xiii. 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 (Eph. ii. 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 i. 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!

CONCLUSION.--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 Pet. i. 20; Luke xi. 50; Rev. xiii. 8). 2. _This foundation was actually laid in the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus Christ_ (2 Cor. v. 21; Gal. iii. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 22). 3. _This foundation is proclaimed in the preaching of the Gospel_ (Luke xxiv. 47; Acts xiii. 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 i. 4, v. 26; Rom. viii. 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 principle 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 (Col. iii. 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 Pet. ii. 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 (Eph. ii. 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 Ps. cx. 2; and Isa. ii. 2, 3, xxv. 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 (Isa. xxvi. 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;_ now, for "the King's business requireth haste." No (Ps. cxix. 60). But--1. To _impatience_ (see chap. v. 19). "Blessed are they that _wait_ on Him." 2. To _confusion._ Terror will overwhelm the godless (Rev. i. 7). But believers (1 John ii. 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 by 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.+[2] 1. Shall not make haste, or be in haste. 2. Shall not be put to shame (Rom. ix. 33, x. 11, &c.)

CONCLUSION.--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 Pet. ii. 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.[3] 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 (Eph. ii. 20-22). 5. As summing up the whole--_a sure foundation._ Hence it is said, "He that believeth shall not make haste."[4] 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.

+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.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _"He that buildeth 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"_ (Rom. ix. 33), or "confounded" (1 Pet. ii. 6). The Hebrew word properly signified "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 future 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._

[2] 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.

[3] 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._

[4] See note 1 above.

OUR TRUST AND OUR TEST.

xxviii. 16. _A tried stone._

This phrase may be more literally rendered "a stone for 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 Pet. ii. 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.--R.A.B.]

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 great criterion of their character, as Simeon predicted (Luke ii. 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 SAVIOUR.

xxviii. 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 in 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 REFUGES.

xxviii. 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 (Ps. xiv. 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 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 Cor. xiii. 1-3; Matt. vii. 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 (Matt. xxv. 32, 33); no pretence, disguise, plea, stratagem, importunity, or effort, will avail. All refuges of lies will be swept away.

APPLICATION.--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.

THE SHORT BED AND THE NARROW COVERING.

xxviii. 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 the 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 Tirhakah 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 extravagance 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 (Matt. xi. 28). As the fond mother lays her child to sleep, so will He provide for our comfort (Isa. lxvi. 13). The word "hap" is dear to a Scotch ear, expressing "the care with which the bed-clothes 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 sooth 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 (Gal. vi. 7; Isa. l. 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, superinduced 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._

IRRELIGIOUS MOCKERY.

xxviii. 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 are 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 for 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 the demand of holiness (Prov. xiv. 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 ORIGINATES.

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 INVOLVES.

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 the 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 HUSBANDMAN.

xxviii. 24, 25. _Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? &c._[1]

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 adopted 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. Wilberforce, 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-tongued Macaulay." Norman McLeod, the great friend of the Scotch poor, was industriously maligned in all quarters. As 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 not 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., 186-196, 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! (Rev. xxi. 4).--_T. De Witt Talmage, D.D._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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 sorry," 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 to which they have taken root, only that the seeds of wholesome herbs and the 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! For, sooner or later, we shall all have to endure sorrows, 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.

A FEAST FOR FAITH.

xxviii. 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!" (Rev. xix. 6).

+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._

ARIEL.

xxix. 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 for 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 xix. 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 by 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 is it not to be questioned that we shall have much to answer for it, 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. This 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 naught.--_H. Melvill, B.D.: Sermons Preached during the Latter Years of his Life,_ vol. i. pp. 125-140.

DREAMING.

xxix. 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 three heads of PLEASURE, WORK, RELIGION.

I. PLEASURE. 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 RELIGION. 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.

AWAKENED FROM THE DREAM.

xxix. 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 (Hos. vi. 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 up 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 FUTILITY OF FIGHTING AGAINST MOUNT ZION.

(_Missionary Sermon._)

xxix. 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 all 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" (Matt. xvi. 18). The prophecy of 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" (Ps. xcvii. 1).

+III. The glory that shall rise from thence to Zion's King+ (Ps. lxxii. 10, 11, 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 Cor. xv. 25).--_Samuel Thodey._

LIP-SERVICE INSTEAD OF HEART-WORSHIP.

xxix. 13, 14. _Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people drew 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. _The removal of the heart._ God demands the service of the heart (Prov. xxiii. 26; Jer. xxix. 13). The Psalmist felt how reasonable was this demand when he said, "I will praise Thee, O Lord, with the _whole heart_" (Ps. ix. 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 xiv. 26): "In every man's heart I must be supreme, or therein I cannot dwell." Infidels must 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 (Matt. xiii. 22; 2 Tim. iv. 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 (Matt. xv. 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! (Ezek. xxxiii. 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+ (ver. 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 known Through 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 (Ps. lxxiii. 28; Heb. x. 22; Heb. vii. 19; James iv. 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+ (ver. 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 (Matt. xv. 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+ (ver. 14). Their religion was only the counsel of man. It was unavailing for its purpose, and would come to nothing (1 Cor. i. 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 (Isa. i. 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 acknowledgement of God?--_John Rawlinson._

THE JOY OF THE MEEK.

xxix. 19. _The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord._

I. THE PERSONS HERE DESCRIBED.

Meekness does not mean timidity (2 Tim. i. 7); not the craven spirit of the coward, but the quiet power of the strong man (Prov. xxviii. 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 consistent 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 (Gal. v. 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 xiv. 14, xiii. 15; Micah vii. 9; Lev. x. 3; 1 Sam. iii. 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 Pet. ii. 17, iii. 8).

II. THE BLESSINGS GOD CONFERS UPON THEM.

1. _He saves them._ Often in outward troubles they become the charge and care of His providence (Zeph. ii. 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. lxi. 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 GRATEFUL RESPONSE.

"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 (Isa. lxi. 10).--_Samuel Thodey._

RELIGIOUS JOY.

xxix. 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 (Matt. v. 3-5). Observe the contrasts in our passage (vers. 18, 19). Circumstances are mentioned which amount to the removal of all alarm (ver. 20). From the outward fact, the faith of the persons here described ruses 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 advantage 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 asservations 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 apart 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 ELEMENTS OF WHICH IT CONSISTS.

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 for 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 (Rom. v. 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 AUGMENTATION WHICH IT RECEIVES.

"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 these, 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 SIN.

xxx. 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._

STRENGTH IN QUIETNESS.[1]

xxx. 7. _Their strength is to sit still._

There is a sense in which "sitting still" is not our strength, but our destruction. To sit still in sin and unbelief is the practice and the ruin of the unconverted. To such men, exhortations of a precisely opposite character must be addressed. There is a sense too in which there is to be no "sitting still" even for the righteous (Phil. ii. 12, 13; 2 Pet. i. 5-10; Heb. iv. 11). To understand our text, we must acquaint ourselves with the circumstances which gave occasion to it. The Israelites were under the special protection and guardianship of God. Many and great were the deliverances which He wrought for them. Yet, when in difficulty and danger, they thought more of man's arm than of His. Now threatened by the Assyrians, where did they turn for help? To Egypt--to that very people who had once so cruelly oppressed their forefathers! To make sure of having it, they sent to Egypt large sums of money. It was in rebuke of such foolish ingratitude to God that our text was written. "Their strength," said the Lord, "is to sit still,"--to forbear, that is, from sending off for help to man, and to "sit still" quietly at home, relying on the help of God. This was their strength, for let them but do this and then they had a stronger with them than all that were against them.

To-day the believer in Christ Jesus is often tempted to a sin very similar to that of Israel, and to him this admonition is equally applicable and important. In a more especial manner than Israel of old he is hidden under the shadow of his Lord. And yet _he_ also is strongly tempted, in more ways than one, to make flesh his arm, whilst his heart departeth from the Lord. He is often tempted thus to do in reference--+I. To the everlasting salvation of his soul.+ Satan tempts him to look off to other confidences, as if Christ were insufficient; to look out for something in himself, which he may boast of and depend upon. But in Christ there is everything the sinner wants (Col. ii. 10; 1 Cor. i. 30). +II. To temporal difficulties and dangers.+ The Christian is authorised to use all proper means for his deliverance. It would be tempting God, not trusting Him, to neglect those remedies or those precautions which He has placed within our power, and expect to be delivered by a miracle (H. E. I., 169, 170). Yet he must, in a sense, "sit still." He must place his whole dependence on his God, and not on any plans which his own prudence may suggest to him; nor must he resort to any means of safety or deliverance which would be inconsistent with the rule of duty laid down for him in Scripture (H. E. I., 171-178). _Asa,_ 2 Chron. xiv. 11; _Jehoshaphat,_ 2 Chron. xx. 12; _Hezekiah,_ 2 Chron. xxxii. 7, 8. Let these worthies of old teach us what a blessed thing it is, in times of difficulty and of danger, to wait calmly upon God; using means, indeed, such as God may put within our reach, yet not abusing them by making them our staff. +III. To seasons of affliction.+ Then it is most eminently true that the believer's strength is to "sit still." How is he to do so? By submitting himself patiently and humbly to the chastening rod without a murmuring word upon his lips, or a murmuring thought within his heart; by acknowledging the faithfulness and wisdom of the dispensation; and by waiting the Lord's time for the removal of it. _Job,_ Job i. 21; _Eli,_ 1 Sam. iii. 18; _David,_ Ps. xxxix. 9. Not to "sit still" under the chastening rod will only make our case the worse; but he who waits upon God has a way of comfort and deliverance opened to him (Isa. xli. 10, xxvi. 3). +IV. To time of provocation.+ He is affronted and injured. Shall he turn himself about to see how he may revenge himself? No; his strength is to "sit still," to forbear for recompensing evil with evil, and to commit his cause patiently and calmly to his God. David did so in more instances than one; and the Lord took up the quarrel of His servant, avenged him of his adversaries, and set him up on high above them (Rom. xii. 19-26).

In regard to all these things we must "sit still" in faith, in hope, in resignation to the blessed will of God. For the grace that is needed to enable us to do so, let us have recourse to Him who can teach us "quietness and confidence," to the Spirit who gives faith and consolation, who can make the soul to rest in Christ, and say to all its troubled feelings, "Peace, be still!"--_Arthur Roberts, M.A.: Plain Sermons, Second Series,_ vol. i. pp. 31-39.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See also CHRISTIAN QUIETNESS, verse 15.

DISLIKE TO MINISTERIAL FIDELITY.

xxx. 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 OBNOXIOUS 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 THE DISLIKE OF MINISTERIAL FIDELITY. 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 CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS DISLIKE OF MINISTERIAL FIDELITY. 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.

APPLICATION. 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 terror 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.

CHRISTIAN QUIETNESS.[1]

xxx. 15. _In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength._

The principle of our text is, that "strength," safety, success, happiness, is the fruit of self-control and of reliance upon God.

I. It requires little observation to perceive that this is so in outward things (Eccles. ii. 11). Look out upon life, and see who, in the long run, are the most successful. Is it the stirring and excitable, those who are most conspicuous in its busy competitions? No: it is for the most part the tranquil and retiring; those who make no display, and have the least reliance upon their own powers. The surest gains and the most certain advancement usually attend those who go on quietly and steadily, without grasping at what is beyond their reach, or wasting their energies in unnecessary exertion. The godly who, when they cannot engage on fair terms in the rivalry of the world, keep aloof from it, preserving peace with men, and exercising faith in God, are provided for, and not unfrequently even raised to conspicuous prosperity. In "quietness and confidence" in God's providential care "is their strength."

II. Still more important is the application of this sacred principle to what goes on in the Christian's soul. We can further the great work of our sanctification only by acting upon it. Excitement and self-dependence can do nothing. The work which has been begun by Divine mercy must be carried out by Divine agency. We are to take heed not to throw any obstacles in the way by our rashness or despondency. If under a feeling of importance of the work we have to do, we act about doing it _in any way of our own,_ we only invite disappointment, and peril the object we have in view. Only in a dutiful and patient waiting upon God can we obtain a blessing. Not all the will-worship which was ever contrived by human ingenuity can bring us nearer heaven.

III. These words should be our guide in every difficulty and emergency of the spiritual life. They bid us give place to no anxiety or alarm. Those who act upon them cannot be fanatics, nor will they despair. They will not seek what God sees fit to deny, nor even to attain to what is excellent by equivocal means. No real strength is to be got by ferment and agitation. We may not do evil that good may come; we may not distrust God's power and willingness to help us; we may not seek help from Egypt.

IV. These words should be our guide in view of the changes and excitements of our times. Because of them many are filled with unreasonable fears. But are we to lose our patience and steadfastness because irreligious speculators and worldly religionists are in an uproar? No; let them follow their own course; let us act upon the principle of our text. Truth is safe; the Church is founded upon a Rock; nothing can harm it, _but our attempting to defend it with carnal weapons._ Our weapons are the Word of God and prayer. In the use even of _them,_ we must take heed what spirit we are of, that we use them not in a worldly or angry spirit. Let God do His own work. Let us not venture to step beyond ours. It is not our work to keep the world in order. With the eye of our faith fixed upon Him who with unerring wisdom and omnipotent might controls all the changes and developments of human affairs, let us quietly pursue the duties which He has assigned us, and we shall be safe, and strong, and blessed.--_J. G. Dowling, M.A.: Sermons,_ pp. 55-75.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See also STRENGTH IN QUIETNESS, verse 7.

THE VANITY OF EARTHLY HELP IN TIME OF TRIAL, AND THE PROFIT OF PATIENT WAITING.

xxx. 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 dependencies._ 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 SALVATION REJECTED.

xxx. 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 GRACIOUS ASSURANCE.

"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_ (Isa. xlv. 22; Acts xiii. 38, 39). God pitied the world, and sent His son. Jesus died and rose again. 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 DETERMINATION.

Ver. 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 DREADFUL CONSEQUENCE.

Ver. 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 (Ps. lii.; Jer. xvii. 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 will 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, DIVINE AND HUMAN.

xxx. 18. _Therefore will the Lord wait._[1]

A promise clear and precious in itself may gain in force and value when it is viewed in its surroundings. The diamond may be sparkling and brilliant, but we prefer it in its setting. The rose by itself is lovely, but we would rather have it with the green leaves around it. We have an instance in the first chapter of this book, where, after exposing the hypocrisy, formality, and wickedness of the people in the most withering words, God suddenly exchanges the stern tone of threatening for the sweet accents of mercy, _Come now, and let us reason together._ Another example is found in Matt. xi., where our Lord, after pronouncing His solemn woes, and asserting the Divine sovereignty, in the very next sentence utters His tender invitation, _Come unto Me._ The still small voice of mercy is all the sweeter and more welcome because of the thunders by which it is preceded. The same rapid transition may be observed in the passage before us. Cast your eye over the preceding context, and you find the saddest picture ever drawn of human perversity. What a heavy indictment (vers. 9, 10). How terrible that sentence pronounced (vers. 13, 14, 17). Is it at once carried into execution? No. _Therefore will the Lord wait._ Wait for whom--for the humble, the repentant, the submissive? No; for the sinful, the trifling, the scoffing. This mingling of grace and truth is very striking. As the play of the lightning is more brilliant during the darkness of the night, so God's mercy shines out more gloriously through the murky night of man's sin. As the colours of the rainbow are most vivid when it rests on some black cloud or frowning cliff, so heaven's grace is seen to best advantage on the background of human guilt.

I. GOD'S WAITING FOR MAN. 1. His waiting is _real and earnest._ It is waiting--it is not a passive loitering; but carries with it the idea of earnest expectation and desire. And so while God waits, He plies you with warm entreaties and loving invitations, with stern threatenings and glowing promises; He seeks to win you by the shadow as well as the sunshine which He throws alternately across your path. "_God_ waiting?" you ask. Why does _He_ wait? Can He not subdue sinners by His power and compel them to serve His purpose, as the potter moulds the plastic clay? You forget that you are a free agent. Spirit is not matter. God will not shatter the door closed against Him, and if He is to enter it must be with your consent. It is true that the Lord opens the heart, but a forced submission would be no submission at all. God's waiting, then, is real; it is no figure of speech; and when we think of it, is He not far greater in His marvellous patience than in ruling countless worlds?

2. God waits as a _God of grace,_ "that He may be gracious unto you." Grace is free, unpurchased favour, conferred independently of anything in us, or anything we can do (H. E. I., 2303; P. D. 1524).

3. God waits as a _God of law._ "The Lord is a God of judgment." There must not only be grace, but truth as well. God can only forgive sin in consistency with His justice. In our ignorance we think of pardon as the removal of a grudge, the overlooking of an insult, but this loose view keeps justice out of sight. Would you accept a pardon which would degrade the character of God, represent Him as a lawless being conniving at the very sin He forgives, shake the foundations of His throne, and subvert the interests of truth and holiness in the universe? Sin is no such light thing lightly forgiven. Only through the sacrifice of Christ can remission of sin be righteously bestowed. "The Lord is a God of judgment."

4. This waiting is _God's highest exaltation._ "He will be exalted that He may have mercy upon you." In showing mercy to the sinful, God's glory is made great, and the sin which is so hateful and deplorable has furnished occasion for the rich display of His mercy. War is a great evil, but where would be the courage of the soldier, and the heroic deeds which have been enshrined in song, if there had been no war? And so, had sin never existed in the world, we could never have witnessed those marvellous exhibitions of God's mercy that fill us with wonder and praise. Where sin abounded grace much more abounded.

II. MAN WAITING FOR GOD. "Blessed are all they that wait for Him." We have seen how He waits for us to be gracious unto us, to be exalted in having mercy upon us, and we should wait in humble faith to receive these priceless blessings, bringing our empty vessels that they may be filled. The _blessedness_ of so waiting is set forth in numerous passages of Scripture. What entire satisfaction and peace do they enjoy who take this attitude of soul described as waiting on the Lord! In waiting for man we are often disappointed and deceived, but how can we ever exhaust the Divine mercy and goodness? O happy soul that waits for God, and rejoicing in the plenitude of His goodness sings,

"I must have all things and abound Since God is God to me."

If God had not first waited for us, we never would have waited for Him. He took the initiative. Why should any of us keep God waiting longer? Are your sins too great? Have you been proud and rebellious? It is precisely to such the promise is made. God is waiting _now_ to be gracious, but the day of grace will soon be past.--_William Guthrie, M.A._

Amidst the severest threatenings of Divine punishment of sin we find assurances of Divine willingness to exercise mercy. Here is still the question of the alliance with Egypt. In the foregoing verses the prophet points out its real weakness and danger. In the text he assures the people of the Divine readiness to forgive and restore if they will return to God as their true confidence and defence.

This truth is brought out more fully when the light of the Gospel is thrown upon it. Man is sinful. Some scarcely see this, because they have never examined the law. Some admit the truth of universal depravity, but lose themselves in the crowd. Some have a sense of sin which causes anxiety, from which they see no escape. Others find rest and comfort on inadequate and delusive grounds. Now we need not merely peace. That solicitude is put to rest does not prove that a man is safe. He may sleep when his house is burning. He may have taken what he considered precautionary measures without informing himself as to the measures that were necessary, or even in disregard of competent advice on the subject. We should find peace in God's way. Consider the text in the light of the Gospel. It is full of encouragement, but it implies a caution.

+I. It intimates that there is a provision on account of which God can exercise grace.+ 1. It is not His arbitrary will which pardons sin without regard to anything beyond His own pleasure in the happiness of His creatures. He considers the whole race. If He exercise mercy toward one without an adequate satisfaction, why not toward all? But this would amount to condonation of all sin--would annihilate the distinction between the consequences of good and evil. If God is gracious, it must be in such a way as that no injustice is done.

2. Well then, you say, we must reform; there must be a repentance. And this is true when properly understood. But it is not true if it means that God may be gracious to men on the ground of their repentance and reformation. The analogy between an earthly father and God as a Father is often drawn so as to overlook the fact that He is a moral governor, and that public justice is concerned in His transactions with men. A father may forgive his child's offence on his repentance, because it is a matter purely between themselves. When the offender repents, the demands of the case are met. But an offence against public law is different. A thief or a murderer confesses his guilt, professes repentance and determination never to repeat his crime; is the law satisfied? Would any one say he ought to be forgiven? Now, sin is not only an offence against God, but against public law, for which repentance is no satisfaction (H. E. I., 4225-4228).

3. Nor is present obedience a ground to rest upon for the obliteration of past sins. The best obedience of the best fails to satisfy the present. "How can I tell when I have done enough?" asked Dr. Johnson on his dying bed. And even if you did enough to satisfy the present demands of the law, how could that avail for the removal of previous criminality? Something more satisfactory than human expedients is required (H. E. I., 375, 376).

4. That something is found in the Gospel, in the gracious provision God has made for the exercise of mercy without infringing on the rectitude of His government. It is in the gift of His Son. The love of God sent the Son of God in human flesh to obey and suffer. On the ground of His vicarious offering as the atoning sacrifice, pardon and peace may be obtained. With it justice is fully satisfied.

+II. The text intimates that God is desirous to exercise grace.+

It is not simply willingness. He is profoundly desirous of this result. "He wishes all men to be saved." "He is not willing that any should perish." This truth may be gathered:

1. _For His revealed nature._ He does not delight in the infliction of punishment, even when it is required by the ends of justice. His tender love longs to see the sinner avail himself of the opportunity that is afforded, and seek the offered grace (Exod. xxxiv. 5-7).

2. _From the provision of the Gospel._ There was no obligation on Him to provide this grace. It was His love. It was provided at a cost that was the best possible guarantee of sincerity. Having made such a provision at such expense, will He be indifferent to the issue?

3. _From the invitations of the Gospel._ The way of salvation is proclaimed as a royal messenger of grace to all mankind. It is not a cold statement of the fact that a channel of grace has been opened. It is accompanied by calls and invitations. Will God mock them by invitations of which He does not desire their acceptance?

4. From the attitude which He here represents Himself as having assumed, He waits for sinners that He may be gracious. He is like the father of the prodigal son, who doubtless waited long and anxiously for the prodigal's return because he wanted to forgive him (H. E. I., 2328-2340).

And this is the answer to the question, For what is He waiting? Why cannot He be gracious at once?

+III. The text implies that grace can only be exercised when its conditions are accepted.+

Should He bestow it on all? In their sins? The case stands thus: God has done His part in providing mercy; there is a part for man. What is it? To consent. To confess the sin with conviction, humility, sorrow. To accept the mercy by sending up the believing cry. To surrender to God as the rebel submits to his prince and returns to his allegiance (H. E. I., 240).

This is what He waits for. When it occurs He is gracious. And how long will He wait? Not for ever. He is in the attitude of one who has determined to wait a given time, during which the opportunity is afforded. "Seek ye the Lord _while He may be found._" Why should you not? Why so unwilling?

Let not the love of sin nor deadness to spiritual things hold you back. Refusal to seek His grace is determined resistance of His authority and His love (H. E. I., 4247, 4248).--_J. Rawlinson._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In these outlines the Authorised Version has been followed, but the translations in which Delitzsch, Kay, and Cheyne substantially agree is noteworthy and worthy of study. _"And therefore_--because your sins require this chastisement--_the Lord will wait,_ in resolute self-withdrawal, looking for the time when your penitence will permit Him to be again _gracious unto you: and therefore will He be exalted,_ in judicial severity (ch. v. 16; Ps. xlvi. 10), _that_ ('when He seeth thy power is gone,' Deut. xxxii. 36) _He may have mercy on thee_ (Deut. xxx. 3)."--_Kay._

_"And therefore will Jehovah long till He can be gracious unto you, and therefore will He wait in stillness [or, be on high] till He can have compassion upon you, for Jehovah is a God of righteousness; happy are all those that long for Him!"--Cheyne._

Mr. Birks thus comments: "Vers. 18-26. These verses, from the whole context, refer to the Assyrian deliverance. The connection is direct and forcible, though some have thought it obscure. However severe God's discipline, its design was gracious. His dealings are full of wisdom, like our Lord's absence during the sickness of Lazarus, to make the blessing afterwards more glorious and Divine. There is, on His part, no slackness or indifference, but the calm waiting of an ever-patient love. Even in the hour of judgment God will be exalted, not to crush His people with the terrors of His majesty, but only _'that He may have mercy'_ upon them. He knows how to temper their afflictions, that they may yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Since He waits in patient love to show the favour at the last, they also are bound to wait, in faith and patience, until the blessing shall come."

WAITING FOR THE LORD.

xxx. 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_ (Eph. v. 14; Phil. ii. 12, 13; 2 Pet. ii. 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 have scorn to receive from one another? (Jer. xiii. 13). 2. We must wait _entirely_ upon God, whether we are in search of peace, strength or happiness (Ps. lxii. 1-5). 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 (Ps. xl. 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 (Gal. vi. 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 or uncertainty. God's schemes are never frustrated; His promises never broken.

I. THAT DEVOUT EXERCISE OF MIND HERE COMMENDED. "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 (Prov. xiii. 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 (Ps. cxxii. 1, 2). 3. _They wait for the 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 BLESSEDNESS 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 READINESS TO LISTEN TO THE NEEDY.

xxx. 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 (ver. 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" (Jer. iii. 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 thus 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 confidence._ 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 the 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 ADVERSITY.

xxx. 20, 21. _And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, &c._[1]

I. DIFFICULTIES SUPPOSED.

"The Bread of Adversity" was a proverbial expression among the Jews (1 Kings xxii. 27; Ps. lxxx. 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 (Heb. xii. 6). Recollect that the Lord who gives you the bread of adversity gave His own Son no better fare, no richer diet.

II. CONSOLATIONS PROMISED.

"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 (2 Cor. i. 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. INSTRUCTIONS SUGGESTED.

1. _Guard against whatever may endanger Christian privileges._ Neglect of prayer; absence of love; seductions of the world. 2. _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 CALAMITY ANTICIPATED.

Affliction may be continuous and severe. Bread and water are the prominent things in the sustenance of life. Day by day reserved. 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 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 (Lam. iii. 33).

What are the reasons?[2] 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 (Heb. xii. 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 (Ps. cxix. 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.

Meantime, here is

II. AN ANTIDOTE PROMISED.

Their teachers had been removed. The prophets were persecuted (verses 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 in 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.[3] 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.

God provides guidance in the journey to the better land. Value the ministry of the Word. Attend it. Follow its teaching.--_J. Rawlinson._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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. 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."

[2] H. E. I., 56-115.

[3] 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 an able, well-instructed, godly, and earnest ministry.

Among the blessings here promised to the ancient Church is the restoration of the silenced teachers to their work after its period of discipline.--_Rawlinson._

THE GUIDING VOICE.

xxx. 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 continuance 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 xvi. 14). But neglect of God's Word shuts against us even the throne of grace (Prov. xxviii. 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 (Prov. i. 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 iv. 12). 2. Because it follows us always, as constantly as our shadow. Parallels to this promise we find in 1 John ii. 20, 27; John xiv. 26, xvi. 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 depart; 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 (Ps. xxv. 4, 5; lxxxvi. 11; cxliii. 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 (Isa. viii. 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 Sam. xxviii. 5). (2.) Those who hearken not to the voice of God in them are often given up to Satan, and their own corruptions bear away within them (Ps. lxxxi. 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 (ver. 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 Sam. xv. 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 WATERS.

xxx. 25, 26. _And there shall be upon every high mountain, &c._

These are symbolic 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 COPIOUSNESS 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.[1] 2. To express at once their copiousness and their UNIVERSALITY, He declares that the rivers and streams shall run on the hills and mountains, yea, upon _every_ hill and mountain.[2] The idea of universality is involved also in the future of sunlight.[3]

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 professed--reason and conscience.[4] 3. It is fulfilled in our own day _by 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.[5]

It rests with ourselves to determine whether the fulfilment of these promises shall be to us a blessing.[6]--_John Packer: Warnings and Consolations,_ pp. 256-271.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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 is 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 the 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._

[2] _"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._

[3] 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._

[4] 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 Cor. iv. 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._

[5] 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 be healed, implying previous violence.--_Packer._

[6] 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 xii. 36).--_Packer._

[See also Outlines, RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACE, xxxii. 2, and ENRICHING RIVERS, xxxiii. 21.]

THE EARTHLY SONG AND THE HEAVENLY VOICE.

xxx. 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 Isa. xxxvii. 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 Ps. cxiii.-cxviii. 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 standout 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, Ps. cxv. 1-11, cxviii. 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 (Exod. xiv. 13; Ps. xlvi. 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.,_ Ps. cxviii. 14, 15, 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 (Zeph. iii. 17; Isa. xxxi. 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 (Ps. cxvi. 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 (Ps. cxv. 17, 18, cxviii. 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 (Col. iii. 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 observance, 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 (Ps. cxii. 1, 2). It retells the Exodus (Ps. cxiv.) It rises to grateful recognition of God's goodness (Ps. cxvi. 7, 8, 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 (ver. 32).--_William Guthrie, M.A._

TOPHET ORDAINED OF OLD.

xxx. 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 xxiii. 10; Jer. vii. 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 Isa. lxvi. 24 with Mark ix. 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 Pet. iv. 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 xiii. 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 COUNSELLOR.

xxxi. 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 on 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 denounced 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, 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,[1] 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."

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 to hold intercourse with it. 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 woe 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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 bespeak 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._

THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE.

xxxi. 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 (vers. 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 Tim. vi. 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 xvii. 24-29; Deut. iv. 15; Ex. xx. 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 conception 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_ (Jer. xxiii. 23, 24; Ps. cxxxix. 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 (Lam. iii. 24, 25; Ps. lxxiii. 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.

IMPROVEMENT. 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 toward this great object?--_Robert Hall: Works,_ vol. vi., pages 1-32.

A CALL TO THE REVOLTED.

xxxi. 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 ACCUSATION.

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-man 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 He 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.

1. "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 Son. 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 CHURCH.

xxxi. 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 the 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 fast 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 (Isa. i. 25). 2. He is _manifesting._ The fire tests both us[1] and our work (1 Cor. iii. 13). In this way God manifests the difference between His people and the false professor, and shows who are His own (Zech. xiii. 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.

_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.[2]--_Joseph Irons: Thursday Penny Pulpit,_ vol. vii. 109-120.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Upon one occasion, like the prophet Jeremiah, I visited the potter's house. I admired the 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._

[2] H. E. I., 116-142.

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST.

xxxii. 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."+[1] 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 for the tempest of _Divine wrath._ +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."+[2] Such a retreat does our Redeemer afford to those who are fainting under the labours and discouragements of this wearisome life (Isa. 1-4, Jer. xxxi. 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.

1. _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 INSTRUMENT OF CONSOLATION.[3] +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?

II. OF THIS INSTRUMENT OF CONSOLATION 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.+[4] +2. The aged should count it one of their chief treasures.+[5]

III. TO THE PRESENT AND PERMANENT VALUE OF THIS INSTRUMENT OF CONSOLATION THERE ARE MILLIONS OF LIVING WITNESSES. 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.+[6]

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 (Matt. xxviii.), 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."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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 bustle, 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 buried 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; 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.

[2] 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 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. Maclaren._

[3] 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.

[4] It is one of a large number of passages which I like to think of as _Scripture's 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!

[5] 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.

[6] 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?

THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE.

(_For Christmas Day._)

xxxii. 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.,_ Isa. ii. 22; Ps. clxvi. 3; lxii. 8, 9; Jer. xvii. 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 (Zech. xiii. 7; Phil. ii. 6); and who is thus spoken of by the Spirit of God Himself, when predicting the event of this day (Isa. ix. 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. 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 your 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 (Gen. xxi. 15-19), we have an emblem of too many distressed and sorrowful Christians. "_Rivers_ of water" are flowing past you: arise, and drink! (Rev. xxii. 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 xxxv. 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 from both 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 (Heb. iv. 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 the 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 (Hab. iii. 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 you 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 PLACE.

xxxii. 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 METAPHOR. 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.[1] 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.

II. A SPECIAL EXCELLENCE 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. PRACTICAL 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.[2] Live near Him. Live in Him.[3]--_C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit,_ No. 1243.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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._

[2] 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._

[3] 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 up 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 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, xxx. 25, 26, and ENRICHING RIVERS, xxxiii. 21.]

COMFORT IN CHRIST.

xxxii. 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 (ver. 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 (Eccles. i. 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 v. 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 constantly 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 Pet. ii. 7, 8; Ps. cxix. 139, 156, 158; Acts xvii. 16; Ezek. ix. 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 ix. 2; Heb. iv. 14-16). 2. _In the intercession of Christ._ As He prayed for Peter (Luke xii. 32) and for all His disciples before His crucifixion (John xvii.), so He still makes intercession for His followers according to their necessities. And His intercession is always prevalent (John xi. 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 (Phil. iv. 13; 2 Cor. xii. 7-10). 4. _In the government of Christ._ He has promised to give them peace even in this world (John xiv. 27; xvi. 33; xiv. 2, 3). These are great and precious promises, because they are sure promises.

APPLICATION.--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 (Ps. cvi. 25, 26). But why should they complain? (Heb. xii. 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_ (Phil. iv. 6, 7).--_Dr. Emmons: Works,_ vol. iii. 352-365.

CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY.

xxxii. 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 QUALITIES BY WHICH IT IS DISTINGUISHED.

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 (Gen. xxviii. 20-22).

3. _Action._ Liberality does not terminate in feeling and thought (James ii. 15, 16; 1 John iii. 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 x. 33, 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 Cor. viii. 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 NOURISHED.

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.

Do not 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 xx. 35). 2. _It is returned in blessing_ (Prov. iii. 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 CARELESS.

xxxii. 11. _Be troubled, ye careless ones._[1]

+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 xviii. 1; 1 Thess. v. 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 (Heb. ii. 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 (Isa. v. 4; Matt. xxiii. 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 (Matt. xi. 21). This indifference is _voluntary_ (Acts xxiv. 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 Son? 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 xvi. 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See outlines on chap. i. 3, p. 7-12 (THOUGHTLESSNESS through RELIGIOUS CONSIDERATION).

THE ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF MISSIONARY SUCCESS.

xxxii. 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 on the outpouring of the Spirit of God, appears to be manifest, 1. From the Scriptures (_text:_ chap. xli. 19, 20; Zech. iv. 6, xii. 10; Joel ii. 28-32, with Acts ii. 16-18; Ezek. xxxix. 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 iv. 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 xi. 21, xiv. 27, xvi. 14; 1 Cor. iii. 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.[1] 6. From the records of their most eminent successes.[2] 7. From the nature of the work to be accomplished. Considering the state of men, it is impossible to suppose that anything less than a Divine power can change the heart.[3]

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 (Isa. lx. 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 out 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 on 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. 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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. 4. Must not lay our strength out on extraneous matter. Our true service only performed while 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 the 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 1. _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. 2. _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. These topics are presented in the text; the necessity, the certainty, and the condition of the world's salvation.

I. ITS NECESSITY. 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 population 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 CERTAINTY. 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, 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 CONDITION. 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 (Joel ii. 28-32; Acts ii. 17-21; Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14; John iii. 6-8; 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5, iii. 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 (Ezek. xxxvi. 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 Spirt 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._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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._

[2] 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 had 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._

[3] 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.

THE MORAL WILDERNESS TRANSFORMED.

xxxii. 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 influence 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 RIGHTEOUSNESS.

xxxii. 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 (xxx. 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 (xi. 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 (vers. 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 ever 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 who 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.[1] 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.

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 another of disquieting, harassing care.[2]

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 these 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. INTERNATIONALLY.

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" (Isa. ii. 4, xi. 6-9).

II. SOCIALLY.

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. PERSONALLY.

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._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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._

[2] 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 cause 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._

THE PEACEFUL HABITATION.

xxxii. 18. _And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation._[1]

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, xxxiii. 20.

SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY.

xxxii. 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 Eccles. xi. 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 MATERIAL AND THE SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY. 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, and the fruit of which is in our character and destiny, in time and eternity (Gal. vi. 7, 8).

The analogy between the moral and material husbandry is very obvious (1 Cor. iii. 6-9, ix. 10, 11; James iii. 18; Matt. xiii. 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 a 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 BLESSEDNESS OF BEING ENGAGED IN THE SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY.

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 OPPORTUNITIES.

xxxii. 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 under 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 over 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_ (Matt. v. 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. Newton: Golden Truths,_ pp. 73-81.

PROVIDENCE.

xxxiii. 1. _Woe to thee that spoilest, &c._

Dr. Geikie says: As a nation the Assyrians are branded as treacherous, untruthful, and lawless (Nah. iii. 1; Jonah iii. 8). No treaty could bind them; might was right; and when interest seemed to demand it, they "regarded no man" (xxxiii. 8). Their pride was that of a race which looked on all others as their natural inferiors (Zeph. ii. 15; Ezek. xxxi. 10, 11; Isa. x. 7-14, xxxvii. 24-28).[1]

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 (Rev.