodness, the Pardoner of iniquity. And it is a word which cheers, and leads us on day by day, with hope of comforts as we journey, and of a good end at last (Isaiah 55:12). It is also a word of promise. And he who feels the spirit of hope opening within him an entrance into a better mind, access to the wise healing truth, has not only the promise of deliverance, but real deliverance, in part, at once; and the prophetic Word shall have for him its entire fulfilment. II. OF THE RETURNS MADE TO GOD BY HIS WORD.— 1. Of the certainty. The great purpose of God cannot fail. What evidence is there in Nature of lacking strength? It shows no sign of age, palsy, or consumption. Amid all its changes and its terrors, there is no rest from action. Shall God’s word, then, rest from its activity? shall His perfect Word fail? 2. Of the manner. The Word returns to God in many ways. It yields, by its operation, proofs that His charge against men is true. It yields fruits of patience in the souls of those who carry for God the rejected message; it produces, by the results of its rejection, the acknowledgment that it ought to have been accepted. The issue of events must be according to God’s mind. So God’s word is always fruitful, however unfruitful we may be. It has many manner of effects, but is never without effect. For we must all come to render to the Truth our account, though perhaps we will not come to receive from Truth our freedom and its promise. 3. Of the measure. God’s always powerful Word returns to Him variously. Given to us for our use, and given with its certain promise, let us seek to make it profitable to ourselves, honourable to Him in an increasing measure. 4. Of the time. And let us remember that our time is short, and God’s time long. Our time is short; we must then hear the Word and do it promptly. God’s time is long; and therefore many of the returns His Word shall make Him are of necessity, and most wisely, delayed. No one of us is so mad as to set at naught Nature’s power: no one of us so foolish as to expect to do any outward action, without Nature’s help: and no one of us so weak and despondent but that sometimes we have both confronted and overcome Nature’s hindrance. Shall we, then, set at nought the Word of God, and expect success without it? or fear to overcome, by it said, that world of which it is the real ruler?—Thomas T. Lynch; Sermons for my Curates, pp. 253–271. These words stand in connection with the gracious invitation addressed to sinners in Isaiah 55:6-7. The invitation is followed by inducements. The first is that the search for God will be successful—repentance will be followed by mercy. The second is drawn from the Divine magnanimity (Isaiah 55:8-9). The third is the definiteness of the Divine intention with respect to this. This is expressed in our text. Two ideas are contained in it— I. THAT IT IS TO A END. Observe the imagery of the text. Rain and snow fall from heaven. They do not return thither. They have a mission. They water the earth. They help its fruitfulness. They make it bring forth and bud. It furnishes the present beauty and plenty. It provides future beauty and plenty. For it gives seed to the sower. The seed produces the harvest. From the harvest bread is produced, which is the staff of life. Thus its mission is the sustentation of man. The Word of God spoken and written, the Gospel of Christ is compared to this. It is like the rain and the snow. It has a mission. Every word of God has a purpose and a destination in connection with the salvation of man. It aims to convert the individual sinner. The truth made known in the Gospel is the instrument of this. It aims to convert the world. If the conversion of individuals proceeds in a ratio exceeding that of the increase of population, the work of conversion will in due time overtake the population. And every individual converted becomes an agent for the conversion of others. Like the self-perpetuating power of nature, so in the operation of God’s grace the man is converted, not only that he may enjoy his own salvation, but that he may be the means of salvation to others. An inward prompting impels him to seek that result. The Word of God in the heart is not only thus bread to the eater, but seed to the sower. II. THAT THE END FOR WHICH IT IS GIVEN WILL BE . 1. Provision is made for the publication of the Gospel. Christ made provision when on earth by means of the few whom He had converted by His own ministry. The Gospel is in its nature diffusive. It produces an identity of feeling, principle, and aim with Christ. Love to God and man have been displaced by sin. The Gospel, when received into the heart, replaces these principles. In the introduction of these principles to the heart every provision is made for the publication of the Gospel. They animate some to preach, others to give liberally of their substance. They kindle zeal. They incite to labour, patience, diligence in this great work. 2. The Gospel is recommended with sufficient authority. From the constitution of our minds we cannot assent to any truth until we perceive it to be truth. Nor can we withhold our assent to anything we perceive to be truth. Therefore it is not sufficient that the Gospel be merely preached; it must also be attended with sufficient evidence of its truth. It brings various kinds of evidence,—Miracles—Prophecy—Experience,—a kind of evidence possessed by persons who have neither time nor ability to examine the other kinds. It is the power of the truth upon the heart and life. 3. The publication of the Gospel is accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy beings would appreciate the evidence. But man is not holy, he is influenced by improper feelings and motives. Therefore the Spirit of God is poured down from on high. The means we have mentioned are channels through which the Divine influence flows. God works by means. We may resist the moral means, but the direct power of the Holy Spirit carries all before it. The husbandman sows the seed, and it is adapted to the production of the harvest Yet influences are necessary which are beyond the command of the husbandman. There must be storm, and lightning, and sunshine. So when all suitable means are employed, there must still be the power of the Holy Spirit. 4. The saving effect of the Gospel is distinctly predicted. The text expressly says it shall accomplish its intended end. Study on this subject the prophecies of the Old Testament and the words of Christ. Then think of the future of the world. Has it accomplished its saving end in you? What God has purposed He will perform. Let us then— 1. Work. Enlist in the army. Engage in the service. All do something. 2. Pray. 3. The world’s glory has not reached its fulness. That will be when Christ reigns universally. The Gospel is as fresh and vigorous as ever for its appointed work.—J. Rawlinson.The WORD OF GOD LIKENED TO THE RAIN AND SNOW. Observe the analogy in the kingdoms of nature and grace, between the rain and snow, and the Divine Word. We see the resemblance— I. In the origin of both. The rain, although naturally produced, is yet obviously the work and gift of God. He prepareth it; storeth it up; bears it on the wings of the wind, and freely pours it upon the earth. So also the word of life is His own production. He inspired the minds of the writers, &c. II. In the mode of communicating both, He giveth the rain— 1. At peculiar seasons—periods when its bestowment is desirable and necessary. So God gave His Word, during the various seasons of the world’s history, in divers manners, and at various periods—to the fathers by the prophets, &c. Just as God exercises His infinite skill in giving rain from heaven, so also did He give the words of truth and salvation to the world. 2. Abundantly. So also He has fully revealed His will in His holy Word. Enough for all the purposes of personal piety, usefulness, &c. (2 Timothy 3:16). 3. Discriminately. The rain is not given to all countries in like manner, as to seasons, abundance, &c. So with respect to His Word, He deposited it originally with the seed of Abraham. To them pertained His oracles. They had God’s Word while the rest of the nations were in darkness. So it is even yet. As a nation we have been greatly favoured. But other countries are only now receiving in their own tongues the wonderful testimonies of God’s Word. 4. Gratuitously. So also His Word is His free gift to man. III. In the design of both. The rain is sent to make the earth fruitful, and cause it to bring forth and bud. 1. The earth, like the heart of man, without this would be unfruitful. The earth requires rain, the heart of man requires the Word of God, and is dark and barren without it. Nothing will answer as a substitute for rain, and nothing meets the exigencies of the soul but the Word of God. 2. The adaptation of both for the end contemplated. Rain softens and moistens the earth, and produces fruitfulness. The Word of God enlightens, &c. It is the instrumental means of regeneration and holiness. Wherever it is received it produces the most happy and delightful effects. IV. In the results arising from both. The rain and snow answer the end for which they are sent. Thus God’s Word shall not be ineffectual. It shall accomplish God’s pleasure—produce fruit to the honour and glory of His name. 1. It shall make barren souls fruitful (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). 2. It shall increase the means of doing good. All converted persons are as seed-corn, they have been produced for the reproduction of others. 3. It shall reward the labourer (Philippians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19). 4. It shall satisfy the author. God will be eternally glorified in the achievements of His Word. It will attain all God intended and expected from it. Application: Do we bear fruit to the glory of God’s grace?—J. Burns, LL.D.: Sketches on Metaphors, &c., pp. 259–263. In these words Isaiah means to trace a resemblance between these natural and spiritual influences— I. IN THEIR DIVINE ORIGIN. (See p. 589.) II. IN THE OF THEIR PRODUCE. What would this earth be without the rain and snow from heaven? What would this world be without the Gospel? But both come from God, and bring forth provision for both present and future needs; there is bread for the eater and seed for the sower. The Christian enjoys the blessings of the Gospel himself, and with delight conveys them to others. III. IN THEIR MODE OF . In both cases this is— 1. Gradual. 2. Mysterious. 3. According to the soil. 4. In accordance with human means. and exertions. IV. IN THE OF THEIR SUCCESS. This seems to be Isaiah’s principal, though not his only aim. Who will dare to say that the rain. falls anywhere to no purpose? Certainly the Gospel is never preached in vain. 1. Where it does not accomplish God’s designs of mercy, it leaves sinners without excuse in the day of judgment. 2. Where it does not save, it civilises; where it does not sanctify, it restrains. The social influences of a faithful minister can scarcely be over-rated. 3. Where the highest results are produced, they are often hidden. Not now, but “the day of Christ” is the appointed season for ministerial rejoicing (Philippians 2:16). .— 1. No man can listen to the preaching of the Gospel without being influenced for good or for evil (H. E. I., 2439–2442). 2. In this subject there is encouragement for God’s servants. Ministers should read this text whenever they are about to enter the pulpit.—William Jay: The British Pulpit, vol. iii., pp. 409–422. THE COURSE OF THE GODLY Isaiah 55:12. Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, &c.There is resolution and effort on our part, and help and guidance on God’s part. We “go out” and we are “led.” We must not forget either side of the truth. The farmer works in harmony with the rains and sunshine; the sailor in harmony with the winds and the sea. These two things, “going out” and “joy,” do not naturally agree. Going out is naturally more or less painful. Even although it is to make your position better, there is yet pain in leaving. But God says to the believer: “These two incompatible things will meet in your case; nay, the one shall be the occasion of the other.” The text also speaks of leading forth, and says of it that it shall be “with peace.” The Christian’s course is like a stream bounding forth from its native darkness with joy, and then gradually acquiring the tranquil flow of the broad river in the plain. Some applications— I. In conversion, the soul goes out with joy and is led forth with peace. Conversion is the soul’s first and great “going out.” That is the essential idea of conversion. It is not so many prayers and tears and resolutions. It is turning our back on the old life of sin and selfishness, and coming out into the light of God, as really as the emigrant leaves one country and goes to another. This coming out is a joyful thing. The Israelites celebrated their leaving of Egypt by a feast; and surely the coming out of the soul from darkness to light, from condemnation to life, may well be the signal of joy. And in the case of the soul delivered from death there is the peaceful leading, as well as the joyful departure. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,” &c. II. In the varied changes of life, the Christian goes out with joy and is led forth with peace. If we are the people of God, if we meet all changes in a spirit of faith and obedience, we may go forth with joy. Let us meet all our changes clinging to God’s guidance, taking a firmer hold of God as the scenes get stranger and stranger, as a child takes a firmer hold of his father the further he is from home. III. At death the believer goes out with joy, and is led forth with peace. He may have looked forward to it with misgiving, with something like dismay. But at midnight, when the cry comes, he rejoices greatly because he hears the Bridegroom’s voice. Like a tired labourer, he goes thankfully home, like a welcome and expectant guest, he goes rejoicing to the banquet.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 122. THE MIRACLE Isaiah 55:13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, &c.I. IN THE CHURCH OF GOD. 1. The promise takes different shapes. Savage beasts shall lose their nature and become harmless and tractable (Isaiah 11:6, &c.). In sandy wastes streams of water shall flow till they become green with foliage and gay with flowers (Isaiah 35:1-2; Isaiah 35:7). Here, out of the ground which produced only thorns and briers, shall grow stately trees. 2. Such miracles to be looked for by believers. They have in them Christ who came to give life (Isaiah 10:10), the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), and the word of life (Philippians 2:16), which is quick, i.e., living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). How natural, then, that death, barrenness, and the curse, should disappear where such forces are at work [1716][1716] Now, although neither vines nor fig-trees have spines or prickles, it must be confessed that these pungent appendages are found on some plants which are neither thorns nor thistles. For what is a prickle? It is the elongated cell which to many a stem gives its velvet, and to the moss-rose its fragrant fretwork,—it is the same pile hardened and sharpened into a piercing needle. And what is a thorn? In the morphology of a plant it is well known to be an abortive bud. If it had come on and come out, it would in due time have yielded its blossom and its fruit, and might have strengthened into a goodly bough; but, eventuating in nothing more than a cruel, useless spike, it is the very symbol of ill-trained or misdirected energy. But here is something beautiful. In many cases it is found that thorns yield to culture. By taking in the wild plant and giving it kind treatment the skilful gardener tames and transforms it, till in the process of years the trenchant thorn is replaced by a golden apple or a rosy flower. And greater wonders are effected in God’s husbandry. In nature some plants have baffled horticulture; but if you watch, pray, and really strive, there is nothing impossible to faith and prayer. Fix on your besetting sin, and fight against it; and as in dependence upon the Heavenly Husbandman you strive and pray, the Spirit poured forth from on high will fulfil in you the promise of our text.—James Hamilton, D.D.II. FALSE CLAIMED BY CORRUPT . 1. The Church of Rome and the Greek Church both profess that miracles are continually being wrought in their communion. 2. Reasons for disbelieving such miracles: [1719] They generally happen in obscure localities. (â) Do not convince unbelievers. (ã) Become more uncertain the more they are inquired into, (å) Tend to support the idolatrous worship of saints. [1719] Now, although neither vines nor fig-trees have spines or prickles, it must be confessed that these pungent appendages are found on some plants which are neither thorns nor thistles. For what is a prickle? It is the elongated cell which to many a stem gives its velvet, and to the moss-rose its fragrant fretwork,—it is the same pile hardened and sharpened into a piercing needle. And what is a thorn? In the morphology of a plant it is well known to be an abortive bud. If it had come on and come out, it would in due time have yielded its blossom and its fruit, and might have strengthened into a goodly bough; but, eventuating in nothing more than a cruel, useless spike, it is the very symbol of ill-trained or misdirected energy. But here is something beautiful. In many cases it is found that thorns yield to culture. By taking in the wild plant and giving it kind treatment the skilful gardener tames and transforms it, till in the process of years the trenchant thorn is replaced by a golden apple or a rosy flower. And greater wonders are effected in God’s husbandry. In nature some plants have baffled horticulture; but if you watch, pray, and really strive, there is nothing impossible to faith and prayer. Fix on your besetting sin, and fight against it; and as in dependence upon the Heavenly Husbandman you strive and pray, the Spirit poured forth from on high will fulfil in you the promise of our text.—James Hamilton, D.D.III. THE TRUE WROUGHT IN THE TRUE CHURCH, i.e., the Church of such as love Christ, wherever they are found. 1. These consist in the conversion of sinners, and are spoken of in the New Testament as a second birth, &c. (1 John 3:2; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 2:5; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:8; Ephesians 1:19-20). 2. All conversion is from God and supernatural, but this most clearly seen when great sinners converted suddenly. LEARN— 1. Never to despair of any sinners, however hardened. 2. To think it natural that mighty deeds should be wrought by a mighty God.—C. S. Carey; The Class and the Desk, vol. ii. p. 189. Isaiah 55:12-13. Figurative language, yet the meaning obvious. I. The world-wide diffusion of the Gospel. II. The Gospel is redolent with blessings, and only blessings to man. III. The glory of Christ is hereby secured, much more than in any other way.—A. M‘Auslane, D.D. THE METHOD OF WAITING FOR GOD’S Isaiah 56:1-2. Thus saith the Lord, keep ye judgment, &c.[“The doctrine of the passage is simply this, that they who enjoy extraordinary privileges, or expect extraordinary favours, are under corresponding obligations to do the will of God; and, moreover, that the nearer the manifestation of God’s mercy, whether in time or in eternity, the louder the call to righteousness of life.”—Alexander.] But a special and useful application of the passage may be made, viz., to answer the question, “How shall we account for the fact that, of those who cease to neglect religion, and take some pains to acquaint themselves with God and to be at peace with Him, many are very slow in attaining to any establishment of mind, and continue long at a distance from the peace they seek?” Let seekers after this Divine peace observe— I. WHAT EVERY HEARER OF THE GOSPEL OUGHT TO DO. The teaching of our text on this point is most simple and most important. 1. Every hearer of the Gospel who would enjoy the peace which it offers must immediately abstain from all known sin. He must not think that using the language of humiliation, and calling himself a miserable sinner, will be of any benefit to him while the sin which he confesses is not forsaken. Many go on for years complaining of their sins, yet never come to the point of separation from them, and for this very reason remain strangers to true peace (H. E. I, 4269–4273). 2. He must also immediately set himself to do all the good he can. “Keep ye judgment, and do justice.” In all his dealings with his fellow-men; he must strictly follow the golden rule (Matthew 7:12). 3. He must be diligent in the use of the means of grace, particularly in his observance of the Sabbath Day. Many who have been awakened to some concern for their souls, and for a time promised fair to attain the blessing of peace with God, have lost it by their inconstancy to Sabbath duties. Thus they have grieved the Spirit of God, and cut themselves off from the enjoyment of His peace. All this is absolutely necessary, yet it is but preparatory to receiving the Gospel; it is preparing the way of the Lord. It is not a goodness in which any man should rest, satisfied with his attainments. Suppose all this done, is he to think that he is now a good man, and must be in the favour of God? The man who imagines this goes about to establish his own righteousness, and has no regard to the salvation of God and the righteousness of God. He becomes his own saviour, frustrates the grace of God, and makes Christ to have died in vain. The motive on account of which any action is done determines its value (P. D. 2511). It does so here. The self-righteous Pharisee abstains from outward evil, does many good works, offers many prayers, performs many religious acts; the man who obeys the Gospel does the same—but the Pharisee does these things that he may be saved without Christ; the obedient disciple does them in his way to Christ. The Pharisee does them, and though he may make use of the name of Christ, looks to them for his acceptance with God; the penitent does them, but does not look to them at all—as a penitent he looks for the salvation of God, that it may come unto him; and for the righteousness of God, that it may be revealed in his heart. And it shall be. II. THE OF TO THE CHARGE OF THE TEXT. He may not be sensible of his own blessedness. There are many things which may cause him not to be so. The real improvement which has taken place in his character is far from being likely to improve him in his own good opinion. As he approaches nearer to the performance of the precepts of the law, he discerns more its vast extent and spirituality, and how far he is from conformity to it; he so feels the evils of his heart that he is sometimes tempted to fear that the salvation of God cannot be extended to him. Thus he seems not to be blessed; but he is blessed. Our text declares him so, and the Scripture cannot be broken. Yea, our Saviour has pronounced him blessed (Matthew 5:3). Nothing can be more clear than that the man who, when he hears of God’s salvation, turns from iniquity and does good, while he waits and looks for that salvation, is in the way to obtain it. He will obtain it assuredly; it may be, speedily; but it is a gift, and He who gives it keeps the time and the manner of it in His own hands. But when there is a due preparation for receiving it on man’s part, there will be no long delay in conferring it on God’s (Ch. Isaiah 56:1). If the Lord hides Himself, and continues long absent from the seeking soul, it is probably because there is something in the state of the man’s mind, and in the course of his conduct, which makes him not a fit recipient of the Divine favour (H. E. I., 2338). In receiving this salvation, the believer looks to nothing but the grace and gift of God. .— 1. Cautions for those who are seeking the salvation of God. (1.) Do not neglect the direction of the text. You know that salvation is of grace; that it is received simply by faith; that it does not depend on a man’s worthiness; and that therefore to delay going to Christ till he has made himself more fit and worthy, is vain and self-righteous. All this is true. But if your knowledge of it leads you to omit one act of known duty, or to commit one sin, you show that you know nothing as you ought to know. It is true that you are not exhorted to stay from believing in Christ till you have made yourself better; you are invited to come as you are; but, in making your way to Christ and to His peace, be the time longer or shorter, you are bound, from the first moment you enter upon it, to keep your hand from doing any evil, and also to do good. You are to wait upon God in the way of His commandments. (2.) Do not abuse the direction of the text. You cannot attend to it too diligently, too exactly. But you may put it in a wrong place. You may be trying to obtain peace to your conscience by your honesty, &c. This would be to pervert the precept of our text to a use exactly contrary to its intention. You would not be waiting and looking for God’s righteousness at all; you would be going about to establish your own (Romans 10:2-3). 2. A word of admonition to established Christians. As the first communication of peace to the new convert is given according to his conscientious diligence in waiting for it in the way of obedience; so your comforts will be very much proportioned to your watchfulness, humility, and fruitfulness in good works. You complain, perhaps, that it is not with you as in former days; that you have not the comfort which you once enjoyed. But may there not be a cause? Have you not declined from that seriousness of spirit and holy walking with God, in which you began your religious course? Return to Christ in duty, and He will return to you in kindness (John 14:21; H. E. I., 350).—John Fawcett, A.M.: Familiar Discourses, pp. 20–38. I. Gospel privilege. Salvation in Christ. Near at hand. Revealed to faith. Secured in the righteousness of God. II. Gospel law. Moral duties—“judgment;” “justice.” Religious duties—keeping the Sabbath; renunciation of all sin, &c. III. Gospel happiness. “Blessed,” &c. Divine approbation. Inward peace. Confident hope of a better life.—Dr. Lyth.THE SABBATH Isaiah 56:2. Blessed is the man that doeth this … that keepeth the Sabbath, &c. [1722][1722] See Outlines on Isaiah 58:13-14. The Lord had just spoken in general terms (Isaiah 56:1), and now He speaks more particularly. When God instituted the Sabbath He pronounced a particular blessing upon it (Genesis 2:3). In the text, and elsewhere, man’s happiness is connected with its due observance. What God hath joined together let no man attempt to put asunder. Whatever “pollutes” the holy character of the day destroys the blessing that God designed to attach to it. I. THE OF THE SABBATH. Many act as if they did not believe the ordinance of the Sabbath to be binding. The various theories which denude the Sabbath of its high authority as a positive and permanent institution of the living God. “If the day be not ‘sanctified’ by God Himself, it is vain to talk of ‘the everlasting necessities of human nature,’ or of ‘civil and ecclesiastical authority,’ or of ‘beneficial purposes’; it will soon cease to exert any influence on the hearts and consciences of men, and will be hailed merely as a day of recreation and amusement.” By what arguments, then, do we prove that the Sabbath is of universal and perpetual obligation? By the fact that it was— 1. Instituted at the Creation (Genesis 2:2-3). 2. Established by an express command. Incorporated with the moral law (Exodus 34:1). That law is our law, as well as the law of the Jews (Matthew 5:17-18; Romans 3:31); and is universally binding, because unrepealed. 3. By the obvious universality of the design for which it was instituted. It was given as— (1.) A memorial of creation, and it is as much the duty of Christians to retain a devout remembrance of the power, &c., of the great Creator as it was of the Jewish Church. (2.) A season of rest needed as much as ever. (3.) A day of blessing and sanctity, and from no people would God withhold so great a boon, &c. 4. Confirmed by the teaching and practice of our Lord and His Apostles. It has been observed by the Church of Christ in general. Put together these circumstances, and can you doubt that the observance of the Sabbath is a religious obligation? II. THE OF THE SABBATH. The Sabbath is polluted— 1. When it is spent in mere idleness. Action in everything holy and heavenly should mark its consecrated hours. 2. When it is devoted to worldly amusement. 3. By all labour which may not fairly come under the description of works of necessity and mercy. III. THE PROPER MODE OF ITS . 1. Everything that would hinder its spiritual observance must be laid aside. All secular business and toil. Except the works of necessity and mercy, there should be one unbroken and universal repose (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:14, &c). Frivolities and amusements; conversation upon subjects that are unconnected with and opposed to spirituality of thought; unnecessary journeying, visiting, strolling, luxury, &c. (Isaiah 58:13, and others). 2. Whatever would promote the highest interests of our being must be observed. Public worship; relative and private duties of religion, &c. IV. THE OF KEEPING THE SABBATH. 1. Temporal. It is the more needful to dwell on these because some persuade themselves that worldly gain is promoted by secularising the Lord’s Day. (1.) The toils of life are for awhile suspended. The constitution of our nature requires a weekly respite from toil and solicitude, &c. (2.) The mind and body are invigorated by fresh exertion. Not so by Sunday excursions, &c. (3.) The reward of prosperity is evidently attached to it. The converse of this is no less painfully common and true; Sabbath-breaking is the starting-point of that course which leads on to crime, disgrace, and ruin. 2. Spiritual. (1.) Finished redemption is then celebrated. How glad and glorious are the tidings to those that are conscious of their guilt! (2.) The means of grace are enjoyed. They are merciful appointments of “the God of all grace.” The Sabbath provides and guards these means, which act as a counterpoise to the excessive activity and competition which distinguish our country and our times. St. John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” and God’s people are amply replenished with that Spirit’s grace on this day of blessing. (3.) The heavenly rest is anticipated. We are but sojourners on earth, &c. The earthly Sabbath affords the best picture and foretaste of the heavenly! .—Are you among the “blessed” ones who keep the Sabbath from polluting it? Then make every exertion to prevent its violation, &c. Or, do you find the Sabbath a weariness? Then your heart is not right, or it would be a delight, and therefore you are wholly unfit for the eternal Sabbath of Heaven. “Ye must be born again.”—A. Tucker.I. The principles of true religion—practical, experimental, holy. II. The blessedness of it. Divine approbation; inward peace; blessing; confident hope of a better life.—Dr. Lyth. JOINED TO THE LORD Isaiah 56:3; Isaiah 56:6. The sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord. The end of all worship is union with God. To this most glorious issue all the revelations of Scripture converge. It is the end of all teaching, and the seal of all perfection. Our Lord’s prayer for His people makes this the goal of Christian aspiration (John 17:21). But union with God is, like all other relations to the Supreme, attained only in and through the Mediator (John 17:3). It is the realisation of the one object of the redeeming economy. It has undoubtedly been the watchword of some of the sublimest systems of ethics based on erroneous doctrine. Buddhism and Pantheistic mysticism are instances. Let us endeavour to realise the import and the power of this remarkable expression, “joined to the Lord,” which is the exponent and formula of vital truths and glorious privileges (1 Corinthians 6:17). I. The nature of this alliance. What does it imply?— 1. The conviction of moral estrangement. Instead of that intimate union which man originally enjoyed, there is a wide and extended breach, &c. The manifold and painful evidences—alienation from God both in affection and action, &c. (Romans 8:7, and others). Such is our deplorable state previous to the period when we join ourselves to the Lord. 2. The full approval of God’s service. We never devote ourselves to those whose service we have a decided objection to; on the contrary we carefully avoid it. But naturally we are opposed to God’s righteous rule and service, hence the necessity of regeneration, that we may be inspired with a love of holiness, &c. External reformation will not suffice, for the heart will retain its original aversion to the Divine government and service. Only by regeneration does our judgment approve, and our will consent to the Lord’s service as pre-eminently righteous, &c. Then only do we “choose the things that please Him” (Isaiah 56:4). 3. The surrender of ourselves to His service (Isaiah 56:6). Simple approval and desire, though necessary, are not sufficient, they never cemented firm, durable alliance. There must be the actual yielding of ourselves to God in harmony with His gracious demands. This surrender must be unreserved, voluntary, constant. Prompted by obvious and powerful reasons. It is both right and reasonable, pleasant and profitable, &c. (1 Timothy 4:8, and others). 4. Spiritual union and oneness with Him. Not a mere figure of speech, but the greatest reality in human experience. New Testament illustrations. Even these figures can only faintly set it forth. The union is most intimate. One Spirit lives and moves, actuates and guides, both in the Head and members (1 Corinthians 6:17; Hebrews 2:11). We become one with God in thought and feeling and will. Are you “joined to the Lord “? For it is more than mere nominal Christianity, or profession of religion—it is spiritual and gracious. You may be joined to His Church and people, and yet not savingly joined to Him. Examine yourselves, and rest not until you have satisfactory evidence. But what are—II. The evidences of this alliance. We may know (John 14:20; 1 John 5:20). The principal evidences are— 1. Trust in Christ alone for salvation. Faith is a self-conscious act, &c. 2. Deliverance from condemnation (Romans 8:1). From whence can condemnation come? (Romans 8:34). 3. Moral Regeneration (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). The new nature asserts its power, and refuses to be the slave of Satan, &c. Renewing grace creates a new world in the soul. We become conformed to Christ. 4. The inward testimony of the Holy Ghost (1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13). 5. Fruitfulness in good works. This is the design and tendency of this alliance (John 15:4-5; John 15:8; Ephesians 2:10). Not the fair leaves of profession, but the fragrant and substantial fruits of righteousness (Philippians 1:11)—keeping “judgment,” doing “justice,” &c. (Isaiah 56:1; Isaiah 56:6; 1 John 2:3; 1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:24). III. The privileges of this alliance. If we are joined to the Lord we have— 1. Admittance to the fellowship and blessing of His Church (Isaiah 56:5; Isaiah 56:7). Regarded as His true worshippers. Prayers and praises—“spiritual sacrifices,” accepted. The highest possible honours conferred—Divine favour and friendship, &c. (2 Corinthians 5:21, and others). These honours impart true happiness, and are more valuable than any earthly advantage, because eternal and unchangeable (Isaiah 56:5). 2. His life (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4). Our spiritual life flows from Him. We dwell in Him and He in us. Our life from first to last is life in Christ. 3. His position (Ephesians 2:5-6). 4. His power, wisdom, &c. We have an interest in all that He is, and has (Philippians 4:13, and others). 5. His sympathy. Human, at best, is deficient. Sympathy between the head and members of the body. True of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:26-27; Ephesians 5:30; Acts 9:4). 6. Answers to prayer (John 14:13; John 15:7; John 16:23; 1 John 3:22). 7. Confidence at His coming (1 John 2:28; Colossians 1:24). Then we shall participate in His glory! What wealth of privilege is ours. Language cannot express such glory as this. Who could have conceived that such blessedness could have been ours? Are we realising these privileges? Are we taking God at His word respecting them, &c.? If our privileges are great, great too are our responsibilities. Walk worthy of this relation, &c. .— 1. This alliance is effected by cordially receiving God’s “salvation” as now “come,” and unhesitatingly accepting His “righteousness” as now “revealed” in Christ (Isaiah 56:1). There need be no doubt or hesitation in appropriating them as your own (2 Corinthians 6:2; Romans 3:22; Romans 2:28-29; Galatians 3:28-29; Philippians 3:3). “Yield yourselves unto God” through Christ, and the alliance is formed; so simple, and yet so real is the transaction. Then you may testify with humble but assured confidence (Sol. Son 2:16). 2. This alliance is maintained by faith (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 2:6-7).—A. Tucker. AND OF GOD’S PEOPLE Isaiah 56:4-7. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, &c.The pride of ancestry, and boast of ceremonial exclusiveness, and glorying in the flesh, the Lord, by His prophet, looking forward to gospel days, now abolishes, and marks out the true distinctions of His people to be that which is moral and spiritual, to the exclusion of all bodily defects or national peculiarities. Observe—I. THE MARKS AND OF GOD’S PEOPLE.1. Keeping the Sabbath. The day emphatically is the Lord’s, reminding us at once of creation and of redemption (Ephesians 2:11; Deuteronomy 5:15). One day in seven is, therefore, justly dedicated to God as an acknowledgment that He is at once Creator and Redeemer. Resides, the Sabbath-day is subservient to the highest interests of man as a moral and immortal being, &c.2. Choosing the things that please Him. The things that please God are the things that are agreeable to His revealed will (Micah 6:8). And to follow out this requirement we must “choose,” we must exercise an act of the will, and the gracious promise is (Psalms 110:3); and, once thus made willing, having our hearts enlarged, we run in the way of God’s commandments (Psalms 119:32; Romans 7:2; John 4:34). Implies the obeying of God’s will, and submission to it; active, willing obedience, and patient endurance under the events of providence, “as seeing Him who is invisible.” This gracious disposition diffuses a noble bearing and dignity over all the conduct and trials of the believer (Psalms 29:2; Jeremiah 9:24).3. Taking hold of His covenant. The covenant here spoken of has, no doubt, an allusion to the covenant that God made with the Jews, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt, and in that sense embodies the doctrines and precepts of the revealed will of God, along with the promises of God on the one hand, and the obligations of those who become parties to the covenant on the other hand; but in the full sense of the words, in their prophetic announcement, the reference undoubtedly is to that covenant of grace, that is now made known to all (Jeremiah 31:31-34). To “take hold,” therefore, “of the covenant,” is to apprehend its truths, and conform to its requirements; or, to “hold it fast” is to maintain those truths, and exhibit an obedience to those requirements in a consistent life of persevering holiness. Neither profession, outward distinction, or legal ceremony is enough; there must be reality, inward spirituality, and “holiness unto the Lord” (Ezekiel 30:26; Jeremiah 50:4-5; Psalms 103:17-18).4. Being joined to Him to serve Him, or minister to Him (Exodus 30:20; Exodus 35:19; 1 Chronicles 16:37; Revelation 1:6; Jeremiah 1:5; Isaiah 44:5; 1 Corinthians 6:17; John 15:14). The very essence of this “joining,” this adherence or union, is spiritual and gracious. (See outline, “Joined to the Lord,” p. 596.)5. Loving His name. “The name of the Lord” is a very comprehensive expression; it includes everything by which God makes Himself known,—His attributes, character, creation, providence, word, ordinances (Exodus 34:5-7; Psalms 34:3; Psalms 5:11). It is to have the enmity of the carnal mind slain, &c. (Romans 8:7; Ephesians 2:16; Isaiah 57:19; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 7:19).6. Serving Him. “To be His servants.” An active, willing obedience must inevitably follow. The language here again is similar to that which was applied to the Levites, in reference to their duties in the tabernacle and the temple (Numbers 4:47; Numbers 18:6; Numbers 8:11; Leviticus 25:55; Psalms 72:11; Psalms 2:11; Titus 2:11-12).II. THE AND OF GOD’S PEOPLE.1. Incorporation with His Church—admittance to the fellowship and privileges of His people. The tabernacle was placed on Mount Zion, the temple was built on Mount Moriah; the expression “My holy mountain” is, therefore, by a figure of speech, applied to the spiritual Church of the true God (Isaiah 2:2). The language is figurative, taken from the circumstances and customs in the midst of which the prophet and his fellow-countrymen were then placed; but such in its sum and substance is the meaning of this prophecy. The characters described were excluded of the law (Deuteronomy 33:1-3).But now, looking forward to a nobler and more advanced economy, even that under which we live, those very persons are not only admitted into “the Lord’s house,” and “within the very walls” of His temple; but they are promised “a place and a name there;”—the very “place” where the priests used to worship (Zechariah 3:7; Ezekiel 21:19); the very “name” that the priests were wont to bear are made theirs (Revelation 1:6; John 1:12). That “place” and that “name” are better than those of sons and of daughters. The true Christian is possessed of a title and a pedigree before which the most ancient ancestry of earth declines into insignificance (John 1:12-13; Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:16-17; 1 Peter 1:23-25). These privileges and honours are everlasting. There is on the part of some an ardent love of fame—the strong desire of worldly immortality. God’s people may, through grace, obtain the highest honours and happiness beyond the grave, “The good alone are great.” The “name,” in the Hebrew language, is used to denote the character and condition of a person: “As his name is, so is he” (1 Samuel 25:25). The honour and happiness of God’s people, as to the body and as to the soul, in time and throughout eternity, shall be fixed and permanent. He gives them some prelude of this by granting them honour and happiness here on earth (John 14:27; Revelation 2:17). And most largely on the separation of the soul from the body (Philippians 1:21-23; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 2 Timothy 4:7-8; Revelation 3:21); and on the body being raised up incorruptible from the grave (1 Corinthians 15:42-44; Philippians 3:20-21; 2 Corinthians 3:18); and still grander when the ransomed soul and glorified body shall have been united together, to live for ever in heaven. This is the native sequel of a holy life, of one who has kept the Lord’s Sabbaths, &c. (Isaiah 56:4). But the blessing is a reward through grace, “I will give them,” &c. There shall be different degrees of glory among the saints in heaven; but each inhabitant, according to his capacity, will be perfectly happy (1 Corinthians 15:41-42; Daniel 12:3; 1 John 3:3).2. Joy in the sanctuary (Isaiah 56:7). Great was the joy of the Jew when he went up to “Zion, the city of solemnities” (Isaiah 33:20), and was introduced to the pure worship and high festivals of the God of his fathers (Psalms 122:1-2; Psalms 122:6; Psalms 42:1-2). And if such was the experience of a pious Hebrew in connection with the ordinances of “a worldly sanctuary,” what must the enjoyment of a Gentile believer be under “the ministration of the Spirit,” in the midst of “a glory that excelleth” (2 Corinthians 3:8; 2 Corinthians 3:10). Consider the happiness and joy of God’s people, amidst the ordinances and privileges, and gracious manifestations, that are realised in the sanctuary. The communion of saints mellows the soul, and draws forth the hidden graces of the Spirit.3. Acceptance of their spiritual worship (Isaiah 56:7). There can be no doubt that under those names we have things spiritual and eternal shadowed forth. The splendid ceremonial of the law tells of the spirituality of the Gospel. The priesthood has become common to all believers, even whilst the office of “pastors and teachers” remains intact (Ephesians 4:11). Prayers and thanksgivings, &c., are in the place of “burnt-offerings” and “sacrifices” (Psalms 4:5; Psalms 51:15-19; Hosea 14:2; Malachi 1:11; Hebrews 13:15-16; 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 8:3). “For mine house shall be an house of prayer for all nations”—a place of spiritual worship, where His name is honoured and invoked, and in which the confessions, and petitions, and thanksgivings of His suppliants are presented to Him (Exodus 20:24; John 4:21-24; Isaiah 2:2-4).—John Gemmel, M.A.: The Gospel in Isaiah, pp. 177–228.I. The nature of Gospel privilege. A place in God’s house. A name among His children. A share in His covenant. II. The extent of Gospel privilege. It reaches all, without distinction or limitation. III. The conditions of Gospel privilege. That we join ourselves to the Lord; keep His Sabbaths; choose the things that please Him; and take hold of His covenant, &c.—Dr. Lyth.THE OF THE Isaiah 56:6-7. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, &c.This passage relates to the Gospel period. The prophet has described the suffering and glory of Christ; the security of the Gospel Church; the salvation provided; the invitation to its free enjoyment; its wide success. The present chapter is a still more explicit exposition of its universal aspect. All peoples would be equally admitted to the privileges and advantages of the Gospel. This is the main idea of the text. The language and imagery are Jewish; the conception is Christian. The text sets forth the universal inclusiveness of the Christian dispensation— I. IN TO . It is not said that the privileges of the Gospel will be conferred on all mankind without regard to character. The death of Christ has provided the salvation. But the proclamation of mercy it authorises is not the statement of the actual pardon of all mankind. It is a proclamation of the King’s readiness to pardon; an invitation to partake of a feast on compliance with the conditions of the invitation. Man is to take hold of God’s covenant and join himself to the Lord. Turning from sin and believing in the Saviour, he is to accept the salvation. All marks of this are not indicated here; but there are— 1. Love to the Divine person. The Gospel is a religion of love. In Christ the Divine character is presented in such lights as win the believer’s love. Nor is it merely love to abstract principles, doctrines, truths. It includes this; but while comprehending this, it takes the personal form. He loves God: God as expressed to him in the person of Christ. 2. Devotion to the Divine service. Love expresses itself in obedience to the Divine commands. It is the test he has imposed. Christians recognise the supreme right of Christ to govern their lives. Their new nature makes it a willing service. Not the service of the slave, nor even of the hireling, but of the child. All the soldiers in Christ’s army are volunteers; nor does he acknowledge enforced and unwilling service as rendered to him at all. 3. Observance of Divine ordinances. The Sabbath has been observed from the beginning, &c. Inclusion in the Gospel covenant is open to all who are thus willing to place themselves in spiritual connection with Christ. II. IN TO WORSHIP. “For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” There is something exceedingly interesting and attractive in the idea of a common centre of religious worship for man. The temple was the centre for the Jewish people. They made it more or less exclusive. Contrary to the law (Numbers 15:14-16). But under the Christian dispensation there must be no exclusion. The Christian sanctuary, as representing the dispensation, must be open to all comers. The attitude of those who belong to it, should be that of those who are prepared to give a kindly welcome to the stranger, and a kindly invitation to those who are wandering without a spiritual home. While the intercourse between God and His children must, for the most part, be sacredly private, public worship is a necessity. On the part of the worshippers it becomes a mutual encouragement and strength, as well as an open testimony for God to the world. It is a commanded duty, which has been practised by godly people in all periods. It is the subject of many special promises. It exerts a gracious influence on such as engage in it; soothing the perturbed spirit, comforting the troubled heart, elevating the soul too apt to be lowered by the world’s influence, and purifying the heart by communion with the Holy One. Let all such as desire to come into God’s covenant regard His house as their home. It is the one place in the world where all of every race, every rank, every peculiarity of personal characteristic may meet on equal terms and with equal rights. III. IN TO . There is no distinction in the measure of spiritual blessedness awarded; no classes of inner and outer court worshippers. There is no distinction but such as persons make for themselves. Let any one join himself to the Lord and thus put himself in the requisite spiritual position, and then all the blessedness of the Gospel is open to him. 1. Church communion. The sacred mountain of Moriah, the scene of so many exhibitions of God’s grace, shall become the house of the stranger. Why do so many who love the Saviour under-estimate the fellowship of His saints? 2. Spiritual enjoyment. Religion not dull and melancholy. It is a pure joy congenial to the sanctified soul. 3. Divine acceptance. As the sacrifice of the spotless lamb, so the sacrifices of praise and prayer. Let us all come into the Divine covenant. Value its privileges. Diffuse its blessings.—J. Rawlinson.The text— I. Holds out universal encouragement to man.1. By the transfer of the priesthood from Aaron to Christ. 2. By the change of sacrifice. From the blood of bulls and of goats to the precious blood of the Son of God. 3. By the removal of place. From Jerusalem to the temple of the universe, 4. By a change of worship. From ritual to spiritual. What an encouraging prospect (Ephesians 2:11, &c). II. Inculcates universal piety.Piety in heart and practice. The duties here enumerated may-be divided into three classes. 1. Those which relate to Christ, expressed by taking hold of His covenant—accepting—agreeing to it. 2. Those which relate to God as the Governor of the world. His servants—walk by His laws—keep His Sabbaths. 3. Those which relate to the Church. III. Promises universal happiness.1. Access to heaven. There was near approach to God, through the high priest, under the law. Yet more especially is this the case through Christ, the great High Priest of our profession. 2. Joyfulness in His service. In the use of every Divine ordinance they shall find rich satisfactions and delights (Isaiah 12:3). Praise shall rejoice their spirits. In psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs they make melody in their hearts unto the Lord. Prayer opens heaven in the exhaustlessness of its store, and satisfies them with good. Holy thoughts in conversing with the Supreme. Such meditation of God is sweet. 3. The Divine acceptance of their religious engagements. Application.—What encouragement to all men to worship God, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth! But how do you really view the Gospel? Are you seeking to realise these high privileges, or are you only making a profession of religion? Ponder these weighty matters. Take hold of the covenant of the Redeemer, &c.—Richard Watson: Sermons and Outlines, pp. 305–307. In the Gospel we behold a beautiful intermixture of doctrine, promise, and precept, by means of which the performance of evangelical worship is rendered at once a reasonable and delightful service. As sinners, we ought not to have been surprised if we had had fewer promises to render the worship of God inviting; but in the Gospel every means is employed to render devotional exercises a welcome relief to the mind; we are drawn, not driven; we are taught to consider the sanctuary of religion not only as a place of refuge, but as a place of rest; and instead of being compelled to lay hold of the horns of the altar as a last resource, the only hiding-place from the avenger of blood, we are taught to view it under the endearing character of the house of our Father, and consequently as our proper and our peaceful home. Strangers as we have been to God, and enemies to Him by wicked works, it might have been thought a great privilege if we were barely tolerated in our approaches to Him, if our sacrifices were received without disdain; but instead of this, we are welcomed into the presence of the great King, &c. “Even I will bring them,” &c. This promise has a direct reference to Gospel times, and the Jews interpret it of the time when Messiah, the Son of David, should come. There can be no doubt of this, if it is read in connection with the preceding chapter. The special privileges of the Jewish Church were for the most part confined to the members of one family, one nation, one kindred, but the blessings of the Gospel Church are free and unconfined. As the times of the Gospel drew nigh, there was a considerable softening given to the rugged features of the former dispensation—promises were given to the Gentile as well as to the Jew, and provision was made for the stranger within their gates, as well as for the children of Abraham themselves, &c. But it was reserved for the Gospel to abolish these distinctions altogether (Ephesians 2:13, &c.). I. THE OF THE TEMPLE OF —a house of prayer, &c. If this description applied to the Jewish temple, how much more to the Christian Church (Hebrews 10:21). The temple is not a theatre for display, &c., but a house of prayer (1 Timothy 3:15). In public ordinances prayer should be considered as of first importance. There is everything to encourage prayer— 1. In the temple itself. This was eminently true of the ancient temple—erected not for preaching, but for worship. Everything in the furniture and in the service of the temple to encourage prayer. So in our worship—the day on which we meet, &c. 2. In the character of the Deity who presides in it. Was He not their covenant God, &c.? Do we not view Him under more encouraging titles, &c.? Let us avail ourselves of the privileges, &c. 3. In the circumstances of the worshippers. Were they not a chosen people, &c.? All these meet in our worship? What arguments for prayer from our lost condition, &c. 4. In the comprehensive aspect of our devotions. II. THE TRUE OF . It is not enough to be found in the temple, we must sustain the requisite qualifications of worshippers. It is not enough to join a church, &c., but we must possess the leading features of Christ’s disciples, else our worship is a mockery, our profession vain. This is evinced— 1. By the spiritual affections which they cherish towards God,—they love Him, they serve Him, they make an open profession of His name. These are fruits which do not grow in nature’s wilderness, &c. 2. By the reverence they pay to His institutions. A regard to the Sabbath marked these strangers, and will always mark spiritual Christians. These men would not be found in the temple one part of the day, and in the field another, &c. 3. By their tenacious regard to the great foundations of human hope—God’s covenant. III. THE THEY MAY EXPECT TO ENJOY. 1. They shall be introduced into the visible Church. Every disqualification removed. 2. Their sacrifices and services shall be accepted. 3. Their satisfaction and joy shall abound.—Samuel Thodey.THE SABBATH Isaiah 56:6-7. Every one that keepeth the Sabbath, &c. [1725][1725] See Outlines on Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 58:13-14. The intimate connection between special privileges and special obligations has been observed in all ages. After the rich promises of Gospel blessings, we find in this chapter a strenuous enforcement of religious observances. A sincere belief of Christian truth will be followed by a faithful performance of Christian duties; for the one has a great influence upon the other. Where the doctrines are not believed, the duties will not be practised. The Sabbath has been regarded as a kind of hedge, or fence, to the whole law. I. THE OF THE OF THE SABBATH. Here, keeping the Sabbath, and laying hold on the covenant are identical; hence the Jewish doctors spoke advisedly when they declared the institution of the Sabbath to be the condensation and perfection of the whole law. 1. Look back upon the early, or patriarchal Sabbath, beginning with the creation of the world. Think how early it was appointed by God Himself in paradise, for the Sabbath is only one day younger than the creation of the world. The argument is plain, that if man required a Sabbath, when there were only two people in the world, how much more needful has it become when the world is crowded with inhabitants and with temptations to sin. Without such a day, it would have been most difficult for the corrupt nature of man to have maintained the true worship of God in the world. But a seventh day holy to the Lord would distinguish those who called on the name of the Lord, &c. 2. The Jewish Sabbath naturally succeeds the patriarchal, though accompanied by the change of the day to commemorate the departure from Egypt (Exodus 16:22-23, and others). The violation of the sanctity of this day was marked by severe penalties, &c. 3. The Christian Sabbath. The real obligation of the Jewish Sabbath could extend no further than the close of that economy; and under the Christian economy we are prepared to expect some further change of the day. How silently this change was brought about! As Christ silently abrogated the Jewish passover by the institution of the Lord’s Supper without formally announcing it, so He silently abrogated the seventh-day Sabbath of the Jews, and transferred all its honours and sanctities to the first day of the week, &c. II. THE SIN OF IT—diverting it from a sacred to a common use (see p. 595). It is a sin against— 1. God. Very prevalent. 2. Man. 3. Your own souls. 4. A sin that, persisted in, cannot be repaired. III. THE UPON ITS . 1. Temporal. 2. Spiritual. 3. Eternal. (See p. 595).—Samuel Thodey.THE DIVINE CENTRE Isaiah 56:7. Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, &c.The vision of the prophet is twofold in this chapter. He sees the chosen people scattered and gathered—sent into captivity and restored. The vision also enlarges its scope, and the restoration includes the deliverance of the Gentile world from the bondage of sin. To the stranger and the eunuch a promise is made that the final restoration of the race will include them. In spite of Jewish prejudices the larger hope appears, at intervals, in the narrower forms of worship. I. THE CENTRE OF THOUGHT.—“My holy mountain, My house of prayer.” 1. The worship of the one God demands this. Polytheism, although it had its temples and festivals, had no unity of purpose, but a variety of gods and forms. Where ignorance has grown into superstition, nature’s forces have been deified. The one temple at Jerusalem, with its one priesthood, fixed the minds of the people on the one God. The one Calvary, with its one Mediator between God and men, secures the same end. The one sanctuary where you worship from week to week, reminds you that God is one. We hear much in the present day about the beautiful, the songs of birds, the murmurs of the streams, the rustling of leaves, &c., and thus there are so many things to admire—so many gods to worship. Remember that God has hallowed the one place, and put His name there. 2. Concentration of religious thought requires it. It is a matter of grave importance, and of considerable difficulty to worship God in spirit and in truth. For this we need a consecrated spot, pure associations, and spiritual companions. Whatever art may contribute, whatsoever the influence of man may produce, and whatever power there is in numbers, to assist the soul to ascend towards the throne of God in adoration is their greatest service. 3. It is a restfulness which the heart of the Christian longs for. Every Jew had his spiritual home at Jerusalem; every saint rests where his Saviour is worshipped. The child of ten has more hold of this earth than the man of years. Every day unsettles us, except we have a place and a name among the sons and daughters of Sion. II. THE OF THOUGHT. They are three, arising from the great departments of life. 1. Intellectual. To commune with God is the highest exercise of thought. God’s house is the place where mind ascends towards the mind which is in Christ Jesus. It is, above everything, the house of prayer. 2. Moral. There must be burnt-offerings and sacrifices. The moral sense in man cannot approach God except through a sacrifice. The great sacrifice of Calvary is the way to the Father. Jesus is the Priest of the house. 3. Emotional. They are made joyful. They sing songs of deliverance. They enjoy the communion of saints. They are filled with the peace of God. They are accepted in the Beloved. There is gladness of heart where the presence of God is enjoyed. Much more than is at present customary should be the reverence for the sanctuary and its worship.—The Weekly Pulpit, vol. i. p. 120. THE OF GOD’S HOUSE Isaiah 56:7. I will make them joyful in My house of prayer.I. The persons to whom the text refers (Isaiah 56:2-6). II. The declaration made.1. In taking away sadness and its causes. Sin, condemnation, slavish dread, &c. 2. By giving the Spirit of adoption; the evidence of their sonship; the source of their blessedness. 3. By inspiring hopes of the future. 4. By the sanctification of their providential experiences (Romans 8:28). God guiding, protecting, blessing, &c. III. The special place of this promise of God.The Tabernacle was God’s house—the Temple—every holy synagogue. Now, “Wherever two or three are gathered,” &c. 1. Our places of worship belong to God. They are for God, and God dwells in them—meets, communes, sanctifies, and owns. 2. They are pre-eminently houses of prayer. Here God is known as the hearer and answerer of prayer. Here is the true prayer-book to guide our prayers; promises to prayer; the spirit of prayer. Not exclusively hearing, meditating, &c., but prayer pre-eminently. IV. THE AND OF THIS JOY WITH GOD’S HOUSE OF PRAYER. 1. See the connection with the exercises of this house. Joy and prayer. Joy and the Word. Joy and the ordinances. Joy and the praises. Joy and the blessings. How clear all this! But look at it— 2. In connection with the persons, as well as the exercises. God’s people there; God’s ministering servants there; God Himself there—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3. See it in connection with the experiences of this house. Most persons have been enlightened, convicted, converted, sanctified, comforted, fed there, &c. 4. See it in connection with this house and the house above. House of God, the gate of Heaven. Ladder here, angels here, foretaste here. As Mount of Olives to Christ. .— 1. The blessedness of true religion. Not gloom and despondency, but “joy”—abundant, Divine, heavenly, everlasting. 2. The preciousness of God’s house. 3. The corresponding duties and privileges. “Not forsaking,” &c., sustaining, helping, &c. We should bring others with us to share the blessedness. All men desire joyousness of soul, here it is supplied.—J. Burns, D.D.: Sketches, pp. 384–386. OTHERS TO BE Isaiah 56:8. The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, &c.God’s work is now that of gathering, &c. I. TO THOSE WHO SEEK THE LORD. Note well the instances mentioned: instances of gathering by the hand of the Lord. Outcasts have been gathered, and this is the token that others shall be gathered. 1. I suppose Isaiah alludes to the banished who had been carried away captive to Babylon and to all parts of the East, but who were at different times restored to their land. God, who brought His people out of Babylon, can bring men out of sin; He who loosed captives from bondage, can liberate spirits from despair, &c. 2. But I prefer to use the text in reference to our Divine Lord and Master, seeing that to Him shall the gathering of the people be. When He was here below He gathered the outcasts of Israel. (1.) By His ministry (Luke 15:1-2, &c.). (2.) By forgiving their sins. This brought them nearer still and held them there. (3.) By graciously helping them. Magdalene, Thomas. Since He gathered to Himself a woman out of whom He cast seven devils, and a man from whom a whole legion were made to flee, why should He not deliver those of you who are under bondage now? (4.) So as to enrol them under His banner. Levi, when he sat at the receipt of custom. Three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost. II. THE PROMISE UTTERED. 1. It is very wide. The Gentiles should be called to know the Lord. 2. It is continuous. It was true when Isaiah stated it; it would have been true if Peter had quoted it on the morning of Pentecost. It was quite true when Carey acted upon it, and started on what men thought his mad enterprise, to go as a consecrated cobbler to convert the learned Brahmins of India, and to lay the foundation of Messiah’s kingdom there. It is quite as true now. 3. It is most graciously encouraging. It evidently applies very pointedly to outcasts. If not an outcast from society, it may be you are an outcast in your own esteem. How sweetly encouraging this should be to all of you that are sick of yourselves, and sick of your sins! There is no hope elsewhere, but there is hope in Jesus, for He is mighty to deliver, &c. Trust in Him. 4. The promise is absolute. He speaks as a king. This is the kind of language which only an Omnipotent being can use. III. THE FACTS WHICH SUSTAIN OUR FAITH IN THIS PROMISE. We believe it, whether or no; fact or no fact, to back it up, God’s Word is sure; but still this will help some who have but slender confidence. 1. The perpetuity of the Gospel. 2. The blood of atonement has not lost its power. 3. The Spirit of God is with us still. 4. The glory and majesty of the Gospel, or rather the greatness of the glory of God in the Gospel. 5. The longings of the saints. IV. THE CONDUCT WITH THIS PROMISE. 1. Let us view this question with reference to God’s people. Believe it, and then pray about it. If you pray, you must work, for prayer without endeavour is hypocrisy; expect to see others gathered. Look out for them, and be continually saying, “Where are these others?” 2. Those who have not yet been gathered. They should be encouraged to hope. What God has done for others He can do for you.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1437. THE FLOCK: ITS AND ITS Isaiah 56:9. All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. These words are to be understood as a note of warning, a sound of alarm. It is not that God wishes His flock to be devoured that He thus summons the beasts of prey to gather round the fold; on the contrary, He is concerned for their safety, and warns them of the danger in which they stand. So defenceless and unprotected is the flock, that ferocious animals may come and devour as much as they please without resistance or opposition. No style of address was better fitted to startle both flock and shepherds from their careless security. God’s flock is still surrounded by ravenous beasts. The Church needs to be on the watch against pernicious doctrines, evil influences, and corrupt practices, that would undermine her faith and rob her of her life. Her enemies are as defiant as ever, and assail her in various forms. It may be well for us, then, to hear and attend to this warning voice. I. THE STATE OF THE FLOCK. The figure employed is familiar to us. A minister is a pastor, i.e. a shepherd, and the people of his charge, a flock. They have been solemnly intrusted to his care, and he is responsible for their spiritual guidance, protection, and support. He is to lead them by the green pastures of Divine truth, and tenderly and lovingly to watch over their highest interests, defending them from harmful influences. In the East, the shepherd has such a genuine interest in his flock that he makes it his constant care. Hence the aptness of the figure. But in the case before us the sheep are shamefully neglected. The fold is open to attack, and the beasts of the field and of the forest have but to come and devour to their hearts’ content. Read what follows the text, and you will find the explanation. What could the state of the flock be with such shepherds—careless, indolent, unfaithful, selfish, and sensual? The picture is drawn from the life, and may well be pondered by every minister of the Word. Those who exercise the sacred office may here learn the special sins which they are liable to indulge, the gross faults from which they ought to be entirely free. There is another use which may be made of this fearful indictment brought against Israel’s leaders and teachers. If this shameful neglect of theirs left the flock exposed to the ravages of wild beasts, the opposite course must tend to secure its safety and well-being. Pray, then, for your minister (Ephesians 6:19; Philippians 1:19; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). It is always a cheering reflection that if, through the human weakness and incapacity of the earthly shepherd, the flock does stand exposed to attack at some points, the Chief Shepherd never for a moment intermits His care, and can overrule for blessing the ravages of the destroyer (Ezekiel 34:12-16). The fiercest onsets of the foe will only reveal the almighty power that guards the flock. It is the duty of the Church’s overseers to protect their charges, to warn them of possible onsets, and to keep watch at the gate of the fold. If they neglect these precautions, they are only playing into the hands of those who come to devour. II. THE WILD BEASTS THAT TO DEVOUR THE FLOCK.—In the field, in the forest, they growl and rage, watching their opportunity of seizing some stray sheep, or of entering the fold when the gate is left open. In the East several shepherds lead their flocks into the same fold, and intrust them to an under-shepherd or porter, who closes the gate, and remains with them all night. If he be careless, much havoc may be wrought before daybreak (John 10:12-13). We may expect that prowlers will always be hanging about the fold. Scripture itself forewarns us (Acts 20:29-30). In all the generations of the past the Church of Christ has been menaced by devourers, and has suffered much from their depradations. Satan goeth about as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), but he has numerous assistants and agents in his service. Some are open and undisguised; others are wily and insidious. When the lion, the bear, the wolf are seen in their own proper shape, or are heard growling around the fold, the shepherd has but one course—steady resistance, closed gates. With infidels and agnostics, whose aim is to undermine faith and morals,—with Romanists, who sadly pervert the truth, we can deal only in the way of determined and deathless opposition. But it is otherwise with the second class of assailants. The roaring lion does not always roar to give signal of his approach; sometimes he presents himself as a bright angel of light (1 Corinthians 11:13-14). The wolves do not always growl as they rush to the onset; they can come up stealthily in sheep’s clothing, so artfully put on that you can scarcely detect the deception. With much show of zeal, and spirituality, these professed friends are really pernicious enemies. They craftily conceal their real principles, until their victim is fairly ensnared. Their aim is “to draw away disciples after them.” They do not labour among the careless: their efforts are directed to the subversion of church members. They save themselves the trouble of excavating, by seizing on the stones already quarried and dressed. Laying hold of the young convert, they instil the subtle poison of their pernicious doctrines into his mind. .— 1. Neglect not the means of grace. If it be the pastor’s duty to feed and warn you, it is your part to heed the warning he may find it necessary to give (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; Hebrews 13:17; 2 Corinthians 1:24). 2. We point you to the Chief Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep. He can restrain the enemies of the flock (Ezekiel 34:23-25). He can and will keep His own (John 10:27-28). On which side do you find yourselves? In Christ’s fold, or among its ravenous spoilers? (Matthew 13:30).—William Guthrie, M.A. Isaiah 56:10-12. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, &c.A very sad description is here given of the “watchmen”—the spiritual leaders of Isaiah’s time, evincing a state of lamentable degeneracy and corruption. The language has often been, and still is, descriptive of many shepherds of the flock. I. Ignorant. Immersed in sin themselves, they were blind to the sins, and wants, and dangers of the people—destitute of spiritual wisdom and discernment (Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 35:5; Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 42:16-19; Isaiah 43:8, &c.; Jeremiah 3:15). Like the blind guides of the Gospel (Matthew 15:14; Luke 6:39, &c.). Ignorance of “the truth as it is in Jesus” is an effectual disqualification for the office. What irreparable evil may be wrought by such blind guides! II. Indolent. What a graphic and striking description of an indolent ministry. True of many to-day, who act as though hearers were won by idleness (Proverbs 6:10). Instinct prompts the canine race to act the part which God intends; but, alas! there are men in the ministry whom neither conscience, reason, hope, fear, nor love will rouse to effort to save souls. Instead of acting as faithful watch-dogs, who givewarning of the approach of danger by their barking, they remain apathetic, and utter no warning. It is as if they passed their lives in sleep. What a terrible awakening they will one day experience! III. Covetous. They keep up the old custom, rejected by the higher prophets as an abuse, of taking fees (Numbers 22:7; 1 Samuel 9:7; 1 Kings 14:3; 2 Kings 5:16; Matthew 10:8; Acts 8:20; Ezekiel 13:19; Ezekiel 22:25; Micah 3:3). They are “greedy” after gain. All their inquiry is what they shall get, not what they shall do (Philippians 2:21). They never have enough (Ecclesiastes 5:10). They are careful for their dues—tithes, collections, pew-rents, &c., rather than for souls. “Ambitious of preferment for its gold.” Yet they are set apart not to promote their own interests, but the welfare and salvation of others. What possible effect for good can their preaching have? They do inconceivable injury to the cause of truth, for it is evident they do not live for their charge, but for themselves. IV. Intemperate. Given to excess in wine, and to long revels, such as even the heathen considered to be disgraceful (Isaiah 28:7). One is represented as inviting another to a carouse of two days. Their frailty and mortality little thought of; no dread of the judgment of God, &c. Living only for carnal gratification, they cannot think of making sacrifices for souls. Of all evils, intemperance is most unbecoming to the minister of Christ, and prevents his rebuking vice in others with any practical effect. Conclusion.—What a humiliation that such men are allowed to remain in the Church! Such shepherds make the Church lifeless and barren. How strikingly in Saint Paul’s character are developed the marks of a good shepherd—one that careth for the sheep (Philippians 1:8; Philippians 4:1; and others). If such intense yearning characterised all the shepherds of Israel now, what a different Church we should have! We hear much about the reformation of the government; is not the reformation of the ministry more needful? Let the Church, therefore, take the greatest possible care in separating men to this work and office.—A. Tucker., OR ON THE FUTURE Isaiah 56:12. To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.There is a marked and melancholy inconsistency between the admissions which men make, and the course of conduct which they pursue. The uncertainty of life is universally granted, yet men think, and talk, and act confidently on the credit of “to-morrow,” and, not seldom, of much longer periods. Procrastination is— I. COMMON. A very old evil (Exodus 8:10, and others). We are all more or less guilty of it, for all our purposes and plans reach into a future which will never be ours. Specially manifested in relation to experimental religion. All ages and classes indulge in it. The young look to middle age, the more advanced to the last stage of life, &c. “To-morrow” is the prevailing maxim;—a maxim which few pretend to justify, but on which the vast majority persist in acting; a maxim of which all grant the folly in words, and by the admission condemn their own practice. Men of business often warn the young against the evil in relation to this life, yet act on the principle they condemn respecting interests incomparably more momentous. Strange infatuation! What has been your conduct? II. . A practical disregard of all the mercy and love of God. The unnumbered blessings of His gracious providence. The richer blessings of His grace in Christ Jesus. The enormity of ingratitude to God. “The ass, after having drunk, gives a kick to the bucket” (Italian). God’s greatest miracle is His patience and bounty to the ungrateful. III. . 1. True religion is supremely important. The only source of true happiness; of support amid the trials of life; of peace in death; and of a blissful immortality. 2. Delay increases difficulties. You may not think so; you imagine the future will present more favourable opportunities than the present, &c. But that is manifestly unreasonable, for, owing to the known laws of habit, every day’s delay increases the difficulties, &c. Sin gets a firmer hold upon you. Your experience bears witness. If you do not decide to-day, it becomes less likely that you ever will, &c 3. You have no evidence that you will live till to-morrow. You cannot calculate on the future (Proverbs 27:1). The Gospel may never be preached to you again, &c. IV. SINFUL. 1. It encourages others to continue in their sins. Your to-day, is a day of evil example, &c. 2. It robs God of His due—your best affections, &c. Religion is not a mere creed, &c., but an obligation, founded on absolute proprietorship and mediatorial interposition (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). 3. It practically disregards God’s commands. Repentance and faith, &c., are immediate duties. “The imperative hath no future tense.” 4. It involves the abuse of all the means which God is graciously employing for your salvation. Resisting the strivings of His Spirit, &c. V. . Danger is always associated with sin. Increases with every day’s delay. To-morrow may be for ever too late. “Hell is paved with good intentions.” To delay is to court ruin. .—Presume not on the patience of God. Do not longer calculate on to-morrow. Yield yourself to God NOW (Hebrews 3:7; 2 Corinthians 6:2; Proverbs 1:24-31). You will never regret the step. But if you continue to befool yourself, every day will add its weight of guilt and sorrow. The Holy Ghost saith TO-DAY.—A. Tucker. THE DEATH OF THE GOOD (Funeral Sermon.) Isaiah 57:1-2. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, &c.I. Though God’s people are the excellent of the earth, yet they must die. Though “righteous” and “merciful,” and on these accounts so precious in God’s eyes, and so useful in His cause, they are not exempted from that sentence of death which is passed upon all men. Were we consulted concerning many of them, we should entreat that they might be spared, and we see not how the cause of truth can be maintained without them. But they are “taken away,” to show us that though God uses them as instruments, they are not indispensable to Him. It is our want of faith and our selfishness that cause us to wish them not to be removed. They themselves desire to “depart,” &c. II. Their death is a great blessing to themselves. They are “taken away,” but— 1. It is to be with Christ. The word here translated “taken away” is often translated “gathered.” When saints die, it is merely a gathering to Christ, And will not they account this a blessing? Being gathered to Christ includes, not simply His presence (though this is the choicest part of heaven), but the presence of the angels and of the spirits of the just made perfect. What a varied and glorious company do they form! 2. It is from the evil to come. From calamities and distresses that would otherwise befall them. From Satan’s temptations. From the persecutions of an ungodly world. From the sad corruptions of their own hearts, which distress them daily. From all the cares, conflicts, and sorrows connected with a mortal existence and a sinful state. 3. It is to rest and peace. III. It is a grievous, though a common sin, that when men behold the death of the righteous, they do not lay it to heart. 1. As a public loss! When such men die, the Church loses its ornaments, the world its best friends. Well may we mourn individually, when the hallowing influence of a godly character ceases to be exerted upon us. 2. As a public warning!.— 1. Let us make the best use of our godly relations and friends while they live. 2. When our godly friends are “taken away,” let us not sorrow as those who have no hope. 3. Let us make sure that we are gathered to Christ now, that we may be gathered to Him hereafter.—James Sherman: Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 1–12. The characteristics here described are those produced by the operation of God’s grace in human hearts. I. The prophet notices a familiar fact.We find it difficult to regard death as other than an enemy. With the exception of Enoch, and Elijah, and perhaps Moses, and those who will be alive when the Lord comes, the reign of death is universal (Ecclesiastes 9:2; Romans 5:12; H. E. I. 1536, 1537). God’s people do not escape. Here a question arises: Since the redemption in Christ removes their sins, why should they be retained under the bondage of death? We suggest in answer— 1. That possibly man was never intended to abide perpetually on the globe, but after a lengthened probation to be removed to a higher existence. 2. The necessity for the removal of one generation to make room for another. 3. The wisdom of the arrangement by which old age is ultimately relieved of the weariness and infirmity incident to it. 4. The danger to the spiritual affections of the saints involved in a perpetuated residence on earth. 5. The exemption of believers from death would be an open declaration of and mark upon them; but such open destruction does not accord with the design of this world as a state of trial and discipline. 6. That by the grace of Christ the aspect of death is entirely changed to believers. 7. That the humiliation and sorrow of death are amply compensated by the glorious resurrection and immortal life. II. The prophet laments the general indifference with which this familiar fact is treated.This may refer specially to the time of Manasseh, but it is still true. 1. The world does not love the righteous, because they are such. If they care for them at all, it is for other reasons. So far as what is peculiar to them severally is developed, it is antagonistic. 2. The world is indifferent to the fact that the death of the righteous is a public loss. Godly men in their families, neighbourhoods, the nation, by their character, prayers, public spirit are a preserving influence. Sodom could not be destroyed while Lot was in it. 3. The world does not consider the true import and consequence of the death of the righteous. It is not considered in relation to eternity; but only in relation to time. Such a one is dead, his new life is not considered. III. The prophet suggests the sufficient consolation. To the righteous death is— 1. Exemption from evil. Terrible evil was coming on Israel which those escaped who died at that time. There may be public, domestic, and personal evils impending, from which the Lord snatches His people away. 2. Enjoyment of good. The Gospel does not conduct its votaries to the bed of death, and then leave them there in dark uncertainty. The change that is made by death is their entrance into peace and rest. For there is final and undisturbed security, and the perpetual presence of the objects to which the believer’s spirit has been most closely united; God in Christ, holy angels, glorified saints, perfect purity. 1. How interesting to those left behind, to think of them thus! 2. See that you are among those of whom such thoughts are suitable. 3. Beware of being among those who are indifferent to the people of God and their fate. The world’s indifference to the Church is the reflection of its indifference to Christ.—J. Rawlinson.The visitations of death are frequently mysterious. Often the most talented, and pious, and useful are cut down, while mere cumberers of the ground are spared, &c. Piety exempts none from the arrests of death; it delivers from the sting of death, but not from its stroke. How affecting the death of a statesman, a minister, an influential Christian, or a pious parent in the meridian of life and usefulness, &c. Isaiah was deeply moved in consequence of the death of good men, and the indifference of his countrymen, &c. It matters little that we cannot accurately determine who these good men were, or the manner of their death. Consider— I. The character of the good as here portrayed.1. They are righteous. As none are so naturally, a real and radical change in the governing dispositions of the heart is implied, &c. Believing in the Lord Jesus, and being accepted righteous in Him, they come under an obligation to practise universal righteousness, and to present to the world a character of uniform and sustained holiness (Romans 6:18-19; 1 John 3:7). They are men of rectitude—men right in their moral relations and in their principles of action—right in heart, and habit, and life (1 John 3:7). Such a man, however, will always feel that his claim to be regarded as a righteous man is not to be traced to what he is in himself, but to what he owes to the grace of God. 2. They are merciful. Not only the subjects of God’s mercy, but merciful in their own dispositions—“men of kindness or godliness” (margin); forgiving offenders, compassionating the suffering, helping the weak and needy, and evincing kindness, consideration, and bountifulness towards all (Genesis 32:10; Psalms 119:64; Joe 2:13; Romans 12:8; Colossians 3:12). In nothing do we imitate God more than in showing mercy. And we have abundant opportunity to do it, for the world is full of sin and misery, which we may help to relieve, &c. 3. They walk in their uprightness. They avoid the crooked path of sin, and pursue the straight line of righteousness (Psalms 125:5; Proverbs 2:15; Isaiah 59:8; Philippians 2:15). The Christian life does not consist in mere sentiment or feeling, &c. Feeling and practice, like twin sisters, must go hand in hand. Christianity is pre-eminently a practical system. The doctrine of the kingdom is, that “faith without works is dead”—that faith contains a seed of virtue or holy living, so that good works are not an adjunct of faith, but a necessary fruit of faith. Light must shine, and where there are the principles of holiness there will be all the habits of holiness pervading the whole life. Is this a description of your character? Have you sought and secured “the righteousness of faith;” are you showing mercy to all men, walking uprightly, &c.? II. The death of the good as here presented.1. As the perishing of the body. The soul lives on, and will do for ever; but the mortal body decays, returns to its native dust, &c. The bodies of all the untold myriads of the human race have perished. The mightiest share the same fate as the meanest. Evident to all. Then why pamper the body, &c. 2. As disregarded by the vast majority. Only the few lay it to heart—lament it as a public loss, and regard it as a public warning. How soon the best are forgotten! How can we account for this? (1.) The commonness of the event. (2.) The thought of death is repugnant. (3.) The concerns of life engross both the time and attention of the multitude. This general disregard of the death of the good is to be lamented because it implies— (1.) Painful ingratitude. Good men are the world’s greatest benefactors, “the salt of the earth,” &c. (2.) Deplorable moral insensibility. Their removal is a public calamity, for they are the strength of a nation and the safeguard of the land, &c. To treat their death with stolid indifference indicates the highest degree of moral blindness and perversity. Of such a state of things there is but one explanation—“God is not in all their thoughts.” Little children least lament the death of their parents, because they know not what a loss it is to them, &c. 3. As a blessing to themselves. (1.) They are delivered from the miseries which attend the sins of man. Whatever they are, the good man escapes them by death (1 Kings 14:10-13; 2 Kings 22:20). (2.) They enter into peace—rest Their bodies “rest in their beds” or graves. The grave is a quiet resting-place, out of which they shall rise refreshed on the morning of the resurrection. No agitations or alarms can disturb their peaceful slumbers (Job 3:17; Job 17:16; Psalms 16:6; 2 Chronicles 11:14; Isaiah 14:18). Their souls enter into the rest of heaven—the world of eternal repose, where peace is in perfection. They rest not only from all trouble, but from all sin, and sorrow, and strife, from everything that can create pain and uneasiness, for “the former things are done away” (Revelation 14:13; Hebrews 4:9). No wave of trouble shall roll into that beautiful and peaceful haven, and the sense of past trouble will only add to the intensity of present enjoyment. Such are the prospects of the good. If they were highly consoling and encouraging to the troubled prophet, they ought to be the more so to us, for we have added the disclosures of the Gospel, by which “life and immortality are brought to light.” Then let us take encouragement as the rest and recompense opens to the eye of faith, &c. Sweet thought; we are nearing it every Sabbath. But no such prospects gladden those of you who are unconverted. If you would die the death of the righteous, you must live the life of the righteous, &c. (P. D. 1124).—A. Tucker.Isaiah 57:5-9. I. The abominable idolatries of Israel. II. A parallel found in the covetousness and worldliness of professing Christians. III. These evils proceed from the same principles of unbelief. IV. Are equally offensive to God and debasing to the human mind. V. Must as certainly occasion final retribution. Isaiah 57:6. I. Human substitutes for true and spiritual worship. II. Their offensiveness to God.—Dr. Lyth. THE SOUL’S IN ITS SINFUL WAY Isaiah 57:10. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, &c.There is a littleness and there is a greatness in men’s sins. Some people are mean, timid in wickedness, would indulge passions more freely if they dared. But there is a force and boldness about the sins of others; they disregard public opinion, rush impetuously along broad roads, &c. Whilst we condemn, we also mourn, because such strength and manhood are wasted in the “greatness of their way.” The text refers to a period of great iniquity in Jewish history during Manasseh’s reign. The light of Divine truth had not utterly faded away, so the nation was full of unrest and misery, and yet would not retrace its steps, and make its peace with God. Pathetic is this picture of the misery of sin. I. THE SOUL’S IN IT SINFUL WAY. Various are the causes of weariness. 1. The attempt of the creature to be independent of the Creator. A sinful life is an attempt to do without God. But our noblest instincts impel us to lean upon the power and love of God. Dependence is stamped upon every faculty and fibre of our nature. Who then can wonder that men grow weary when they strive to live an independent, self-sufficient life? The creature can no more do without the Creator, than streamlet without fountain, or branch without tree. 2. A sense of the unworthiness of a sinful life. No one can be really happy without some degree of self-respect. Other persons can laud a man to the skies, but it spoils all if in his heart he despises his own motives and conduct. Self-contempt is a source of keenest misery. There are moments of clear insight, when many a Christless man sees the utter disproportion between the life which he leads, and the nature God has given him—between what he is and what he was meant to be, and might be. When he thus begins to despise himself he is “wearied.” 3. The efforts of an outraged nature to avenge itself. It is impossible for a man to ill-treat himself without his very nature protesting against the injury. There are forces of pain which start into activity as soon as the evil is done. The body avenges its own wrongs—so also the soul. Give it error when it needs truth; husks of worldly pleasure when it hungers for bread of life, and a cry of discontent and pain will break forth from the injured soul. So the path of sin is a tiresome road, and men often grow “wearied.” II. THE SOUL’S IN ITS SINFUL WAY. Weary but persistent. Many things impel men to pursue the road even when faint.— 1. The marvellous vitality of hope. Hope is like a hardy plant, which may be trampled under foot, but presently springs up into fresh life and beauty. Men are often baffled, deceived, achieve grand results, led on by living energy of hope. Yet all great things draw greatly astray when wrongly directed. So hope impels men to persist in folly and sin. Disappointed, wearied, they still persevere.—- 2. Dislike to confess failure. It seems a degradation to many a man to admit that he has made a mistake. Pride often leads the sinner to persist in his way. Weary at heart, yearning for a nobler life, still it is hard work for him to humble himself, to go back, to say, “I have sinned.”— 3. Ignorance of God’s character. Some think they are beyond Divine mercy—that God is “altogether such an one” as themselves—impatient and unforgiving toward those who have wronged Him. Weary souls would sometimes eagerly return to Him, and seek His grace, if they only saw into the depths of His heart and knew the truth. .—There is a Divine purpose in pain and weariness. God makes the sinner’s way difficult, so that he may be led to forsake it. When we cry, “There is no hope,” then there is hope through Christ, who was once wearied in the greatness of His way.—F. W. Mays, M.A.: The Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii. p. 145. Isaiah 57:11-12. I. Hypocrisy. Fearless, false, inconsiderate, presumptuous. II. Its exposure. Certain, full. Its righteousness, nought; its works, wicked; its hopes, vain. Isaiah 57:12. I. Men’s righteousness. II. Its exposure. III. Its worthlessness. Isaiah 57:13-16. I. The insufficiency of human confidences. II. The all-sufficiency of God. Isaiah 57:13. I. False confidences. Cannot save. Will be swept away. End in destruction and misery. II. True confidence. Fixed in God. Enjoys present blessings. Inherits future happiness. Isaiah 57:14. I. The stumbling-blocks. Inconsistencies. Errors. Divisions. False professors. II. Their removal. Necessary. Imperative. Personal.—Dr. Lyth. THE GLORY OF GOD THE COMFORT OF THE Isaiah 57:15. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inheriteth eternity, &c.I. A OF THE OF GOD. His glory appears— 1. In His essential majesty. He is “the high and lofty One”—exalted far above us, out of human view and conception; the one mighty Author, Creator, Preserver, and Lord of all; to whom none other is like (Nehemiah 9:5; H. E. I. 2225–2228). 2. In the immutability of His existence. He “inhabiteth eternity.” What a sublime expression! (Psalms 90:1-4; H. E. I. 2253; P.D. 2536). 3. In the infinite rectitude of His character. “Whose name is Holy.” By the holiness of God we mean the unity and harmony in Him of every species of moral goodness in its highest measure, or rather beyond measure; this forms His distinguishing glory (H. E. I. 2275, 2818). 4. In the exalted place of abode where He more immediately manifests His presence.II. AN OF THE TEMPER WHICH SHOULD EVER RULE IN THE MIND AND HEART OF MAN WHEN BEFORE THIS GREAT GOD. 1. As a frail, mortal, feeble creature, who is “crushed before the moth,” humility is the proper temper for man before God. Even angels and archangels veil their faces with their wings in His presence. 2. As transgressors, it behoves us to be abased in the awful presence of the Most High. Something more than humility becomes man as an offender against his rightful Sovereign. Contrition is more; it is penitence for sin, brokenness of heart for having offended God. The first is always man’s duty as a creature; the second, as a sinner. Two things contribute to real contrition: (1) A sense of God’s gracious, benignant character. Nothing sets man’s frightful ingratitude in so odious and prominent a light as the unspeakable goodness of the great God. So long as man falsely conceives of Him as a hard master, he feels, he can feel, no contrition; but when he discerns that God is, and ever has been, infinitely good, and to him also, his heart bursts with ingenuous grief and self-abhorrence. (2) A perception of the inscrutable wickedness of the human heart, which, like the prophet Ezekiel’s “chamber of imagery,” discloses more and more of its interior abominations, the more closely it is examined. To produce this contrition of soul is one principle object of Divine teaching and grace (Ezekiel 36:26; Ezekiel 12:10; Ezekiel 16:63). The presence in any man of this humility is certain to be manifested in an unmistakable manner, the manifestation itself further preparing him for the Divine mercy. A proud heart murmurs under rebuke, like the children of Israel in the wilderness; or rejects warnings like the men in the days of Noah and of Lot; or dares God to His face, like Pharaoh. So acted the majority of the men to whom Isaiah ministered (Isaiah 9:13). But the contrite and humble in spirit receive the Divine rebukes, justify God in His righteous retributions, condemn themselves, and venture only to “hope in His mercy” (Job 34:32; Job 42:5-6; Psalms 119:75; Psalms 69:20). III. AN OF THE OF GOD TO THE MAN IN WHOM THERE IS THIS RIGHT TEMPER. 1. God adopts the heart of the penitent as His abode. The allusion is to the temple (Isaiah 66:1-2; John 14:23). The humble and contrite heart is prepared to entertain the Divine Guest: it is emptied of pride and self, &c. 2. Observe the purpose for which He enters it: “to revive the spirit of the humble,” &c. The image is drawn from the revival of the face of nature by refreshing rain after a long drought, or from raising to new life a dejected and desponding mind by joyful and unexpected tidings. Although penitence and contrition may have done their work, comfort is still wanting, so long as the inhabitation of God by His Spirit is wanting. The daily increasing perception of innate corruption weighs down the heart. Conscience accuses, the law condemns. The joy of pardon sometimes springs up, but it fades again. The hope of being a sincere penitent cheers at times; but it is difficult for the soul to discern, amidst its tears and dejection, the marks of repentance unto life. Afflictions add to the general woe—God seems armed against the soul. But at length it pleases God to “revive the spirit,” &c He sheds light amidst the gloom, &c. The prophet doubles the expression, to denote the certainty and magnitude of the blessing. The exhausted, dying traveller, plundered, wounded, and left for dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, was not more truly revived by the wine and oil of the good Samaritan, than the spirit of the contrite one is revived by the presence and indwelling of the Saviour in the heart (Isaiah 57:18, and Isaiah 61:3). 3. All this consolation flows from the view of the Divine greatness. The whole scope of the text is directed to this one point; and almost all similar descriptions of the majesty of the Almighty are given in connection with His condescension to man (Psalms 113:4-6; Psalms 138:6, &c). Consolation flowing from God’s goodness, mercy, compassion, love, is great indeed; but not so overwhelming as that which springs from His greatness, holiness, and self-existence. For (1) The sense of favour is thus enhanced. The condescension is more remarkable. The stooping, as it were, is from a greater height. (2) The wonder and surprise are greater. Why is God first set before us in such magnificence, but to magnify the subsequent condescension by its suddenness? The beginning of the text seems to prepare for just a contrary conclusion. (3) The value of redemption is elevated by the majesty and holiness of the exalted and lofty One who dwells in the contrite heart. For it is these very perfections of the moral Governor of the world which required such a sacrifice as the death of His only begotten Son. If you sink them, you sink the value of our redemption. (4) The sense of security and deliverance is also greater. If this God be for us, who can be against us? Our feebleness is no ground of fear, if we are sheltered in “the Rock of Ages.” (5) The final end of man seems more distinctly taken into account and provided for. For we were made to enjoy this great God. We were endowed with all but angelic powers that we might know, adore, possess, and find our felicity in this glorious Creator. .—Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear in the last fearful day? If God be so glorious, what will then become of those who, like Pharaoh, refuse to humble themselves before Him? Submit, ere it be too late!—Bishop Wilson: Sermons Delivered in India, pp. 188–206. Can the infinite God hold intercourse with man and interest Himself in his affairs? It seems incredible. He has made man capable of it. He has favoured some men with intercourse. He has revealed Himself as deeply interested in man, and has explained in His Word the circumstances and conditions under which He holds intercourse with us. It is not a conjecture. It is a glorious certainty. Is not this the burden of the Bible; how God the Father, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, dwells with man? Our text is a magnificent declaration of the fact. It is— I. A OF THE DIVINE . We cannot conceive the Divine essence. We can only think of God as possessed of certain attributes in infinite perfection; and even these we can only conceive in so far as they resemble something in ourselves, and thus as capable of expression by means of human language (H. E. I., 2230, 2234, 2236). Think— 1. Of the Divine Eternity (Psalms 90:2, and others). 2. Of the Divine Holiness. Names with us are words selected because of some pleasant association, or adopted arbitrarily for the purpose of distinguishing one person from another. In ancient times the name was given because it expressed some quality in the person or some prophecy respecting him. Hence the Divine names in Scripture are instructive and important. “Whose name is holy.” Holiness is the essential characteristic of His Being. It is like the incandescent heat; all white. 3. Of the Divine Sublimity. Height and depth are in relation to each other, and to all the space between their extremes. He is beyond comparison with creatures of every rank. Ascend the loftiest mountain; soar beyond the remotest star; contemplate the most exalted intellect; behold the ranks of angels and archangels—you will be as far as ever from the incomparable sublimity of God. 4. Of the Divine Majesty. The palace of the great King answers to the dignity of His nature. If a place must be imagined as the special dwelling-place of God, let it be beyond the hills, above the clouds, far above all heavens, adorned with the richest splendours of the universe. But this conducts us to the fact that He has another and a different dwelling-place. And this is the most astonishing announcement of the text. II. AN OF THE DIVINE . His dwelling-place below is in the heart of the lowly (Psalms 34:18; Psalms 51:17; Psalms 138:6; Psalms 147:3; Isaiah 66:2). Not merely permission of distant communication; but God’s abiding presence, the sweet intercourse of those who dwell happily together in the same house, the blessed reunion of those who had been separated by sin. Is not this wondrous condescension? Does the occupant of the splendid mansion choose to live among the poor? Do the lofty dwell with the lowly? Is it not the study of those only moderately uplifted to get away as soon and as far as possible from the neighbourhood of the poor? Thine is not the manner of men, O Lord God! On the principle of fitness, man, as a creature, lifted up with pride, is unfit for God’s residence and companionship, because he violates the proper order, as Satan did when in his pride he contended for equality with God. Man, as a sinner, impenitent and self-satisfied, cannot be God’s dwelling-place, because of the essential contrariety between holiness and sin. God and man must be like each other before they can dwell together. Now, God cannot be contrite, because He has no sin. But there can be the likeness which comes from the fitting relation of things. Humility in man corresponds to loftiness in God. Contrition in man corresponds to holiness in God. Where God finds, the contrite and humble soul, He can condescend to dwell, consistently with His dignity and purity. Jesus has opened the way by which God and man may be fully reconciled and restored to each other. Therefore does He by His grace bring the souls of His redeemed into this lowly state that He may lift them up. Therefore does He show them the evil of sin, so that they are humbled, ashamed, crushed, heartbroken. May He thus humble and thus dwell in us all! This brings us to the purpose for which He dwells in the contrite. III. A OF THE DIVINE . When God enters the heart of the contrite and makes it His dwelling, it is a day of revival. For there is— 1. Comfort. He wipes away the tears, by revealing Jesus in the fulness of His atoning sacrifice, His pardoning love, &c. 2. Power. The activity and energy of spiritual life. We run the way of His commandments; we are identified with His kingdom; we labour for its advancement. 3. Growth. Under His reviving influence, we grow in all things that pertain to the spiritual life. Spiritual manhood is developed. Fruits of holiness. When sufficiently matured, we shall be transplanted to heaven. The proud and impenitent are without God. Get the lowly and contrite spirit.—J. Rawlinson.Three questions generally asked concerning a person with whom one is not well acquainted are: What is his name? Where does he dwell? What is his work or occupation? In this verse we find replies to these three inquiries if made concerning the Divine Being. I. THE LORD’S NAME. The name indicates that God is— 1. Supreme in nature. He is infinitely above the highest of all created beings, human and angelic. 2. Supreme in character (1 Samuel 2:2). 3. Supreme in authority. He is King of kings, and His dominion extends over all things. II. THE LORD’S -PLACE. He has four dwelling-places:— 1. Eternity. He fills all space. The boundaries of His habitation can never be reached. 2. Heaven—the habitation of His throne (Psalms 123:1). 3. His Church on earth. “Holy place” (1 Chronicles 23:25; Psalms 9:11). 4. The contrite heart. He is so great as to fill immensity, and so condescending as to dwell in your heart and mine. God is never satisfied until He finds a home in the human soul. “Give me thine heart.” III. THE LORD’S WORK. 1. A work which none but God can do. 2. A work which God delights in above all others. 3. A work He will bring to a glorious consummation (Philippians 1:6).—W. Roberts Penybontfawr; “Pregethau.”This Scripture opens up to view five great aspects of God—I. The Being. II. The character. III. The Sovereignty. IV. The dwelling-place. V. The work of God.—W. Seward.I. God’s greatness. II. God’s grace.—Bishop Greig: Sermons, pp. 164–177. Isaiah 57:15. EternityI. There is a period of endless duration which we call eternity (P. D. 1118–1129, 2965, 2054, 1921–1935). The period of duration which shall elapse between the creation of man and the universal conflagration is called “time.” It has already extended over nearly six thousand years, but how long its course will continue to advance we can form no conjecture. But this we know, that as it had a beginning it will certainly have an end. Eternity is duration without limits. It exceeds all our powers of reckoning, illustration, thought. II. In this endless period of duration there are two states extremely different, in one or other of which a portion shall be assigned to every man. That man is immortal is capable of proof from the dictates of reason, and is authoritatively taught in the Bible. In the after-world there are two states: of happiness—heaven; of misery—hell. Both are unending. III. Time is given to man in order to prepare for eternity. The present state of existence, while introductory to the future, is also preparatory, in accordance with the general law which, in every stage of our being, makes what we are to be hereafter dependent on what we do now. How shall we prepare for eternity? IV. It is foolish and dangerous to allow the things of time to engross the attention and the activity, that should be devoted to the things of eternity. It is foolish, because we prefer the less to the greater, a glass bead to a nugget of gold. It is dangerous, because we enter on an endless existence unprepared.—G. Brooks: Outlines, p. 43. 16. I. God’s controversy with men. 1. What it is. God claims a right to command; men refuse to obey. An old quarrel. 2. Why it is. The rebellion of men makes God angry. Explain the scriptural meaning of the phrase, “Anger of God.” Not to be resolved into a mere figure of speech. 3. How it is carried on. By the lessons of His Word, by the dispensation of His providence, by the strivings of His Spirit with the conscience. Sometimes in mercy, sometimes in judgment. II. The limits which God has imposed on Himself in conducting His controversy with men. 1. The limits which He has imposed. With regard to the wicked, because the time of their visitation is past. With regard to the righteous, because the end has been attained. 2. The reason why He has imposed these limits. In consideration of human frailty. .—The great lesson is, that God has no delight in our suffering here or hereafter.—G. Brooks: Outlines, p. 143. I. The frailty of man (see pp. 420). Physically, intellectually, spiritually. II. The compassion of God. He restrains His anger—in wisdom, in mercy. Limited by man’s ability of endurance.—Dr. Lyth.17–21. GOD’S ANGER (pp. 424) I. Its evidences. “I hid me,” &c. How God hides Himself. II. Its occasion. III. Its removal. From the penitent, by the Gospel of peace—to all, with the assurance of forgiveness, producing peace in the heart, health in the soul, praise in the lips. IV. Its perpetuation against the wicked. 1. Absolutely determined by his moral condition—their hearts are full of evil passions, restless trouble, pollution. 2. And by the sentence of God.—Dr. Lyth. SIN AND GRACE Isaiah 57:17-19. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth, &c.The design of the Bible is twofold: first, to reveal man to himself, and, next, to reveal God to him. The Bible contains a revelation of the gracious heart of God, and of the sinful heart of man. Both were necessary, for man is essentially ignorant of himself, and the degree of his distance and separation from God (Proverbs 30:13; Revelation 3:17-19). The text is a case in point. It was necessary that the Jews should be rebuked for their rebellion, and that God’s mercy should be revealed to them. God condescends to argue the case with them, and to justify His procedure in permitting their captivity and desolation, whilst He gives the promise of their future restoration and recovery to His image and favour. I. THE OF SIN ON THE PART OF ISRAEL. By the “iniquity of covetousness” we may perhaps understand their reluctance to uphold the service of God, contrasted by their prodigality and profusion in the service of idols (Isaiah 57:5-6; Isaiah 57:9; Isaiah 43:22-24; Hosea 2:8-9). But as human nature is always the same, we may trace here the marks of a declining professor. 1. Their obduracy under Divine chastisement (Jeremiah 5:3; Zephaniah 3:2; Zephaniah 3:5; Zephaniah 3:7). It argues a strange boldness not to put away sin, when men are suffering under Divine rebukes. It is to refuse the antidote, and let the poison of sin work on. The bond of iniquity must be exceedingly strong, if when the hand of God is upon us, the heart do not relent (Proverbs 23:15; 2 Chronicles 28:22). We may well pray: “From all hardness of heart,” &c. Guard not only against sinful acts, but against a sinful and unsubdued temper of mind (Revelation 3:19; Psalms 32:9). 2. Their apathy under the Divine with-drawments. A good man is anxious to possess the tokens of the Divine favour, &c. The withholding of these is a source of humiliation and sorrow (Psalms 51:12; Psalms 77:1-9). But Israel was full of apathy. Samson was unconscious of the loss he sustained: “He wist not that the Lord had departed.” 3. Their neglect of the kindest appeals and promises of God’s mercy. God had said (Isaiah 57:15-16); yet this awakened no response. There are some whom neither judgments awe, nor mercy subdues. II. THE OF GRACE ON THE PART OF GOD. 1. For obduracy here is mercy. The criminal is arraigned, convicted, condemned, and punishment actually begun; and yet an arrest is placed upon the execution of judgment. When you would expect nothing but actual destruction, you have immediately after the triumph of grace. “Who is a God like Thee?” &c. God hates the sinner’s ways, but He loves the sinner’s soul. His grace is able to subdue the evils that nothing else can. He not only pardons but sanctifies. 2. For desertion here is the promise of guidance. Christ is the Shepherd of the souls He came to redeem. 3. For sorrow here is comfort. When the soul wants peace, it can have none till God speak it. 4. For despondency here is triumph. So great was the despondency that the restoration of peace is a miracle! It must be created! (Isaiah 65:17-18). .—The text is a most instructive and encouraging comment on Romans 5:20. It has been the characteristic of humanity, in all conditions and dispensations, that sin abounded. But the mercy of God has super-abounded. The pardoning mercy of the Gospel greatly triumphs over sin, though so greatly aggravated by the light of Divine revelation. It can erase the deepest stains of guilt, and ennoble the nature which sin has degraded and defiled. This abounding grace is offered for your acceptance.—Samuel Thodey.Isaiah 57:18. GOD’S TENDER MERCY TOWARD SINNERS. Through the cloud of His people’s sins God’s mercy shines most brightly. Here is unspeakable tenderness, to melt, to strengthen, and to console. Verily, “the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him,” &c. (Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 48:9, and others). God’s tender mercy toward penitent sinners is here presented in several ways— I. He sees them. This ancient doctrine is at variance with modern popular philosophy, which maintains that God holds Himself too high apart to take cognisance of men on this low earth; that if there is a God at all, He is very distant, and does not condescend to “look upon men” (Job 33:27-28). If this is the God of popular philosophy, it is not the God of the Bible (Psalms 113:6; Proverbs 15:3; Proverbs 5:21; Hebrews 4:13). Present everywhere, He sees all that transpires throughout His vast domains, &c. In this chapter, we read of some of the things that God saw in those of whom He here speaks; scoffing at religion; infatuated by sin; given over to the grossest iniquity; hardened in sin (Isaiah 57:4-9; Isaiah 57:17). God’s compassionate eye is fixed upon you; He sees your wanderings, sins, repentance, &c., from His Omniscient out look, as though you alone of all His children were penitent. As a compassionate parent looks upon his erring penitent child, so God looks upon broken-hearted penitents. His pitying eye sees the contrite spirit and the aching heart, &c. (Psalms 103:13; Luke 15:20; Luke 22:61). Ever look upon God as ever looking upon you. Look well to your “ways,” cherish the spirit of prayerful watchfulness and self-denial. “Thou God seest me.” II. He heals them. Pardons and restores them. Sin is often represented as a painful, loathsome disease, and pardon and salvation as a healing of the disease (Isaiah 6:10; Isaiah 30:26; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Jeremiah 3:22; Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 17:4; Jeremiah 33:6; Psalms 41:3-4; Psalms 103:3; Psalms 147:3). 1. The inimitable character of the Physician. (1.) His skill is infinite. A physician must understand anatomy, disease, symptoms, causes, &c., and he must be skilful to prescribe suitable directions and remedies, &c. The Divine Physician possesses unbounded knowledge of the cause, the progress, and the precise state of the soul’s disorders and infirmities, of which bodily diseases are analogous. (See pp. 496.) (2.) His power is almighty. No spiritual disease so inveterate and stubborn but He can conquer and cure it with infinite ease. He never turns any away, saying, “I can do no more for you,” &c. (3.) His tenderness and compassion is unspeakable (Isaiah 42:3; Psalms 103:13-14). (4.) His patience and diligence is unwearied. He bears with their ingratitude, &c., pursues His work till He has effected a cure. 2. The remedy by which He heals. (1.) His pardoning and restoring mercy through the redemption of Christ (Isaiah 53:5; Zechariah 13:1; Romans 3:23-26; Revelation 5:9, Revelation 5:12; Rev. 8:14). Announced in the ministry of the Word. Applied by His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Hebrews 10:16). Received by faith. (2.) The means of grace (Ephesians 4:11-13). Designed to promote spiritual health. The Church—the hospital of grace, where the Divine art of healing is carried on, &c. III. He leads them. Not only amends what is amiss in them, that they may cease to do evil; but directs them into the way of duty, that they may learn to do well (Psalms 23:2-3; Psalms 73:24; and others. See pp. 296). He leads them to the mercy-seat; to His Word; into paths of righteousness, &c. IV. He comforts them. He restores the comforts which they had forfeited and lost, for the return of which the grace of God had prepared them, and for which the pious among them had fervently prayed. They had experienced true and satisfying joy, but they sinned it away—they had lost their peace of mind, their souls were sad and cheerless. Sin always produces this effect. In the path of sin neither hope nor comfort can be found. And when lost, it can be recovered only by penitent faith (Psalms 51:1-12, and others). God graciously restores the comfort of forfeited mercy, lost joy, vanished hope, &c. (Psalms 23:3). He removes all false comforts, and then restores true comforts—the comfort of perfect pardon, daily communion, &c. .—Some of you are still impenitent—indifferent about spiritual healing, &c. Remember! God sees you always, in all your sinful “ways,” and therefore sees that which in righteousness He must abhor, and in pity mourn. As a faithful father mourns because of the continued rebellion of a prodigal, so your heavenly Father mourns over you. Take that into your consideration, and surely you will be reluctant to weary out His patience, &c. “Repent and believe the Gospel,” then God shall not see you as sinners He must condemn, but as penitents He must save, and heal, and lead, and comfort (1 John 1:8-9).—A. Tucker.ASPECTS OF THE DIVINE . The proper study of man is God. Nothing so tends to expand the mind, and humble the soul, &c. This description of God is worthy our careful consideration. From it we learn— I. God is the all-seeing One. The doctrine of the Divine Omniscience one of the most important. Yet practically ignored. It should— 1. Exert a restraining influence. If we realised that God’s eye was upon us we should refrain from sin in all its forms and manifestations; like Joseph we should exclaim, “How can I,” &c. 2. Encourage the penitent. 3. Stimulate the Christian worker. II. God is the great Physician. Men need healing. Not a hopeless case. Bodily health valuable, spiritual far more precious. III. God is the Leader of His people. They need leading. God graciously offers to be our Guide—all-wise, powerful, faithful, &c. He is leading us to the heavenly habitation, &c. (see p. 296). IV. God is the Comforter of His people. In the world they have tribulation, &c. Therefore need super-human comfort. .—“Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace, thereby good shall come to thee.”—A. Tucker. THE PEACE OF GOD Isaiah 57:19-20. Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, &c.There was a time when man’s religion was the religion of spontaneous innocence: the only religion open to him now is the religion of penitence. This makes the Gospel bear the character of a system of cure. It is not a work of improvement for a nature already good, but a remedy for a nature diseased. It is a healing process. There is one thing all want and seek—peace. The world has said “peace, peace!” and they find that there is “no peace.” There are two ways of seeking peace, two promises made to the craving heart, the same in words but opposed in meaning—the world’s and Christ’s. The world proposes to fulfil her promise by gratifying nature; the Gospel by expelling nature. The world’s method is: “Gratify your desires; indulge them.” If there were no other world, no conscience, this would be wise and well. The peace which Christ proclaims is different—the healing of a disordered heart; not giving the reins to desires, but mastering them; placing the whole soul under the discipline of the Cross. In considering the promise which comes from the lips of God, we shall examine two connected subjects contained in these verses. I. THE OF AN EARNEST SOUL TOWARDS PEACE. The first step is made by treading on the ruins of human pride. One source of restlessness is an overweening estimate of self. The Gospel crushes that spirit. At the foot of the Cross there is no room for pride. Merit is impossible before God. We are not claimants for reward, only suppliants for life, a life forfeited by guilt. Learn this first how much you deserve on God’s earth, and if it should turn out that you deserve nothing and have received little, then calculate whether you have been defrauded. When we have passed through the first humbling smart of that conviction, content to stand unclothed before God, without one claim except the righteousness of Christ, we have made one step toward peace. The second step toward peace is the attainment of a spirit of reconciliation. If there were nothing else to make men wretched, uncertainty regarding their future destinies would be enough. There is no peace in prospect of eternity, unless there is something more than a guess that God is loving us. This peace is for two classes. 1. For those who have remained through life “near” to God. Such are spoken of as the ninety-nine just persons, and are represented by the Elder Son in the parable. Their religious growth has been quiet, regular, steady. Nurtured in religious families, they have imbibed the atmosphere of religion without knowing how, and so they go on loving God, till duty becomes a habit and religion the very element of life. The rapture that comes from pardoned guilt is like the fire-rocket, streaming and blazing; but the peace of him who has lived “near” to God is like the quiet steady lustre of the light-house lamp. 2. This peace is for those who are “far off,” who have lived long in the alienation of guilt. It seems as if the joy of returning to God had in it something richer than the peace which belongs to consistent obedience. There is the fatted calf, the robe, and the ring. After all, for most of us this is the only Gospel. One here and there has lived near to God from childhood, but the majority of us have lived far enough from Him at some period. We want a Gospel for the guilty. It is not the having been “far off” that makes peace impossible (Romans 5:1). The last step toward peace is the attainment of a spirit of active obedience. It is not the dread of hell alone that makes men miserable. We cannot be happy except in keeping God’s commandments. Make a man sure of heaven, and leave him unhumbled, impure, selfish—he is a wretch still. Disobedience is misery. God’s remedy is to write His law on the heart, so that we love Christ, and love what Christ commands. II. REASONS WHICH EXCLUDE THE GUILTY HEART FROM PEACE. Two are assigned. 1. The heart’s own inward restlessness. Man’s spirit is like a vast ocean. A pond may be without a ripple, but the sea cannot rest. So it is with the soul. 2. The influences acting on the soul. The sea rests not because of the attraction of the heavenly bodies. In us there is a tide of feeling (Galatians 5:17). Partly the impossibility of rest arises from outward circumstances. There are winds that sweep the ocean’s surface. So with man there are circumstances that fret and discompose. The man who has not peace in himself can never get it from circumstances. Place him where you will he carries an unquiet heart. 3. The power of memory to recall the past with remorse. “Its waters cast up mire and dirt” Memory brings to light what has been buried in it, as sea casts up wreck and broken rock. Navies may sink in it, but the planks stranded on the shore tell the tale of shipwreck So with deeds and thoughts. There are tempests that will bring them up some day. This is the worst torment of the impenitent. .— 1. Mark the connection between peace and cure. Only the blood of Christ can give the sinner peace. 2. No amount of sin bars the way to peace.—F. W. Robertson, M.A.: The Christian at Work, Feb. 1881. I. The nature of the blessing which is proclaimed in the Gospel: “Peace, peace.” 1. There is war between God and man, but the Gospel proclaims peace. 2. There is war between the higher and lower principles of human nature. Appetite and passion against reason and conscience. A divided heart. II. The persons to whom the blessings proclaimed in the Gospel is offered. “To him that is afar off and to him that is near.” 1. In respect of religious privileges. Gentiles and Jews. 2. In respect of social advantages. Members of worldly and of religious families. 3. In respect of moral character. The profligate and the respectable. 4. In respect of local distance. The field is the world. III. The influence of the blessing proclaimed in the Gospel on its recipient. 1. It is beneficial in its operations. Not hurting, not deadening, not teaching or helping merely. 2. It is individual in its efficiency. 3. It is Divine in its agency. IV. The practical issue. 1. The fruit of the lips is thanksgiving (Hebrews 13:15). 2. God creates the occasion and the disposition.—G. Brookes: Outlines, pp. 143, 144. THE OF SINNERS Isaiah 57:20-21. The wicked are like the troubled sea, &c. [1728][1728] See pp. 318, 319. A true picture of that continued state of restlessness, uncertainty, and apprehension in which the wicked are held daily by the terrors of an alarmed conscience; or even by the distrust and anxiety they are doomed to experience in the very midst of their fancied freedom and enjoyments! Whoever has looked upon the ocean when tossed by storm and tempest, must acknowledge that the prophet could have selected no better comparison to depict to the life the state of a sinner’s spirit. I. The sea cannot, if it would, sink to repose, but is doomed to heave wave after wave uselessly to the shore, till the mind of the spectator is oppressed with a sense of weariness, and almost sorrow for such incessant and fruitless tossings. Such, exactly, is the state of the sinner’s mind; it cannot rest. With the stain of unrepented sin on the conscience, the mind can enjoy no peace, can taste no rational pleasure [1731][1731] H. E. I. 1331, 1332, 1334–1341; P. D. 560, 562, 569, 572. I. In illustrating these declarations we are not required to maintain that the life of wicked men is one of pure and unqualified wretchedness; common experience would be against us, and such is not the meaning of our text. We may admit, in perfect conformity with Isaiah’s views, that the persons here mentioned are very often possessed of many worldly blessings, and have much apparent enjoyment (Psalms 35:15, &c.; H. E. I. 5045–5047). Yea, they are capable of deriving certain comforts from these outward benefits, and would sometimes be surprised if you told them that they were altogether strangers to peace. It is difficult to suppose that wealth, power, and distinction, although the portion of worldly and wicked men, convey to them no satisfaction. And especially if we contemplate that large class who spend their time amidst worldly amusements and dissipations—is there no comfort here? Is it possible that these buoyant and lively spirits are a prey to inward vexation? Can it be supposed that the thoughtless, the cheerful, and the gay, who seem to be far remote from anxiety and care, are, at the very moment, miserable? Must we suppose that even the sensual, who work all uncleanness with greediness, really do not find even any sordid pleasure in their pursuits? We need not make any statements so strong and unqualified. Nor, whatever be the alleged gratification that such persons can have, and whatever be their exemption, at any stated period, from harassing anxiety, it is not peace (á). The only condition which answers to the word peace is totally distinct both from the animal spirits, which are sometimes mistaken for it, and from the insensibility which marks the practised and daring sinner. True peace must be something essentially distinct from the changing objects of time and sense; it must be something which includes the freedom of the mind from just apprehensions of evil, and which breathes over the soul a calm which the world cannot take away. Now, there is nothing which can do this but the peace made known and offered to us by the Gospel (John 14:27; Romans 14:17). Where there is no reconciliation with God, this peace cannot exist. The wicked, therefore, have it not; on the contrary, they “are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.” There may sometimes be a calm over the face of the deep, but it is not of long continuance; and the time comes when we observe the sea in commotion: no longer hushed in repose and presenting the stillness and clearness of a placid lake, but working up from its depths the sediment which is there deposited, and mingling it, even to the surface, with its waves. Such is the just and accurate image to represent the real state of mind of the wicked. Making all due allowance for the different natural dispositions of men, we see this to be generally the case with them. While all is cheerfulness and gaiety around them, while nothing occurs to interfere with their worldly pleasures, or the indulgence of their depraved minds, there is the apparent quiet and repose of the unruffled ocean: but let the soothing influence be removed, let the object of their gratifications and pursuits desert them, nay, let them be followed only to their own chamber and left to the solitude of their own thoughts, and how little have they of rest! II. Why is there no peace to the wicked? Several reasons. 1. The unsuitableness of any earthly things to satisfy the soul. God created man in His own image; and although that image has been defaced, it is not absolutely destroyed; the temple which God created has not been ploughed up from the foundation; although a ruin, it is still a splendid ruin. The soul no longer possesses those elevated and lofty views and desires which distinguished it before the fall; but there is still in us a desire for something which this world cannot supply. Give to a man all that his heart can wish for of things visible: it will be found that the spirit is not satisfied. If we would give peace to the soul, we must have recourse to something better than the world with all its promises, and more suited to afford solid gratification than wickedness in all its branches (H. E. I. 4969–4974, 5006–5025). 2. The corrupt influence of depraved appetites and ungoverned passions. The terrible results of this influence will be obvious to any one who will observe the wicked, the perpetual outbreaking of their bad passions, and the misery thus inflicted on them (H. E. I. 4955). 3. An unpacified conscience. This troubles them in their solitude even in the days of their health; but how terrible is the distress it causes when death seems at hand. .—1. The folly of continuing in any known sin. No man would willingly and avowedly pursue a course which must involve him in misery. Why, then, is it that men persist in transgression? 2. How conducive to our happiness, even in this life, must be the spirit of true religion in the heart—reconciliation with God; peace of conscience; the peace which Christ can give. 3. What cause have we for gratitude to God, that He has provided a way of reconciliation even for the chief of sinners!—W. Dealtry, D.D., F.R.S.: Sermons, pp. 281–297. I. In illustrating these declarations we are not required to maintain that the life of wicked men is one of pure and unqualified wretchedness; common experience would be against us, and such is not the meaning of our text. We may admit, in perfect conformity with Isaiah’s views, that the persons here mentioned are very often possessed of many worldly blessings, and have much apparent enjoyment (Psalms 35:15, &c.; H. E. I. 5045–5047). Yea, they are capable of deriving certain comforts from these outward benefits, and would sometimes be surprised if you told them that they were altogether strangers to peace. Give to a man all that his heart can wish for of things visible: it will be found that the spirit is not satisfied. If we would give peace to the soul, we must have recourse to something better than the world with all its promises, and more suited to afford solid gratification than wickedness in all its branches (H. E. I. 4969–4974, 5006–5025). 2. The corrupt influence of depraved appetites and ungoverned passions. The terrible results of this influence will be obvious to any one who will observe the wicked, the perpetual outbreaking of their bad passions, and the misery thus inflicted on them (H. E. I. 4955). 3. An unpacified conscience. This troubles them in their solitude even in the days of their health; but how terrible is the distress it causes when death seems at hand. .—1. The folly of continuing in any known sin. No man would willingly and avowedly pursue a course which must involve him in misery. Why, then, is it that men persist in transgression? 2. How conducive to our happiness, even in this life, must be the spirit of true religion in the heart—reconciliation with God; peace of conscience; the peace which Christ can give. 3. What cause have we for gratitude to God, that He has provided a way of reconciliation even for the chief of sinners!—W. Dealtry, D.D., F.R.S.: Sermons, pp. 281–297.II. The sinner, in his impurity, is like the troubled sea, “whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” As in a tempest the waves of the ocean fling nothing but foam and weed and refuse to the shore, so the mind of the sinner is productive of nothing but polluted thoughts and corrupted actions, as worthless as the mire and clay left behind it by the retiring storm. This is of all others the greatest evil that sin brings with it. By it true happiness of soul and nobleness of life are rendered impossible. It is only when the stain of sin has been blotted out by faith, and the feelings of the heart purified by grace continually sought for in fervent prayer, that the peace of God reigns in the heart, and the fruits of peace show themselves in the life and practice. III. Several things render the sinner unhappy even in this life. Not only shall he have no peace hereafter, but he has no peace here and now. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” 1. The wicked have no real comfort of mind from the pleasures of this world. (1.) Nothing can afford us any real or lasting pleasures except so far as it can be enjoyed innocently and with a good conscience. The indulgence of disordered passion may, indeed, sometimes give a momentary delight; but it is always followed, on reflection, by the pangs of remorse and sorrow. (2.) Even those delights which are pure and innocent the sinner enjoyeth not like other men; for his taste is too much corrupted and deadened by the intoxicating draughts of sin to relish the simple pleasures of innocence and virtue. 2. The wicked must necessarily want all effectual support under the many evils and calamities of life. In the time of affliction, what a contrast there is between the faithful Christian and the sinner. What the Christian can say (Psalms 57:1; 2 Corinthians 4:17-18). But when the storm overtakes the sinner, it finds him naked and exposed to its influence, without one single prospect of succour or of safety. He cannot retire within himself, and derive comfort in his adversity from the uprightness of his conduct and the purity of his intentions, for these never have had a place in his bosom; he cannot look back with pleasure on the past, and he dare not look forward to the future. Moreover, the world feels no pity for the unfortunate sinner, and his own companions in guilt will be the first to shun and the last to succour him. 3. The wicked are troubled perpetually with the reproofs of conscience, and unwelcome thoughts of death.—R. Parkinson, B.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 148–158. Words have different meanings on different lips. “A rich man”—a farmer’s wife will so describe a man on whom a Baring or a Rothschild looks down as poor. To God and His inspired prophets “peace” has a loftier significance than it has to us, when uninstructed by them. Their peace means a condition of the heart arising from the harmony of the heart with God. A great work has been accomplished in any heart in which there is this peace. Its source is invisible, its results supernatural. The world does not give it; the world cannot take it away. It is independent of circumstances. Those who possess it are conscious of it when resting in the pleasant shade around which falls the pleasant sunshine of a summer day, and also when tossed to and fro at midnight on a stormy ocean. Christ, who gives it, had it when the cross was full in view: it was when He was on His way to torture and death that He bequeathed it to His disciples (John 14:27). If we forget what “peace” means in Scripture, we shall be disposed to regard this Scripture declaration as inaccurate, as exaggerated. Great was Asaph’s distress when he forgot it (Psalms 73:2-4). In the world there are many counterfeits of peace on which our observation is apt to rest. These counterfeits of peace prevail: nevertheless to the wicked there is no peace. What they imagine is peace is like the smoothness of the ocean on a summer evening: there is in it no stability. The wicked man, after all, is “like the troubled sea.” I. He cannot rest. That is true of the sea, and it is just as true of the sinner, for there are mighty winds from which he cannot long escape. 1. The wind of an accusing conscience. No opiate will consign conscience to an endless slumber; no gag will keep it always silent. There are times when it will escape, and the work it does then is like the work done by a hurricane on the ocean. In solitude, in the sleepless midnight hours, in the season of sickness, the wicked man feels himself helpless before it. 2. The wind of approaching death, for which the wicked man feels he is not ready (P. D. 684). 3. The wind of judgment beyond death. In health, he scoffed at the thought of it as a silly superstitious delusion; but when he feels the chill hand of death is upon him, where is his “peace”? These mighty winds render it impossible for the wicked man to rest. They expose the worthlessness of the counterfeits in which for a little while he rejoices. II. He cannot permanently conceal the foulness that is within him. When the storm strikes the sea, “its waters cast up mire and dirt;” it is seen that they are not throughout as pellucid as on a quiet summer evening they seem. Their charm is merely superficial. On the wicked man, likewise, forces are exerted which show what is in him. For a time there may be a fair outward appearance, that deceives himself and others; but ere long it is dispersed by such things as these— 1. The fierce gale of sensual passion. What scandals shock society every day! What surprise is felt! And yet how unreasonable is the surprise! The temptation only showed what was in the man. 2. The fierce gale of disappointed ambition. What falsehood, meanness, cruelty, appears in men who are being deposed or hurled from power! With what base weapon they seek to defend themselves, and to retain their position! 3. The fierce gale of pecuniary necessity. There are in jail to-day men whose word a year ago was considered “as good as their bond;” but there never was in them real honesty. All these things show what is in the wicked; that beneath the surface, yea, to the very depths of their being, there is foulness. .— 1. Let us not envy the wicked in their time of success and serenity (Psalms 37:34-37; H. E. I. 4943–4948, 4955–4966). 2. Let us seek the true peace and the permanent serenity we need where alone it can be found. 3. Let us have Divine compassion for the wicked.—R. A., 73. THE Isaiah 58:1-5. Cry aloud, spare not, &c.The history of nations is pre-eminently the history of God’s providential government of the world. The special charge laid at the door of Israel in our text is that of hypocrisy: a malady from which many a modern temple-worshipper is suffering. Indeed there is the tendency of it to be found lurking in the nature of us all. Consider— I. The false professions with which the Israelites are charged. 1. An apparent diligence in the search after truth and justice. 2. They appeared to be regular and punctual in their observance of the ordinances of religion. Often secondary motives prompt to a religious profession and to attendance at the house of God. It is considered fashionable and respectable to keep the Sabbath and to be present at the sanctuary at least once on the Lord’s Day. Besides, it is pleasing to our friends, &c. If these are your only motives to a religious profession, they are unworthy, and will not stand the lightning glance of Him who is the searcher of all hearts. This will help us to account for the apparent lapses and so-called backslidings of professing Christians. Learn the vital difference between a spurious and a genuine piety. 3. Look also at the spirit in which their sacrifices were made. 4. Evidently some of them were possessed of a strong desire to maintain the standard of orthodoxy (Isaiah 57:4; 1 Corinthians 1). To-day the olden spirit of strife and sectarian jealousy still stalks through Christendom, and there is the same smiting at any rate with the mental fist that we find in the dark days of old. How is it with ourselves? What is the great object of all our self-sacrifice and labour? Is it merely to bolster up our own little sect or Church, &c. 5. The spirit of mock humility in which the Israelites indulged (Isaiah 57:5). Custom of the East; the humiliation was feigned (Job 8:12). Such are some of the false professions with which the Israelites are here charged. II. The vehement rebuke with which, because of their false professions, they are visited (Isaiah 57:1; Ezekiel 33:3). It is possible for God’s people even to harbour in their midst the accursed thing which God hateth. And although we are sometimes slow to detect and confess the lurking evil, which like a worm is gnawing the root of our piety, and sapping the very fount of our spiritual life; yet God detects it, and it must be put away if we would still be accepted of Him. .—If your character answers at all to that of Israel, suffer the word of honest rebuke. Of all hateful things in God’s sight, hypocrisy is the chief.—J. W. Atkinson: The Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 882. REPROOF Isaiah 58:1. Cry aloud and spare not, &c.Faithful dealing always objected to: called fault-finding, indulging in personalities, &c. The old cry is still heard, “Prophesy unto us smooth things.” O for the prayer (Psalms 139:23). I. ISRAEL’S . A whole catalogue of sins (Isaiah 56:10-12; Isaiah 57:5; Isaiah 59). In the face of these appalling sins and fiendish cruelties and wrongs, they profess themselves saints (Isaiah 58:2). The sham and hypocrisy of all this is emphasised by the word “yet,” which strikes a contrast between their religiousness and their sins, and declares their religiousness a sham (Isaiah 58:5; Isaiah 57:12). What a striking parallel between the state of Israel then and of England now. 1. We pose as a righteous nation! Yet look at our national sins. (1.) Social wrongs, greed of place and wealth, so that the state to which the needy has been reduced has been declared to be one in which “we sit on a volcano.” (2.) Social impurity, with its abounding immorality and fiendish crime. (3.) Murder as a trade. It may be slow, but sure; and, as in Israel’s case, it is the slaying of children! (4.) Intemperance. It is computed that we have 800,000 drunkards, and that for every £1 we spend on Christian missions, we spend £130 in drink! (5.) Idolatry. Everything being sacrificed to worldliness, fashion, custom, public opinion, &c. No nation sins with more determined step, or with more brazen face! 2. Not only is our national religiousness deceptive, but there is also very much that is sham in the Churches of our land. Formalism, cant, rant, self-delusion. Many seem to be righteous, and think they delight in religious duties, &c. What wilful blinking of the truth! What religiousness without religion! No wonder that to many religion is a synonym for sham—keenly noticed by the worldly, and a grievous hindrance to those who would join God’s people, &c. II. ISRAEL .—Israel’s sins must be reproved plainly, earnestly, faithfully, fearlessly, and publicly. So with us to-day. 1. Sin must be reproved plainly. Show transgressions and sins—point them out, show how they abound, &c. Some say “No,” you only make it worse; you emphasise sins, quicken the imaginations, and fire the heart with it. So in the Church. Some harm, but much good. Must reprove with Bible-plainness—call by right names; with Bible-clearness—speak of awful consequences. Examples: Elijah, John the Baptist, Christ, Luther, John Knox, Wesley, &c. 2. Faithfully. Spare not. Some object that we hurt the feelings, offend, frighten, &c. But we must not spare high or low, &c.; we must probe deep, wound, fill with anguish, &c. 3. Earnestly. “Cry aloud.” Let men feel that every Christian feels it his commission to reprove sin, &c. Fearlessly. Regard no consequences. Be not timid, hesitating, daunted, for such reprovers never give conviction. 5. Publicly. Like a trumpet of proclamation, loud and authoritative, that the sound of the reproof may be deep and stirring; go far and wide, and create and sustain public opinion in reference to these sins. There is much apparent boldness around us, but alas! how much shirking of the solemn duty. 6. In the true prophetic spirit. Under the burden of souls as David (Psalms 119:53; Psalms 119:136); Jeremiah; Christ weeping over Jerusalem; Paul, &c. In the spirit of wisdom and power (Micah 3:8). We must catch the mantle of Elijah! We must possess the tongue of the Baptist! In the spirit of saving grace (Isaiah 61:3). Not only all preachers of the Word, but Sunday-school teachers, tract distributors, fathers and mothers—all must “cry aloud,” &c. The gracious conclusion God makes to this matter (Isaiah 58:6-12; Isaiah 65:1; Isaiah 65:15). Spoken to the same people, and by the same God. Spoken to us as well. The painfulness of the probing of Divine truth is only to prepare for the removal of sin, and the pouring in of healing balm. “Let us search our ways,” &c. “Return to the Lord,” &c. (Lamentations 3:40).—D. A. Hay. Isaiah 58:2. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, &c.One of the most wicked things that Machiavel ever said was this: “Religion itself should not be cared for, but only the appearance of it; the credit of it is a help; the reality and use is a cumber.” Such notions are from beneath; they smell of the pit; for if there is anything about which the Scripture speaks expressly, it is the sin and uselessness of mere formalism. The Jews were especially liable to this evil. They so rested in the outward observances of the law as to lose its spirit. They were indifferent to the practical forms of godliness, without which religion is but a name and a form. In this chapter we read that they sought God, &c.; and all the time there were grievous sins which they were living in the daily practice of, and of which they were content to be ignorant. As a consequence, they were without the special manifestation of the Divine favour, and were ever ready to upbraid God for unfaithfulness. But God requires “truth in the inward parts.” The passage suggests— I. THE OF . A form of religion includes— 1. Theoretical religious knowledge. Attach high importance to a well-digested system of truth, but remember you may subscribe to every article of the Christian faith with a sincere and hearty ascent, and yet be destitute of spiritual religion, &c. A creed however scriptural is not vital religion. 2. The practice of moral duties. These are not to be disparaged, but morality is not the love of God. 3. Frequent attendance on religious ordinances. Very devout and regular, earnest in self-sacrifices, fastings, and self-mortifications (Isaiah 58:1-7). It is the very essence of formalism to set the outward institution above the inward truths, to be punctilious in going the round of ceremonial observances while neglectful of those spiritual sacrifices with which God is well pleased—to substitute means in the room of ends [1734] It is much easier to observe the forms of religion, than it is to bring the heart under its all-controlling influence (Isaiah 1:10-15; Ezekiel 33:30-33; Matthew 15:8). [1734] The tendency to turn Christianity into a religion of ceremonial is running with an unusually powerful current to-day. We are all more interested in art, and think that we know more about it than our fathers did. The eye and the ear are more educated than they used to be, and a society as “æsthetic” and “musical,” as much English society is becoming, will like an ornate ritual. So, apart altogether from doctrinal grounds, much in the condition of to-day works towards ritual and religion. Nonconformist services are less plain; some go from their ranks because they dislike the “bald” worship in the chapel, and prefer the more elaborate forms of the Anglican Church, which in its turn is for the same reason left by others who find their tastes gratified by the complete thing, as it is to be enjoyed full-blown in the Roman Catholic communion. We freely admit that the Puritan reaction was possibly too severe, and that a little more colour and form might with advantage have been retained. But enlisting the senses as the allies of the spirit in worship it risky work. They are very apt to fight for their own hand when they once begin, and the history of all symbolic and ceremonial worship shows that the experiment is much more likely to end in sensualising religion than in spiritualising sense. The theory that such aids make a ladder by which the soul may ascend to God is perilously apt to be confuted by experience, which finds that the soul never gets above the steps of the ladder. The gratification of taste, and the excitation of æsthetic sensibility, which is the result of such aids to worship, is not worship, however it may be mistaken as such. All ceremonial is in danger of becoming opaque instead of becoming transparent, as it was meant to be, and of detaining mind and eye instead of letting them pass on and up to God. Stained glass is lovely, and white windows are “barn-like,” and “starved,” and “bare;” but perhaps, if the object is to get light and to see the sun, these solemn purples and glowing yellows are rather in the way. I, for my part, believe that of the two extremes a Quakers’ meeting is nearer the ideal of Christian worship than High Mass; and so far as my feeble voice can reach, I would urge as eminently a lesson for the day Paul’s great principle, that a Christianity making much of forms and ceremonies is a distinct retrogression and a distinct descent. You are men in Christ; do not go back to the picture-book A B C of symbol and ceremony, which was fit for babes. You have been brought into the inner sanctuary of worship in spirit; do not decline to the beggarly elements of outward forms.—Dr. Maclaren, in “Expositor.” 4. Membership in the Church. In the Church, but not “in Christ.” The day is coming when union with the Church will not be worth the paper on which it is written, if there is no real spiritual union with Christ. 5. Party zeal and external philanthropy. The piety of Israel at this time seems to have been anything but inactive: it was very busy. Indeed it would seem that they were divided into religious parties or factions, some professing to be more orthodox than others. There was a rivalry, therefore, in their devotion; one tried to excel the other, and the competition ran so high that they began to “smite each other with the fist.” Formalism is ever full of denominational zeal. Much is said, and done, and given for man in this age of philanthropy, in the spirit of partisanship. 6. Sanctimonious solemnity (Isaiah 58:5). If men are in deep sorrow it is natural for them to droop their heads. In the east men wore sackcloth, as we do crape, to indicate their grief. But with the formalist all this is pretence—theatrical sadness and gloom. True religion is joy inspiring, and ever manifests itself in cheerfulness and sunshine. But the mere formalist cannot be happy, hence he robes himself in garbs of sadness, and produces the impression that religion is characteristically grave, &c. Such sanctimoniousness has done untold damage. What is the character of your religion? Is it formal or spiritual, conventional or Christly—form or heart?II. THE OF . 1. It tends to form and foster intolerance. “The people of the Lord, the people of the Lord are we.” In the name of religion men have committed and still commit some of the greatest enormities on which the sun ever shone. 2. It fails to yield the solid happiness found in spiritual religion. It is impossible in the nature of things. True religion is an inward principle (1 Samuel 16:7; Romans 2:28; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15). A painted fire cannot warm, a painted banquet cannot satisfy hunger, and a formal religion cannot bring peace to the soul. 3. It is directly opposed to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel. 4. It is injurious to its possessor and to others (Isaiah 58:1). It warps the judgment, it deadens the conscience, it hardens the heart, it awakens false hopes, and it will put to shame at the last day. Its influence upon others is most pernicious and destructive. It misrepresents religion, &c. Let every minister cry aloud, spare not, lift up his voice like a “trumpet” against this common foe, this bane of Christendom. 5. It is an insult to Almighty God. If this formalism were so odious to God under the law—a religion full of ceremonies, certainly it will be much more odious under the Gospel—a religion of much more simplicity, and requiring so much the greater sincerity (Ezekiel 33:21; Matthew 15:8, and others). He peers into the heart, He sees the sham, and abhors the sacrifice, where the heart is not found.—A. Tucker. FASTS Isaiah 58:4. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day.Periodical fasts, such as the Ritualists would have us keep in Lent, instead of being well pleasing in the sight of God, are offensive to Him. I. THEY ARE BASED UPON A FALSE OF THE OF GOD. Their promoters say: “This is to be a season of special religiousness; therefore it is to be a time of mortification, fasting, and gloom. This is a season in which to do special honour to God; therefore let His altars and priests be clad in sad vestments, and let His people weep and lament.” This view makes God find a pleasure in the self-inflicted grievance of His creatures. It implies that blessings which He has lavishly scattered around us are given rather as tests of our faith and self-denial; that they are here, not for us to rejoice in the works of His hands, but by renouncing them to show our love and loyalty to Him. How is such a view at all reconcilable with the love of the Divine Father? Is it thus that we should deal with our children! Is it credible that any parent, of true and loving heart, would take a studious son into a library of books, every one of which were calling to him to come and enrich himself on its treasures; or a child with rich and cultured musical gifts into a room where were exquisite instruments from which he longed to draw forth strains of sweet melody; or a daughter with a passionate love of flowers into a garden which was one blaze of beauty, and then say, “These are yours; but you will please me best if you do not gratify the desire which would lead you to use them? It is not that you would thus impoverish me, for I could easily supply the place of any you might appropriate; but it will please me if you look at them, long for them, and yet abstain from them. I know it will be a great trial; I have little doubt it will make you miserable; but it is that which will please me.” No father, worthy of the name, would be guilty of such heartlessness. Yet it is just this which men ascribe to God, when they fancy that He is pleased if we afflict our souls, bow down our head like a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under us. II. THEY ARE BASED UPON, AND PROMOTE FALSE VIEWS OF HUMAN DUTY. 1. Their evident tendency is to encourage the old notion of the sinfulness of the material world, the body, and all by which it is nourished and refreshed. It is true that in the New Testament “the flesh” is represented as the natural and deadly foe of the spirit; but “the flesh” denotes not the bodily nature, but the passions and lusts of an unrenewed heart. No doubt these are inflamed by the bodily senses; and if a man finds that fasting helps him to subdue them, let him fast. But to fast under the idea that the body is sinful, and that the more we can mortify it the better—to fast at the cost of physical health and energy is something more than a mistake; it is a sin to sacrifice that health which is one of God’s most precious gifts, and which is so essential to enable us to do the service in the world which He requires at our hands. 2. They lead to a substitution of an outward and bodily for an inward and spiritual service. Bodily fasting is put in the place of that spirit of moderation, self-conquest, and self-sacrifice, which the prophet describes as the true fast. To their selfishness, passion, and worldly pride, the misguided religionists add the pride of self-righteousness, and so their last state is worse than the first. Let us use all aids which can advance us in likeness to Christ, and remember that all religious services which have not this result, whatever else they may have to recommend them, are but as “sounding brass and a tinkling cymbol.”—J. G. Rogers, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, ii. 145–148. A PLEA FOR THE Isaiah 58:6-7. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? &c.In the former verses of this chapter we have a description of the state of heart of the Jewish people in the course of their mysterious preparation for destruction.… They are in a condition of all others the most appalling—the condition of the self-deceived (Isaiah 58:2, &c.). The Lord therefore defines in His own vindication what is the sort of humiliation which alone He will accept and honour. There is no contradiction here of the doctrine that is taught in other passages of Scripture, in which the fast is divinely decreed, and the solemn assembly ordered by Divine command. There are occasions which justify, nay, which even require national prostration and sorrow; and there is no sublimer spectacle than the spectacle of a great people moved as by one common impulse to peniteuce and prayer. But in the case before us there was both a lie in the mouth and a reserve in the consecration; there was self-righteous satisfaction in the act, and there was a dependence upon it for the recompense of the reward. There is nothing new in the occasion which has brought us together. We meet under the shadow of a great calamity. There is something in the magnitude of the calamity for which we plead which removes it altogether out of the routine of ordinary charity.… Only once in a lifetime is it possible that such a crisis as this will occur. It is the cry of thousands stricken with the blight of famine from no fault of their own, &c. The present, therefore, is an occasion of national calamity and concern and sympathy; and they especially who have learned at the feet of Jesus are bound to be helpful in their measure, in order that their good may not be evil spoken of, and in order that their religion, in its very comeliest development, may shine forth before the observation of men.The one point I want especially, without any sort of formal or elaborate treatment, to impress upon you now, is the point which lurks in the last verse of the text; there is my claim—“from thine own flesh.”God has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell upon the face of the whole earth. This is the announcement of a grand fact which has never yet been successfully disproved—the essential underlying identity of the human race, however chequered by the varieties of clime and of language—one deep, constant, ineradicable identity which links man to man all over the world. The old Roman could say, “I am a man: nothing, therefore, that is human can be foreign to me.” And Christianity takes that sentiment and exalts it into a surpassing obligation, and stamps upon it the royal seal of heaven. Of course this general law must be modified by minor and smaller varieties, or it will be practically useless. The sympathy that goes out after the world gets lost in the magnitude of the area over which it has to travel; and the very vastness and vagueness of the object will of itself tend to fritter away the intenseness of the feeling. That is a very suspicious attachment which clings to nobody in particular, which rejoices no heart with its affection, which brightens no hearthstone by its light. Hence private affections are recognised and hallowed and commended as the sources from which all public virtues are to spring. There is nothing in them inconsistent with the love of the entire race; they prepare for it, and they lead to it, and they scoop out the channels through which its tributaries are to flow. Who shall sympathise so well with the oppressed people as the man who rejoices in his own roof-tree sacred, and in his own altar-home? &c. Now, these two obligations—the claim of private affection and the claim of universal sympathy—are not incompatible; but they fulfil mutually the highest uses of each other. God has taught in the Scripture the lesson of universal brotherhood, and men may not gainsay the teaching. I cannot love all men equally; my own instincts, and society’s requirements, and God’s commands, all unite in reprobation of that. My wealth of affection must go out after home, and friends, and children, and kindred, and country; but my pity must not lock itself in them; my regard must not confine itself within those narrow limits merely; my pity must go out farther. Wherever there is human need, and human peril, my regard must fasten upon the man, although he may have flung from him the crown of his manhood in anger. I dare not despise him, because, in his filth and in his sin, as he lies before me prostrate and dishonoured, there is that spark of heavenly flame which God the Father kindled, over which God the Spirit yearns with intensest yearning, and which God the Eternal Son spilt His own heart’s blood to redeem. There is no man now that can ask the infidel question of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God has made man his brother’s keeper; we are to love our neighbours as ourselves; and if, in the contractedness of some narrow Hebrew spirit, we ask the question, “Who is my neighbour?” there comes the full pressure of utterance to enforce, and to authenticate the answer, “Man is thy neighbour; every one whom penury has rasped or sorrow startled—every one whom plague hath smitten or the curse hath banned—every one from whose home the dearlings have vanished, or around whose heart the pall has been drawn” (P. D. 2387).I observe further that, as it is now, so in every age since the earliest, there have been distinctions of society in the world. It must be so in the nature of things; it is part of God’s benevolent allotment, as well as part of God’s original economy. A level creation, if you ever come upon it, is not the creation of God, &c. And so it is in society. It is of necessity a union of unequals; there could be no mutual cohesion, or mutual dependence, if we were one perpetual level. God has never made it so; in the nature of things, it could never continue so; and if by the frenzy of some revolutionary deluge all the world were submerged into one level of waters today, you may be sure that some aspiring mountain tops would come struggling through the billows to-morrow. It must be so; it is perfectly impossible, in accordance with God’s known laws, and in accordance with the nature of things, that there should be equality of society in the world. “God hath set the poor in his place,” as well as the rich, for He has said expressly, “He that despiseth the poor reproacheth”—not him, but—“his Maker.” And the announcement of the Saviour, “The poor ye have always with you,” is not only the averment of a fact, but it is a commendation of them, as Christ’s clients, to the succour and to the help of His Church. This benevolence, moreover, is claimed for them, specially enjoined on their behalf, because of their abiding existence as a class of the community (Deuteronomy 15:11). Hence the Saviour has especially commended them unto those who bear His name and who feel His affection shed abroad within their hearts, and He has commended them by the tenderest of all possible ties—“Inasmuch,” &c. And, moreover, the class from which the poor is composed will always be the largest class in society—must be so. The poor compose the army, gather the harvest, plough the waters, construct and work the machinery, and are the stalwart purveyors for all the necessity and comfort of life. Who shall say that they have not a claim upon the resources of the state they serve—aye, and in seasons of special need and in special emergency, upon the charity and upon the justice of the many who are enriched by their toil? Once recognise the relationship, and the claim inevitably follows. A sense of service rendered, and of obligation thereby, will deepen that claim into a closer and closer compass; and religion, attaching to it her holiest sanctions, lifts the recognition of the claim into a duty which the Christian cannot violate without sin. “I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” “Whosoever seeth his brother in need,” &c. Nay, as I said before—and I return to it because no appeal can be so inimitable in its tenderness and so omnipotent in its power—Christ Himself, once poor in the travail of His own incarnate life, and touched therefore with the feeling of their infirmities, adopts them as His own peculiar care, and, pointing to them as they shiver in rags or perish with hunger, gives them to the care of His Church, that they may be warmed and fed, pronouncing at the same time the benediction which in itself is heaven, “Inasmuch,” &c.I just want to remind you for a moment or two of some of the peculiar circumstances which make this claim more pressing in connection with the liberality of the Churches now. You may meditate, if you please, for a moment upon some of the circumstances of the poor man’s lot, in order to enforce the appeal which Scripture and which reason unite to announce and to commend. I might remind you, for example, of the nature of the occupation in which so many are obliged to pass their lives. Their life is for the most part one dreary monotony of labour. His condition is like that of a traveller in the desert, going on and on through the stifling and interminable sand, with hardly an oasis breaking the wilderness, with hardly an Elim in which to quench his thirst. Day after day, through a cheerless round of drudging duties, must the poor man go—constantly the same—the mouth always demanding the labour of the hands. The family grow up around him, and the children are clamorous for bread. The task must be performed. Ceaselessly the wheel goes round. A strange failing comes upon the heart, but he must work; the lion limbs lose their suppleness, but he must work; the eyes get dim. and troubled with a confusion of age, but he must work—until at last, perhaps, a strange paralysis seizes him, and he reels and dies, leaving his wife to the cold bufferings of the world, and his children to the stranger’s charity, or perhaps to an early and a welcome grave. And then I might remind you of the circumscriptions of the poor from many of the sources of human enjoyment. They do not start fairly with their fellows in the world of intellectual acquirement. To them the sciences are sealed. Rarely can they kindle before a great picture, or travel to a sunny landscape, or be thrilled beneath the spell of an orator’s mighty words. Not to them are the pleasures of sense—the ample board, the convenient dwelling, the gathered friends, and all the appearances of comfort, with which wealth has carpeted its own pathway to the tomb. Theirs is a perpetual struggle between the winner and the spender, and unless they are blest at home, and happy in the consolations of religion, life will be to them a joyless birth—a weariness that ceases not; or if their does come a brief respite, it will be one that gives no leisure for love or hope, but only time for tears. Then I would remind you, too, of the pressure with which ordinary evils—evils to which we are all liable—fall upon the circumstances of the poor. There is no part of the world where the curse has not penetrated. Man is born to trouble everywhere, but all these common ills of life fall with heavier penalties upon the poor. They have to bear the penalties in their condition as well as in their experience. They cannot purchase the skill of many healers, the comforts which soothe the sickness, the delicacies which restore the health; and when the wasting sickness seizes them, they have no time to recover thoroughly. And then the maintenance of the poor—the bare maintenance—depends often upon contingencies which he can neither foresee nor control. If labour fails, bread fails, and homes fail. The more provident and thrifty may struggle against the coming calamity for a while, and live upon the results of their thrift and their care; but you can trace, as you may this day if that famine is protracted, the inevitable progress downwards. One by one the comforts are obliged to be parted with, until there is extremity of desolation. And then that is not all. The sickness comes. The fever follows hard upon the famine; through the noisome court the hot blast sweeps, and the pure air flees away at his presence. Comfort has gone; strength has gone; hope has gone. Death has nothing to do but take possession. And this is no fancy; it is no picture. There are thousands of the homes of your fellows—of “your own flesh,” where this ruin is enacting to-day. And then I might remind you again, of the temptations which come especially and more fiercely in connection with the poor man’s lot. The poor man must struggle for quiescence when he sees that the crumbs “from the rich man’s table” wasted, would furnish him not only with a meal but with a banquet. The poor man must have a stern fight to be contented when he sees, striving all his life as he does to be honest, that he is splashed with the mud from the carriage where fraud and profligacy ride. Hence it is that in times of distress, in times of discontentment, grievances are multiplied; there is a cry that is difficult to repress against those above them; they are denounced as selfish, tyrannical, proud. What more shall I say? It remains now surely that you address yourselves to the duty. Your pity, your philanthropy, your patriotism, and your religion have opportunities of charity to-day which they have very rarely had before. Let that charity flow as it ought—undiminished by any solitary misgiving, waiting to settle apparent discrepancies, or to rail at apparent apathy, or to solve economical problems—waiting to do all that until the famine is driven off from the heart of the hungry, and until the strickeu and sorrowful can again look up and smile. The duty is one from which none are exempt. God forbid that it should be an offering of the rich alone! Desolate homes, starving children, patient women from whose hollow eyes the worm looks out already, men smitten from their manhood into feebleness until they have lost almost all remembrance of the bold and brave beings they were—these are our clients. “Inasmuch,” &c.—that is our never-failing argument. “Ye know the grace,” &c.—that is our example. “She hath done what she could”—that is our measure. “Light breaking forth as the morning, health springing forth speedily, righteousness going before you, the glory of the Lord your reward, light rising in obscurity, darkness as the noonday, the satisfaction of the soul in drought, the land like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not,”—there, Divinely spoken, is our “exceeding great reward.”—W. M. Punshoa, LL.D. (in aid of the Fund for the Relief of the Lancashire Distress): Sermons.Isaiah 58:7; Isaiah 58:10-11. .I. Is a Christian duty. II. Has its seat in the soul. Is the expression of the soul. Finds its demonstration in practical fruits. III. Must be associated with humility. IV. Is specially acceptable to God. V. Its reward. Light in the soul—on the path—on the condition (Isaiah 58:8-12).—Dr. Lyth. A HEALTHY CHURCH Isaiah 58:8. And thine health shall spring forth speedilyI. OF A HEALTHY CHURCH. 1. A scriptural constitution. As Noah built the ark, Moses the tabernacle, and Solomon the temple, according to the Divine instructions; so a healthy church is formed according to the teaching of the New Testament and pattern of the churches planted by the apostles. The foundation must be well laid, otherwise the superstructure cannot but fall. 2. Nutritious food. As the body requires to be fed with a sufficient amount of wholesome food, so the soul must be fed with the bread which came down from heaven. Truth in its purity, without any adulteration, should be the soul’s spiritual diet (1 Peter 2:2). 3. Pure air. The man who breathes in a polluted atmosphere sows the seed of disease and death in the human body. So the soul which lives in an impure moral atmosphere greatly injures itself. The spirit of worldliness, and the society of evil companions, should be most carefully avoided. 4. Regular exercise. Physical exercise is one of the conditions of health, and is the means of saving many a doctor’s bill. In like manner, Christian work and the faithful discharge of religious duties is conducive to sound spiritual health. II. OF A HEALTHY CHURCH. 1. Health is sometimes known by outward appearances. The rosy cheeks, the sparkling eyes, the sonorous voice, all testify to health. One invalid in a family puts everything out of sorts. A healthy church may be known by its prayer-meetings, contributions, missionary spirit, &c. 2. Health is known by tastes. A sickly man’s taste is bad. Unwholesome dainties are preferred to strong meat. So with regard to an unhealthy church. Its taste is bad. Silly anecdotes are preferred to good scriptural teaching—thinks much of forms and ceremonies, &c. 3. Contentment of mind. An unhealthy man is peevish, querulous, and difficult to please. So an unhealthy church. It is a fault-finding church. Never pleased with its ministry, with its officers, with its choir, &c. It fancies that matters are managed better everywhere than at home. 4. Work. Sickness disables a man for labour. Health stimulates to work. A healthy man cannot be idle. A healthy church may be known by its labour. It teaches the young, visits the sick and needy, supports the missions, &c. III. THE OF A HEALTHY CHURCH. 1. A healthy church is one of great comfort to itself. Though a man has wide estates, baronial castles, chariots innumerable, and though he be rolling in wealth, if health fails, his chief comfort departs. So with a church. Though it may have a beautiful chapel, a crowded congregation, a large endowment; if lacking in spiritual health, its consolations are indeed small. 2. A healthy church will survive through many trials. The healthy man is heedless of easterly winds, and furious hurricanes. So a healthy church. It survives through persecutions, imprisonments, and martyrdom. Like the bush of old fires cannot destroy it. 3. A healthy church is attractive. Healthy neighbourhoods entice visitors. So healthy churches attract men into their communion, and make all who come better and holier. People shun unhealthy churches as they do fever dens. 4. A healthy church is one likely to live. Sickness is the precursor of death. When a church becomes morally sick, people will begin to speak of its death, funeral, and grave. But a healthy church will live. Its chapel may become dilapidated, its members may die, but the healthy church lives on. LESSONS.— 1. A morally sick church is a great curse to a neighbourhood. 2. The sooner the better that many a church should apply to the great Physician for spiritual healing. 3. The church will by and by become perfectly whole. 4. When perfectly whole, diseased persons will no longer be admitted into its fellowship (Revelation 21:27).—J. Williams, Newcastle-Emlyn: “Cofiant.” THE REWARDS OF Isaiah 58:10-12. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, &c.The Bible has one grand and peculiar character,—it is the book of goodness; it everywhere recommends and extols the principle of benevolence; its two grand precepts are love to God and love to man. It never dispenses with either. Knowledge, gifts of tongues, and even faith without works is dead. Of all the striking exhibitions of the beauty and value of this cardinal quality, none can excel the one given by the evangelical prophet in the text. Notice— I. The objects of benevolent regard. These are described in two forms. 1. The hungry. Those who have craving appetites and no means to satisfy them. Such is, indeed, a pitiable condition, yet not by any means rare. This state, painful in itself, is often aggravated by surrounding plenty. It is difficult to hunger in time of famine; but where there is enough, what a temptation to steal! So thought Agur (Proverbs 30:8-9). 2. To the afflicted. This is much worse than poverty alone. Health gone; strength gone; resources dried up; thrown upon the bed of languishing, wearisome days and nights, &c. What wretched scenes are often discovered, &c. Often, too, this state is the reverse of their former condition in life. Often, too, poor friendless children have to suffer; and often there is a worse disease than that of the body,—a guilty spirit, a defiled conscience, and dreadful fears of a future state. Dwell upon such objects of misery. Think that it may be your lot. II. The nature of benevolent regards. We are to exercise— 1. Tender compassion and sympathy. Not be heedless and careless of such; not neglect; not be callous. Investigate, inquire, excite our best feelings; cherish soft and benevolent passions; annihilate selfishness; crucify self; labour after generosity and true charity; not wait for opportunities of doing good. There may be many things having a tendency to close our hearts. The improvidence of the poor, and ingratitude; cases of imposition. But we must not forget how miserable we should be if God gave us our deserts, &c. 2. Kind and suitable aid. Sympathy without this is mockery. God deems it an insult to Himself, and to His image, which man bears. Our assistance must be in proportion to our means. It should be timely,—in season; with kindness of manner; with prayer for God’s blessing; from purity of motive,—not for show and ostentation; but out of love, &c., to the glory of God. III. The rewards of benevolent attention to the poor and afflicted. 1. It shall be followed by a dignified reputation. No title or distinction equal to that of goodness. 2. Such shall have the gracious guidance of God. How necessary is this, how desirable, how preeminently precious to have the providential interpositions of God, and the guiding influences of the Spirit. Guide rightly, graciously, to the end, even to a city of habitation. 3. They shall have internal happiness and satisfaction. When others are lean and comfortless, they shall be prosperous and happy (Psalms 41:1-3). 4. They shall have abundant spiritual prosperity. Comforts, &c., shall not fail. God is the fountain; and as such, He never changes, &c. This reward is often the consolation of the benevolent in this life (Job 29:11-16). 5. The full recompense shall be given at the last day (Luke 14:14; Matthew 25:40, &c.). .—Put not benevolence in the place of experimental piety. Yet, that is not genuine which does not produce benevolence.—Jabez Burns, D.D.: Sketches of Sermons for Special Occasions, pp. 209–212. A HAPPY Isaiah 58:11. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, &c.The portrait of what the Christian is in his happiest times. The setting is a framework of duties (Isaiah 58:9, &c.). These blessings are not promised unconditionally, but they are fenced in with terms. I must, therefore, address myself to those who are living in the faith, &c., while I depict their happy state. Five distinct features of their felicity are mentioned. They are described as enjoying— I. . There comes to them, as to other men, dilemmas in providence. The path of doctrine, also, is sometimes difficult. Spiritual experience. The LORD shall guide thee—not an angel. “Shall.” “Continually.” Grasp it by faith. II. INWARD . It is a blessed thing to have the soul satisfied, for the soul is of great capacity. The Christian has got what his soul wants,—a removal of all that which marred his peace, blighted his prosperity, and made his soul empty and hungry—sin-pardoned, satisfied with God’s dispensations, promises, &c. In the worst times of distress he is still satisfied. III. HEALTH AND . It is a grand thing when the soul is in spiritual health, when the bones are made fat. Spiritual sickness is the condition of many. Do not be content short of spiritual vigour, &c. IV. . This figure of a garden is a very sweet and attractive one. Some professors are not like this. There is little evidence of diligent cultivation in their character. The contrast between an unwatered and a watered garden. V. OF SUPPLY. Provided in the covenant of grace. I can only regret that my text can have no bearing upon some of my hearers, to whom it must be read in the negative. Tremble at this! Terrible is your present state, but more terrible is the future. But there is hope yet. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost, &c.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Nos. 735–736. GOD THE GUIDE OF HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 58:11. The Lord shall guide thee continuallyThe people of God are strangers and pilgrims on the earth; they “seek a better country,” &c. He needs a constant guide. His path is one he has never before traversed. He is ignorant of the way, and, without a guide, his course would be uncertain, and very probable his end unattained. God graciously engages to conduct him. I. THE GOOD MAN’S NEED OF A GUIDE. Necessarily arises— 1. From his ignorance. He is not in darkness, but he is at present the child of the dawn. His knowledge is so limited, that he cannot trust to it. He only knows the first elements of truth. He has entered on the path of life, but he feels it necessary to seek direction and guidance every step. For this he prays, &c. 2. From the diversified paths which surround him. Sin has a thousand treacherous paths, many of them apparently good, and most of them fascinating, &c. There are paths of mere morality, self-righteousness, &c. How necessary then to have a guide. 3. From the temptation to which he is subject. It is the work of Satan to allure and deceive, that he may ruin and destroy. He lays snares for the travellers’ feet. He tries to turn them aside from the path of duty and safety, or to suggest that the way is tedious, embarrassing, and uncomfortable. 4. The tendency of our own hearts to evil. Only partially sanctified. Liable to err. Often willing to be deceived. Apt to turn aside (Hebrews 3:12). Let us now inquire— II. How GOD GUIDES HIS PEOPLE. 1. By the counsels of His truth (Psalms 73:24). Given to be the guide of our steps. Here is plainly and distinctively marked out the way we should go (Psalms 119:5; Psalms 119:9; Psalms 119:32; Psalms 119:35; Psalms 119:59; Psalms 119:104). 2. By the ministry of His servants. Of old He raised up Moses, &c. He also came to minister and to teach mankind in the person of His Son (Hebrews 1:2 : &c). He has established the ministry of the Word with the Christian dispensation (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28). 3. By the teaching of His Spirit (John 14:16-26; John 16:13). III. WHAT KIND OF A GUIDE GOD IS TO His PEOPLE. 1. He is an infallible guide. Incapable of error. Knows everything connected with the travellers, the way, and the perils to which they are exposed. Knows all things. 2. He is patient and forbearing. Remembers they are but dust. Endures their provocations—slow advances, &c. 3. He is affectionate and tender. As the shepherd kindly leads his flock. As the mother aids her infant child to walk. He breaks not the bruised reed, &c. 4. He is constant and unfailing. Never leaves. Guides their youth and mature years, and casts “not off in the time of old age,” nor forsakes when their strength faileth. He guides even to death, and conducts to glory. .— 1. Are you under the guidance of God? Have you yielded yourselves to Him, &c.? 2. Cherish a spirit suited to your character and condition—reverence and holy fear, confidence in God, fervent prayer, self-denial, &c. 3. Urge sinners to turn from the way of death and live.—Jabez Burns, D.D., LL.D.: Sketches on Types and Metaphors, pp. 112–115. (See p. 294, 296, 302.) THE CHURCH THE GARDEN OF THE LORD Isaiah 58:11. Thou shalt be like a watered gardenSin blighted the moral creation of God, and turned the Eden of the Lord into a barren desert. Through the intervention of Divine mercy, God has set on foot a scheme of merciful renovation. United in the fellowship of the Gospel, the regenerate constitute His spiritual Church, and appear in our wilderness world as the “watered garden” of the Lord. As a garden the Church is— I. FROM THE WORLD. Originally like the waste howling wilderness, now distinct and separated, called out of the world as to spirit and character. In, but not of it; not like it—separated. To be manifest—as unlike the world as the garden is unlike the barren heath. II. BY A FENCE. Otherwise it would be a prey to wild beasts; thoroughfare for every rude foot; would become a waste. Fenced round, as with a wall of adamant. God is its keeper and defence. He is round about in the energy of His omnific power (Psalms 125:2). III. IN A STATE OF AND . For the Church’s cultivation He sends His Word, messengers, and the benign influences of His benevolent providential administrations. IV. BY ITS TREES AND PLANTS. The good man is likened to a lofty cedar, the useful olive, the fruitful vine, the fragrant myrtle, the thriving willow, &c. May be compared to flowers—adorned with the graces of the Spirit. Are said to be the Lord’s planting (Matthew 15:13; Psalms 92:12-14). V. RICHLY WATERED BY THE OF HEAVEN. Water is indispensible to fertility and growth, &c. The Spirit of God is often presented under this figure (Isaiah 35:6-7; John 7:37; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 27:3). These communications are essential to our comfort, well-being, fruitfulness, &c. They keep the garden of the Lord ever verdant, and produce from the trees of the Lord an abundant increase. VI. THE LORD EXPECTS A RETURN OF FRUIT FROM IT. All the labour and outlay of God’s goodness is to produce the fruits of holiness. This He expects; and how reasonable is the expectation, and how important to us! Do we render to the Lord the fruits of righteousness, &c.? .—Do we form part of the Lord’s garden? Are we the plants of His right-hand planting? Are we flourishing, retaining our verdure, growing, yielding fruit to God? The impenitent, as briers and thorns, He will consume in the day of His fiery indignation.—Jabez Burns, LL.D.: Sketches on Types and Metaphors, pp. 208–211. A similar idea is presented in Jeremiah 31:12. It forms one of the touches in the beautiful picture which the prophets give of the restored happiness and prosperity of the nation after the rigorous season of captivity and exile. Their experience in Babylon was one of drought and decay. It was like being driven into a wilderness where everything becomes parched and barren. The people had been prepared for this, during their state of declension, by the faithful messengers of Jehovah (Isaiah 64:10; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 12:10-11; Ezekiel 20:35). Yet we see throughout the history that bright hopes are blended with dark judgments, and the flock, though scattered, are followed by the loving purpose of God, who means to effect a great redemption. Even the wilderness is to be a scene of reconciliation and hope (Hosea 2:14).Our text, then, presents the pleasant picture of the restored, united, and prosperous community, after their season of correction; and the image may well be used as suggestive, also, of Divine experiences in the individual soul.I. A well-watered garden indicates the presence of life. To speak of a garden without life would be unmeaning and absurd, however much may be done by art and skill to create a pleasing scene. This thought has a real application for human souls. We are too apt to confine our ideas of life to the outward and superficial aspects of mere existence. We see around us a great deal of the machinery and parade of life. But the suspicion will force itself upon us that much of this is but the fencing in of uncultivated regions—useless labour bestowed upon barren and unproductive spots which are not “rich towards God.” There is the secret of the well-watered garden. Christ emphasises the life that is in it, and a life, too, which can be deep, and full, and abiding, only as it is centered in the Divine fulness itself. This suggests the value of the promise to ancient Israel. As long as they were a scattered flock, separated from God above all by their evil affections, they were losing life. Their spiritual strength was decaying, they were living in a wilderness where all their powers were parched and blighted, and they were doing what so many are doing now—they were losing their own souls in the mere materialism of a godless and undevout life. We may depend upon it that things are going badly, and even tragically with us, when the roots of a growth towards God are showing no signs. We are made for the achievements of faith: if that life of faith be not in us, “the world is too much with us.” Only by being transformed as into “a watered garden” can our true life be secured.II. “A watered garden” is suggestive also of beauty. In the operations of nature, life and beauty go together. It is no mechanical labour, causing a sense of weariness; much less can we ever think of it as ugly and repulsive. Nature always allures us by her tenderness and her charms, and though always at work with marvellous energy, is always arrayed in garments of beauty. What numberless examples we have of this. To confine ourselves to the more limited image before us, what beauty is displayed by a “watered garden,” in the unfolding of its numerous forms of life.This conception of beauty in life is not sufficiently pondered by Christian people. We have always been more ready to emphasise the sterner sides of religion than its tender aspects, &c. There has been considerable reason for this in the fact that the military and disciplinary elements of life are always very real with us. But this should be no excuse for driving out the sweeter elements that should give grace and beauty to character. Besides, we should remember that real strength, when rooted in the soil of love, is also beautiful. Our fault is in separating the graces as though they would not live together. But “strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” Many a well-meaning life is made harsh and repulsive because it has ruggedness and massiveness without tenderness and grace. How much more powerful and winning would the influence of our character be, if we would not persist in separating what God has joined together. Look into the garden of the soul, as it is presented in Christian teaching, and see what is expected to grow there (Galatians 5:22). And there is nothing which will give grace to the life which ought to be left out (Philippians 4:8).III. Fruitfulness is another thought suggested by the watered garden. We naturally expect to see, not merely leaves and flowers, however beautiful, but also fruit. This idea is, of course, involved in the passages just quoted to enforce the need for beauty, but the thought specially intended here is that the religion of Christ shows itself in the form of active beneficence, working as a Divine leaven in the midst of human life. The life rooted in Christ feels itself to be related to others. It exists, not for its own selfish ends, simply to absorb and to keep, but loves by its very bountifulness to enrich others. It thus aims to be reproductive, by bringing others to repeat the same experiences as we ourselves enjoy, and upon still higher levels. Look around on your neighbours and friends, on the community, on the world: look with the eye of love, with the mind of Christ. Is there not room to impart some spiritual gift? (Romans 1:11; John 15:8).IV. I will put the thought in one other light. Our subject leads us to think of the need there is for cultured excellence. One of the main ideas suggested by such a garden as we have before our minds is, that it would be well tended and carefully cultivated, and therefore brought to yield the best of which it is capable. Weeds and noxious things, that only occupy valuable ground and prevent useful growth, are not tolerated: they are rooted up and cast out. The owner is not satisfied that it should yield anything less than its best. To this end he bestows upon it varied effort and ceaseless care. Ask any wise husbandman if he would care to risk a valuable garden by leaving it to the mercy of natural selection! Here we touch a point which ought to occasion us great searching of heart. Nothing can excuse indifference here, where it is to be feared our indifference is greatest. Do we suppose that no culture is needed for this garden of the soul, from which God is expecting so much? Look, then, on the one hand, at the results of life when it is recklessly left as a vineyard unkept—its ignorance, its grovelling sins, its animalism, its profanities, its vices. On the other hand, look at life in its higher and diviner forms—its watchfulness, its prayerfulness, its circumspection, its self-control, its heroisms. The weeds of life require no culture, the real fruits of life can be obtained only by highest care.Let us not be satisfied with the littlenesses of life. We are called and destined for infinitely greater things than we have yet reached. The garden of the soul needs to be more richly watered with heavenly influence and power, that the whole scene of our motives and activities may be so quickened and enlarged that our service may be a whole-hearted faithfulness to God and man. This, however, is to be secured by three things— 1. A rooting (John 15:4). 2. A growth (2 Peter 3:18). 3. A discipline, called by Christ a pruning (John 15:2). This is the process by which God designs to get out of us the fruits of the seeds He has first of all put into us.—W. Manning. THE SABBATH [1737][1737] See outlines on Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 56:6; and Dr. Barnes’ Commentary in loco. Isaiah 58:13-14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, &c.The first religious ordinance instituted by God in this new created earth was the Sabbath; the day of rest after six days work. Most remarkable was the manner of the institution—by the example of Almighty God Himself (Genesis 2:1-3). Instituted by God between two and three thousand years before the law was given upon Mount Sinai as an ordinance for the Jews, it was designed to promote man’s temporal as well as his spiritual good; on its due observance man’s welfare, both here and hereafter, very mainly depends; by its neglect God is dishonoured, and man is wounded and hurt. I. How THE LORD’S DAY IS TO BE . 1. By public worship. On that day especially we are to pay unto Him the worship due unto His name. Public worship is a debt we owe to God (Psalms 29:2; Psalms 96:8); and we should be as careful to pay it as we are the debts we owe our fellow-men. 2. By private meditation and prayer. We are to regard it as a day of rest and cessation from the common business and occupation of life, as a season dedicated to God. Our conversation and our thoughts are to be directed, not to temporal, but to spiritual concerns. Let us reflect upon the things of which it reminds us—the creation of the world, the resurrection of Christ; and of that which it foreshadows—the everlasting rest which remaineth for the people of God. II. THE WHICH FOLLOW UPON A DUE OF THE LORD’S DAY. 1. We shall grow in wisdom and grace. 2. Even in this imperfect and troublesome world, we shall learn to delight ourselves in the Lord. 3. When the number of earthly Sabbaths is complete, we shall be found, by God’s grace, meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. III. THE EVIL EFFECTS WHICH ALWAYS FOLLOW AND . 1. The world, with its drying, withering influence, will take entire possession of the heart. Even when the Lord’s Day is only occasionally neglected, the natural result does not fail to follow—religion is at a stand-still. But where it is habitually profaned, irreligion, hardness of heart, utter indifference and carelessness about the soul, about God, and about eternity, inevitably ensue. 2. The natural faults and corruptions of our nature, being never checked by the wholesome bridle of God’s Word, will run away with us, and never stop until they have urged us into perdition. Sabbaths spent in idleness and bad company have often to young men and women, in the highest as well as the lowest walks of life, been the first links of a chain, of which the middle were vice, crime, shame, death; and the last link, the tormenting flame! 3. We shall find unbroken toil a sore burden. 4. Death, instead of bringing us rest, will increase our burden a thousandfold in the kingdom of darkness.—Bishop Hervey: Sermons for the Sundays and Principal Holydays throughout the Year, vol. i. 122–133. The law of the Sabbath, as instituted at the creation, and subsequently inserted in the Decalogue, instead of being repealed, retains its full authority. The sacredness of the obligation of its observance is now transferred, with undiminished force, from the seventh day of the week to the first. The sanctification of the Sabbath is still required on the same principles, in the same spirit, and for the same purposes. The only difference is, that the motives which impel to its due observance have acquired an accession of strength. Most important, therefore, is the inquiry on which we are now about to enter: In what manner should the Sabbath be observed?The due sanctification of the Sabbath requires,— I. A cessation from the ordinary labours and occupations of life. II. A consecration of the entire day to the spiritual engagements and delights which peculiarly belong to it. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;” that is, let the entire day be separated from the occupations of other days, and consecrated to the service and enjoyment of God. III. The public acknowledgment and adoration of our God and Saviour, in acts of social worship. IV. The conscientious and diligent discharge of the domestic duties of religion. With much prayer, tenderness, perseverance, and ingenuity, let Sabbath opportunities be used for the purposes of Christian education (H. E. I., 803–806). Let not your servants be neglected. They have many claims on your Christian regard. Let them have reason to bless God for entering your family. Consult and adopt the best means of promoting their eternal interests. V. The performance of the works of charity and mercy.—H. P. Burder, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 426–448. I. Our first object must be to see what God’s Word tells us respecting the origin, meaning, and importance of the primitive Sabbath. I. How far do these things apply to us? Is it God’s will that we should still set apart one day in seven as a season of holy rest? III. What are some of the purposes of the institution of the Lord’s Day?—C. J. Vaughan, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 255–291. I. The true Sabbath. II. Its obligation. III. Advantage. I. In what light we should regard the Sabbath. II. How we should employ it. III. The benefits arising from its proper observance. I. The proper observance of the Sabbath. Its rest, pleasures, occupations, conversation. II. The consequent blessings. 1. Delight in the Lord. 2. Exaltation—victory over enemies, freedom from all false systems of worship (2 Chronicles 34:3; Ephesians 6:12). 3. Prosperity—abundance of spiritual food (Deuteronomy 32:13-14; Isaiah 49:9); assurance of final security (Psalms 28:9). III. The confirmation. God is faithful, cannot deceive; He will do as He has said (Numbers 23:19; Psalms 22:5; Job 23:13).—J. Lyth, D.D. THE AND THE REAL CAUSE OF FAILURE IN THE CHURCH Isaiah 59:1-2. Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, &c.As the Church is essentially an aggressive institution, at some periods her success has been most marked; at other times her energies have seemed paralysed. It behoves us not only to inquire into the conditions of the Church’s growth and expansion, but to be most careful as to our spirit and conduct, lest we by any means should prevent her development. In certain conditions, on the testimony of God’s Word, we may be sure of her growth; in certain others we may be as sure of her failure. Her expansion depends upon her purity, &c.; while her failure is as inseparably associated with her sins. The excuses that are often made for the Church’s non-success would be amusing had they not reference to so very solemn a subject. To us we confess they appear alarming, as they seem in many instances to indicate ignorance in regard to the very fundamental conditions of growth and prosperity. If she does not accomplish her soul-saving work something must be wrong. Excuses for her failure generally reflect more or less on the Divine Being and government, an issue from which thoughtful and devout minds ought at once to recoil. The text rebukes those who would so think or speak. Israel in the days of Isaiah attended to the outward forms of religion; and yet tokens of the Divine favour were withheld; and when these favours did not come as in the olden time, the people blamed God, instead of charging it to their own sins. The text is an answer to their utterances (ch. 58.). Consider— I. THE CAUSE OF THE CHURCH’S NON-SUCCESS. This has reference to the work of the Spirit, and to unanswered prayer. Dwell— 1. On the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Upon His grace all prosperity in the Church depends. In some periods God has been pleased to pour out very abundantly His Holy Spirit. At other times He seems strangely to withhold this necessary gift. The all-important question then is: Why is the Divine Spirit withheld? Some affirm— (1.) Because it is God’s will. Is this true? It is contradicted by experience. Church history and observation teach that every great revival in the Church has been preceded by the action of the Church herself. Prayer has become more ferment and constant, &c. It is also contradicted by the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. We are not directed to wait till God shall in His sovereign wisdom determine to send us the Holy Ghost; but we are taught distinctly to pray for Him (Luke 11:13, with Matthew 7:7; James 4:3). (2.) We are not to expect any extraordinary manifestations of spiritual power in these days. Though we do not need the “cloven tongues,” &c., we know of no scripture that would discourage the expectation of the conversion of even three thousand in one day. Pentecost was the type and pledge of something greater and better. We are living in the “latter days,” and there are many plain indications that we ought now to expect the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy. Plainly, then, if the Spirit is withheld it is not because the “Lord’s arm is shortened.” 2. The efficacy of prayer in the Church. God is moved by the prayers of His people. Witness Moses, Elijah, &c. (James 5:16). Why then so many prayers unanswered? For the cause we must look into the Church rather than up to God. II. THE REAL CAUSE. As of old—our sins. Look at this matter of sin in the Church. Though the Church in this age may be innocent of those more flagrant transgressions (ch. 58.), yet are we not guilty before heaven, for stopping in some measure the spread and growth of the Church. Let us particularise a few of the Church’s sins. Think of— 1. Her worldly spirit. 2. Her formalism. 3. Her apathy in reference to the masses. It but remains, now that we see the cause of the Church’s small success, that we humble ourselves before God, &c.—F. Crozier: The Methodist Recorder, July 14, 1871. GOD’S POWER By the Lord’s hand His power is intended. By the hand of His power He is in contact with the object on which He designs to operate. The question proposed is this: Is His power diminished? Its present extent is considered in relation to some previously recognised extent of it. It was previously recognised as without limit. Is it now less? The text is really an affirmation in the form of an interrogation. The Lord’s hand is not shortened: His power is not diminished. This is the answer to the question in Numbers 11:23 and Isaiah 1:2. Let us consider the truth and some applications of it. I. THE TRUTH ITSELF (see p. 365). It is that the Lord’s power was and is unlimited, and therefore equal to anything it becomes Him to do or which He has undertaken to do. In creation, providence, and redemption, the Divine power has been displayed, &c. Omnipotence, then, is an attribute of the Divine nature. We probably regard this as a settled point. But the river of our faith does not exhibit an uninterrupted flow. It encounters obstacles at many points. It sometimes suffers loss. When a new difficulty occurs we debate the whole question. Notwithstanding our clear perception of the greatness of God’s power, the temptation is to measure it by our own. We catch the infection of the world’s atmosphere. We are told that if science declares a thing impossible, and revelation declares it possible, science must win the victory. We lack the courage to reply that science is only the human knowledge of the day, which is continually undergoing change. The wonders of the past were pronounced impossible by the science of the past. And as the divine science of the past has shown itself in advance of the human, it will show its superiority in the future. God is unchangeable. Human power, after being used a given time, becomes feeble, and eventually incapable of exertion. There is no cause of decay or diminution in God. He can neither increase nor diminish; because He is infinite and immutable. Let us mention— II. SOME OF ITS (see pp. 365, 366):— 1. It should be applied to our temporal anxieties. Moses and the children of Israel (Numbers 11). The disciples and the five thousand people. How frequently in the experience of believers has there been some pressing difficulty, from which extrication seemed impossible, and their customary faith staggered under its weight, when an unexpected way was made by some new turn of affairs, and the difficulty disappeared. It may have happened to some of you. God seemed to ask an answer to the question: “Is my hand shortened?” 2. It should be applied to spiritual difficulties. Many things clearly revealed in the Gospel as things that may happen. We do not see how they can. Falling into the snare of the devil we measure the Divine power by our own. “How can these things be?” &c. Do some of you say the difficulty in the way of your salvation is insuperable because of your extreme sinfulness and hardness? You are measuring the Lord by yourself. You are putting a limit to the power of His Spirit and the efficacy of the Saviour’s blood. 3. It should be applied to the world’s conversion. You look abroad on the world with something like the prophet’s hopeless scepticism. Can these bones live? It is beyond you. But it is not beyond Him. 4. It should be applied to our intellectual doubts. There are many questions in respect to which we are driven upon the simplest trust in the Divine character. Take only the resurrection from the dead. The apostle throws the whole question back on the Divine power by the analogy of the sowing and the reaping, which to man is impossible and inexplicable (1 Corinthians 15:36; 1 Corinthians 15:38). The grand lesson from this subject is the cheerful acceptance of our Divinely appointed lot. Cease to measure Him by ourselves. Simply trust.—J. Rawlinson.Isaiah condemns the sins of ancient Israel, and justifies the judgments of God. Observe—I. WHAT SIN HAS DONE. 1. Mark its tendency to separate the soul from God. It estranged man from God at the very beginning. It does the same still, and if unforgiven will separate from Him to all eternity. 2. It has obscured and withdrawn from us the tokens of His favour. 3. It fearfully indisposes you to return: you refuse His overtures, &c.II. WHAT GRACE CAN DO. 1. There is no deficiency in God’s power to save. We are prone to limit the Holy One of Israel. Satan, who labours to diminish the evil of sin before its commission, equally loves to aggravate and enhance the difficulties of reconciliation. All obstacles to the sinner’s restoration removed by Christ. 2. There is an infinite willingness in the heart of God to rescue and to save (Isaiah 55:6-9), &c. God has shown His mercy to the chief of sinners. Heaven itself is a colony of saved souls. Christ describes Himself as more deeply wounded by the rejection of His mercy than He was by the agonies of the cross.III. THE VAST OF SEEKING MERCY—mercy to pardon sin, and grace to subdue it. 1. Seek Him in the full faith of His unbounded grace. 2. Labour to acquire a just sense and apprehension of the magnitude and aggravation of your rebellion. You cannot be united to Christ unless you be divorced from sin. 3. Own and accept Christ in all His relations and offices. 4. Be diligent and earnest in prayer. 5. Honour the work of the Spirit. 6. Keep Heaven and Eternity full in view.—Samuel Thodey.I. A lamentable state—separation from God. Loss of His favour. No access to Him. II. The cause of it. Much of all knowledge lies in the knowledge of causes. 1. Not in God—He is able and willing to save. 2. But in ourselves—our sins.—Archbishop Leighton: Works (1868 edition), pp. 428–432.Man’s miseries—I. May not be charged upon God. He is able to save. Willing to save. II. Must be referred to man’s wickedness. Actual—in thought, word, deed; negligent; infatuated.—Dr. Lyth.SIN FROM GOD Isaiah 59:2. But your iniquities have separated, &c.Present separation supposes previous union and capacity for it. Man is capable of communion with God. God is capable of communion with man. There was a time when they were in full communion—when man was pure. When he fell he lost, not the capacity, but the privilege. How great a loss it was! Why are these two, so fitted to each other, one of them absolutely needing the other, separated? Sin has effected the separation. It produced it at first It is the only hindrance in the way of friendly intercourse. This is the doctrine of our text. I. Sin unfits man for communion with GodUnrepented, unforsaken, unforgiven sin. Such sin is utterly contrary to God’s holy nature. If you have been at any time guilty of sin which you are unwilling to renounce, you have felt that intercourse between God and you was incongruous and presumptuous. Do we not all know this by experience? II. Sin disinclines man for communion with GodIt is “enmity against God.” He who wrongs another will avoid his society if he thinks the wrong is known. The presence of the victim is a rebuke to his conscience and an excitement of his fears. The passage to dislike and hatred will probably not be slow. Is not this the course of the human heart in relation to God? Why do the great majority of men around us seem to live without any conscious thought of God, &c.? He is avoided because there is a deep consciousness of sin. God, instead of being the object of supreme love, has become, through man’s conduct toward Him, the object of fear. Examine your own experience. Does a life of willing sin incline you to pray? III. Sin excludes man from communion with GodIt is possible not only for us to separate ourselves from God, but for Him to separate Himself from us. It is conceivable that a man, while unwilling to forsake his sin, might desire the advantage of intercourse with God in prayer and religious services. Many have imagined that by these they would compensate the Divine Being for sin. This notion seems to have been entertained in the time of Isaiah. The religious services and the flagrant iniquities of the Jewish people are described together. God declines to accept the services because of the iniquities (ch. 58, 59.). No multitude of prayers or religious observances can be set against the holiness of heart and life which are required in those that come into any association with God. The spotless holiness of His nature forbids. Thus then the case stands. .—What, then, have God and man cut each other off from all possibility of happy intercourse, &c.? We owe it to God’s mercy that the breach can be repaired. A qualified Mediator has appeared, &c., has bridged over the distance sin had made between God and man. Repenting of your sins, casting yourselves at the footstool of mercy through the cross, friendship is restored. He becomes accessible. The call is addressed to every sinner. His Spirit will be given to help. This subject teaches the great evil and danger of sin as the separater.—J. Rawlinson.Isaiah 59:3-4. A sad picture of depravity. I. In the bauds and fingers. II. The lips and tongue. III. Desires and motives. IV. Heart and imagination. V. Life and conduct.Isaiah 59:4. I. Actions proceed from thoughts. II. Correspond to the thoughts which produce them. III. Hence, when mischief is conceived iniquity is the produce.—J. Lyth, D.D.Isaiah 59:5-6. I. The devices of the wicked. Like eggs—productive. Like cockatrices’ eggs—injurious, (á.) Like spiders’ webs—frail, useless. (â.) II. Their effect. Upon others—mischief, death. Upon themselves—disappointment, retribution.—Dr. Lyth.See the spider’s web, behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite’s religion. 1. It is meant to catch his prey; the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. 2. A spider’s web is a marvel of skill; look at it and admire the cunning hunter’s wiles. Is not a deceiver’s religion equally wonderful. How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold? 3. A spider’s web comes all from the creature’s own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers; the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their hope and trust within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God. 4. But a spider’s web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant’s broom, or the traveller’s staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hopes to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the broom of destruction begins its purifying work. 5. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord’s house. He will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed for ever. O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider’s web. Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.—C. H. Spurgeon. WEBS BUT NOT Isaiah 59:6. Their webs shall not become garmentsWhat a telling blow the prophet deals at the corruptions of his age! His illustration is homely, but, on that account, all the more forcible. The whole passage presents an appalling picture of the state of society,—powers perverted, &c. The two things always go together—the practice of wickedness, and recourse to vain excuses to palliate it. An evil course cannot long be pursued without some plea which justifies it to the sinner’s mind. These fictions are the very food on which his sin lives. Tear them away, and you strip him of those defences behind which he fortifies himself in the practice of iniquity. This is what God’s prophet is trying to do; not only denouncing sin, but exposing the worthlessness of the pleas by which it is encouraged. These fancies he characterises as “spiders’ webs” (Isaiah 59:5); and, continuing the metaphor (Isaiah 59:6), he declares—“Their webs shall not become garments.” It is a kindness to undeceive one who labours under a fatal mistake, however unpleasant the task. Some of you are the victims of soul-destroying delusions; but soon you will pass into a world of reality, where every dark subterfuge in which you try to hide yourselves, will be illumined in all its corners by the fierce and searching light of eternity. You are weaving your subtle webs of fancy and practice now, bestowing pains upon them, thinking well of them, and gaining the approval of others; but they are mere shoddy, which, though it pass from the loom, is worthless for wear. Let us visit some of the looms in the great factory of human life, and see what sort of fabrics the weavers are turning out. I. There is one who is weaving the web of a respectable life. Living for appearances, squaring his opinions and behaviour by the maxims of the world; pleasant and accommodating whatever company he may enter, and putting up even with Christian society, if they are not too decided. No strong principles has he to bring him into collision with other people. His principle is to have no principles, but to fall in with those of others. If ever he offered a real prayer it would be—“O God, keep me on good terms with the world; save me from anything that would incur its censure, or draw down upon me its frown.” He worships the goddess of respectability. It would never do for him to be anything but sober, honest, and industrious. He cannot throw into his web the dark threads which they use who have sunk so low as to have no regard even for public opinion. It has attractive colours and a glossy surface. Such goods are in demand in the world’s market; but with no higher purpose, his web shall not become a garment. He has lived without the thought of God, and tried to do as others do, not what conscience and Scripture command. II. At another loom sits a busy worker weaving the web of formalism. The formalist sees something good in religion, but is mistaken as to the way in which its blessedness is secured. His trust is in the outward observance of religious ceremonies, forgetting that the Kingdom of God is a thing of the heart. Precise and regular in his church attendance and Sabbath observance, he is yet cold and heartless. No warm, loving impulse stirs his soul. He has made a god of religious routine (Job 8:13-14). It is hard to undeceive such a man, just because of his familiarity with sacred things (Matthew 21:31). He who weaves such a web, is only preparing a winding-sheet for his dead soul. III. There is another weaving the web of self-righteousness. Not blindly trusting in ceremonies, but relying on an upright life. Without a change of heart he tries to obey the law (Romans 10:3), but his view of sin is defective. So long as the Divine law is regarded as an outward rule, you may think you render a tolerably perfect obedience, but let its light shine into the heart and it reveals the sinner’s guilt (Romans 7:7-9). Self-righteousness may be a web, but it never shall become a garment (Isaiah 57:12; Isaiah 64:6). We are to work not for but from acceptance and pardon. Never can we fulfil the law until the heart has been changed by the experience of God’s mercy (Philippians 3:9). IV. Further on we encounter another who is weaving the web of reliance on the future. A young man who promises himself long life and abundant opportunity. He is bent on trying some experiments in weaving before he settles down to serious work. He means to attend to religious matters, but not just now. Can he count upon the uncertain future? can he promise himself inclination and opportunity? That is the web which the young are prone to weave. How is it with those more advanced in life? V. Here is an old man busily weaving the web of amendment, thinking thus to atone for the vices and follies of an ill-spent youth. But can any resolution for the future wipe out the guilt of the erring past? If he wishes to begin life anew he must go to the cross, and make that his starting-point, but he blindly imagines that reformation of life will supply the garment which he needs. VI. Have I exhausted the various classes of weavers? Alas for our race if I have! Many find the requisite garment provided for them in the righteousness of Christ (Romans 3:21-26; Romans 4:5). It fits us, becomes us, protects us, will never grow old, and will never be out of fashion. How can you appear before God in the flimsy dress of your own manufacture? (Matthew 22:11-13). But do we cease to be weavers when we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ?” The weaving of the right sort can only then begin; for, the righteousness wrought out for us and imputed becomes a righteousness wrought in us and imparted. Christ takes the web of our life into his own hands (1 Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 2:20). Instead of leading to licentiousness a free justification alone can sanctify the life (Romans 6:1-4). To which class of weavers do you belong? Look at your life—how profitless, purposeless, and polluted! Can that web clothe you for standing before God, when it is finished and removed from the beam? Throw it away, tear it to shreds, abandon alike your good and bad works, and listen to the Redeemer’s voice (Revelation 3:18). You pity the poorly-clad amid the biting frosts and snows of winter, but more to be pitied are they who advance into the winter of declining years, the chill region of death, and the storms of judgment, with no sufficient clothing for their defenceless souls!—William Guthrie, M.A.Isaiah 59:7. Depravity. I. Has its seat in the heart. II. Its expression in the conduct. III. Its issue in misery and ruin.—J. Lyth, D.D.Isaiah 59:8. I. The characters described. Those who make crooked paths— 1. From the line of duty prescribed by the law. 2. By the Gospel. 3. By conscience. II. Their awful condition. Cannot know peace. In life—death—eternal world.—C. Simeon, M.A.The path of transgressors is one—I. Of contention. II. Of injustice. III. Of perverseness. IV. Of misery.Isaiah 59:9-15. I. The misery of sinners. No light, comfort, certainty, security, relief, salvation. II. The cause. Transgression multiplied, acknowledged, aggravated, open, wilful, exciting justly the displeasure of God.—Dr. Lyth. HELP FOR SEEKERS OF THE LIGHT Isaiah 59:9. We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.I. I address myself, through the words of the text, to persons who are desirous of obtaining the true and heavenly light, who have waited hoping to receive it, but instead of obtaining it are in a sadder state than they were, and they are almost driven into the dark foreboding that for them no light will ever come; they shall be prisoners chained for ever in the valley of the shadow of death. 1. These persons are in some degree aware of their natural darkness. They are looking for light. They are not content with their obscurity, they are waiting for brightness. They discover in their nature much of evil, they would fain be rid of it; they find in their understanding much ignorance, and they would fain be illuminated. They pant to escape from this ignorance, they desire to know the truth which saves the soul; and their desire is not only to know it in theory, but to know it by its practical power upon the inner man. 2. They have a high idea of what the light is. In the text they call it “brightness.” They wait for it, and are grieved because it comes not. 3. They have some hope that they may yet obtain this light; in fact, they are waiting for it, hopefully waiting, and are somewhat disappointed that after waiting for the light, behold, obscurity has come. They are evidently astonished at the failure of their hopes. 4. They have learned to plead their case with God, for our text is a complaint addressed to the Lord Himself. It is a declaration of inward feelings, a laying bare of the heart’s agonies to the Most High. II. It shall now be my happy task to endeavour to assist into the light those who would fain flee from the darkness, by trying to answer the query, “How is it that I, being desirous of light, have not found it yet? Why has not the Lord revealed Himself to me?” 1. You may have been seeking the light in the wrong place. Many, like Mary, seek the living amongst the dead. You may have been the victim of the false doctrine that peace with God can be found in the use of ceremonies, &c. You may have been looking for salvation in the mere belief of a certain creed. 2. You may have sought it in the wrong spirit. When we ask for pardon, reconciliation, salvation, we must remember to whom we speak, and who we are who ask the favour. Some appear to deal with God as if He were bound to give salvation; as if salvation indeed were the inevitable result of a round of performances (H. E. I. 3431, 3432), or the deserved reward of a certain amount of virtue. You must come down from such vainglorious notions; you must sue out your pardon, as our law courts put it, in formâ pauperis; you must come before God as a humble petitioner, pleading the promises of mercy, abhorring all idea of merit, confessing that if the Lord condemn, He has a right to do it; and that if He save, it will be an act of pure, gratuitous mercy. 3. Others have not obtained peace because they have not yet a clear idea of the true way of finding it. The way of peace with God is seen through a haze by most men, so that if you put it ever so plainly, they will, if it be possible, misunderstand you. They will not give a simple look to the Saviour, and rely alone on Him. The waters of Abana and Pharpar are preferred by proud human nature, but the waters of Jordan alone can take away the leprosy. 4. Perhaps you have not found light because you have sought it in a half-hearted manner. None enter heaven who are but half inclined to go there. Cold prayers ask God to refuse them (H. E. I. 3831–3835). 5. There may be some sin within thee which thou art harbouring to thy soul’s peril. Art thou willing to give sin up? If not, it is all lost time for me to preach Christ to thee, for He is not meant to be a Saviour of those who persevere in sin. He came to save His people from their sins, not in them; and if thou still must needs cling to a darling sin, be not deceived, for within the gates of heaven thou canst never enter (H. E. I. 2823, 2856, 4597–4602). 6. It may be that you have only sought peace with God occasionally. After an earnest sermon you have been awakened, but when the sermon has been concluded, you have gone back to your slumber like the sluggard who turns again upon his bed. After a sickness, or when there has been a death in the family, you have then zealously bestirred yourself; but anon you have declined into the same carelessness as before. Oh! fool that you are, remember he wins not the race who runs by spurts, but he who continues running to the end.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 884. Isaiah 59:12. Conviction of sin. I. Our transgressions are revealed in the light of God’s countenance. II. Testify against us. III. Produce condemnation in the conscience. IV. Cannot be evaded—we know them.Confession of sin. Includes—I. A perception of its guilt—committed against God—multiplied. II. An acknowledgment of its guilt—“They testify,” &c. Justly awaken God’s displeasure. III. A sense of its misery. Condemnation—compensation. IV. A full conviction of our own demerit and helplessness.—Dr. Lyth.Isaiah 59:13. Sin and its aggravation. I. In its lowest form it is transgression against God. II. Is aggravated by apostacy. III. Still more by its propagation. IV. Most of all, when it is conceived and uttered of set purpose.Isaiah 59:14-15. Society in a demoralised condition. I. Right and justice perverted. II. Truth and equity excluded. III. Falsehood predominant. IV. The good oppressed. V. God justly displeased.Isaiah 59:16-19. God’s interposition for His people. I. The occasion. They were in distress—helpless—no deliverer. II. The display of His power. He brings salvation—by righteousness—His own. III. His weapons. Righteousness—salvation—vengeance. IV. The glorious issue. Recompense to His enemies. Deliverance for His people.—Dr. Lyth. ZEAL—THE BEST CLOAK Isaiah 59:17. And was clad with zeal as a cloke. The solitary champion here spoken of we cannot fail to recognise as the Prince of the house of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever may have been the first and primary meaning of the text, &c., of Him we may say beyond and above all others, that He “was clad with zeal as a cloke.” When the grace of God has wrought in a man all other virtues, zeal is still needed to elevate and perfect his entire manhood [1740][1740] Behold the altar, built of unhewn stones, and after God’s own law; behold the wood laid thereon; see the victim slain and the blood flowing; but you cannot make a sacrifice without fire—unless the fire from heaven shall perfect the sacrificial preparations, all will be useless. Behold in the altar the figure of the man; he has faith, courage, love, consecration; but if he lacks the fire of fervent zeal his life will be a failure; he will remain an offering unconsumed, and consequently worthless and unaccepted.—Spurgeon. One of the first requisites of an earnest, successful, soul-winning man must be zeal. As well a chariot without its steeds, a sun without its beams, a heaven without its joy, as a man of God without zeal. I. ZEAL IS TO BE AS CLOAK THAT COVERS ALL. The Christian man is to wear zeal as we wear an outward garment which covers all the rest of our garments—a flowing robe which encompasses the entire person. 1. Zeal is all-enveloping. The Christian is to invest himself with faith, love, patience; but zeal must be over all these, just as the traveller in the snowstorm wraps himself up in his greatcoat, or binds his cloak about him. 2. Zeal is preserving. The cloak covers the arm, the breast, the heart, and all the more delicate parts of the body. Zeal is to wrap up the whole man, so that when he is subject to a furious hail of persecution, or a biting wind of poverty, or a torrent of down-pouring griefs, the pilgrim to the skies may hold on his way, and bid all weathers brave defiance. 3. Zeal is comforting, even as the cloak when wrapped about the traveller in the snowstorm. The man who is possessed by an irresistible passion for carrying out his life-work, will gird this gracious ardour well around him, and let the snow-flakes come as they may, they will only fall, as it were, into a furnace, and will melt before they can injure. You who have zeal for God in your Sabbath school, will find it protect you from the numbing influence that will come over you in the class. 4. Zeal endures. There is no more becoming garment to the Christian when he possesses all the virtues than an all-enveloping zeal. You will not be as Christians thought beautiful in the eyes of angels and perfect intelligences (and these are the best judges of beauty), because you coldly pursue the regular rounds of duty; but you will be beautiful to them if you glow, and flame, and blaze with intense affection towards God. 5. We must take care to put on zeal as a cloak and not as a hood. Nobody wears his cloak over his head, and yet I have known some persons whose zeal has entirely blindfolded their judgment [1743] 6. Zeal is a cloak, and therefore is not intended to supersede the other graces. We do not see the traveller climbing the Alps with nothing upon his body but his cloak—that would be most absurd; and so zeal cannot take the place of knowledge, &c. It is a cloak, which is a great thing, it is true, but it is nothing more than a cloak, and the rest of the garments must be carefully attended to. 7. Zeal is a cloak, and therefore we are not to regard it as an extraordinary robe to be worn only occasionally on high days and holidays. A man reckons his cloak not to be a thing in which to walk in state with my lord through the streets, but as a portion of his ordinary working-day dress; and so ought our zeal to be. If it be genuine zeal it will be like the cloak which always hangs ready on the nail in the hall. Nay, since the storm is always on, and we are always pilgrims, it will be like the cloak which we cannot bear to lay aside. 8. While I say that zeal is not everything, recollect that the cloak covers everything, and do not let your zeal be such a scanty thing that it will only hang like a girdle round your loins, but let it be a great wrapper in which to enfold all your manhood, apparent everywhere; not secret and inward alone, but revealed and active. Our Lord is said to put on zeal as a cloak; He manifested and displayed His holy fervour; He had not zeal in His heart merely, but He had zeal outwardly as well. Where there is grace in the heart, it soon shows itself in the life. [1743] The zeal that God would have us cultivate is wise and prudent; it does not heedlessly leap into the ditch, though it would swim a river, yea, and the Atlantic to boot, if it felt that God had bidden it do so. Zeal is like fire, which is said to be “a good servant, but a bad master.” The fire in the grate, who shall say too much in its favour? But fire in the thatch of the house, who shall say too much against it? The flaming fire of zeal, burning and blazing in the soul, is a Christian gift and virtue; but when zeal takes away the judgment, the man does not wear zeal as a cloak, he makes a hood of it, and makes himself brother to a fool—Spurgeon. II. OBSERVE HOW OUR LORD THIS ZEA. 1. In His earliest childhood, you have tokens of His inward zeal. He is found in the Temple. 2. In after life, you see His burning zeal in leaving all the comforts of life. What but His zeal brought Him to such a condition that He said, “Foxes have holes,” &c. His very dress showed His zeal, because it was not ostentatious, but in every way suitable for incessant labour and humble service. He had given up all the dainties, ay, and all the comforts of life, for the one great object of accomplishing our redemption. 3. He showed His earnestness in persevering in His work under all manner of rebuffs. He was constantly misrepresented. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Still He never turned aside from His work. 4. As a clearer proof of His zeal, all the blandishments of the world could not attract Him. The excited crowd would have taken Him by force, and have made Him a king, but such was His zeal for the one work He had in hand, that He counted royal honours to be less than nothing and vanity. Many a man has been zealous for God till he has met with fierce persecutions, and then he has turned his back; and many more have been zealous in the highest degree until wealth came in their way, and the possibilities of honour, and then they have stooped, and have licked the world’s foot, and have been mere poodles of fashion; their ardour for truth has evaporated, and their zeal has fled. 5. Look at His incessant labours. His life was very short—in truth, it consists of only three years of labour, as the former part of His life was spent in obscurity—and there we leave it as God has left it—but the three active years of His earthly sojourn, how they are crowded with incident! 6. Look at His preaching, and you see His zeal [1746] 7. You see His zeal in His prayers. What cries and groans; what strong cryings and tears were those that shook the gates of heaven, as Jesus prayed and pleaded for the sons of men! Ah! if you seek a pattern of zeal, you must stand in the garden, &c. 8. He proved His zeal again by giving up Himself. Having persevered alone when deserted by His friends, He persevered still when given over to His enemies. What zeal was that which makes Him stand so silent before the bar of Pilate? It was a wonderful triumph of Christ thus to hold His tongue. A master speaker feels an intense longing to speak when great occasions demand his voice, but Jesus was greater than a master speaker, for He was a great master of silence, and He restrained Himself, and uttered not a word. Then when they scourged Him, &c., a wish of His could have destroyed them all; but His zeal was with Him when covered with His dying crimson: it was wrapped about His naked body as a cloak, so that the shame He despised and the cross He endured, looking forward to the recompense of reward. [1746] What words of love He uses! How gently He addresses the poor trembling ones, as He bids them come unto Him, and they shall have rest. He does not utter those blessed invitations in a sleepy manner, but His heart goes out with every syllable, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And when He turns to sterner oratory, and addresses those enemies of the truth, the Scribes and Pharisees, how He thunders and lightens at them! Were ever such indignant words uttered as those of the Master, “Woe unto ye, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites”? Why, there stood the men. He was not speaking of them, as I might speak of people who are in Abyssinia or Japan; but there they were, before His eye, gnashing their teeth at Him, looking indignant, and longing to tear Him down and drag Him off to death. But, “woe unto you!” came again from His lips, and yet again “woe unto you!” For a pretence ye make long prayers; ye strain at a gnat, and ye swallow a camel.” No man could speak more plainly than He did in the face of these hypocrites, for zeal was girt about Him as a cloak, and no fear of man could restrain Him.—Spurgeon. Observe what His zeal was made of. (1.) It was zeal for God (John 2:17). (2.) It was also a zeal for truth. (3.) For souls. III. WHAT WAS IT THAT THE ZEAL OF CHRIST FED UPON? 1. Christ’s zeal was based upon a defined principle. It was not a hurried hasty zeal, excited in Him by the earnest addresses of eloquent pleaders; it sprang from fixed and intelligent principles; for He had set His heart upon a great purpose, He had weighed it, counted the cost, looked at it on all sides, and now He was not to be turned from it. 2. It was occasioned by intense love. He loved His Father; He could not, therefore, but do His will. He loved His people; He could not, therefore, do otherwise than seek their good. 3. It had an eye to the recompense (Hebrews 12:2). Christian, think of the recompense of the faithful servant—not of debt, but of grace. What joy, when you enter heaven, to be met by those who were converted to God through your means; to hear them hail you as their spiritual father or their spiritual mother! 4. Christ was so zealous because He had a greater spiritual discernment than you and I have. He beheld the spirits of men; He beheld not their bodies only, but their inner selves; and He looked upon men, not as flesh and blood, but as immortals. Best of all, He saw God. He could say, “I have set the Lord always before me,” &c. What a source of zeal this must have been!—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 832. Isaiah 59:17. CLOAKS.The cloak, the seamless outer garment of Christ, is constantly used in Scripture as a symbol of certain things to be laid aside, and of others which are to be assumed.I would speak—I. OF THE CLOAKS THAT ARE CAST OFF BY HIM WHO COMES TO CHRIST. 1. Taught of Christ, you will substitute this zeal of Christ for the cloak of sin (John 15:22). 2. For the cloak of maliciousness (1 Peter 2:16). 3. For the cloak of selfishness (1 Thessalonians 2:5). II. THE NEW COSTUME, THE CLOAK WE ARE TO PUT ON—“Clad with zeal as with a cloak.” 1. The material of this cloak. 2. Its appearance. 3. Its uses. Let me exhort you to make this change. It can be made now in a moment of time.—S. H. Tyng, D.D.Christ the Champion of His people. I. His righteousness. II. His saving power. III. His judicial authority. IV. His unwearying zeal.—Dr. Lyth. SUPPORT AMIDST DANGER Isaiah 59:19. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, &c.Ever since the moment when the tempter appeared to the woman this world has been the battlefield of good and evil. It is so now. For God did not abandon man. We have here a vivid picture of these two forces. The standard of heaven is lifted up against the hosts of hell. Without attempting to trace the historic bearing of the text we shall simply apply it to personal Christian experience of spiritual danger and spiritual support. I. Let me place before you YOUR DANGER. The enemy will come in. The onslaught may be so impetuous as to defy all power of resistance. 1. We remind you of the personal character of your enemy. The struggle for the mastery of human hearts is described in Scripture as a personal struggle. We are warned against a real, living, subtle, wicked, powerful enemy (1 Peter 5:8). 2. But he attacks usually by means of others. The world is an instrument of temptation and danger. Its business, customs, &c., are sources of danger. And your weakness in great part arises from the fact that you cannot always rely on your own forces. You carry a traitor within. The battle between good and evil is really fought within our own hearts. It is life and death. II. We point out YOUR SUPPORT. Read the whole passage. Jehovah exposed the quarrel of His Church with her enemies. This is our encouragement when pressed hard by temptation. 1. The redeeming work of the Son of God has emasculated the power of the enemy. He espoused the cause of humanity, &c. (Hebrews 2:14-15). 2. He has secured the influence and help of the Holy Spirit. Christ sends His Spirit. (1.) In His Word. (2.) In His personal agency. If there is a Satanic influence acting in the soul there is also a Divine influence. He works within the heart so as to produce the repugnance to the enemy without which we shall not desire his overthrow. By a real, though imperceptible action on the heart, the Spirit of the Lord animates His people so that in the moment of temptation their prevailing disposition is with Him. And He influences the understanding and judgment so that true thoughts and holy motives come to the mind when the enemy comes in. The great truths and motives contained in the written Word—“The sword of the Spirit.” Would you have the standard lifted up against the assaults of Satan? 1. Be acquainted with your exposure and your weakness. Self-confidence insures defeat. 2. Seek the Spirit’s help by constant prayer. 3. Watch as well as pray. When God lifts up His standard the victory is sure.—J. Rawlinson.The enemy. I. There is an enemy. II. That enemy has tremendous influence—“like a flood.” III. That enemy is unable to overcome the resources of God. Apply— 1. This promise of the Spirit must not discourage watchfulness, but must— 2. Inspire hope.—J. Parker, D.D.I. The foe. II. The onset. III. The defeat.I. How the adversary assaults us. By error, iniquity, persecution, temptation. II. How the Holy Spirit withstands him. By His Word, providence, grace.I. The enemy. Invisible, cruel, mighty, skilful, malignant. II. His assault. Sudden, impetuous, overwhelming. III. Our defence. The Spirit of God. Almighty, ever near, watchful, &c.I. The object of reverence. God’s name. God’s glory. II. The expression of it. Fear. III. The prevalence of it.—Dr. Lyth.Isaiah 59:20-21. I. The Redeemer. 1. His person. 2. His work. II. His advent. He comes to Zion, in human flesh. III. The persons specially interested in His coming. IV. The blessings consequent on His coming.Isaiah 59:21. The New Testament covenant is—I. Inspired by the Holy Spirit. II. Announced by Jesus Christ. III. Enjoyed by His people. IV. Shall be perpetuated for ever (see Barnes’ Commentary in loco).—J. Lyth, D.D. THE DAWNING OF GOD’S LIGHT, AND ITS CALL Isaiah 60:1-6. Arise, shine, for thy light is come, &c.We ourselves are a part fulfilment of this prophecy. It is Israel’s God we worship, &c. The Church of today is what it is through the fulfilment of this prophecy in part; the Church of the future will be what it shall become through its fulfilment in completeness. Dropping the special reference to Israel, and viewing the text in its universal bearings, we have— I. THE CHURCH BY CHRIST’S COMING. Christ rose upon His Church like a great sun, imparting life, reviving courage, diffusing gladness, making bright with glory (Malachi 4:2). Christ gives light— 1. By imparting saving knowledge (see p. 569). He taught men of the Father. He showed the way of life. He put into the precepts of the law a depth of spiritual meaning never seen in them before. He could say of Himself (John 8:12). He came with full knowledge of the Divine purpose. He spake with absolute authority. 2. By restoring the Church to power and influence. The godly in Israel were but a handful. They were down-trodden and despised. But Christ would reinstate it in power and influence among the nations; He would give it prosperity. This was bringing it light. Accordingly, a new spring-time came with the advent of the Saviour. He made His Church a power. Its power speedily became felt, and continues to this day. It is a permanent and influential factor in history—a thing of might. 3. By conferring on the Church the beauty of holiness. This may answer to the “glory” which the prophet declares “shall be seen upon it.” Christ confers a glory on the Church by the spiritual gifts which He bestows, and by the graces which become visible in the character of His people through the operation of His Word and Spirit. II. THE LIGHT OF THE CHURCH IN WITH THE . The Church—believers, Christian nations, enlightened by Christ, stand in marked contrast with the darkness of the world around. The effect of the light is to make the darkness more visible. Contrast— 1. The enlightenment of faith with the boasted enlightenment of reason (1 Corinthians 1:21). The world’s cleverness did not lead it to the truth. It leads it often to reject the truth now that it has come. The boasted enlightenment of antiquity left it profoundly immoral. The theories, schemes, reasonings of our philosophers to-day leave the mind in just as great uncertainty on the chief questions of existence, and are powerless to effect moral regeneration. 2. The enlightenment of nations which have received the truth with the darkness of surrounding heathenism. 3. The enlightenment of individuals who have obeyed the truth with the darkness of those who are still in sin. The believer recognises in his own experience that, whereas he was once darkness, he is now light in the Lord. The change in his character manifests this to be true. The unbeliever, on the contrary, knows his state to be one of darkness, of moral evil, of unhappiness; through lack of true knowledge of God, of hopelessness as regards the future. III. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO TAKE OF AND TO DIFFUSE HER LIGHT (Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 60:3). Missionary effort is of the essence of the Church’s calling (Mark 16:16).—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. pp. 25–27. Isaiah 60:1. This stirring appeal springs from a soul full of exultant joy. To understand the depth of that exultation, observe that the prophet spoke in a time of the deepest gloom. Chapter 59:depicts the state of cold formalism into which the nation had sunk. In the very heart of that gloom, Isaiah saw a distant light gathering round the vision of the future Saviour (chap. Isaiah 59:20). He gazed on the dawning glory, and thence arose the cry, rousing as a trumpet call, “Arise, shine,” &c. Taking these words into the full illumination of Christianity, they express, very beautifully, the awakening of a man to his true work in the world. Paul has himself given them that interpretation (Ephesians 5:14). Giving to the prophet’s words that Christian meaning, they present to us a truth of immense value respecting the Christian’s mission in the world. It is because the “glory of the Lord has risen on” him, that he is to reflect the light which has entered his soul. I. THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT. Man is not in a world of darkness, but blind in a world of light In the awakening hour we call conversion, God does seem to come nearer to the soul. The veil is lifted from the spirit’s eye, and His nearness, for the first time, is discovered. The glory of God in Christ is in close contact with every human heart. Our little life is enveloped by the spiritual world. Just as in the opening of the eyes of the man who was blind from his birth, there appeared to him to be created a world of trees and flowers, whose beauty no idea had ever pictured—so in the solemn awakening hour of spiritual life, all the world of God’s glory breaks in like a new creation. There are three requisites for the dawning of the light. 1. Spiritual penitence. Spiritual, because there is a repentance which is by no means a rising of God’s light in the soul, but merely a transient motion. Mere regret and mere terror may be the beginning of the true, but it is not in itself true repentance. True repentance is the turning of the whole heart to God on the discovery of its own darkness and estrangement. Its chief cause is not so much the remembrance of guilty acts, as the feeling of a guilty heart. 2. Spiritual love. Spiritual, in contrast with that semi-pious emotion which is always convulsively striving to learn whether the soul loves God or not. Spiritual love is not so much the feeling of our love to God, as of His love to us. It is the love which has swept into the soul, subduing its whole being, and becoming its ruling emotion. This is requisite, because love is the insight of the soul. The man who has not this love is blind to the light of God. 3. Spiritual prayer. Spiritual, because living fellowship with the Father is meant. This is the full dawning of the light of God. He who lives in prayer, lives before the unveiled eternity. By penitence, therefore, the soul turns God-wards; by love its eye is opened; and by prayer it moves in the sunrise of the eternal light. This brings us to consider— II. THE CALL,—“Arise, shine.” When God is felt to be near a man thus—in penitence, love, and prayer, that man is imperatively bound to reflect the glory which has risen in his heart; to bear witness of the light which has pierced and transformed his soul. This is based on a great principle, viz., The deepest emotion in a man’s nature must reveal itself in his life. There is no such thing as a life-long hypocrisy; sooner or later the master passion within will glow to a red heat, and the man will stand transparent before the eye of the world. In what way does the glory of the Lord thus manifest itself in life? 1. In the majesty of holiness. Holiness means, literally, separateness—separateness from sin, by dedication to God. Remember, you are to shine with that light;—you are to go bearing the glory of the Lord, and of the spiritual world, in your life. 2. In the beauty of unselfishness. The life of God is the life of the Cross in the heart. This is a manifestation of God’s light in the soul. Let that light dawn, and men will see the Cross-life there. This is the light which the world so much needs to-day. 3. In the earnestness of your efforts for men. If the light has risen, you know its power. If the glory has dawned, you feel the realities of life. In that illumination, who can be slothfully calm? There is a spirit of so-called refinement abroad now, which makes men afraid to speak of those things which lie deepest in the heart. Was it so with the great ones of old? Was Paul afraid to speak in the name of Christ before Agrippa? Did he shrink before the fiery scorn of Festus? Go, then, bear witness of the light. Live out your prayers in daily actions.—E. L. Hull, B. A.: Sermons, First Series, pp. 61–70. I. THERE IS A OF FACT: “Thy light is come.” This prophecy was fulfilled when Christ was born. But we must pass beyond that fact, and recognise that there is a revelation to ourselves to-day as much as there was of yore. Thy light is come. What does it mean? 1. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ was a light to mankind, because it brought home distinctly as far as the mind could contemplate it the thought of God [1749] 2. The prophecy is fulfilled in revealing to mankind the dignity and the destiny of man. Before the keen logicians, the wonderful thinkers, of Greece and Rome, there is always hanging a great gulf of blank despair. With us, the poorest character that we meet in rags, we in some measure respect. Man is now seen in the light of the faith of Jesus, &c. [1749] Even in the Old Testament that thought was most inaccurate. Even in the ancient nations that loved righteousness there was no entire conception of the nature and character of God. One cannot read the “Republic” of Plato, e.g., without being struck with the accuracy of the thoughts and the beauty of the pictures he brings out, with the power of the argument and the keenness of the criticism; and yet through it and above it all with the darkness, and sadness, and despair. God not known; no real grasp of the eternal goodness; no real thought of the eternal life. Christ came and taught men not only by His stately words, but by His loving life, that God is love. Surely when we feel that no rest can be found in a passing life unless we rest upon God, then we acknowledge the truth of the prophet’s saying, “Thy light is come.” II. AN TO DUTY: Arise and shine. Be in active operation with Divine force, and permit the light of God to shine through the soul and life. That applies to the Church. 1. The Church is a witness of Divine truth. The Church shines when she witnesses the truth. A modern idea is that the Church is not to be so bigoted as positively to assert the truth. Christ said, “Go ye and teach all nations.” When once the Church forgets her function of teaching the truth there will be heard “the beating of the unseen feet,” Christ coming in the clouds to judge and to condemn. May He give us grace to recollect and to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. 2. The Church shines when she bears witness to the worship of Almighty God. The Church is the house of prayer, the home of Christian union, the school of souls in their constant intercourse with the Eternal God. .—The same truth applies to souls. Shine with the light that has come, is a command for souls more than for the Church. How shall we do it? 1. By keeping steadily before us the severe lines of duty that God lays down for us, and trying to do our duty; seeking grace to do it, &c. We shine when we try to hold the true estimate of character. Unless we are true to ourselves, and true to God, we may make grave mistakes. We must know ourselves by self-examination, by severe and careful watchfulness. It is in penitence, and in the progress that comes from penitence, that the soul shines in the light of Christ. Let us each begin with ourselves and not be content with broad views of Christianity.—Canon Knox-Little: Clerical World, vol. i., pp. 310–312. I. The deep darkness which envelops the world without the Gospel (Isaiah 60:2). “Gross darkness,” a striking emblem of ignorance, error, sin, guilt, misery, danger. 1. The heathen world is in this darkness (Romans 1:18-32). 2. In the midst of Christendom there is this darkness. Home heathenism. The condition, of the unregenerate.II. The uprising of a glorious light for the transformation of the darkness. There is no redeeming principle in man’s apostate nature. But for the prospect opened by the Gospel, there must be the darkness of final and absolute despair. Modern Materialism, &c., are as powerless as the ancient systems to reach the conscience and renew the heart (Isaiah 38:17; Isaiah 45:8, and others). But glorious is the view here presented, &c. 1. The Gospel is “light,” and this marks its divinity. 2. The Gospel is universally adapted— (1.) To every stage of human society. (2.) To the common wants of man—instruction, comfort, &c. (3.) To every order of mind. (4.) To every possible condition. The Gospel offers pardon for the guilty, &c. 3. The Gospel is diffusive, penetrating. Its progress in Apostolic times, &c. (Isaiah 60:3). Not a dead letter, but “the power of God,” &c. In how many dark places has “light sprung up” (Matthew 4:16). It will be diffused till the whole world is flooded with its glorious light.Conclusion.—Has the light risen upon your soul? Are you reflecting its radiance in your life, &c.? Are you doing what you can to communicate it to others! Every Christian is called upon not only to “arise,” but to “shine” (Ephesians 5:4). In the radiance of this Divine light the Church is to stand up and show herself, and then the greatest and most blessed results will follow. If your soul is in darkness you need not despair, for LIGHT I. ALL AROUND YOU. A. Tucker.Words full of inspiration and high hope. Day has dawned upon the world; light and life have come, the day of salvation for all people. Let us consider this new day of salvation in three aspects.I. How has light arisen upon the world in Jesus Christ? II. How does light arise upon the individual soul that comes to Christ? III. How may the blessed light which has arisen within us, and which has made us children of the light, so be manifested by us in our life that it may run its widening way upon the earth? The claims of foreign missions.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. pp. 27–35.I. The auspicious fact. II. The reasonable command.—J. Rawlinton.Isaiah 60:3. The Light. I. Revealed to the Jews. II. Extended to the Gentiles. III. Supreme above all authority and power.Isaiah 60:4-5. I. The gathering of the Gentiles to Zion. From every quarter—from far—from beyond the sea. With all their forces. II. Zion’s emotions. She sees and overflows with joy.Isaiah 60:6-7. The gathering of Zion’s children. I. They come from all quarters. II. Come full-handed. III. Come with thanksgiving and praise. IV. Come to offer themselves in the service of the Lord. V. Come to find acceptance. VI. Come to share in the manifestation of the Divine glory.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL CHURCH (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 60:6. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, &c.The primary reference is to the change in Jerusalem after the captivity. Instead of desolation there would be return of the life of a prosperous capital. The merchandise which had deserted it because there was no market would find its way back from all quarters. Arabia would again send its swift camels and dromedaries laden with spices and other products, &c. But glorious as this primary reference to material prosperity, it is surpassed by the secondary. Many of the terms can only be understood as contemplating the glory of the Gospel Church, which was to arise in consequence of the appearance of the Messiah and the accomplishment of His long-predicted work. View the text in this light, and observe some circumstances respecting the converts of the Gospel. I. THEY SHALL BE DRAWN FROM AN AREA. Keeping in view the wide geographical sweep of this chapter, it cannot be regarded as saying less than that the converts of the Gospel shall be derived from all the ends of the earth. Christianity is the true gospel of humanity. 1. It is needed by man universally. 2. It is adequate to man. 3. It is adapted to man. 4. It is intended for man. II. THEY SHALL COME TO ITS . The prophet sees in vision these multitudes coming from various quarters. What is the centre to which they are attracted by an invisible but irresistible power? It is Christ (John 12:32). Already, to a large extent, has this declaration been fulfilled. What multitudes have come to Him during many ages! In connection with the modern missionary enterprise, there is no quarter of the world from which representatives are not, in growing numbers, coming to the cross. III. THEY SHALL BRING THEIR OF FERINGS TO His FEET. They receive, indeed, a free salvation. But it is not intended to minister to their selfishness. It aims to destroy the old selfishness by the excitement of gratitude and love. Love wishes to requite the benefactor. Moreover, the experience of Christ’s salvation, contact with His love, begets a corresponding benevolence, which looks forth to the needs of others. “They shall bring gold and incense.” Each country and each man brings his own proper production and possession, and lays it at the feet of Him who emptied Himself of His riches for us. In the light of His redeeming love let each ask, “How much owest thou unto my Lord?” IV. THEY SHALL TO THE OF HIS PRAISE. Is not praise the expression of joyfulness? Is not joyfulness the experience of the Church when most fully consecrated to Christ? They shall show it— 1. By their songs. The first love of the Church expressed itself in songs of praise. So did the Reformation. So does every revival. Missionary converts speedily develop a love of sacred Song of Solomon 2. By their lives. The changed life of every convert that walks consistently with his new profession is a perpetual showing forth of God’s praise. The worldling, the impure, the indifferent, the idolater changed. 3. By their testimony. In their turn testify for God and the Gospel. From personal experience speak confidently. Every separate convert a fresh seed of salvation. By coming to Christ, consecration to Christ, living to His praise, will this be fulfilled.—J. Rawlinson. THE HONOUR TO THE CHURCH Isaiah 60:7. I will glorify the house of My glory.Revelation has been gradual. Isaiah’s prophecies refer, first, to Judea and its inhabitants; but as he goes on they become much more general in their application: they reveal to us the glory of the Redeemer—the depth of His humiliation and sufferings, the greatness of His exaltation, the extension of His kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth. Notice two things—I. THE PLACE. The prophet refers immediately to the temple at Jerusalem. This was known by the name of the house of the glory of God. God intended that when the Jews settled, a place should be erected for His worship. The design of building a house to contain the emblems of the Divine glory was conceived by David, and announced by him to Nathan the prophet (2 Samuel 7:2-3). The prophet, however, afterwards received command to the contrary (2 Samuel 7:5-6; 2 Samuel 7:12-13). In due time Solomon announced his design to Hiram (1 Kings 5:3-5). It was in consequence of this determination that a building was erected in a style of unparalleled splendour. A proclamation was issued to assemble the tribes at its celebration. The holy things were brought, and placed in the holy place (1 Kings 8:10). In this way, and by the prayers and praises which were continually offered in it, this house became the place of the glory of God. There the Shechinah dwelt for ages; there sacrifices were offered; there were given the tokens of direction, of protection, and of the glory of God. These things stood in a symbolical and representative character. So that the “house” here spoken of refers to the Gospel Church. We do not stretch the comparison too far, if we call the Church of God, “the house of His glory.” Such an application is not below the design of Isaiah. Such, too, is the representation of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47:1-12). So in Zechariah (Zechariah 6:12). Malachi also (Malachi 3:1). Reference may also be made to the writings of the apostles on this point (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 2:4-5). All who are called by Divine grace are to be regarded as the Church or House of God. And to these collectively the prophet refers, when he records the determination of Jehovah, “I will glorify the house of My glory.”But for what reasons, or with what propriety may the Christian Church be called the house of the glory of God? Chiefly on these accounts— 1. Because, it is planned and built by the purpose and power of the Most High. The Christian Church, no less than the ancient temple, was built according to the mind and will of God.2. Because it contains the special manifestations of the Divine presence and glory. In the temple there were special emblems of God’s presence. We trace the glory of God in all around us (Psalms 19:1-3). But to display His glory in the Church, He uses means which make all these comparatively obscure. (1.) Christ Himself is the exact image of God (John 1:14; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). The perfect representation of God is made in the person, and cross, and work of Jesus Christ.This glory is seen also (2) in the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit. The ministration of the Spirit is called the ministration of glory. As in the temple, the Shechinah dwelt in the holiest of all, so the Spirit dwells in the hearts of true believers, as the Spirit of glory and of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16). (3.) By the development of the Divine glory in the preaching of the Word. Is it not a fact, that during the last eighteen hundred years, more has been done by the Gospel of Christ than had been done for four thousand years previous to its introduction. And He will be seen more and more till that time shall come when “the whole earth,” &c.II. THE PROMISE. God glorified the house of His glory in the first temple, by making it an object of beauty and glory to all His people, and by causing it to excite the admiration of surrounding nations; and still further, by sending Christ finally to minister in that temple. God will glorify the house of His glory—1. By accepting the services and offerings which, in connection with it, are rendered. Formerly He accepted sacrifices in the temple and so glorified it (Ezekiel 20:40-41). No place whatever was honoured by the Divine presence, which was not so dedicated to Him. This is the connection in which the text stands (Isaiah 60:6-7). Sacrifices are abolished in the Gospel Church, because the Great Sacrifice has been offered (John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 10:14; Hebrews 9:12). Christ was the great victim slain at the dedication of the Gospel Temple on Calvary. In virtue of this sacrifice, all Christians are accepted, and their offerings (1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:15; Psalms 51:17; Romans 12:1; Romans 15:16; Philippians 4:18).2. By making it the place of special communion and fellowship with Himself. It was when the priest entered the holiest of all, that God spake with him, and testified His acceptance of the offerings of the people, and issued His various commands (Exodus 25:21-22). All are now priests before God, and to each one God condescends to talk (Hebrews 10:19-22; Ephesians 2:18).3. By protecting it permanently against all the efforts of hostile powers. The temple at Jerusalem stood only as long as the people were obedient. But the promise in the text is permanent in reference to the Church at large (Isaiah 60:16-18). The foundation of God standeth sure. And what are the grounds on which our belief in its security rests? (1.) Upon the purpose of God. (2.) Upon the promise of God. The purpose is an abstract of His will; and the promise is an intimation and illustration of that will (Matthew 16:18). (3.) Upon the special superintendence of God (Zechariah 2:5; Zechariah 2:8).4. By extending it influence, and increasing its celebrity in the earth (vers, 4–6, 8, 9). Its glory has been increasing since its foundation was laid. And thus Jerusalem shall become “the praise of the whole earth.”5. By consummating it finally, in the splendour and happiness of heaven. This world is to suffer a last, decisive change (2 Peter 3:10). But still the Gospel Temple shall not be destroyed (Revelation 21:22-27)..—This is a subject concerning glory—the glory of the Gospel of God, the glory of the Church built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Christ Himself is the chief corner stone. Is this glory lighted up in your hearts? Have you passed from death unto life? If you have not now the light of grace, you will go from gloom to gloom. The Spirit’s influence is a necessity of your nature, “Ye must be born again.”—James Parsons: Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 145–151. THE OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 60:8. Who are these that fly as a cloud? &c.God is here represented as addressing His Church (Isaiah 60:1). In the text the Church breaks in upon the description in the language of wonder and surprise. In order to bring out the meaning of these words, let us notice,I. THE WHICH IS HERE STATED. It is a flight. The expression is intended to signify the coming of men from the distant regions of the earth to the Church of God, of which such glorious things are here said. As to the original condition of the persons who are here said to fly, they are described as having forsaken God—as having departed from God, as having wandered from God, and consequently as being in circumstances of distress and misery; as “aliens” from God—“enemies to God by wicked works.” The movement spoken of signifies that state into which these men are transformed, and in which they come to the enjoyment of the designs of mercy. It is the renunciation of all that is opposed to God and to salvation; it is their coming back to “the Shepherd and Bishop of souls.” Note further, that it is under the Gospel dispensation that this is to be exemplified. The Gospel contains a clear development of the Divine law; it reveals man’s transgression of that law; it points out man’s exposure to the wrath of God; and it contains in it all that is suited to bring men back to God: it proclaims the great atoning sacrifice, by faith in which the guilty are pardoned, the unholy purified, the endangered protected, and the lost redeemed.It is implied also that Divine influence must be imparted to effect this. Nothing can be done without the Spirit. This statement should ever be seen in the foreground of our theology. Where the Spirit is not, there can be no accomplishment of the designs and purposes of eternal love. This change arises from the statements of Gospel truth as they are contained in the written Word. The Spirit uses His own words (Ephesians 6:17). It is the preaching of the Cross of Christ—the uplifting of the Saviour, that contributes to the salvation of sinners; the preaching of the Cross is therefore called “the power of God.” How important, then, that this Gospel should be spread both at home and abroad! how important to pray for the outpourings of Divine influence! ButII. WHAT IS BY THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS IS SAID TO BE MADE? Much interesting matter is furnished by these figures. We shall, perhaps, enter into the spirit of them in reference to the return of sinners to God, by considering them as implying— 1. Eagerness. The clouds are supposed to be driven by the wind to one point, and the doves hasten with speed to their home. This eagerness is a most important symptom of conversion. Take the following examples (Matthew 11:12; Luke 18:13; Luke 23:42; Acts 2:37; Acts 16:29-30). And is there not reason for this eagerness? Consider: the knowledge of guilt; the fear of danger; the prospect of security and the hope of privilege impels us to flee. 2. Number. The cloud is an emblem of number. The number of witnesses to the power of faith are described by the Apostle as “a great cloud of witnesses.” The other figure of doves refers also to a great number. This chapter refers to the great accessions which the Church in after ages should receive (Isaiah 60:4-7). The mercy of God was to go forward to the boundaries of the habitable globe (Isaiah 49:5-6; Isaiah 49:22-23). Christ re-stated this grand fact (Matthew 8:11; Matthew 24:14; Mark 16:15). Look at the history of the progress of the Gospel. In early times it extended itself rapidly. In one day three thousand converts were made; and the word of God “grew mightily, and prevailed” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). The temples of heathen superstition were deserted, the Gospel in all its truth and purity was established: and how many myriads have since been gathere! Predicted universal triumph. 3. Unity. The clouds are supposed to fly in one body, and to be driven to one part of the horizon; the doves fly together to attain one home. So it will be with all who have been conducted by the Spirit into the way of life everlasting. There may be a number of differences among the people of God; but they seek the same salvation; they are influenced by the same principles; they depend on the same atonement; they are clothed in the same righteousness; they partake of the same Spirit; they obey the same commandments; they hope in the same promises; they are heirs of the same inheritance. Observe how the diversity in unity is stated by Paul (1 Corinthians 12:4-13). Note the importance attached to unity (Ephesians 4:3-6; Colossians 3:11).III. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE INQUIR WHICH THE OF THIS EXCITES? The words are expressive of the emotions—1. Of surprise. The passage is very analogous to Isaiah 49:20-21. It could not but be surprising to witness the change from feebleness to strength, from solitariness to multitude, from lowliness to empire. Contemplating modern times, are we not ready to exclaim, “What hath God wrought!” Contemplate the future in the same spirit.2. Of joy. Surprise is mingled with joy There is joy over the conversion of every sinner. And why? Because of the honour given by this means to the Church. Because of the immense accession to the peace and happiness of mankind. Because of the complete restoration of the honours of Jehovah Here is the prospect of the establishment of His kingdom “who is the Lord God Omnipotent.”—James Parsons: Pulpit, vol. viii. pp. 433–441.Isaiah 60:9. I. God’s sons must be gathered. II. The means are at hand. Ships; silver and gold—all useful in God’s cause. III. The centre of power and attraction. The Holy One of Israel (see p. 550). IV. The agency by which this power is exerted. The Church—which He has glorified and will.Isaiah 60:10. I. God has often just cause to be angry with His people. II. Smites them in His wrath. III. Has mercy on them. IV. Finally subdues their enemies and makes them minister to them.Isaiah 60:11. The future of the Church. I. Open gates. Implying peace, constant accessions. II. Abundant resources. The forces of the Gentiles—their wealth, intellect, knowledge, every earthly good consecrated. III. Honour and dominion. The noblest will minister to her. The State will not rule the Church, but the Church sanctify and guide the State by the influence of its teaching.—J. Lyth, D.D. OF TO THE WELL-BEING OF A NATION Isaiah 60:12. The nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish, &c.I. True religion is essential to the welfare of a nation. But what is human welfare? What is that state to which we can, with full satisfaction, attach the idea of well-being? In a word—what is happiness, that object which all desire, and seek and strive to obtain, &c.? Legislation, &c., will not affect the solid welfare of a nation. Facts confirm what reason had anticipated, that true religion is the only foundation of a nation’s welfare. The reasons of the fact arise from the very nature of the case in the operation of moral causes. What the religion of the Gospel teaches and does, &c. II. By what means may we most effectively endeavour to realise the welfare of our country, and that as the fruit of its religion? All Christians are called to promote the conversion of sinners, the more expansive holiness of believers, and the universal glory of their Lord: in a word, to make the nation Christian, by making the persons who compose the nation such. Respecting the selection and applica-of the particular methods for this purpose, the new Testament allows very great latitude provided that grand principles be preserved— (1) Spirituality; (2) simplicity; (3) liberty.—J. P. Smith, D.D., LL.D.: Pulpit Memorials, pp. 59–75. THE PLACE OF GOD’S FEET Isaiah 60:13. I will make the place of My feet glorious.These promises, while serving the purpose of sustaining the heart of God’s faithful people throughout their dismal captivity, took a far grander range than their restoration and revival, &c. I. THE SCENE OF THIS SPECIAL DIVINE GLORY. “The place of My feet.” This is the language of figure, but plain and intelligible. God has no bodily parts, yet the sacred writers speak of His eye, &c., as indicating His personal presence. Such language deceives no one, and it gives a lively representation of the actual spiritual fact. “The place of God’s feet,” or His “footstool,” was in ancient times the temple (1 Chronicles 28:2). This was His rest, where He had chosen to put His name, where in a special sense Jehovah dwelt between the Cherubim over the mercy-seat. The allusion is to a royal throne. God’s throne is in heaven, but His footstool in the earthly temple whither His subjects repair. It was for Israel the place of reception, of communion, and of worship. And all this was in turn a figure of the better things reserved for us. No place of worship on earth may claim to be, in preference to others, the footstool of Jehovah. The true Church, composed of all believers of whatever name or nation, is God’s temple, “the place of His feet.” It is no particular altar or edifice; it is the living stones. In a real sense the wide earth is His footstool, marked by the footprints of His glory; but it is in the new creation that he has given the most perfect manifestation of His glory. II. THE GLORY OF THE SCENE. It was the glory of Eden that God talked there with man, and it is the glory of the Church that it has the clearest manifestations of His presence and grace. 1. The worship there rendered and accepted. 2. The glory that is there created (Isaiah 60:13). Many can see no glory in the Church. They admire the beauty of the palace, the splendour of a mighty monarchy, but conclude that the Church has no glory. This is not to be wondered at: they see only what they have the power of seeing—they have no spiritual discernment. The true purpose of the Church is to be a living witness, an embodied protest against money-worship, &c. Her grandest glory consists in the image of Christ: she is the true home of holiness. 3. The multitudes attracted to her. The Gospel is for the world, and the Church is the light-bearer. In proportion as she is healthy will she bestir herself in this great service of humanity, and commend the Gospel by her own high-toned character (Isaiah 60:1-2). The nations come to her in procession (Isaiah 60:8-9). This is a spiritual movement, the approach of souls, the submission of hearts to Christ, and much of it is already fact. 4. The blessedness there conferred—the blessedness of inviolable security (Isaiah 60:12; Isaiah 60:18). A nation not in alliance with God has a canker eating at the heart of its power. What vitality the Church has shown! How vainly the powers of earth have conspired to trample her down! What is the ground of this security? Not her own strength but God’s salvation. Hers is the glory of purity. Let the world see that the Church is what she claims to be—a society unselfish and benevolent. As she is holy she will be joyful. She has forsaken the pleasures of sin, and unless she has the joy of salvation, she has no comfort of any kind. Let us partake of the true joy, and we will walk in the light of God’s face; and that joy will prove a grand attraction to the nations of the world, and reveal to them a blessedness which the world cannot bestow.—John Riddell Moffat: Discourses, pp. 222–241. Isaiah 60:14. I. The sorrows of Zion. Afflicted. Despised. II. Their relief. By the subjection of her foes. By the acknowledgment of her claims. By the presence and favour of God.Isaiah 60:15-22. The happy condition of Zion. I. Temporal blessings. Once forsaken and despised, now held in universal honour. All the advantages of commerce, civilisation, and wealth. Just government—peace and protection. II. Spiritual blessings. Knowledge of God and Christ. Salvation. Divine light and comfort. Universal righteousness. Permanent increase.Isaiah 60:15-16. I. The desolations of Zion. II. Her restoration. III. Prosperity. IV. Acknowledgment of God.Isaiah 60:16-17. Iron. I. All things must be laid under contribution for the accomplishment of the Divine purpose in His Church. All the achievements of the human mind. All the conveniences of wealth and civilisation. All the influence of human power. II. In the subjection and sanctification of human resources God develops His own character in relation to His Church. As Saviour, Redeemer, the Might One of Jacob.Isaiah 60:17-18. The exaltation of the Church secures the best interests of a nation. I. Social peace and order. II. Honesty and integrity in the transactions of business and commerce. III. Protection from violence within and foes without. IV. Happiness in the blessings of salvation, and the spirit of praise.—J. Lyth, D.D. EARTHLY AND LIGHT Isaiah 60:20. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon, &c.No one who is capable of appreciating the higher forms of poetry can refuse to pay a tribute of admiration to this magnificent chapter. It is a rapturous ode congratulating Zion on her restoration to heavenly favour, &c. Much of the chapter can only be interpreted spiritually. The text can never be true of this world. The parallelism of this verse.I. ON EARTH OUR MOON ITSELF. 1. There is great propriety in the figure which makes the light of the moon an emblem of earthly joy. The sun’s light is in a sense his own, not so the moon. As the light of the sun is essential, so are the joys which come direct from God; as the light of the moon is borrowed and reflected, so is the joy that springs from earthly things. The things of earth have no inherent power of giving happiness. 2. There is equal propriety in saying of the “days of our mourning” that the moon withdraws itself. Our troubles come in two ways— (1.) By the removal of our pleasant things. (2.) Our pleasant things are left, but the joy of them is gone. 3. Our days of mourning, like the moon’s withdrawing itself, are often sources of the greatest profit. Nothing helps reflection like trouble and sorrow. The loss of earthly joy makes heavenly hopes more bright. II. ON EARTH OUR SUN GOES DOWN. 1. We may compare the light of the sun to the joy which the soul receives from communion with God. The light of the sun is light from the highest source of light; and the joy of Divine communion is joy from the highest source of joy. 2. On earth the sun of the soul may go down—our heavenly prospect become clouded. III. FOR THE SINCERE , THE THAT TAKE PLACE ON EARTH ARE ONLY . 1. The causes that lead to the obscuring of our spiritual joys will be removed—clouds, shadow, night, &c. What must it be to be there? 2. And with this highest and purely spiritual glory shall be associated in the sublimest perfection all elements of the happiness that is secondary and subordinate. Ended shall be the hours of earthly anxiety, &c. Upon all the glory there shall be a defence, the defence of immortality. To which of the two worlds are you tending, &c.?—Frederick Greeves, D.D.Isaiah 60:20. It is the purpose of God to grant larger manifestations of His grace and more copious outpourings of His Spirit in order to fulfil these delightful prophecies, and bring on even on earth golden days, &c. But the text manifestly points to heaven, as there only can it be completely and for ever verified (Revelation 21:23). In this description of heaven we observe two things—I. THE TOTAL ABSENCE OF ALL THE EVILS WE DEPLORE ON EARTH. Our text tells us what this life is, and what the life to come shall be, and plainly contrasts one state with the other. Now, joy and sorrow are blended; light and darkness are intermixed, &c. We are scarcely aware how necessary these vicissitudes and variations are. We forget that night is as necessary as the day. Morning never breaks so beautifully as after a tempestuous night, &c. These changes are the marks and indications of an imperfect dispensation of things, and they often present serious obstructions to our happiness and repose. We have a sun, but that sun goes down; we have a moon, but that moon withdraws itself; we have light, but that light is clouded and incomplete; we have days upon days, but they are often days of mourning, &c. Heaven, therefore, is beautifully described as exhibiting the total absence of all the evils we deplore, &c. He infirmity of body, &c. They are for ever gone, and if remembered at all, shall be remembered only as a ground of triumph that they are no more, &c.II. THE OF ALL THE GOOD WE DESIRE. God Himself shall constitute the immediate felicity of His children. 1. Knowledge without obscurity. 2. Holiness without sin. 3. Communion without weariness. 4. Happiness without alloy.III. THE THIS SHOULD EXERT. 1. Secure a title to it, and a meetness for it. 2. Guard against the temptations and sins that often embitter the changes of this life. 3. Aim to take as many with you as you Song of Solomon 4. Remember you may be much nearer to it than you expect. What is your hope, &c.?—Samuel Thodey.Isaiah 60:20. Never was a picture of national happiness described in more glowing colours than in this verse. It can only be completed in heaven. I. A SKETCH OF THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. And is it not a faithful sketch? Let us inquire into— 1. Some of the sources of human calamity. Some suffer from the afflictions— (1.) Of the mind. (2.) Body. (3.) Worldly disappointments. (4.) Family afflictions. (5.) Bereavement. Thus days of mourning are allotted to all. The cup goes round. 2. Some of the reasons why these are permitted under the government of a wise, righteous, gracious God. To imbitter sin, to discipline and mature the character, to wean from the world, and conform to Christ. 3. Some of the consolations which the Gospel furnishes under them. Our sorrows are attended by many consolations. We are supported by many promises, &c. II. A OP THE LIFE TO COME. In a future life our pains and sorrows cease. When our sorrow ceases positive happiness begins. 1. The presence of God. In this life God blesses us mediately—by channels of mercy, &c.; but in heaven immediately—He Himself will be the source of our bliss. 2. The absence of all sources of disquiet. Sin, sorrow, &c. 3. The communication of happiness suited to our nature. 4. Perpetuity gives the final charm.—S. Thodey.Isaiah 60:21. I. The promise. Includes the ultimate prevalence of righteousness. The consequent increase of human enjoyment. II. The security of it. God will accomplish it, for the revelation of His own glory.Isaiah 60:22. The growth of God’s kingdom. I. The small proportion which the Church hears to the world. II. The promised enlargement. In numbers and influence. III. The certain and speedy accomplishment of this promise. God will bring it to pass. Will hasten it—in His time.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE SIGNS OF A TRUE Isaiah 61:1-3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, &c.This word, in all the beauty and grace of its meaning, was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ; yet it may be regarded as setting forth the signs of a true service for the Kingdom of God, whether rendered by an individual labourer or by the Church in its collective capacity. Looked at in this light, the text becomes solemn as a judgment-seat, and terrible as the vision of God. It declares— I. THAT THE TRUE IS ALWAYS AND BY THE HOLY GHOST. That our service may be animated by the Holy Spirit, and should express Divine ideas and purposes, is clear, from the consideration that ours is not an earthly ministry contemplating earthly matters. In working out religious ideas and Christian purposes, it is not the man who has the longest head that can always do the most good; it is the man who says—and says in reverence and humility—“I am but a vessel, an instrument, an agent; I am not the master, I am but a servant; Lord God, be thou my inspiration, my strength, and the completeness of my power!” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Our service at home, in the school, &c., ought to be more intensely spiritual. Spiritual character, vitality, will exercise a subtle influence, intensify, and extend. Have we the Holy Ghost? II. THAT THE TRUE IS BY THE . Throughout the statement of the prophet, there is a tone of kindliness, benevolence, sympathy, gentleness, pity for all human sorrow. The keynote of the Gospel is joy; the watchword of the Gospel is liberty. A ministry that interprets human sorrow downward is not of God [1752][1752] The great appeal which Christianity makes to the world is this:—“I come to make human life freer, grander, purer; I come to open worlds in which human life can be more perfectly developed; I come to set man towards man in the relation of brother towards brother; to break the chains of human captivity; to dispel intellectual and moral darkness, and to bring in an unending summer day:” and any religion that comes with a profession of that kind, even were it nothing more, will, primâ facie, demand to be heard as possibly for God.—Dr. Parker. III. THAT THE TRUE , WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, NEVER SHRINKS FROM ITS MORE AWFUL (Isaiah 61:2). Without a day of vengeance human history would not be merely poetically incomplete, but morally imperfect. All trampled rights demand a day of vengeance. Peace is impossible so long as impurity is in existence. The day of vengeance will be spiritual [1755][1755] You cannot beat a man with rods, and cause him to suffer to the utmost extremity of his capability; you cannot whip a man with cords till you have whipped him enough: every man must be his own scourge. The Spirit of God must be so revealed in a man that he will see himself as he really is, and pronounce his own sentence upon himself, so that he shall turn himself away from heaven, and from life, and from God, and from saints, and say, “Yes, it is right; I ought not to be there.” When a man gives way so, when his heart collapses, when he says to God, “Yes, I am visited with Thy judgments: they are right and true altogether,” that is the day of vengeance.—Dr. Parker. —Let us often stand before this text as before a judgment-seat. Have we the Holy Ghost, or is ours but a feeble testimony we have learnt from teachers that have no claim to Divine inspiration? Are we a joy to all that mourn, &c.? are we a terror to evil-doers, &c.?—Joseph Parker, D.D., City Temple, pp. 397–404. THE DIVINE “Of whom saith the prophet this?” I. THE SPEAKER. Doubtless Isaiah was called to comfort the exiles in Babylon, But this language is too elevated to apply to him. The speaker is “the servant of Jehovah,” the Messiah. Jesus, when at Nazareth, appropriated the words to Himself (Luke 4:28, &c.) Though to all appearance a poor, unlettered peasant, Jesus was appointed to fulfil so high a function. What an evidence of His divinity! II. IN WHOSE NAME AND WITH WHAT DOES HE SPEAK? 1. The qualification. The Spirit was given without measure—the Spirit of wisdom, of compassion, of help. 2. The commission. The Lord “anointed Him.” Approved, sanctioned, prospered by the Lord, He must needs possess the attractiveness and the authority ascribed to Him. This is the explanation of His incomparable power. III. TO WHOM DOES HE SPEAK? To the meek, &c. IV. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE MESSAGE Good tidings, &c. 1. Of the Father’s interest and care. 2. Of His purpose of salvation. 3. Of redemption, as expressing and carrying out Divine intentions of grace. 4. Of spiritual riches, which the poor of this world might possess. 5. Of everlasting life and happiness..— 1. Accept Christ’s offers of grace! 2. Publish the compassion of this Divine Messiah!—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. pp. 123, 124.I. The moral disease—broken-heartedness.By the broken-hearted, I understand those who, in the language of Scripture, “sorrow after a godly sort;” whose grief is occasioned by sin, in some one of its endlessly varied forms. It may be best understood by a reference to one or two examples—presenting it in its causes, and in its effects and outward features. Brokenness of heart is often the result— 1. Of the presence of guilt upon the conscience (Psalms 32:3-4; Psalms 38:1-8). 2. Of a continued feeling of sin, in its strength in the nature (Romans 7:23-24). 3. Of God’s dealings with the soul, in order to recover it from backsliding (Psalms 51; Jeremiah 31:18-19). 4. Of seeing sin prevailing in the Church, and among the people of God (Jeremiah 23:9). 5. Of a season of desertion (Psalms 77:1-9). 6. Of the reproaches, and calumnies, and persecutions of the wicked (Psalms 69:20). If broken-hearted, is it through the sorrow of this life, or sin?II. The Physician.1. The sympathy which leads to the healing of the broken-hearted is with God. There are other comforters. 2. He who has come to heal is peculiarly qualified, by His nature and by His experience, for sympathising with the afflicted—the Spirit, the “Comforter.” 3. The balm which the Physician applies differs according to the different causes of brokenness of heart. (1.) If unpardoned guilt—the blood and righteousness of Christ (Hebrews 9:14). (2.) If unsubdued sin—grace, and strength, and purity, secured in the covenant (Ezekiel 36:25). (3.) If backsliding—the tokens of reconciliation (Luke 15:22-24). (4,) If desertion and darkness—support of faith (Isaiah 1:10), restoration of God’s presence. (5.) If prevailing iniquity—the Sovereignty of God. He can vindicate His glory. He will yet do so.I. The condition of men by nature—they are captives.1. Men are not now in their original and native country. The captive, though born in bondage, yet looks away to his fatherland. That man is not in his native and original condition is evident. (1.) This is an historical fact—recorded. (2.) The evidence of this is to be found in the very nature of man himself—for, He must have a god, and worship. He bears a conscience, recoguising another law than that which he is under. He is still in a state of progression. 2. The expression “captives” has a reference to the manner in which men became foreigners. There are but two ways in which any can pass into bondage—through war and stratagem, or through being sold. 3. The expression of the text leads us to look to the state and character of man for the features of captivity. (1.) Like the captive and slave, man has lost his freedom. He is in bondage to sin—to the flesh—to the world. (2.) Like the captive and slave, man has lost his dignity. Of position—as a king’s son. Of character—as Godlike, Of employment—as a worshipper of, and a fellow-worker with, God. (3.) Like the captive and slave, he has lost his courage—denying God, he dreads man. (4.) Like the captive and slave, there are given to him hard and unrewarded tasks. He is made to fight against God—to destroy himself—to violate conscience. (5.) Like the captive and slave, he is miserable.II. The object and office of Christ.1. Before accomplishing the actual deliverance of man from his captivity, Christ procures the reversal of his sentence of banishment (Genesis 3:24). 2. Before, &c., Christ had to ransom man as a lawful captive, passive. “Ransomed”—“redeemed”—“bought,” &c. 3. In order that men may be delivered, Christ overthrows the power which has led them captive, and keeps them enslaved (Matthew 12:29; Colossians 2:15; Psalms 68:18). 4. Having crushed the oppressor, Christ leads forth His people from their captivity (Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 49:25). 5. This He does through preaching (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). 6. That believers are the Lord’s freemen, is manifest in their character and conduct.I. The time—“the acceptable year of the Lord.”1. Reference is here made to the sabbatical year of the Jews, and especially to the Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-17) [1758] 2. While this law served important political and religious purposes among the Jews, it was typical of the Christian dispensation (Luke 4:21). 3. As the Jubilee was ushered in by trumpets, so was the Christian dispensation by preaching. Christ is said to have died at the commencement of the last Jubilee observed. 4. We have thus a perpetual Jubilee, and a perpetual sounding of trumpets (Romans 10:15). [1758] The allusion in these words is to the Jewish year of Jubilee. The evangelical sense of the term, as it is to be here understood, is confirmed by the fact that when the Saviour preached in the synagogue this was His text, and He announced the fulfilment of the prophecy from the advent of the dispensation of the Gospel. The Jewish year of Jubilee was a political institution intended for wise purposes. It was to prevent the oppression of the poor, to guard against the miserly accumulations of the rich, and to preserve the ancient patrimony of families, notwithstanding personal reverses, as a sort of inalienable entail. As in the year of Jubilee all slaves that had sold themselves, in the liquidation of their debts into bondage were liberated, and all property that had been temporarily alienated reverted to its original owner, there was a sort of equality retained amid the tribes, the balance of society was preserved, and an effectual check was put upon the system of confiscation and bondage, which might otherwise have become an unmitigated feudalism.… With the Jubilee, however, as a political institution, we have not now to deal: our object is to show that like almost everything else in Jewish polity or ritual, it set forth in shadow the deliverances of the new and better covenant. The analogies are plenteous and significant. If you study the history of the Jewish Jubilee, you will find— 1. That IT AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY OF . Of the solemnities of that day, you are doubtless aware.… It was after these solemnities, after the prostrate knee and afflicted soul, after the ensanguined altar and the banished trespass offering, after the humbled entrance into the holiest and the exulting emergence from it, that the solemnities of the Sabbatical year began. Scarcely had the priest’s voice been hushed, scarcely had the last echoing benediction from his lips reached and thrilled the furthest of the crowd, before the sound of the trumpet, caught up and transmitted through all the Jewish city, proclaimed the commencement of the year of Jubilee. Is not this a type of the way in which spiritual blessings are exclusively introduced to mankind. There could be no Jubilee for us, a race of lost and guilty rebels taken in arms, traitors convicted of treason, unless an all-prevalent atonement had previously purchased our pardon. A criminal does not rejoice in the interval between the sentence and its execution.… The atonement is the exclusive source of safety and happiness for man. Apart from its reconciling provisions there is a curse upon humanity which no sorcery of the world’s wizardry can charm away. And all complacency which men may feel, and all good of which they may imagine themselves possessed, are but delusive as the midnight dream. There can be no peace, or if there be it is a peace which God hath not spoken, like the treacherous calm just outside the eddy of the maelström, which only speeds the doomed vessel into the cruel eddy of its waves. There can be no hope, or if there be it will have no freedom from the blush of shame, and no steadfast anchorage by which to hold. There can be no joy, or if there be it will be a baseless and fugitive emotion, transient as the dew, but not like the dew, melting into the light of heaven. Peace and hope and joy for renovated man can come in happy jubilee only from the Atonement of Christ. 2. Among the blessings of the Jubilee there was REST FROM LABOUR. By a providential arrangement, similar to that which secured a double supply of manna on the sixth day, the land had unusual fertility in the sixth year, so that in the seventh, which was the ordinary, and in the fiftieth, which was the special Sabbatical year, there was a suspension of the common duties of husbandry. Both the land and the labourers had rest, and yet the supply did not fail, for there was plenty in every barn, and there was gladness in every heart. Profane history tells and confirms what scoffing unbelief might otherwise have regarded as a tale, for we are told by Josephus, an impartial historian certainly, that in the time of Alexander the Great, there was special exemption from taxes during the Sabbatical year, and after the return from captivity the Sabbatical year was reverently and constantly maintained. 3. THE OF . 4. THE OF FREEDOM.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.: The Penny Pulpit, No. 3397. II. The circumstances which render this year, or season, acceptable or joyous.If we advert to the year of Jubilee, these will become apparent.III. The ground on which this year, or season, has become acceptable.1. The ground of its being acceptable is suggested in Leviticus 25:9. It commenced on the day of atonement. 2. By His work of atonement Christ has procured— (1.) The remission of sins (Acts 13:38-39). (2.) Deliverance from prison and bondage (Galatians 5:1). (3.) Our lost inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14). (4.) He has produced mutual love (John 13:34-35). 3. It is only in Christ that the privileges of this year can be offered—that you can reach them. These blessings are as free to all, as were those of the Jubilee to the Jews.IV. The acceptable season is limited—a year.1. The whole Gospel dispensation, which must come to a close. 2. This life, as respects individuals. There are no years in hell. It matters not to those there, that there is grace here. 3. See that it mean not something still shorter—the season of the strivings of God’s Spirit.Practical lessons.— 1. That we come to God in Christ—immediately. 2. That we sound the silver trumpet of the Gospel, and proclaim the Jubilee of the world.I. A leading employment of Christ as Mediator—preaching. 1. The grand instrument for establishing this kingdom. 2. Christ still fulfils this inspired declaration variously. By the inspired writings—often alone. By a standing ministry. By the lives of consistent believers, &c. 3. Look to Christ as your teacher. 4. Seek to be an instrument, or mouth to Christ. II. The subject of Christ’s preaching—“the Gospel.” III. The persons to whom Christ preached.—James Stewart: Outlines, pp. 17–28.The world seems to echo and re-echo with the groans of the suffering. We can form no adequate conception of the widespread misery that exists. Surely, if ever there was a time when Messiah could prove the power of His grace to comfort those who suffer it is now. Has He given such proof? Let facts speak. See the dying who have heeded His story. In our own experience we find no helper in sorrow like the Lord. In health and prosperity we may undervalue His succouring grace; but whenever we are brought into circumstances of sore distress, we find no arm but His can support us.I. He is an appreciative comforter. Strictly speaking, Jesus is the only appreciative comforter. We wish to be, but fail through incapacity. Let us not say, “No one knows what I feel.” He knows the very degree, &c. II. He is a sympathetic comforter—suffers with us. III. He is a wise comforter. IV. The main truth is, He is an intelligent comforter.It is He alone that brings to us the true explanation of suffering. The world without Him regard it as a penal arrangement; Christ shows us sorrow is discipline; that those who suffer most should be the best. We had never found this out apart from revelation. Whatever nature shrinks from we deem obnoxious. Take heed lest you miss the blessing of woe. Sorrow is discipline. Those who suffer most become the worst, unless they become the best. The child who is corrected either becomes more obedient or more way ward. Christ shows us sorrow is not misfortune. In the article of sorrow, spiritual prosperity may be as great as at any other time. Amidst the wildest storm the vessel may be borne on a strong current towards the desired haven. The most fertilising rain may descend at midnight. In the seven-time heated furnace the Hebrews walked with God.—Stems and Twigs: second series, pp. 255–257.CHRIST’S MISSION. I. The great distinction in which our Lord exulted. II. The great message our Lord had to deliver. III. The great work our Lord had to accomplish.—J. P. Chown: Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., pp. 49–52.I. The anointing of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit communicated. The manner. The measure. II. The object for which He was anointed.—Studies for the Pulpit, Part I., pp. 318–320.I. The qualification. II. Work. III. Aim of a true minister of Christ.—Dr. Lyth.I. The auspicious day on which the Jubilee commenced. II. The valuable privileges the Jubilee secured. III. The publicity with which the Jubilee was announced.—J. Rawlinson. TREES OF Isaiah 61:3. Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, &c.I. UNDER THE FIGURE OF TREES. This suggests three things— 1. Life. The tree differs from many things in a landscape, in that it has the principle of life. The rock, &c., is sublime, but it has no life. But the tree grows from feebleness to strength, and the children’s children of those who plucked its leaves repose under its shade. In like manner, all men spiritually dead except the Christian. “He” only “who hath the Son hath life.” 2. Beauty. How sterile any landscape appears from which all trees are absent, and how much enriched is any scene by their presence! The world was equally devoid of what was lovely and great in character until Christianity came. Even the ungodly acknowledge that a consistent Christian is lovely. Men of old exclaimed, “Behold how they love each other!” 3. Utility. The tree which the prophet had in view (for the term is specific) was the terebinth, or what has been called the oriental oak—a tree as famous for its important uses, as for the majesty of its form. It is not merely an appeal to the eye which a Christian makes. Let a single Christian live consistently in a family, and that family is the better for him; let there be in a country a body of consistent and holy followers of Christ, and the manner and usages of that country will become quickly improved. It is to the Christian the world has to look for the means of its renovation. Philosophy and science and literature have failed: the Cross alone can be successful. II. THE LORD AS THE CREATOR OF THE . 1. He gave him spiritual life. We were first planted in Paradise, but sin outrooted us, and we lay withering and dying, ready to be cast into the fire; nor could any human, angelic, or other finite power restore us. God sent His only Son to die that we might live. He planted us in Him, and gave us new and eternal life. 2. He supplies him with the means of growth. When He has taken the tree and planted it in His pleasant places, He does not forget to cultivate it. What stores of instruction in the Bible; what direction and guidance in Providence; what variety of trials and temptations, suited to his changing state, are supplied! (John 10:10; John 15:2). III. THE GREAT DESIGN AND END OF OUR BEING MADE TREES OF . 1. God’s glory and our spiritual welfare go together. The beauty of the flower, &c., are the glory of the gardener. 2. God’s glory is the highest end which any created being can serve.—Pulpit Outlines, 1852, p. 63, &c. I. The plant: a tree of righteousness. II. The means by which it was produced: Jehovah’s husbandry. III. The purpose of this generous and skilful husbandry: “That He might be glorified.”—Geo. Bowden: The Methodist Recorder, June 18, 1869.Isaiah 61:4-7. I. The land flourishes. II. The social condition of the people is prosperous. III. The people themselves are holy and happy. IV. The memory of their sorrows is wiped away for ever.—Dr. Lyth. GOD’S v. MAN’S Isaiah 61:6. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord.To such low purposes has the noble word of “priest” been prostituted, so vilely has it been dishonoured, and so repulsive are all its present associations, that I confess it does not seem to me any very great compliment, or anything to rejoice much about, when my text declares, “And ye shall be named priests.” “Ye are,” said the Holy Ghost of all believers, “a royal priesthood.” This chapter has reference to the kingdom of Christ. It looks forward to the time when He should come who could say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” &c. When He came, all earthly priesthoods were abolished, and of all members of His kingdom it was to be said, “And ye shall be named the priests of the Lord.” I. How is the office of the priesthood entered? You may glean this from the induction of Aaron and his sons into the priestly office, for they are the types of Christ’s high priesthood and the priesthood of all believers. The Holy Ghost has most clearly taught by this type the order of entrance into spiritual priesthood. 1. The priests became so by virtue of their union with the high priest (Exodus 28:1). And the call of Christ unto His high priesthood also includes the call of all His sons into their spiritual priesthood. The question of right to priesthood was not at all a question of personal qualities or social advantages. Carry out this argument in reference to all believers. Just as by virtue of their union and identification with Aaron his sons became priests, do you and I, by virtue of our union and identification with Christ, become the Lord’s priests. 2. In the consecration of Aaron’s sons to the priesthood there was not only union with the high priest, but there was also blood sprinkling. Christ’s high priesthood rests on an accomplished sacrifice—on blood. What does my priesthood rest on? Why, on blood too. Not only was the blood put on Aaron, but on Aaron’s sons; and believers enter into priesthood by virtue of the same blood that forms the basis of Christ’s high priesthood. Unless we have the blood sprinkled upon us, we are no priests. 3. The anointing gives the qualification for priesthood. If we are believers, have not we received the anointing which qualifies for priesthood? (1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27). 4. The qualification of garments. They were dressed for priestly service (Exodus 28:40). II. The privileges and duties appertaining to this priesthood. 1. To offer up spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5). Our bodies (Romans 12:1); our prayers; our praise; our intercessions. 2. It was the priest’s duty and privilege to maintain the service of the sanctuary. Every believer, being a priest, has equal right with every other believer to engage in maintaining the service of the sanctuary. How long shall clerical intolerance pervade the land, and how long will the people submit to it? Preach up the priesthood of believers, and the priestcraft of a clique must fall. Know of no priesthood concerning which it cannot be said, “This honour have all the saints.”—Archibald G. Brown: Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 750. I. The office of God’s people. Priests to intercede. Ministers to execute God’s will: II. Their privileges—supply—honour.—Dr. Lyth.Isaiah 61:7. I. The present condition of God’s people. Shame. Confusion. II. Their future condition. Joy—proportionate, everlasting. Isaiah 61:8. I. The principles of the Divine administration in His Church. God loves judgment. Hates hypocrisy. II. The mode in which these principles are applied. God directs His people by His Word. And by the agency of His Spirit. III. The manner in which they are permanently secured. By the New Testament covenant—sealed with blood.—Dr. Lyth. THE BLESSED SEED Isaiah 61:9. All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. I. There is a “seed” or race, “which the Lord hath blessed.” Elsewhere it is described as “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). But it is neither co-extensive with nor confined to the descendants of Jacob (Romans 9:6-8; Galatians 4:28; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 3:6; Philippians 3:3). 1. This seed God hath blessed abundantly—with peace. Peace with God (Romans 5:1). Peace of conscience (Hebrews 10:2; Hebrews 10:22). Peace from the assaults of their enemies (Luke 1:74). Peace amid the cares of life (Philippians 4:6-7). Thus there is a glorious fulfilment of the promise (Psalms 29:11). 2. With purity (1 John 1:7-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). 3. With strength (John 1:12; Colossians 1:11). 4. With hope (Romans 15:13; 1 Peter 1:3). 5. With joy (1 Peter 1:8; Romans 5:11). 6. With that which is the source and fountain of the peace, and hope, and joy—an assurance of His love (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:16). Are these blessings yours? Are you numbered among “the Israel of God”? II. The blessings which God confers upon His people are chiefly in ward, but our text teaches us also, that there are outward signs by which those who belong to “the seed which the Lord hath blessed” may be infallibly known. “All that see them shall acknowledge,” &c. God has distinguished His ancient people by certain physical characteristics, which have survived through many generations, and have proved indestructible by all changes of climate and condition; so that wherever any of them are found we may say with confidence, these are the children of Abraham. They differ greatly from each other, and yet they preserve a family likeness by which they are unmistakably distinguished from all the rest of the human race. And there are certain marks by which all who belong to God’s spiritual Israel are as clearly marked off from their fellow-men. Such as— 1. Love for Christ. It is one undeniable and never-failing characteristic of the believer that he loves Jesus Christ in sincerity. His love for Christ will show itself in various ways—in an earnest endeavour to keep His commandments; in a cheerful submission to all His appointments; in self-sacrificing labour to extend His kingdom and promote His glory. 2. Unworldliness. The Christian is in the world, not of it. 3. Consistency. The conformity of his life to the principles he professes. Do these marks distinguish you? Let it be your daily prayer and endeavour that they may become more manifest in you.—James Harris, M.A.; Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii. pp. 373–384. Isaiah 61:10. I. The believer’s boast. II. Determination.—Dr. Lyth. THE OF THE GOSPEL ASSURED AND (Missionary Sermons.) Isaiah 61:11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden, &c.I. The seed. II. The extent of the ground to be brought under cultivation. III. The manner in which the fruit-fulness is produced.—Bishop Wilson: Sermons delivered in India, pp. 395–417. The vision of the prophet extends from the prosperous state of restored Israel to the ultimate glory of Christian Zion in the universal diffusion of righteousness and praise. We have here a beautiful and suggestive analogy between things natural and things spiritual.I. The life and sprouting of spring follow the desolation and death of winter. Far deeper is the moral deformity and death which has come upon our race by sin. Man, made in the image of God, has lost the holiness which made him one with God; is now “dead in trespasses and sins,” &c. The curse of evil extends to the whole race in all its generations. The facts that show the moral condition of the mass of mankind, looked at in the light of Divine truth, and judged by the purity of the Divine law, are more appalling than any winter blight and desolation.II. The “earth,” and “garden” bring forth their precious fruits and flowers under culture. In nothing does man toil more laboriously against the curse than in tilling the ground. There is the same necessity for labour in the moral culture of the world. Corrupted human nature is not made to yield the fruits of holiness without toil. Every conversion represents more labour than can be made to appear to the eye. Wherever the Word of God has had free course and been glorified are found proofs of God’s blessing on labour.III. The “earth” and “garden” cause the things that are sown in them to spring forth with certainty. As surely as winter passes away and spring returns, seeds germinate, grasses grow, plants and trees put forth new beauty and fruitfulness, and this with a regularity that amounts to certainty (Genesis 8:22). “So,” in like manner, with equal certainty, “will the Lord God,” &c. “Righteousness,” lost to our race by the sin of Adam, is restored by the mediation of Christ. As sin and dishonour were joined together as a twofold curse, so righteousness and praise are joined together as a double blessing. Let the work of righteousness appear in social order and purity, commercial and political integrity; let the people be all righteous, and glory will dwell in the land. The text assures us that God will do all this. Delay is no falsification of His promise (Isaiah 55:10-11).IV. The “earth” brings forth the things that are sown in it mysteriously as to manner. Beneath the surface are subtle forces and workings of nature by which the seed is made to grow. These hidden workings fitly represent the operation of God in the production of moral results.V. “The earth and garden” bring forth their fruits universally. There are sandy deserts and miry places that cannot be cultivated, but generally speaking, the earth gives her increase. With more literal truth it may be said the moral world is capable of universal cultivation. The necessity for cultivation is universal, and the Church is God’s husbandry that it might be His husbandman. The Divine covenant that assured success is made with the race, not with any particular portion; and the Spirit who glorifies Christ in the work of human salvation is given to the world. If, therefore, the Church will extend the means which God has appointed, He will accompany them by His sure effectual blessing, and “cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.”—William Jackson.Could anything be more incredible than; prophecy of spring in winter time to a man not already familiar with the glory with which summer can clothe the world? Who can wonder that the heathen found this the divinest thing which they could imagine; that the power which drew forth these glorious hoards from the dark treasures of earth, and flung them with such royal hand abroad, was to them the most God-like God? Life rising year by year, nay, day by day, out of death. Just as incredible as spring is to winter, as life is to death, is the summer splendour that shall one day mantle this sad world.Let us consider—I. The concords of the natural and the human worlds. The worlds are one; the author is one; the life is one. One living breath breathes through both. The poet, in the highest form, is the man who can disclose the unity. The culture of the spiritual life in man is like the culture of a seed field. “Behold a sower went forth to sow.” This stands as the image of the divinest work ever accomplished in this great universe. Isaiah had a keen eye for this unity. His prophecies are full of imaginative revelations of the likeness between the ways of God in nature and in man. The future of the world unfolded itself before him as the outburst of a glorious spring, a spring which should know no autumn, a dawn that should never darken into night. Yes, hopeless as it may seem, it shall be (Isaiah 35:1-2; Isaiah 35:5-10).II. The winter of life and of the world. All that we look upon, all that strains our pity, oppresses our sympathy, saddens our heart, and kills our hope, to the prophet’s eye was but as the earth in winter—bare, bleak, stern, cold, dank, dark, tainted with decay, storm-beaten, frost-nipped, snow-wreathed, a wilder ness of desolation, a waste of death. There are times when the wrong, the selfishness, the unholy passion, the bitter misery which fills the world, quite distracts us. We dream of what a home of the sons of God might be like; the life that beings made in God’s image, in His likeness, might live. And we look round, and the heart sinks in utter despair. Where is the trace of it? Isaiah saw it all in his day—world and Church rotten together (Isaiah 1:21). But he saw something which Christ also sees beyond. He saw that it was a winter, out of which the Lord God would bring a glorious period—spring.III. The certainty of a future everlasting spring. The law reigns throughout all the spheres that light shall burst out of darkness, spring out of winter, life out of death. Does the law range through all the stages of creation, and fail in the highest? Does the Lord cause the earth to bring forth and bud, and fail to touch the coldness and deadness of the winter of our world? Does man break the chain of the victorious purpose that runs through creation, and defy successfully the Eternal Ruler to bring summer, out of His winter, life out of His death? No, a thousand times no, or the world had been dead long ago. The fact that God bears it all is, knowing what we know of God, profoundly significant. It means that He sees already a tint of greenness crisping over the wintry barrenness, and foresees the day when (Isaiah 35:1). But to an intelligent eye winter is not all desolation. There is a prophecy in every shrinking bud and blade, &c. Those see it most fully whose hearts are most attuned to sympathy with the patience and the hope of God. “The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” It is a significant collocation. Praise is the voice of joy. To be joyful man must be right—right within, right all round—that is, right with God. Right-doing makes the soul glow, as the blood glows in the rosy morning air; and as it glows it sings. Here is the principle of the reformation, the revival, the restitution, and all are images of spring. It is the turning man’s heart to righteousness, to Gods righteousness, to Christ. The world had once a vision of what life may grow to when man’s heart is turned to righteousness by being made the captive of the Divine love. What outburst of all beautiful things, what joy, what praise was there (Acts 2:41-47). Thus shall it be one day when the Pentecostal fire leaps from heart to heart through the great world, the world which is redeemed, and waits only to be renewed and restored.—J. Baldwin Brown, B.A.: The Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi. p. III, &c.Isaiah 61:11. I. The wintry aspect of the world. II. The promise of spring. III. The power by which the change is effected.—Dr. Lyth. THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE CHURCH Isaiah 62:1. For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, &c.I. The implied obscurity of Zion.The modern Church is obscured— 1. By its divisions. 2. By its assimilation to the world. 3. By its peculiar position as an agency in progress, working for the world’s highest good. II. The ultimate extension of the Church’s glory.This is the night of the Church’s history; she is now in the shade. But as the morning sunlight bursts on the scene, banishing every lingering shred of twilight, and revealing the rarest scene of life and loveliness that was before but dimly seen, so shall her righteousness by and by appear. There are indications of the coming glory— 1. In the triumphs of the Gospel at home. 2. In the salient features of the present age (see p. 333). III. The Divine energy is pledged to accomplish the Church’s future glory.Inspiring fact! Jehovah is ceaselessly, in speech and action, working for His people. In this we have the inviolable guarantee of Zion’s future glory. 1. God’s Word is His voice. This voice has sounded through the ages of the past, protesting against every prevalent form of iniquity, instructing the nations in sublimest truths, and preparing them for a loftier destiny. Like a many-toned bell it still peals through the world in strains at once monitory and joyous. Never shall that voice be hushed till its mission is fulfilled, 2. God’s providence is His action. The world is governed by Jehovah in the interest and furtherance of the higher purposes of Christianity. 3. The motive influencing the Divine energy—the love of God for Zion. God loves His Church, because He sees in her a photograph of Himself, a reflection of His own image, the embodiment and universal manifestation of His own glory. She is the fruit of sufferings unparalleled, &c. His own honour is involved in the ultimate triumph and glory of His Church. Lessons. 1. We see the vanity and groundlessness of our fears for the Church’s safety and ultimate victory. 2. We see the blessedness of consecrated service for the Church of God.—George Barlow: The Study, vol. iii. p. 450, &c. THE LOVE OF THE CHURCH.I. THE PURE AND HOLT THAT MOVED THE PROPHET TO ACTIONS.1. For Zion’s sake. He loved Zion for the beauty, joy, strength, and safety she afforded the world. Analogies between Zion and the Church (Psalms 48). 2. For Jerusalem’s sake (see p. 436).II. THE EARNEST OF THE PROPHET IN REGARD TO THE OF THE DUTIES OF HIS OFFICE AND TOWARD ZION AND . I. He resolved not to hold his peace. He was not only a praying prophet, but a preaching prophet, 2. He was resolved not to rest or cease from his ministerial labours.III. THE WISE AND USEFUL ENDS THE PROPHET HOPED TO . 1. The establishment of righteousness in Zion and Jerusalem. 2. The promotion of their salvation.—Geo. Nestor: The Preachers’ Monthly, vol. vii. pp. 50–52.The prophets were true philanthropists—their love of country was deep and ardent. The heaven-kindled passion was not quenched by afflictions however sore, or by apostasy however general. O that their mantles might fall on us! that we may experience a quenchless passion to promote the welfare of Zion. Notice—I. THE OF THE PROPHET’S . To the devout Jew “Zion” was the dearest spot on earth. Zion remains “beautiful fur situation,” &c. The temple which graced its heights was its glory. Type of the Christian Church (1 Peter 2:5).II. THE MODE OF HIS . 1. “I will not hold my peace.” He resolved to lift up his voice and cry aloud— (1) Before God. Prayer the natural outlet of the believer’s solicitude. Let us plead with God as did Abraham, Moses, Daniel, &c. Power of prayer. (2) Before men. There is a time to be silent, and a time to speak. Those who are deeply concerned for the welfare of Zion will be sure to speak. 2. “I will not rest.” Our solicitude and activity must be ceaseless. A spasmodic and fitful zeal is unhealthy. Perseverance is nowhere more needful than in religion. Whether men hear or forbear, it should be ours to give “line upon line,” &c. III. THE RESULTS DESIRED. The allusion is to a marriage ceremony, &c.—Benjamin Browne. THE NEW NAMH Isaiah 62:2; Isaiah 62:12. Thou shalt be called by a new name. And they shall call them, &c.According to the Hebrew idiom, the name which expresses the nature and character of a person is used as equivalent to that nature and character. The promises of these verses involve accordingly, far more than appears upon the surface. I. The new name abolishes the old, In the prophetical writings Israel’s sins are very plainly described and very faithfully upbraided. The favoured people are called rebels and traitors, idolaters and spiritual adulterers. Upon their repentance, the old reproach is wiped away, and the old appellations are discarded. This is how Divine mercy treats all true penitents and believers. Former sins are forgotten, former rebukes are reversed, former sentences of condemnation are cancelled. II. The new name expresses a new character. The Christian dispensation provides, by peculiar agencies and spiritual powers, for the renewal of the nature and the life of men (2 Corinthians 5:17). In accordance with the fact is the expression of the fact; in accordance with the new nature, the new birth, the new life, is the new name. They who were unholy become the holy people, because, from being the bondsmen of sin, they have become the redeemed of the Lord. III. The new name is significant of a new state of favour and acceptance. Especially those upon whom the great change has passed are “the Lord’s,”—His possession and property, His beloved and honoured, for whom no privileges are too great and no dignities too eminent. The new name is His name who confers it, and who delights to deem and to call His beloved ones His own.”—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 153. THE CHURCH A CROWN OF GLORY Isaiah 62:3. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory, &c.A very interesting promise made to the Church of God. God will not rest until Zion is as perfect as His hand can make her. Notice three things:— I. The Church of God is highly prized. She is dearer to Him than all created beings. What makes her precious in His sight? No finite being can tell. Why He prized her before He visited her, is known only to Himself. Infinite wisdom can do nothing without reason: He says that He loved her, and in this truth we rest. She has no worth in herself, and is rendered precious by free, unmerited, unchangeable love. II. As she is so prized, she is eminently honoured. Having paid such a price for her (1 John 4:10), He will beautify her by all that infinite wisdom, love, and power can do. III. As she is so precious and 30 highly honoured, she shall be safely preserved. Secure in His hands. Can any overcome Omnipotence? Then may they snatch the crown out of the hands of Jehovah (John 10:28-29). Attempts are indeed made to destroy her. Satan tries to do so, 1. By error. 2. By persecution. 3. By snares and temptations. But she is safe (Matthew 16:18. See pp. 357, 558; H.E.I., 1246–1251, 2449).—William Howels: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 235–241. Isaiah 62:3. I. The estimate God puts upon His people. II. The honour He confers, upon them. III. The care He exercises over them (p. 341).Isaiah 62:4. I. Zion’s reproach. II. Exaltation. III. The occasion of the change.Isaiah 62:5. I. The joy of Israel at their return. II. The joy of God over them (Isaiah 65:19).I. The rapid increase of Zion (see pp. 348, 546). II. The joy it occasions (see p. 546). On earth. In heaven.—J. Lyth, D.D.Isaiah 62:6-7. The text is the Divine summons to prayer Tor the prosperity of the Church. It points out—I. The persons by whom it should be presented. 1. The ministers of the Gospel. 2. The members of the Church. II. The blessings for which it should be presented. Pray— 1. That the Church may be built on sure foundations. 2. That it may be distinguished by spiritual characteristics. 3. That it may be extended. III. The manner in which it should be presented. 1. It must be sincere. 2. Believing. 3. Persevering. Qualify yourselves to be the Lord’s remembrancers, in the retirement of the closet, and in the assembly of the brethren.—J. Rawlinson.Isaiah 62:6-7. I. There is always need of watchmen. II. God has never left the Church without watchmen. III. Christ’s call is to all the members of His Church. How are you responding to the call?—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. p. 275.Isaiah 62:8-9. God’s oath. I. The matter of it. 1. The protection. 2. The happiness of His people. II. The certainty and solemnity of it. He has sworn. Who is true. By His right hand—has power to effect it (see on Isaiah 1:2-3; Isaiah 59:1).—J. Lyth, D.D.Isaiah 62:10-12. I. The preparation. II. The proclamation. III. The felicitous result.—Dr. Lyth.Isaiah 62:10. The work of God’s people. I. Gates to enter. Of righteousness. II. A way to prepare (Isaiah 57:14). III. Stones of stumbling to be removed (Isaiah 57:14). IV. A standard to uplift (vol. i. p. 219).—J. Lyth, D.D. THE WORKERS AND THE EARTHLY Isaiah 62:1; Isaiah 62:6-7. For Zion’s sake will I not hold My peace. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, &c.Two expository remarks. 1. The speaker is the personal Messiah (Isaiah 61:1). The remarkable parallelism in the expressions selected as the text should be noticed: “I will not hold My peace;” the watchmen “shall never hold their peace.” And His command to them is literally: Ye that remind Jehovah—no rest (or silence) to you! and give not rest to Him. Christ, the Church, and God are all represented as unceasingly occupied in the one great work of establishing “Zion” as the centre of light, salvation, and righteousness for the whole world. Consider these three perpetual activities— I. THE CHRIST IS WORKING FOR HIS CHURCH. The greatness of Christ’s work in the past may lead us to forget the true importance of what He evermore does. His present life is presented in Scripture under two contrasted and harmonious aspects—as being rest, and as continuous activity in the midst of rest [1761][1761] His session on the throne proclaims the full accomplishment of all the purposes of His earthly ministry. It points backwards to the forces lodged in the world’s history by Christ’s finished work,—the basis of all our hopes; it points to a future as the goal of all these hopes. But while He rests as from a perfected work, He also rests not day nor night. “The right hand of God” is significant of the operative energy of the Divine nature; “sitting” there is equivalent to possessing and wielding that measureless power. The Evangelist who uses the expression says “they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.” The words at the beginning of Acts—“all which Jesus began both to do and teach”—suggest the same thought. The whole history of that book is shaped by this conviction. The Lord adds to the Church daily; His name works miracles, &c. Not the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Lord in and by His servants is the accurate title of this book. Stephen beheld his Lord “standing”—as if risen with intent to help—“on the right hand of God.” John in Patmos saw Him who “holdeth the seven stars in His right hand,” and “walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.” The text speaks of a continuous forthputting of power: “I will not rest.” His power is in exercise as the inspiration of good men, using them as His weapons, and the axe must not boast itself against Him that heweth. He orders providences, and shapes the course of the world for the Church (1 Chronicles 16:21-22). The word of this Master is never “Go,” but “Come.” There is besides, the wonderful truth of His continuous intercession for us. His work on earth is ever present to the Divine mind as the ground of our acceptance and the channel of our blessing (John 17:24).—Dr. Maclaren. II. CHRIST’S ON EARTH DERIVE FROM HIM A LIKE FOR THE SAME OBJECT (Isaiah 62:7). Note a twofold form of occupation devolving on these Christ-sent servants. They are watchmen, and they are also God’s remembrancers. The former metaphor is commonly applied in the Old Testament to the prophetic office, but in accordance with the genius of the New Testament, as expressed on Pentecost, should be extended to the whole mass of Christian people. 1. Our voices should ever be heard on earth. With faith in Christ come responsibilities. We are watchmen. Let us ponder the pattern. 2. Our voices should ever be heard in heaven. Faith is a mute appeal to God’s faithful love; and, beyond that, our prayers come up for a memorial before God. They remind God. The prayer that prevails is a reflected promise. These two forms of action ought to be inseparable. Prayerless work will soon slacken, and never bear fruit; idle prayer is worse than idle. 3. The power for both is derived from Christ. He sets the watchmen; He commands the remembrancers. And our pattern is His manner of discharging them, and the condition of receiving the power is to abide in Him. III. THE OF THE OF CHRIST WILL SECURE THE OF GOD’S POWER. “Give Him no rest.” Bold words. The prophet believes that those who remind God can stir up the strength of the Lord. Practically, God reaches His end—the establishment of Zion, through the Church. The great reservoir is always full; but the bore of the pipe and the power of the pumping-engine determine the rate at which the stream flows from it (Matthew 13:58). We may have as much of God as we want, as much as we can hold, far more than we deserve. An awful responsibility lies on us. With what grand confidence may the weakest go to his task. LESSONS.— 1. Look at the energy around us. Do we work as hard for God as the world does for itself. 2. Look at the energy beneath us. If we are sitting drowsy by our camp fires, the enemy is on the alert. It is no time for God’s sentinels to nod. 3. Look at the energy above us. On the throne of the universe is the immortal Power who slumbereth not. Before the altar of the heavens is the Priest of the world. Round Him stand perfected spirits, who “rest not day and night.” Do we work for God as He and all that are with Him do? Alas! have we not been like the three Apostles sleeping, even while the Lord was wrestling with the tempter in Gethsemane. Let us lift up our cry to God: “Awake, awake” (Isaiah 51:9); and the answer shall be an echo of the prayer turned into a command (Isaiah 52:1).—A. Maclaren, D.D.: Sermons, Second Series, pp. 19–38. ACTIVE ZEAL IN THE GOSPEL Isaiah 62:10-11. Go through, go through the gates, &c.I. THE GENERAL ORDERS OF OUR GREAT LEADER. 1. The general order. The Church is considered under the figure of an army in its winter quarters. From this state of comparative ease, it is called to enter upon active service. The repetition of the charge points out the earnestness of the speaker. Activity in goodness characterises God, who sent forth His Son to seek and to save the lost; our Lord who came forth on this great errand; and His true disciples in every age. 2. The peculiar services assigned them. Those who are to receive the Gospel are considered as at a distance from the city, and are requiring much to be done to facilitate their approach. (1). The Jews are first mentioned. “The people.” Isaiah constantly distinguishes the Jews from the Gentiles, by using the singular number for the Jews, and the plural for the Gentiles (cf. Isaiah 2:2-4 with Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 11:10 with Isaiah 11:11; and Isaiah 11:12 with Isaiah 11:16). Further the Church is to “cast up the highway;” that is, provide for them every outward means that may be useful to assist in their conversion, such as sending missionaries to them, &c. Next, “Gather out the stones,” i.e., remove the numerous stumbling-blocks at present in the way of that people; such as the unkind treatment, the unscriptural tenets, the ungodly lives, and the distressing immoralities of those who are called Christians. (2.) For the Gentiles an important service is to be performed: “Lift up an ensign for the peoples” [1764][1764] The military figure used in the former part of the verse is still kept up. A standard or ensign is that implement of war which a commander raises, not only to collect his own troops, but also to bring the people, into whose country he is entering, to the allegiance of his sovereign. Hence it is that so much care is taken, in besieged towns, to keep up the standard. When that is taken, and the ensign of the besieging army is seen on the citadel, it is a signal for the inhabitants to yield themselves to the conqueror. The Christian army is therefore here directed to lift up the Redeemer’s standard, that the Gentiles may be drawn to His easy yoke. His ensign is Christ Himself (Isaiah 11:10). In Him there is everything to attract the soul. Upon that standard what attractive mottoes are emblazoned (Isaiah 45:22; John 11:25; Hosea 13:14; Revelation 21:7, &c.). The standard is to be lifted up; we must let the nations see the Saviour. He has only to be clearly seen to be loved and admired. The Gospel, therefore, is to be plainly and fully preached in the largest cities, and the most open cities wherever the Gentiles are, or to whatever tribes they belong.—Stewart. II. AN TO FULFIL THESE ORDERS. This three-fold “Behold” seems to imply something on which the armies of the living God should fix their eyes with intense earnestness. Here, in fact, there is unsurpassed encouragement to missionary exertion. Of this you will be convinced, if you consider— 1. The countries to which the proclamation it mentions is directed: “Unto the end of the world,” i.e., wherever any of the remnant of Israel are scattered. 2. The person for whom the proclamation is to be made: “The daughter of Zion,” i.e., the remnant of Judah. 3. The contents of the message to that people: “Behold, thy salvation cometh,” &c. A message exactly accordant both to the desires and the necessities of the Jews. They have long been looking for the coming of their Messiah. They mistook Him, when He appeared the first time; for when they expected that He would come with outward pomp and splendour, not discerning that the prophet had declared that He had another work to do (e.g., ch. 53; Daniel 9:24). But still they are expecting Him. To them we are to say, “Your Saviour now draws nigh. That Jesus whom your fathers crucified,” &c. Surely such a message as this is an encouragement to “go through the gates,” for, if anything can touch the heart of the daughter of Zion, it is to hear that her King is coming, that her Saviour is at hand.—J. Haldane Stewart, M.A: A Practical View of the Redeemer’s Advent, pp. 296–315. THE SEEKING LOVE OF GOD Isaiah 62:12. Thou shalt be called, Sought out.Without violence we may use these words of every member of the Church of God. All His children may take for their name and distinction the words “Sought out.” I. THE NATURAL IMPLIED IN THIS TITLE. 1. The Church of God was originally lost. 2. So lost that we did not seek the Lord. 3. Nor should we have ever willed to return to Him. 4. We did not desire Him to seek us. 5. Our being sought out, considering our condition, was one of the greatest wonders ever known or heard of. II. GRACE . That they were sought out at all. 2. The persons sought out. 3. That we were sought OUT. The word “out” conveys a mass of meaning. We were mingled with the mire, &c. 4. That we were sought out Divinely—by God Himself. 5. Effectually. III. THE TITLE . How were we sought out? 1. In the eternal purpose and work of Christ. 2. By gracious words of mercy. 3. By afflictions. 4. By mysterious visitations. 5. By the Holy Spirit. IV. THE SPECIAL DUTY UPON THOSE WHO WEAR THIS TITLE. Seeking others out. The preaching of the Gospel is not the only means. Let us hunt for souls by— 1. Visitation. Take the Gospel to the people. 2. Your prayers.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Nos. 525, 526. CHRIST’S AND TRIUMPH Isaiah 63:1-4. Who is this that cometh from Edom, &c.I. THE OF CHRIST FOR THE OF OUR . We have here three leading features of it— 1. His deep and solitary suffering. 2. The glorious principles on which He suffered to redeem others. “The year of my redeemed is come.” Here, then, we distinctly recognise the great doctrine of Atonement—a doctrine as full of comfort to the contrite sinner as it is essential to the harmony and perfection of the Christian system. 3. The glory of the conquest He obtained. This the predominant character of the text. II. THE RESULTS FLOWING FROM HIS . These are threefold— 1. The honours of Divine justice secured and rendered compatible with the salvation of man. 2. The judicial division of the human race into two great classes—Christ’s enemies and His redeemed. To one of these we all belong. 3. The certain salvation of the one, and the fearful overthrow of the other, guaranteed by our Lord’s success and supremacy.—Samuel Thodey.Isaiah 63:1. The peculiarities of Eastern imagery. The undertaking of Christ the most striking event in the dispensations of God to our lower world, &c. This great work as the text teaches is the great theme of prophecy. Viewing the text in this light, we select two points for meditation.I. THE OF CHRIST in sustaining and carrying on the great work of human redemption. 1. This supposes that there were great difficulties and obstacles to be overcome before man could be restored to God’s favour. 2. The text teaches that Christ was every way equal to the undertaking. They were no common resources that He brought into the field, &c. 3. That in the prosecution of this conflict He endured great and overwhelming suffering. Their solitariness.II. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST. It was a triumph of great principles over their opposites. The problem to be solved was whether sin or holiness, with their infinite results, should prevail, &c. This problem was solved on the Cross. 2. Really accomplished in the nature that sinned. 3. Made more illustrious by the seeming humiliation and discomfiture with which it was attended. 4. Effected by the single and unaided influence of the Captain of our salvation.—Samuel Thodey.A great and glorious—I. Person. Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:11-15). II. Work. 1. To save, &c. 2. Performed entirely of Himself. 3. Will bring more glory to God than creation. III. Salvation.—Studies for the Pulpit, Part II. pp. 149–152. THE OF CHRIST Isaiah 63:9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, &c.There is no man so great as not to need at some season or other the sympathy of his friend, &c. If human sympathy be so valuable how much more Divine, &c. Christ once suffered for us, He always suffers with us, &c. We have here— I. HUMAN . The text supposes that affliction may be great,—sorrow upon sorrow, that we are unable to endure the pressure of grief alone, and that adequate occasions for God’s special interference may frequently occur. This was the case with the Church in captivity, &c. Human calamity is the same thing still, &c. There is an awful reality in grief, which, like an overwhelming burden, crushes the spirit and overpowers the resources, &c. Or the human mind may be burdened with the sense of guilt, personal afflictions, bereavements, &c. Who can hush the grief and afford adequate relief under all the sorrows and calamities of life. There is but One in the universe can do it, and to Him the text points. II. DIVINE . 1. His compassion is most real and perfect. He is afflicted with the afflictions of His people. His sympathy is no imaginary consolation. He ascended in the nature in which He suffered. He knows by experience the nature of human trial, and can meet the exigency alike of real and groundless alarm, &c. 2. His aid is exerted in the most seasonable time. In His interpositions there is never any unnecessary or fatal delay. 3. There is an ineffable kindness in His dispensations which cannot be mistaken. 4. Constant and unchangeable. .— 1. Ascertain your title to His peculiar sympathy. 2. Carry your griefs to Him. He is engaged to relieve all the trouble, and forgive all the guilt that is brought to Him. 3. Acknowledge your past obligations. 4. Be a saviour to others (2 Corinthians 1:3).—Samuel Thodey.I. Divine sympathy. II. Interposition. III. Love. IV. Care.—Dr. Lyth. THE FRIEND TURNED INTO AN ENEMY Isaiah 63:10. But they rebelled, and grieved His Holy Spirit, &c.How sad is the change described in these words. If it were the heathen, unprivileged and unenlightened, of whom this was spoken, it would not be so surprising, but that it should be said of Israel with all their advantages that “they rebelled,” &c., does seem surprising (Isaiah 63:8-9). Are we indignant at such ingratitude? May we not have cause to turn our indignation against ourselves? The history of Israel, the mercies of which are here recounted, is a mirror in which we may see ourselves. Our privileges are even greater than theirs, and correspondingly greater is the guilt of our rebellion. I. The surprising change in God’s people in their bearing toward Him. Even they rebelled against Him, and grieved His Spirit. The Old Testament Church had a real though limited dispensation of the Spirit. Christ is now glorified, and He is given in more abundant measure (John 7:39). He is said to be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), resisted (Acts 7:51), quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). But how can a Divine person suffer grief? As the revealer of truth He is grieved by unbelief and ignorance; as the Spirit of holiness, by all impurity; as the Spirit of love, by selfishness and ingratitude. Look at some of the features of this rebellion. How are we to account for this surprising change, and what is involved in this shameful backsliding? 1. Distrust and alienation of heart. Open rebellion arises from secret disloyalty. In the case of Israel, we find them turning back in heart to Egypt, and murmuring against God, &c. How prone we are to revert to former sources of carnal gratification! Another fruitful source of defection in Israel was the idolatrous practices of surrounding nations. Prevailing customs have a power to drag us down, to unhinge our reliance on God, and to instigate the spirit of rebellion. Against both these influences let us be on our guard. Beware of every insidious influence that would tamper with your loyalty and trust. 2. The influences of the Spirit are resisted. All who live under the Gospel are subjects in some measure of these influences. He awakens, &c. But these alarms do not always issue in conversion. Souls thus roused begin to resist the Spirit, &c. But even God’s people may sadly wound and grieve the Spirit by opposing His gracious work, and by the coldness and deadness of their hearts. 3. As Israel murmured against Moses, so in our rebellion we despise Christ our deliverer. It is the Spirit’s work to reveal Christ (John 16:13-14). He is glorified in the homage paid to Christ. Whatever, then, obscures the glory and sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice, or is proposed as a substitute for it, must grieve the Spirit. 4. Neglect of the means of grace. The Word of God is from the Holy Spirit, and is used by Him as an instrument in all His gracious operations on the hearts of men. To trifle with the word of revelation, to neglect or despise it is to dishonour its Author. We cannot respect the physician whose medicines we refuse to take. II. The consequent change in God’s bearing toward His people. This does not imply any real change in God. The change is in His people who have revolted against Him. He is as much their loving Father now when He shows himself their enemy, as before when He showed himself their friend. If we take part with His enemies, and hold traitorous intercourse with them, how can He deal with us otherwise? Oh, the folly and ingratitude of those who having found God a Friend turn Him into an enemy. In mentioning the loving-kindnesses of the Lord (Isaiah 63:7), this is not the least of them, that in our foolish rebellions He is turned to be our enemy. How unwearied and patient is His love (Nehemiah 9:17). Be faithful to your vows. It is not for you to hold traitorous intercourse with the enemies of your Leader. —William Guthrie, M.A.Isaiah 63:10. I. The claims which arise from the work of the Holy Spirit. II. The sins which are possible against the Holy Spirit.—J Rawlinson.Isaiah 63:11. I. A grateful retrospect. II. An affectionate inquiry. III. A delightful assurance.Isaiah 63:12. I. God leads His people by instruments which He chooses and qualifies. II. Defends them with the arm of His power. III. Removes every difficulty that intercepts their course. IV. Glorifies His own name in their deliverance.Isaiah 63:14. I. God’s people need rest. II. Rest is provided for them. III. God guides them to it by His own Spirit. IV. Thereby reveals and glorifies His name.Isaiah 63:15-16. I. Our Father’s house. Heavenly. Holy. Glorious. II. Our Father’s character. Strong. Tender. Compassionate. III. Our Father’s faithfulness. Survives our ingratitude—vicissitude—time. IV. Our Father’s name. Father. Redeemer—from everlasting. V. Our Father’s claims. Honour. Obedience. Love.Isaiah 63:15. I. God’s people in trouble. II. Their resource. III. Their plea. Past interpositions. Past mercies.—J. Lyth, D.D. GOD’S TO HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 63:16. Doubtless Thou art our father, though Abraham, &c.From thanksgiving and confession, the people betake themselves to earnest prayer for deliverance from sin and suffering (Isaiah 63:15). Consider God’s relation to His people in two aspects— I. As a fact most encouraging at all times, but especially in times of trouble. God’s ancient people were in sore trouble (Isaiah 63:15 and others). Yet, amid all, they derived encouragement from the intimate relationships which existed between God and them. 1. As their Father (Isaiah 64:8; Deuteronomy 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Jeremiah 3:4). Though this relationship was revealed under the old covenant, it was practically realised only upon the rarest occasions. Amid their trials, this is now the ground of their appeal. As their Father He must love them, and be ready to listen to them, &c. Though their earthly fathers afforded them no assistance, and seem to have ceased to feel any interest in them, they have confidence in the constancy of their heavenly Father’s compassion (Jeremiah 31:20). This is the ever deepening conviction of God’s people everywhere. Gourds may grow and wither, but our heavenly Father’s love neither grows nor withers—it is un-changing; it holds on and holds out, needing no sustenance from without, except that supplied by our need of it; it endures through all our unfaithfulness, &c. As our Father— (1) He is the author of our spiritual life. By His Spirit He quickens, &c., and imparts His own nature and image (2 Peter 1:4; Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:23-24). (2) He secures our instruction. By His works, Word, Spirit, &c. (3) He supplies all our need. His supplies are suited, abundant, satisfying, inexhaustible. (4) He protects us. Exposed to innumerable perils and evils, He is our shield, &c. (5) He gives us a glorious and everlasting portion. A kingdom, a crown, &c., and bliss ineffable and eternal.Such a relation cannot fail to be a source of unspeakable comfort to the people of God amid all their trials. Such a Father, ever living and loving, &c. Are you His child by the adoption of grace, &c.? He wants you to be His restored, obedient child, &c. “We are all the children of God,” in the highest sense, “by faith in Christ Jesus.”2. As their Redeemer (kinsman). Their history was a series of remarkable deliverances. As their Redeemer He delivers His people— (1) From the bondage of sin and Satan, &c. (pp. 295, 416, 417, 438, 551). No arm but His could break the chain, &c. (2) From all their troubles (Psalms 34:19). á. Either in this life, in answer to prayer (Psalms 34:6; Psalms 46:1, and others). At the fittest time, by the fittest instrument, through the fittest medium, and in the fittest manner. â. Or wholly, in the life to come. Here, then, is “strong consolation” for God’s people amid all their tribulations. Troubled one, “be of good cheer!” 3. As their unchanging Friend. “Name”—expresses the Divine perfections. We delight to tell our cares, &c., to a faithful friend. Whoever dies, Jesus lives. II. As a fact independent of the recognition of the greatest men.—Abraham and Jacob were two of the greatest men in Jewish history—the venerated ancestors of the Hebrew race, &c. Whether these great men knew it or not, they felt their relationship to God was a fact most encouraging. The believer’s relation to God is a fact independent of man’s acknowledgment, however great. The world knows us not, because it knows not our Father (1 John 3:1-2). They often regard us as fanatics, &c. Nothing do they less understand than the elements which constitute the Christian’s character and joys. As they mistake our Father’s character, it is no wonder they should mistake ours (John 17:25; Acts 3:17; 1 Corinthians 2:8). But whatever the great ones of the earth may think of you, if you have genuine faith in Christ, you are a child of God—the fact is as unalterable as it is glorious (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1-2; Galatians 4:4-7). Whoever refuses to acknowledge you, steadfastly believe in God as your Father, Redeemer, &c. This is infinitely more precious than the most honoured earthly ancestry, &c. Unspeakably blessed are those who have the LORD for their Father and Redeemer. They rise superior to all life’s trials, and exult in the hope of glory (Romans 5:2). Is this blessedness yours?—Alfred TuckerI. The characters under which God is here addressed. (See former outline.) II. The affections and emotions of which God is the proper object. 1. Of admiring gratitude and awe. 2. Of filial confidence and trust. 3. Of earnest pleading and expostulation (Isaiah 63:15-19 and ch. 64). 4. Of high and animated hope. These are not the pleadings of despair, &c.—S. Thodey.Isaiah 63:17-19. I. The sorrows of God’s people. Phases. Causes. Moral influence. II. Their chastisement. Just. Administered by means of their enemies. Merciful. Corrective. III. Their cure. Penitential prayer. Faith, founded on God’s peculiar right in His people.Isaiah 63:19. God’s people as distinguished from their enemies are—I. His special property. II. His privileged subjects. II. His acknowledged children.—J. Lyth, D.D. A PRAYER FOR REVIVAL Isaiah 64:1-2. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down, &c.It is not into the mouth of every Israelite that the prophet puts this prayer: only the true-hearted, believing remnant could offer it. Selfish grovelling souls can, perhaps, ask certain blessings from God,—health when they are sick, bread when they are hungry, deliverance when they are in danger; but that God Himself should come down is a thing which they can neither desire nor endure. They can be satisfied with what is beneath the heavens, while the desires of the godly aspire to what is above the heavens. How is it with us? May the Holy Spirit elevate our desires, and teach us that our true blessedness lies in the answer to this great petition. Whether for ourselves, the Church, or the world at large, it expresses the most urgent need. I. THE WHICH IT CRAVES. A repetition of God’s former acts in their behalf (Isaiah 63:8-14); some manifest Divine intervention. It had long seemed as if He had withdrawn His presence, and they pray that these darkened heavens that hung over them like a pall, might be rent for a disclosure of His majesty and saving power. Is not this also our need? To the Spirit’s gracious influences we must ascribe those times of refreshing, which come in answer to fervent prayer (Acts 1:8 and others). II. THE PLEAS BY WHICH THE PRAYER IS . 1. Former mercies (Isaiah 63:15). 2. A close and endearing relation is pleaded (Isaiah 63:16). 3. The disobedience and unbelief of the great mass of the nation (Isaiah 63:17). 4. The rapacity of their adversaries (Isaiah 63:18-19). III. THE EFFECTS WHICH ITS ANSWER . “The mountains” of difficulty and opposition shall be levelled into smoothness; every anti-Christian power shall be weakened and destroyed. We are often hindered and thwarted in our work for God by huge mountain masses that rear their giant forms right in front of us, and seem insurmountable, rendered all the greater by the unbelieving fears and faint-heartedness of fellow—workers. But let God come down, and they are removed (Zechariah 4:7). This Divine interposition is also compared to the twofold action of fire in its destructive and beneficent effects (Isaiah 64:2, Revised Version). In spring we see fires blazing in fields and gardens, burning up the worthless prunings and brushwood, that the operations of husbandry may go forward. So, when God comes down, all that is evil, all that opposes the progress of the truth within us and around us is consumed (Luke 12:49; Malachi 3:2-3).—William Guthrie, M.A.Isaiah 64:1. THE POWER THAT REMOVES . This is a cry for help and deliverance coming from the Church in the midst of conscious difficulties. Those difficulties produced by a general abandonment of God (Isaiah 63:10; Isaiah 64:5-7). The remedy is found only in calling upon God, and obtaining a display of His wondrous power. The text implies—I. That there are great difficulties encompassing the people of God.Here compared to “mountains,” because of their formidable attitude and strength.1. Difficulties arising from the active opposition of the Church’s enemies, organised and instigated by the great enemy of mankind. 2. Difficulties arising from the magnitude of the work committed to the Church. How vast all the interests at stake and the responsibility involved. Low, weak, and incapable the human instruments: how disastrous is failure! 3. Difficulties arising from ourselves. Our mistakes, unwatchfulness, unfaithfulness, follies, create our own worst entanglements. 4. Difficulties arising from a common source—sin. This severs our connection with Divine power, and forfeits the Divine approval (Isaiah 64:7). All is gone—hope, help, happiness—when God is absent!II. That difficulties vanish when God puts forth His power.1. God puts forth His power in bestowing imposing revelations of Himself. Here referred to as “rending the heavens;” “coming down.” 2. In defeating the Church’s enemies. “The mountains flow down at His presence.”III. The Power of God removes difficulties when His people cry unto Him.1. This is a cry of penitence. It involves a confession of unfaithfulness, of sin, of baffled endeavours, of helplessness. 2. This is a cry of faith. (1) Faith in God’s power to remove difficulties, or we should never pray. (2) Faith in God’s willingness, or we should not persevere in prayer. Earnest, believing, importunate prayer opens the heavens, brings God near, and conquers every mountain of difficulty.—G. Barlow.Isaiah 64:1-3. I. Some of the obstacles to the prosperity and happiness of the Church. II. The power of God to remove them. Signally. Unexpectedly. Effectually. III. The encouragement He has given us to believe He will remove them. IV. The necessity of soliciting His help and interposition.—J. Lyth, D.D.Isaiah 64:4-8. I. The transcendent excellency of the Divine purpose respecting His people. II. The principles on which this purpose proceeds. Righteousness. Justice. Mercy. III. The utter want of merit in us. We have sinned. Our very righteousness is polluted. Our nature is frail—because of iniquity. IV. The humble determination to submit ourselves now to the will of God.Isaiah 64:4. I. The characters described. They wait for God—in faith, hope, obedience. II. The blessedness prepared for them. Surpasses all human experience and expectation. Is only known to God.—J. Lyth, D.D.GOD’S SPECIAL REGARD FOR HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 64:5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, &c.The most weighty and important of all inquiries must be those which relate to our acceptance with God, and to that description of character which He will approve, &c. The text is a comprehensive description of the character of the people of God. I. The attributes of character by which the servants of God are known. 1. By their patient waiting for God (Isaiah 64:4). None but those who wait love; none but those who love wait. 2. By their love of righteousness. 3. By their devout remembrance of God. They remember God in the ways of His providence and grace. 4. By their fixed adherence to their principles in times of discouragement and declension. II. The special favour with which God regards them. However they fail in securing the sympathy of men, they are assured of the effectual and sustaining sympathy of God. He meets them— 1. In the gracious promises of His Word—assuring them of protection, of guidance, of support. 2. In the ordinances of His appointment. The ministry of the Word, the secret exercises of devotion, &c. 3. In the events of His providence. 4. In the season of departure from earth to heaven. .— 1. If such be the privileges of the righteous how anxious should we be to be enrolled among their number. 2. If such be the greatness and glory of God how formidable must it be to stand in enmity against Him. All resistance is vain. Be wise! Lay down the weapons of your warfare at the cross of your Redeemer.—Samuel Thodey.I. The people whom God regards. II. The grace which God displays.—S. Thodey. AUTUMN LEAVES Isaiah 64:6. And we all do fade as a leaf.Men have ever been ready to associate the seasons of the year with the periods of human life: to compare our youth with the spring time, &c. We all know we are rapidly passing away, &c. Everything tells us that we are under a law of change and uncertainty, and decay and death; and my object will be to justify and account for this state of things, and to see what reliefs and supports the Gospel gives. Consider— I. THE ORIGIN OF THIS STATE OF THINGS in the history of our fallen humanity. This was not the primitive condition of the race, but was superinduced and brought about by the entrance of sin. Man was not originally designed to perish like a leaf, &c. II. THE DESIGN OF IT. For wise reasons God has placed us in a world of change, and under a law of uncertainty. Partly as a scene of discipline and spiritual education, and partly as a preventative against the outbreak of much depravity, which would be sure to arise from a state of changeless prosperity, in our sinful natures. We could not be trusted with unbroken happiness; and it would not be safe for us to be without the benefits which the changes of life produce. The law is universal: “We all,” &c. Who has not lost a friend, &c. III. THE MERCY OF THE . It is well that we do fade as a leaf, that we are often subject to gradual changes, as preparatory to the last great one. We might have been cut down like a tree, suddenly, without preparation, &c. The leaf as gradually fades, as it was gradually matured. God bears with much longsuffering. We ought to bless God for time and space for repentance, &c. IV. THE CLAIMS OF GOD AND TRUTH upon you before the leaf fades from the tree. 1. Think much of the shortness and brevity of life. 2. Seek grace that you may know the day of your visitation, before life, like a withered leaf, drops from the tree, or is shaken down by the storm. “That life is long that answers life’s great end.” It is impossible if salvation be lost to repair by a second opportunity the loss of the first.—Samuel Thodey.I. Though “we all do fade as a leaf,” we do not perish as a leaf. II. We are not forgotten as a leaf. III. The Gospel cheers us in this fading condition. IV. The ripening of the soul may be going on in the midst of the fading.—Studies for the Pulpit, p. 107.I. Man is unclean. 1. His nature is unclean. In its source, flow, fruits. 2. His righteousness is as filthy rags, mixed, defective, insufficient. II. Man is frail (see p. 420). Like a leaf he fades. By a natural law. Gradually, &c. III. Man is perishing. Like a leaf he decays. Rapid decay. Short lived existence. Certain fall. Dissolution.Our iniquities, &c. I. Have torn us from God, as the leaf from the parent tree. II. Have destroyed our moral strength and beauty. III. Have overcome all our power of resistance. IV. Have plunged us into ruin and misery. V. Will if unchecked by the grace of God sweep us into eternal ruin.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE ABSENCE OF PRAYER Isaiah 64:7. There is none that … stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee.THE SUBJECT OF AND . Not the neglect of ordinances, or the lack of profession, &c., but the lack of importunate prayer. How wonderful the permission and privilege here implied! The meaning is obvious. Similar expressions occur (Isaiah 27:5; Isaiah 56:6). These are representations of one act—the act of believing with the heart unto righteousness. But this is not mainly intended, but that of those who had taken hold of the covenant for salvation none was stirring up himself to take hold of God by importunate, wrestling, prevailing prayer. It is not every kind of prayer that can be thus designated. There is a holy violence about such supplication. In prayer we take hold of God— 1. By pleading His perfections. These constitute the encouragement of prayer. Thus Jacob, &c. God does nothing contrary to His perfections, but He is pleased to permit His people to plead these, and wait for their illustration. 2. By pleading His relations to His Church. What parent can hear unmoved the cry of his own offspring, &c. (Isaiah 63:15-19). Such pleadings affect our own mind, and put us into a right frame to receive answers. 3. By pleading the promises of His Word. 4. By remembering His former interpositions. 5. By absolute submission to His will. II. THE FACTS IMPLIED IN THE OF THE APATHY MOURNED. 1. That few if any were striving after eminent piety. 2. That in taking hold of God we are to use appropriate means. 3. That the work is individual and personal. 4. That extraordinary methods were to be adopted— (1) Obtain solemn impressions of Divine realities. (2) Secure extraordinary times for prayer. (3) Exercise holy watching, &c. III. THE EVILS TO BE IN WITH THE NEGLECT OF THIS DUTY. 1. In the dishonour done to God. 2. In the advantage withheld from the Church. 3. In the benefit we ourselves lose. 4. In our neglected obligation to benefit the world.—George Smith, D.D.I. The nature of prayer described. II. The neglect of prayer deplored. III. The encouragement of prayer suggested.—S. Thodey. (See also G. Brooks’ Outlines, p. 229–231.)Isaiah 64:8. God’s people are distinguished—I. By their childlike confidence. II. Their implicit submission to His will. III. Their grateful acknowledgment of their dependence.Isaiah 64:9. I. The evil deprecated—God’s anger. Merited. Acknowledged. II. The terms in which it is deprecated. Imply the justice of God’s procedure. Beseech a limitation of its severity. III. The plea by which it is deprecated. Humble. Confident. Founded in God’s covenant relation to His people.Isaiah 64:10-11. Sin—I. Turns a scene of beauty into desolation. II. Profanes what is most sacred. III. Embitters what is most sacred in the associations of memory. IV. Destroys all that is most pleasant.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE OF THE (Missionary Sermon.) Isaiah 65:1. I am sought of them that asked not for Me, &c.It was God’s design from the beginning to call the Gentile nation into His Church, and, in due time, to admit them to all the blessings and privileges of the Gospel. The Jews, indeed, were His peculiar people; but this distinction in their favour was made only for a particular purpose, and for a limited season. They were chosen especially for this end, that they might preserve in the world the knowledge of the true God, and then prepare the way for the coming of the promised Redeemer, who, when He should come, was to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” &c. It is to this great event that our text refers, as we are taught by St. Paul, who cites it as an expressive prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles (Romans 10:20). The passage sets before us— I. The wretched state of the Gentiles before their conversion to Christianity. Many of the Gentile nations were neither savages, nor sunk in want and ignorance, nor destitute of the necessaries, conveniences, or even elegant comforts of life. In all these respects they came very little, if at all, behind ourselves; they were rich and powerful, and produced many eminent men, whose talents and exploits have commanded the admiration of mankind. Yet they were wretched; they knew not God. “Darkness covered the earth,” &c. They made no inquiry after Him, &c. Surrounded by the wonderful works of God, they yet asked not who was the maker of them. They bowed down to idols, &c. (Romans 1:21-32). II. The surprising and glorious change which was then wrought in them. They sought and found God. Their idols they cast away. Their vices they abandoned. A moral transformation took place in them, even more wonderful than those physical ones, which the prophet depicts (Isaiah 35:1-7; Isaiah 55:13). III. The simple but powerful means by which this great work was accomplished. The Lord, by His Word, revealed His grace and glory to them, &c. .— 1. We are deeply concerned in these facts, and ought to regard them with feelings of most lively gratitude. Such was once the state of this country, such, at this moment, would have been our state if God had not sent His light and truth among us. 2. The condition of the heathen nations is as lamentable today as it was of old. The character of the most degraded of them admits of as complete and glorious a transformation. We have witnessed these moral miracles in our own day. The means by which this glorious transformation may be effected has been intrusted to us (2 Corinthians 5:18; Matthew 28:19-20). Shall we be unfaithful to so great a trust? Gratitude to God, and compassion for our fellow-men, should make us diligent in its discharge.—E. Cooper.God justifies His dispensation towards the Jews because of their manifold apostacies from Him, and then shows that He had conferred His favour upon the Gentiles, who had made no application to Him.I. Why we must behold Him. 1. Because our whole interests are bound up in His favour. Consider who it is that asks you to behold Him as a God reconciled in Christ. Think of the contrast between the parties. He calls a world of rebels to His footstool, &c. 2. Because He delights to raise up trophies of His grace when and where we might least expect it (see former outline). 3. Because, though He is sometimes found of those who seek Him not, He is always found of those who seek Him.II. Where shall we behold Him? Everywhere; the kingdom of nature; the volume of His Word; the economy of providence; the terrors of Sinai, but specially in the cross of Calvary.III. When, &c. Now. Always.—S. Thodey. (See p. 233–240.)Isaiah 65:2-7. The rejection of Israel. I. Preceded by special privileges. II. Occasioned by sin. Ingratitude. Idolatry. Hypocrisy. III. Clearly predicted. As a warning. IV. Judicially sealed.—Dr. Lyth.Isaiah 65:2. The conduct of Israel excites our astonishment, but it finds its parallel among ourselves. Observe—I. God’s conduct toward men. 1. Gracious. Rebels against His laws, &c., having every element of iniquity (Isaiah 65:2-4). 2. Earnest. Outstretched hands—attitude of entreaty—willing to receive to favour. 3. Forbearing—without intermission. Day of life often protracted. II. Man’s conduct toward God. 1. Ungrateful. 2. Insulting. 3. Obstinate. 4. Criminal. Such a rejection of mercy must secure punishment (Proverbs 1:24; Psalms 107:11).—A. Tucker. THE SOCIETY OF OTHERS Isaiah 65:5. Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me, &c.There are few things in which it becomes us to be more careful than in our judgment of others, and in action founded on that judgment. Some relations in which we stand to men involve judgment of them. We are not forbidden to judge (Matthew 7:1-5). Our text accuses those to whom it applies, of asserting their own moral superiority, and repudiating the society of others on that account. But we must discriminate. I. THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH IT IS . We are not called upon to consider all men morally equal to ourselves, nor to associate with them as if they were. We are forbidden so to do (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Thessalonians 3:6). It may be perfectly true that you are holier than some who may be considered; and that fact may be involved in your very profession of Christianity. The fact of conversion involves moral superiority to the unconverted, &c. And if this wide distinction exists between saints and sinners, why should it not be professed? We need a visible organisation as a point around which the saints may gather. Such an organisation the Saviour’s wisdom and grace has provided in the fellowship of the Church. Those who join that fellowship emphatically declare their separation from the world. Not only so. In the multiform relations of individual life, and in relation to many practices and principles which obtain in the world, Christians must be prepared practically to say, “Stand by thyself,” &c. But II. THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH IT IS . It is possible to say this in an improper and irreligious spirit. It may be said— 1. By the self-deceived. It may be quite contrary to the fact. The Jewish people said it. But they are solemnly charged in the verses before the text with practising some of the vilest abominations of heathenism (Isaiah 65:2; Isaiah 65:4). Nor is theirs a solitary case. 2. By the self-righteous. They are under a delusion as to the nature of holiness, &c. Nor has the self-righteous spirit been cast out of the world. 3. By the uncharitable. They are ever quick to discern the failings of others, while their eyes are closed to their own, &c. The Church of Christ should free itself from this uncharitableness and censoriousness. Let us place ourselves habitually in the pure light of God’s holiness. Then we shall be so humbled by the consciousness of our own sinfulness as to be very tender and pitiful towards the imperfections of our brethren. And in any case, let us see that we possess and cultivate the holiness which is assumed by those who assert their own superiority.—J. Rawlinson.I. A picture of self-righteous pride. Despises others. Glorifies self. Pretends to peculiar sanctity. II. Its offensiveness in the sight of God. It offends His purity. Arouses His indignation.Isaiah 65:6-7. Man’s iniquities are—I. Multiplied. By personal acts. From generation to generation. II. Recorded. In God’s book—minutely, accurately. III. Will certainly be recompensed. Justly. By measure into every man’s bosom.—J. Lyth, D.D. DESTROY IT NOT Isaiah 65:8. Thus saith the Lord, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it, &c.“Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God.” Let it not, however, be supposed that God delights to destroy men’s lives, or is capricious in the bestowment of rewards and punishments. The goodness and severity of God are not contradictions in the Divine nature, but the two halves of His perfect character (Exodus 34:6-7). The burden of our text is MERCY. HOW many applications may we make of the words, “Destroy it not!” Let us view the passage in reference to— I. GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE THE JEWS. The Jews at different parts of their history have resembled clusters of grapes, bruised, trodden down, and unfit for use. Yet God says to His Church, “Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.” Do you speak of the aversion and obstinacy of Israel? Let me ask, Wherein is the heart of a Jew worse than the heart of a Gentile? Is he self-righteous, and were not you, &c.? II. CITIES AND NATIONS . Let our eye gaze on this great metropolis. But shall we yield to despondence? Never, whilst there are so many righteous men and intercessors. England has a blessing, yea, is not only blessed, but is a blessing, a blessing to the nations of the earth. And may we not believe that there are many nations God will not destroy because a blessing is in them? III. THE STATE OF . A review of the history of the Church will lead many persons to say it is the history of declension and revival. But alas! has there been no period which may be called the dark ages? Yet, even in these times of apostacy, God has had a people, and among them men and women of eminent piety, who had not defiled their garments. The text should deter us from yielding to despondency and inactivity. IV. T. . The tree decays and falls, but still there may be life in the root, and new shoots may be sent up. So was it with David and Peter, who not only sighed and wept, but brought forth fruits meet for repentance, and whose latter end testified to the grace of God that was in them. I urge backsliders not to despair. V. YOUNG . The fruits of righteousness at first may be immature. Many young professors are discouraged by harsh reproof, and questioning as to sincerity; because one or two grapes in the cluster are imperfect some would throw away the whole cluster. Let me give you a word of warning as well as encouragement. Though Christ will not destroy the bruised reed, nor the tender grapes, yet many destroyers are around you. Your dangers may not be open persecution, nor some of the supposed formidable temptations, but a number of small, trivial, almost imperceptible snares,—little sins, falsely so-called. These are the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. Be not afraid, none so gentle and loving as the great Vine-dresser, when even He comes with His pruning-knife. VI. THOSE WHO ARE CALLED MOST . Have we never heard of a man of sterling piety, talent, liberality, and influence in the Church of God, who was once the most unruly and ill-disposed boy in the Sabbath-school, but who, owing to a kind and persevering teacher, received convictions and instructions that never were forgotten? Talk not of unpromising characters as hopeless. Did not John Newton seem unpromising when a captain on board a slave ship, &c. Some of the so-called unpromising characters are more hopeful than many who are “not far from the kingdom of God.” How infinitely valuable must be the soul of man! If you would not destroy a vine or cluster of grapes, how much less the soul. Will you, by indifference or unbelief, destroy your soul? The soul though fallen has a blessing in it. What encouragement is offered us. God is kinder than man, &c.—J. G. Pearsall: The Christian World, Dec. 2, 1864. Isaiah 65:11-16. I. Apostate Israel and their curse. II. The true Israel and their blessing.Isaiah 65:11-12. Apostacy. I. Forsakes God. II. Forgets His ordinances. III. Bestows its devotion and energies upon false objects. IV. Meets with its merited doom (vol. i. p. 67).Isaiah 65:12. I. The gracious call of God. II. The impenitence of many. III. The inevitable result. (See p. 366.)—Dr. Lyth. TO Isaiah 65:13-15. Behold My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry, &c.The principles of God’s conduct are the same in all ages, &c. No temptation is more common than that which arises from the impression that a life of religion is necessarily a life of gloom, &c. I urge upon the undecided some reasons for religious decision. I. From the superior advantages of the religious life, beyond all the boasted distinctions or professions of worldly and ungodly men.1. They have a better Master and portion. God loves to speak of them as His servants. He claims them as His own, and they rejoice in their allegiance to Him (Isaiah 65:8-15). How greatly God honours His servants! Let Christians rejoice in the Master they serve. Let the impenitent contrast the master they serve, &c. Your master is bad; his service is worse; his wages are worst of all. Abandon Satan’s service. Become servants of Christ—here and now. 2. They have better resources and supplies. They have meat to eat which the world knows not of, and they drink of springs of refreshment which never fail, &c. What has the worldling to put over against the peace which passeth understanding, &c.? 3. They have better enjoyments (Isaiah 65:14). Religion has its conflicts, &c. But we maintain that the Christian has a large over-balance of joy. 4. They have better prospects. Even now a portion with the people of God is better than the best portion of the wicked, &c. But look at their hereafter. II. From the peculiar sources of dissatisfaction and wretchedness to which you are exposed.You have conscious condemnation, ever growing in evidence, &c.—Samuel Thodey.Isaiah 65:14. THE JOY OF GOD’S (see vol. i. pp. 234, 320, 321).There is a striking difference between those who keep and those who forsake God’s commands. The one is the object of His favour, the other of His displeasure. Those who serve God have abundant and constant occasion of rejoicing, whereas those who forsake Him exclude themselves from all true joy (Isaiah 65:13-15). Consider—I. THE GROUNDS AND REASONS OF THEIR JOY.God’s servants have the joy of— 1. Salvation (Psalms 51:12). Includes acceptance, adoption, cleansing, &c. (Romans 5:11). What a joy is this! 2. Claiming God as their portion (Lamentations 3:24, and others). Excites joy even in adversity. The stream may be cut off, but nothing can deprive them of the fountain. 3. God’s abiding presence. 4. Faith. Trusting God’s care, &c. Brings peace and heart-rest. 5. A well founded hope of heaven (Romans 5:2). This animates and sustains amid life’s sorrows. In the experience of such blessings God’s servants have good reason to sing for joy of hearts. And if there is so much joy in the way to heaven, what transports shall they have when they come to Zion with songs, &c. (Isaiah 51:11).II. THE OF THEIR JOY.It is— 1. Pure and spiritual (Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22). A holy feeling, excited by spiritual objects, apprehended by faith. Suited to the noble faculties and sublime hopes of their heaven-born souls. Leaves no bitter sediment. 2. Satisfying. Such we seek. Only God’s servants realise. God has so made us that no worldly joy can satisfy us. 3. Strengthening. For— (1) Duty. Gives vigour to all the powers of the soul. Not so carnal joys. (2) Suffering (Romans 5:3, and others). (3) Christian work. Feeds zeal like oil to the wick of a lamp. (4) Spiritual conflict. 4. Enduring (Philippians 4:4). Does not depend upon uncertain worldly good (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Lives through all the vicissitudes of this mortal life (John 15:11; John 16:22)..— 1. Have you religion enough to make you really happy? 2. Have you to lament that it is much deadened and interrupted. Earnestly seek its increase and fulness (John 15:11; John 17:13). This joy beautifies, adorns, and renders attractive the Christian character. You are bound to be joyful as a means of honouring your Divine master, and being useful to your fellow-men.—Alfred Tucker.Isaiah 65:16. The happy change. I. Trouble forgotten, as a thing past. Excluded. II. Blessing secured, on earth. In God, therefore real. In the God of truth, therefore permanent. By direct appeal to God, as the sole object of prayer.Isaiah 65:17-18. I. The regenerated world. Glorious prospect! The feelings it should inspire. II. The power by which it will be effected. III. The blessed results.Isaiah 65:19. God’s joy in His people. I. Its occasion. II. Expression. Favour. Fellowship. Blessing. III. The happy consequence—the alleviation of human sorrow.—J. Lyth, D.D.Isaiah 65:20. “The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” I. The shortness of human life. A man a hundred years old is a wonder. Contrast the age of man with that of the works of nature, art, &c. II. The long-suffering of God. Though He sees all the sins of the sinner, and hates, and is able to punish them, He delays His stroke for a hundred years. His power over Himself. III. The malignity of sin. There is no self-restoring power in the soul as in the body. There are no spontaneous cures of spiritual diseases. The power of habit. Worse and worse. IV. The inexhaustibleness of the curse. It is not exhausted by a century, nor by a millennium, nor by the cycles of eternity. V. The claims of religion upon the old. Depict the dangers of hoary-headed sinners. There is still a method of escape. Accept the Saviour immediately.—G. Brooks: Outlines of Sermons, p. 341. THE WORK AND OF GOD’S PEOPLE Isaiah 65:22. Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Connection of the text— I. THE AND OF . They are God’s people by creation, purchase, consecration, and in virtue of the purpose of God. II. THE WORK IN WHICH THEY ARE ENGAGED. 1. The law of labour pervades the universe. 2. The law applies to religion; God’s people have work to do,—the work of repentance, faith, glorifying God, &c. 3. The law is universally applicable, the man of one talent as well as the one of ten—each and all. III. THE THEY HAPPILY SHARE. There is enjoyment— 1. In doing the work. 2. In the Divine presence and aid. 3. Resulting from the work. V. THE OF THEIR JOY. 1. Individuals long enjoy the fruit of piety. 2. The Church will long enjoy and live and labour for posterity. 3. The redeemed in eternity will enjoy the fruit of time.—Geo. Smith, D.D. SPEEDY Isaiah 65:24. Before they call I will answer.Divine generosity outruns human petitions. The promise here so graciously given is illustrated practically by many instances recorded in Scripture. And many devout Christians can attest a similar readiness.I. The condition of speedy blessing. From the language of the text it is plain that the promise is limited to those who— 1. Are conscious of need; and 2. Recognise that such need can be supplied only from a Divine source.II. The character, &c. The language used is very simple and very human. We are assured that when the petition and its spirit are acceptable, God will— 1. Hear. This is something more than a statement of the Divine Omniscience. He will hear as a king hears the suit of a favourite or the petition of a suppliant, i.e., with an attentive and favourable disposition. 2. Answer. This means not by words merely, but by acts. The assurance is given that God’s providence will supply a want, or His grace remit a sin, or His Spirit impart needed strength or guidance.III. The explanation, &c. If a human benefactor were in question, there would be something paradoxical in this promise. But this disappears when it is remembered who He is who makes this wonderful promise. 1. The perfect acquaintance which the Divine Benefactor has with the wants of the suppliant. 2. The spontaneous and abounding benevolence of the Divine heart hastens to anticipate the wants, to outrun the requests of those who have petitions to present and blessings to implore.—The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. pp. 157, 158.I. Man needs to call upon and speak to God. II. Man is encouraged to call upon and speak unto God.—Lay Preacher.Isaiah 65:23. 1. The characters described. II. Their happiness. A blessing upon their toil. Upon their children.Isaiah 65:25. I. Some types of human nature. II. Their harmonious combination. Altered feelings, tastes, habits—all harmonised. III. The power by which this change is to be effected. IV. The happy issue. Peace, love, righteouness. V. The signal contrast. In the serpent and his seed.—J. Lyth, D.D. THE OBJECTS OF THE DIVINE FAVOUR Isaiah 66:1-2. Thus saith the LORD, the heaven is My throne, &c.In opposition to their formality, &c., a great truth is here asserted; viz.: That the special object of Jehovah’s gracious regard is the contrite and lowly spirit, who, with reverence and godly fear, offereth to Him sincere spiritual worship. This truth is unfolded in a threefold aspect—I. BY WAY OF REPROOF. 1. The pernicious notion that merely ritual and external service is acceptable to God is denounced and condemned. The reproof of the text is equally applicable to all that is unspiritual in religion at the present day—all heartless formality and Pharisaic ritualism. 2. Self-righteous pride is here rebuked and condemned. The Jews prided themselves in their splendid temple and their gorgeous ritualism. II. BY WAY OF . I. The text implies that the God of nature is likewise the God of grace and salvation. There are some who profess to worship the God of nature, but who ignore and deny the God of redemption in Christ. They are one and the same. 2. The human soul, in its sinful and degraded state, is an object of greater interest and value in the sight of God than all the material universe. 3. God’s gracious and approving regard is connected with a specific state of mind on the part of man. III. BY WAY OF . Consolation to a man of a poor and contrite spirit. 1. God looks upon the contrite spirit— (1) To heal its anguish. (2) To enrich and exalt him. (3) To comfort and protect him. (4) In approbation of their worship. Pomp and pageantry he spurns, &c. (5) To dwell with him for ever. Let the ungodly remember that God looketh upon them also, but not with pleasure and approbation.—E. Roberts: The Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 787. I. MAN’S LOOK (Micah 7:7). Man needs help. Where is he to look? 1. Personal. Whatever it may cost, whoever else will not, I will. 2. Reliance—“unto.” In weakness, confusion, difficulty. 3. Object—“the Lord.” He is able, willing, has promised to help.II. GOD’S LOOK. 1. God has promised to look, i.e., after. “I will.” His look is one of power, and it means help and protection. 2. Object—poor, needy. “Him that hath no helper” applies both to temporal and spiritual concerns of God’s people. 3. Contrite, repentant (Isaiah 57:15). 4. One who has reverence for God’s Word. Tries to keep it; fears to break it. Let us look to God, and God will look to us.—John R. Taft, M.A.: The Study and Homiletic Monthly, 1879, p. 163.I. The character of those who are the peculiar objects of the Divine regard. II. God’s regard to such characters. To turn away the face is expressive of disgust, disdain, &c.; to look is to approve, to care, to bless. The text expresses Divine approval, care, blessing. Conclusion: 1. How different the characters whom God esteems to those the world delights in! 2. What admirable condescension in God (Psalms 8:3-5). 3. What encouragement to, the penitent (1 John 1). 4. What a source of terror to hypocrites, pharisees, &c.—R. Watson: Sermons and Outlines), pp. 285–288.I. God’s grandeur. II. Self-sufficiency. III. All-sufficiency. IV. Condescension.Isaiah 66:3. Formal worship. I. Its features. II. Offensiveness to God. III. Utter worthlessness (pp. 625–627).Isaiah 66:4. I. The offence. Impenitence—aggravated transgressions, wilful contempt. II. The punishment. Delusion, fear, ruin.—J. Lyth, D.D. (See outlines on Isaiah 57:15.) WORSHIP Isaiah 66:5. Hear the Word of the Lord, ye that tremble, &c.In all ages, true and false professors of religion have been found within the precincts of the Church. So in Isaiah’s time, &c. The hypocritical party, instead of being humbled, &c., grew bolder in sin, and presumed upon their outward relationship to God. But the prophet reminds them that the worship of God must be suited to His nature—spiritual, &c. I. The distinguishing character of acceptable worshippers. This fear arises from— 1. Their tender love and reverence for the Author of the Word. 2. A settled delight in the holiness of that Word. 3. Produced alike by the terror of the threatenings and the sweetness of the promises. II. The special regard which God pays to them. 1. He looks upon them. 2. He dwells with them. 3. He vindicates their cause from the rebuke of enemies. 4. He brings them for ever to dwell with Him.—S. Thodey. FOR SOULS Isaiah 66:8. As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth, &c.That we may obtain a clear, comprehensive, and impressive view of the doctrine involved in this declaration, let us inquire—I. What does this travail of the Church imply? Intense prayerful desire for the salvation of souls; a strong and unwavering faith that souls will be saved when the right means are used, &c. Will manifest itself in various ways. The Word of God, and the annals of the Church furnish numerous and stimulating illustrations. What do you know of this travail? II. Why is it necessary? 1. God has so appointed it. (1) It is the order of nature. Lies at the basis of all secular success—if there be no labour there will be no profit, &c. (2) As in the natural so in the spiritual world. The history of the Church is a continuous illustration. Equally true with individuals. 2. The appointment is highly advantageous, e.g.—(1) Exercises the graces. (2) Qualifies for the proper nurture of the offspring. III. How can it be realised? Not by simply desiring it, &c. Such is the constitution of the mind, that if you want to awaken concern respecting any subject, you must fix your attention upon facts adapted to induce it. No laek of facts suited to awaken intense longing for the salvation of souls. When this concern is awakened, take care that it is cherished. IV. What will be the result? The rapid increase of the Church (see context). When the Church is really anxious for conversions to Christ, sinners will soon become anxious to be converted. What a privilege and responsibility is placed in our hands! Conclusion: Are you deeply concerned for your own salvation, &c.? (See Dr. Jenkyn’s, “The Union of the Holy Spirit and the Church,” pp. 265–288; C. H. Spurgeon, “Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit,” No. 1009).—Alfred Tucker.Isaiah 66:8-9. I. Zion’s increase. Unprecedented. Sudden. Extensive. Certain. Continuous. II. The effect of Divine power in conjunction with human efforts.Isaiah 66:10-13. I. The consolations awaiting Zion. II. The joy of those that love her.—Dr. Lyth. (See outlines on Isaiah 54:1-3; Isaiah 60:8.) DIVINE Isaiah 66:13. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, &c.I. THE . 1. Divine in its origin. 2. Rational in its nature—intelligent, consistent with reason, as well as according to faith. 3. Free in its bestowment. 4. Select in its subjects. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH IS . Not as a stranger, friend, &c. None comforts as a mother— 1. The affection of a mother is warm. 2. The care of a mother is indulgent. 3. The attention of a mother is prompt. 4. The condescension and self-denial of a mother is great. 5. The assiduity of a mother is unwearied. All this instructs us in the Lord’s tenderness and patience towards His children. III. THE MEANS BY WHICH IS ENJOYED. “In Jerusalem.” This teaches— 1. The importance of separation from an ensnaring world. 2. The propriety of regular attendance on religious worship. 3. The duty of church membership. 4. The worth of a right spirit in attending Christian ordinances. But the language of comfort must not be addressed to all (Isaiah 48:22; Isaiah 57:12).—J. Kidd, Fifty-three Sermons, pp. 296–302. Isaiah 66:13-14. Divine Comfort. I. The people of God often stand in urgent need of comfort (pp. 1–4, 406). II. The source of the most endearing and efficient comfort is God Himself (see other outline on this passage; also pp. 1–4, 407). III The Divine comfort is especially imparted in the sanctuary. 1. Appointed for His people to wait for and receive comfort. 2. The faithful discharge of sanctuary duties yield comfort. 3. The sanctuary is the place where God’s comforting presence is specially manifested. “The Holy Ghost the Comforter.” IV. The bestowment of Divine comfort inspires them with grateful and exultant joy (pp. 407). Conclusion. 1. Do you belong to the privileged community God Himself shall comfort? “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” 2. The duty and privilege of God’s people to seek Divine comfort amid all their trials. 3. Those who are Divinely comforted should seek to lead others to the same source of consolation (p. 407).—Alfred Tucker. THE LORD’S HAND Isaiah 66:14. The hand of the LORD shall be known toward His servants. I. Some of the ways the hand of the Lord makes itself known toward His servants. 1. In the character they bear. 2. In the work they do. 3. In the sufferings they endure. 4. In all the triumphs of their faith and patience. II. The condition of this visible display of God’s power. Simply to let it operate upon us and through us. We can, and often do, prevent His hand from being known. There must be humble receptiveness, believing prayer. III. The effects of this manifestation of the Lord’s hand. 1. It encourages the Lord’s servants. 2. It rebukes the unbelief of the ungodly. Conclusion. Unconverted sinner, the Lord desires to show forth the power of His grace in you. Will you not allow Him to work upon you His miracle of saving power? (See outlines on Isaiah 1:2; Isaiah 59:1).—W. Guthrie, M.A.Isaiah 66:18-24. The ultimate issue of God’s judgments. I. The revelation of the Divine glory in the sight of all nations. II. The universal proclamation of truth. III. The enlargement and perpetuation of the Church. IV. The constant and universal celebration of the Divine praise. V. The everlasting shame and misery of the wicked.Isaiah 66:23. I. God is the only true object of worship. Spiritual. Regular. II. His worship shall become universal. III. Shall be constantly perpetuated. What a great work the Church has before it!Isaiah 66:24. I. The wickedness of the wicked. II. Its punishment. Certain. Terrible. Without alleviation or hope. III. The perpetuation of its moral lessons. (See also “Gatherings from a Ministry”: John Milne, pp. 229–236).—Dr. Lyth.